Stories and experiences by: penelopejane

I have resigned as a smoker. I have been quit for over 19 weeks. My hands were splitting daily with dry skin. I have been told to drink plenty of water. I have been told to give up coffee and tea. I have been told to constantly apply moisturiser. The spitting stopped when the smoking stopped but my hands are still dry. This last week has been difficult to navigate because I have wanted to purchas...

I have not had a single puff since April. I have concentration lapses and push the idea of getting cigarettes away from my chest like pushing away a ball. I say aloud "I don't smoke". Then I find something to do for five or ten minutes. When I do this I deliberately choose an activity which is not demanding. Things like colouring-in, maths puzzles, simple knitting or cleaning the kitchen. More ch...

I had a honeymoon for six weeks. I said to myself "I don't smoke". I found things to do which were not challenging. I coloured in for a couple of weeks. When I thought of a cigarette, I drew on my previous experience from last year and did something else. Then I took on some housework. I found I could only do five minutes of work at a time without getting stressed. So, I did lots of five minute i...

I once would have thought that nine days quit was a progressive hurdle. Now after a year of smoke-free days, then busting, I feel as if I am still very early days. I was having trouble getting a week up. Never the less, I am no longer a daily smoker. That's huge for me. My sleeping has gone out of whack. Never mind. I will try not to get too tired and vulnerable. Thank you all for your posts. I h...

Some days I feel as if I am using a lot of energy to stay afloat instead of drowning in my mental illness. I call it treading water. Sometimes I delay buying cigarettes for a day and a half. The last packet I had had twelve left and the quit line encouraged me to destroy them. I am now in day thirteen of quitting. I have been rewarding myself. Each day I have something from the supermarket worth ...

I cut down from fifty five smokes a day to enjoying smoke-free days.

Hi folks- I have had a lot of smoke-free days lately. The other day I destroyed my packet. A Quit Line counselor calculated that over a six month timeframe sixty percent of my days were smoke-free. I am feeling a little stronger. I got twenty days up twice. I did it with NRT and willpower. I self talked my way through it. If I thought of smoking I would say no to smoking and reassure myself "you'...

Hi, my name is George, I am benefiting a lot from delaying the decision to buy cigarettes. I think of smoking and I say to myself 'not now, you can decide tomorrow'. The next day I don't usually want any. I can get twenty days up so far. But today I am on day two of a quit attempt. I am aiming at another twenty days.

I took decades to quit, but it's done. I am in my third week of being a free and independant person. I haven't had bad cravings. Maybe that's because I cut right down. A packet of twenty lasted me eight days. Then I wouldn't smoke for ten days. This time I feel more confident in the commitment I have made to not smoking again. Each day it is getting easier to make the decision that I will not smo...

I am trying to juggle the caffine. I love to stay up late. I can sleep in but doing that every day leads to depression. Since I quit I have not been having coffee in the morning. I have been getting up at a more reasonable time. I have been trying to go to bed at a good time too. I have had some late dark nights when I just lay down anyway. That worked quite well. I got plenty of rest. I have bee...