Stories & experiences

NikkiMay
Southern NSW
1
Story
30/04/2022
Joined

This too shall pass...

Posted in Getting started 01 May 2022
5 Comments

I promised my children that when my mum died of lung cancer in November 2019 I would quit smoking. I didn't realise how difficult that promise would be to honour. Life has been difficult since I lost mum. I had to evacuate with my children during the fires. The constant lockdowns took a toll on my mental health. We almost became homeless, I lost my job, had a holiday cancelled twice due to Covid, and plenty more. The hardest of all was going through all that without my mum. It's really difficult to quit when your world is in chaos.

Anyway, my world has always been crazy so I can't keep using smoking as an excuse to calm me down. I'm hoping I've had my last cigarette ever on the 29th April.

I've given up numerous times over the years, always cold turkey, but always went back. I'm on patches this time and determined to win. I want to be here for my children. I'm not even a grandma yet. I never want my children to see me dying from a smoking-related disease.

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5 Comments

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  • Happiness May 02, 2022 | 0:32
    It sounds like you have great motivation to see this quit through this time. My motivation was wanting a friend to quit a drug abuse, yet how could I be of help if I was a hypocrite? Nicotine is a drug and also highly addictive, albeit legal. We are also addicts. Think about that too!

    When I joined a site, I finally believed that I could quit although I had had no intention for the past decade. After 40 some years I was resigned to the fact that I would die a smoker.

    Past efforts were half -hearted and I did not have the understanding that I learned this time around. Stay, learn and believe that you can quit smoking. We know that you can, now you need to believe it.
  • Cuba May 02, 2022 | 4:48
    Hi I’m like you I tried to give up many times in my 36 years of smoking. I have finally quit for good now. I’m positive that you can do it ! Even if you do fall off the wagon just keep going, persevere until you succeed. It is a great achievement in itself to quit for good as it is far from easy. Some people can quit just like that overnight. You could be one of these people. Something in my mind clicked one night recently and I was able to just stop after trying that many times. Good Luck 🙂
  • Cuba May 02, 2022 | 4:50
    It is not really Luck though that is helpful It is about getting in the right mindset !
  • MiaK , Western Sydney May 05, 2022 | 7:25
    I’m looking forward to getting over the feeling of loss and loneliness without my smokes that’s the hardest part even though it sounds crazy and silly I feel like I’ve built my whole world around smoking and life without them is so colourless even though I know in my heart that’s not true the addiction is telling me otherwise I’ve been smoking for a bit over 26 years and a heavy packet sometimes more the last 10 I hope stopping is enough and not to late I do want to live a long healthy life just want this feeling of loss to go can’t stand it but being brave as possible just not in the rainbow 🌈 and unicorn 🦄 phase of quitting yet 😆
  • Mike O June 10, 2022 | 10:31
    Maximum respect. You’ve taken hammer blows from life and are still moving forward- smoking doesn’t stand a chance against your fortitude. Some would call moving forward whilst taking unbelievable hits winning at life. I would!👍

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