Re: Eight years
- From: "CuckooCat" <silly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:41:54 -0500
I love that post. It is exactly how I feel about quitting and Lord knows I
needed all the quitaids that I could get my grubby lil hands on. ;)
Congratulations on 8 years, sweet lady.
Love,
Cat
"Edna Pearl" <edna_pearl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6cbni.91$wV4.51@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Here it is, my quit anniversary again --
Eight years, 12 minutes and 46 seconds. 146100 cigarettes not smoked,
saving $21,915.06. Life saved: 1 year, 20 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, 0
minutes.
I'll just re-post what I've been posting every year for the past few
years, as follows:
EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT QUITTING SMOKING
Use all the quit aids you can, whatever your body can tolerate. Learn all
the tricks and techniques you can. I relied primarily on Zyban, nicotine
gum, ODAT, and this group.
Research shows that people who use as many quitting aids and techniques as
possible have a higher success rate at staying quit. This means that cold
turkey (CT) is probably not a good first choice for trying to quit. Here
are the usual reasons for quitting CT: you don't know any better, you are
a
masochist, you have serious side-effects from NRT or Zyban, you are a
victim
of the myth that everything will be easy once you get the nicotine out of
your system (it won't), or you have had bad luck in the past with quit
aids.
IMHO, quitters, especially new quitters who haven't tried to quit
recently,
should chomp all the gum or duct-tape all the patches their bodies can
hold.
Sometimes a lucky few people get "in the zone" for a blessed period of
their
lives, and they suddenly quit CT, but they don't usually spend a lot of
time
reading and posting to as3, so you probably are not them and are not like
them.
So now I've convinced you to use NRT and all the quit aids you can
tolerate,
right? Now, here's the important stuff:
Exercise. Expect to gain some weight sooner or later, but don't let it
get
out of hand. If you combine quitting with exercise, then you're combining
new, fresh air with new endorphins, which is a winning combination, and it
will help keep your weight down.
Beware of replacing your old addiction with new ones. For example, keep
control of your eating and drinking. Look for healthy "addictions," like
exercise, creativity, painting, sewing, gardening, organizing,
volunteering,
games, sports, etc. (NRT is not an "addiction" - it's a treatment, so
don't
worry about staying on NRT as long as you have to.)
It's normal to get depressed during a quit. Go to the doctor and get a
prescription for some anti-depressants anyway. You don't get any extra
brownie points for being any more miserable than absolutely necessary, and
nobody with any sense will be impressed if you try to "tough it out."
Instead, we'll probably just think you're being really silly and feel
sorry
for you. Life is not about proving how tough you are. Don't waste it
trying.
Learn how to get mad and get over it. You used to stuff all your anger in
a
little paper tube and smoke it, and now it's going to come back to get
you.
A lot of depression is repressed anger. If you're depressed, dig out some
of your repressed anger, deal with it, and see if that helps.
"Getting the nicotine out of your system" is not actually much help when
quitting smoking. Nicotine is fairly harmless. Smoking kills. NRT saves
lives. Getting off NRT is not a big deal for most people. It's a
vulnerable time, sure, and you should ask your as3 friends for help with
the
process of getting off NRT, but it's cake compared to quitting smoking.
Stay on NRT as long as you need to. Forever, if necessary. At some
point,
after a few weeks or months (who cares how long?) I switched from gum to
toothpicks, and then I gradually lost interest in the toothpicks, but
that's
just me. If you stay on NRT ten years that doesn't make you any less quit
than I am. Nobody's quit is better than yours, and if they say it is, let
me know; I'll be glad to come over there and kick their ass.
Quitting smoking is very hard for a while, for most people. As the days
and
weeks pass, you'll gradually start to believe that it's worth it. Then
you'll forget again. Then you'll remember again. Most of us hit a really
bad patch a few months into our quits. That's normal. Just don't smoke.
Take it one day at a time. Learn from it. Grow with it. Fall in love
with
your quit. You have the rest of your life to be free, and the struggle
that
now seems to be lasting forever will seem like the blink of an eye in
retrospect.
If you "slip," if you have "just one," your quit will get harder. Smoking
a
cigarette will not ease your distress, it will prolong it. It will get
easier soon, but only if you don't smoke.
There is no such thing as "just one." You can never smoke another
cigarette
as long as you live unless you want to reactivate your addiction. You are
a
puff away from a pack a day. If you don't accept this, I will bet you two
hundred gazillion dollars and give you ninety-nine point nine odds to one
that you will relapse. You might as well save yourself the trouble of
going
through withdrawal if you think you can ever smoke again without becoming
totally re-addicted. It ain't the way to bet. It's a stupid way to bet.
Forget about it.
Be honest with yourself and with as3. Don't pretend you're doing fine.
You're not. You're quitting smoking. It's hard. Sharing your troubles
will help others as well as yourself.
Helping other people quit will help you stay quit. In other words,
reading
and posting to as3 can help you and other as3 participants quit and stay
quit. As3 works.
The skills and insights you learn while you are quitting will enhance your
whole life, if you let them.
Remember to be proud, to congratulate yourself, to reward yourself, to
enjoy
your quit, to fall in love with your quit. What you are doing is simply
amazing. You are amazing, and brave, and strong, for getting this far,
and
you deserve all the support and love you can give yourself.
It's really pretty simple: Just don't put a cigarette in your mouth. If
that's a problem for you, then ask for help. If that doesn't work, ask
for
more help. And remember to check your ego at the door.
Smoking makes you stink, cough, lie to yourself, waste your money, and
die.
(JMHO, YMMV, everybody's different, blah blah blah, whatever)
ep oooooooof
.
- References:
- Eight years
- From: Edna Pearl
- Eight years
- Prev by Date: Re: OT -- Really Offensive Joke
- Next by Date: Re: *PING: Cat and Robin
- Previous by thread: Re: Eight years
- Next by thread: Re: Eight years
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
