Find something else to do when you used to smoke
I want to thank all of you for your supportive comments. I forget who wrote that they start each day by reading the comments here. I've become like that, and those readings help me.
You know those times, when you regularly used to head outside for a smoke. I don't know about Australia, but here in Canada you're not allowed to smoke inside public places. My husband built a greenhouse onto our living room and I would smoke pot in there. I didn't mind the smell, but when I smoked pot, I would always follow with a cigarette.
I hate the smell of stale cigarette smoke in the house and while the greenhouse is separate from the living room because of a balcony door, the smoke still came into the house, so I would smoke in my car. I've quit before -- sometimes for months, sometimes for years.
Amazing how much better I feel even after a few days and I've returned to something I used to do a lot of -- writing. I read a post by someone (I'm sorry I've forgotten your name) but the way you described your teeth itching as if your body was trying to pull out the nicotine that had stained your teeth was brilliant.
Hi again Goodlands, its great you are now on your way again to stopping that harmful habit, I see you like to write and I would guess you pop ideas or phrases onto your phone, if you do, at this stage you will need to practice thinking long term in regarding smoking, a practice that helped me after trying for a few times was NOPE (not one puff ever) you can put this on your phone before beginning to write anything,....this is the "No1 attack" on the enemy "Nicotine" which is the drug that keeps you hooked.
Any other type of drug will have its drawbacks and you should now be weighing it up as to what you can do mentally to stop you romanticising about the past smoking endeavours... unless you do this mentally you will always be turning to the missing object or feeling that something is missing.
I know you have plenty of ideas and have read quite a few of the stories to give you motivation to quit, we all need that, and we all need encouragement. What you need to do now is to give yourself this motivation by adopting writing as filling the void so to speak, this does help but its also putting NOPE (not one puff ever) at the top of the list before you begin your day. I want you to suceed this time and I want to hear that those great stories or a private journal will bring you clarity and joy. Keep the wheels turning
Hi Goodlands. I am glad that you found this site to be of help. I truly believe that seeing something done and knowing it can be done makes another more determined and hopeful of following. When we believe we can, we do!
While it is still early and you have "quit" smoking before., I hope that this time, the understanding and the desire to be a non-smoker is gaining hold. That is why I encourage members to stick around and reinforce their quits. That is why we love seeing new stories to keep bringing us back to read and to support new members. Someone out there is benefiting.
Our morning coffee's are definitely better with new stories. Thanks for sharing yours!
I'm feeling very fuzzy headed and irritable today. I keep telling myself NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! Thanks for sharing that acronym Softly Forty. I remember reading once that people who smoke are more likely to suffer from depression than the general population -- although these days with COVID -- who isn't feeling somewhat depressed. But back to the depression and smoking link.
I don't know how many of you have read self help books -- I suspect a few -- but one of the things (as Softly Forty points out) you're supposed to envisage is the New You after you've adapted your behavior. I'm thinking of my lungs after not smoking: LUNGS (Lungs undergoing new green strategy). The great thing is that I can take three deep breaths without hacking.
Anybody out there with a sense of wit. Think of acronyms for BREATH or FRESH or FREE.
The other thing I also enjoy is that my clothes and my fingers are free of that stink of cigarette smoke.
Thank you Happiness for sharing your words of encouragement as well.
To those of you who've quit in the last couple of days: take three deep deep breaths. You can do this.
The light headnedness is common as you don't feel in yourself fully at the moment, but you will adjust quickly. Yes, I have read that those who are depressed are deemed to be at a disdadvantage. Those in the lower class etc,,,, U don't believe that bunk for a moment.
Thinking positive thoughts makes EVERYONE a happier person. Looking forward to rather than dreading is always more welcome and productive. We all have something to be thankful for or happy about. Concentrate on the positives.
Selenium is a chemical found in food that elevates mood'. We shouuld look for solutions not excuses.
Dinner is ready. Acronym to come. :)
FREE.....Found Relief Ending Evil
BREATH....Be Ready , Embrace And Think Happy
FRESH - Freedom , Resolve, Embrace, Satisfaction, Healthy
or Freedom Rules Everyone's Self Happiness.
Hello to all of you in Australia who've helped me go 10 days now without smoking. Frankly I don't think I could've done it without you and your pep talks.
Happiness I love your acronyms.
I just finished reading a book called TEAM HUMAN, and the author's overarching message is to find the "others" like you -- in other words people with the same aspirations and goals. Bizarre how sometimes it takes decades to find a group we feel we can belong to. I'd looked for a group like this in Canada, and all I found on the net were Excel sheets -- Monday to Sunday with AA group meetings listed. I've been to AA .
I went to their meetings after going into Rehab because I was smoking too much pot (I was smoking quite a bit). My partner insisted that I go. I found his behavior extremely hypocritical since he was (and continues to this day) drinking a bottle of wine a day but would write STONED on the communal wall calendar each day I smoked pot. I should've written "drinking" right underneath, but I'm too passive aggressive to have done so. My resentment manifested itself through smoking more pot. I went because I was curious to understand what rehab was like.
At the rehab center almost everyone smoked cigarettes and I started smoking again after several years of being completely off them. I came home after two weeks no longer smoking pot; however, I'd developed a pack a day cigarette habit.
By the way I'd once written a 21-page letter to then President Bill Clinton on the reasons marijuana should be decriminalized. I never received a reply but countries around the world have legalized it -- many just for medical use, but many others for recreation.
After the little sojourn in rehab it took months before I could quit nicotine. Nicotine is the real gateway drug.
One thing I did enjoy about rehab was the sense of community, the shared experiences which I enjoy on this website.
I grew up on large ranch in Alberta Canada where they raised 500 head of international-awarding winning Holstein cows (those black and white marked cows that are responsible for producing most of North America's milk) and probably Australia's as well.
The first time I smoked was in a dog house -- if you can believe it. We had a dalmatian dog, but since my father was just a hired hand on that ranch, we couldn't afford a proper dog house, so we put her in a small chicken coop next to our house. There were many men who worked on that ranch, so matches were easy to come by. I was probably five or six, small enough that when my Mom gave us jam sandwiches, Penny, the dog, would jump up knock the bread out of our hands, lick off the jam and leave the bread. My brother would've been a year younger than I, and my sister probably around 3.
Almost all the men who worked on the ranch smoked. My Dad would've never touched a cigarette, but I would see my mother smoke occasionally with the cook in the cookhouse
My brother, sister and I had stripped green leaves from a poplar tree and went into the dog house. We rolled them up, lit them and practically died choking on those scorched poplar leaves. Fortunately we ran out of matches before we burned down the dog house or before our father discovered us. He would've beaten us severely. Neither my sister nor brother touched a cigarette after that.
I was a lonely child in school, spoke with an accent coming from central European parents, and mis-pronounced calendar the first day of Grade 1, pronouncing it like colander instead. Kids can be cruel and I spent noon hours for years in the girls' washroom, reading in one of the cubicles, sitting on the top of the tank with my feet on the seat, so the teachers doing washroom checks wouldn't see me when they popped their heads in.
Bullying is a bizarre thing and doesn't always have to be physical. It can be just as painful when done passively. Loneliness is devastating for children.
First day of Grade ten in a rural school where classmates ten years later are the same who laughed first day of grade one. I found myself in the washroom again, alone.
I smelled smoke and popped my head out of the cubicle. A beautiful girl with long blonde hair looked at me sheepishly. She held her cigarette up and said, "Don't tell anyone." And then she smiled and asked my name. That smile was like a drug for me after the years of loneliness. She was a new student in the school; her parents had bought a dairy farm a few miles from where we lived and she knew nothing about my history at school as an outcast. She smoked menthols. "Want a puff?" she asked offering me her cigarette.
For two and a half years, until the middle of Grade 12, when she moved to Montreal, we were inseparable. Nicotine and I have a long history.
This website had personal stories and it's stories that help us discover who we are. I enjoyed reading those stories of struggle and triumph and continue to enjoy them.
Goodlands