Don't give up. Keep arming yourself with reading, watching videos, getting involved here..You are putting too much stress on yourself and giving yourself a hard time and that's not a good place to quit from, naturally you will cave. Be kind to yourself and when you are really ready then make the decision, from a positive place. 

I have been on vacation and not online - just read your message.  I hope you have forgiven yourself.  You can do this, and you will!

Thank you Martha!  I hope I can follow your lead and be as strong as you are. But I am still not ready for the full quit.  I am back to 6 lozenges a day, down from 10 a day.  I hope you are having a nice vacation!

I'm not strong but the support on this forum sure is!  I have no doubt you will quit when you are ready, and in the meantime it's good that you are cutting back!

Yes Martha-

This site has been a Godsend for this guy. I really gain a lot of strength from the many posts of others who are going through the same thing I am. And the attention that I get from my forum friends is invaluable. The observations and insights and suggestions hit home. I hope my responses are helpful too.

Our common mission is to stay smoke-free. Most are over the initial shock of not smoking, that is the easy part. What follows is the real challenge. I can't tell you how many times I thought I had made up my mind that I was never going to smoke ever again only to give in on an impulse. On again off again. Like flipping a switch. No thought, no effort no regret. Just me and that damn cig hanging out of my mouth. 

Power. Just like many of our so called "elected'' government officials who will have to relinquish their power if voted out, nicotine will never give up its power over us.  Unless we take drastic measures to vole it out of our life, we will remain under its power and control. Like it or not, there are no term limits on its influence. It could take the rest of our lives to wake up to this reality (if we ever do).

Let's be honest. Smoking is bad, destructive, life threating and downright evil. How can we let something like this affect our lives?  Good question. It's different for all of us. I am personally trying to grow out of this condition so I can achieve greater things in my life.  Smoking only gets in the way, preventing me from moving ahead. I am going to vote it (nicotine) out and replace it with something that helps me realize my true self. 

Dance with this gift called life.

Andrew

Thank you for your excellent and important thoughts! Re the power of nicotene -- I find it something of a paradox that despite nicotine's incredible powers of addiction, it has no power at all if you choose not to give yourself any. If a craving pops up -- for me it's more of a wistful longing to smoke in enjoyable situations -- I remind myself that if I give in, I'm choosing to hurt myself. If I don't give in, nicotene has no power to hurt me. 

Dance with this gift called life - - indeed!!!

best,

Martha

Martha -

I feel the same way about the better times in my life. I wanted to embellish those times with a smoke, as if smoking really enhanced my experience. It didn't. I am just used to lighting up when I am feeling good. And let's not forget the not so good times when we felt that a smoke would help us cope with the ill-feelings. Another fallacy.

Allen Carr talks a lot about the lies and misconceptions we tell ourselves. These keep us firmly in the throes of addiction.  It's a losing battle, we smoke when we feel good, we smoke when we feel bad. Is there no middle ground? I'm afraid not as long as we don't believe we can quit. 

Today, I believe that I can quit and stay quit.

Good day,

Andrew

Yep - today I too believe I can quit and stay quit! Freedom!

Very accurate. I like it when he says, if your none smoking friend had a tragic experience or having a really bad time, would you offer them a cigarette and say, here smoke this it will help you cope'. ? Sounds ridiculous. But if it's a smoker or ex smoker, we assume that smoking would somehow help them cope.

Hey there! 

I am ten years smoke free and I will tell you that on my fifth year i was still looking for that smoke but i would not give in, have i gained weight i have but i also loose the weight to, it all depends on how bad you want this I guess, because if your craving for a smoke then now is the time to put some exercise and a routine into your life. I found that when i concentrated on loosing weight more then smoking it got better for me, don't give in to smoking please, you can do this...i was a smoker a bad one, as i would smoke three packs of smokes per day  but i got rid of it and i have been without smoking for the last ten years, it does get better I promise, but you got to keep yourself busy 

if your really struggling add me and message me anytime you need to i will be here for you and help you to get thru this 

wishing you all the  best 

Liz

ten years smoke free