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NOPE

Susie,hello again .. I’ve always said ….All roads lead to Rome …a old saying .. This means ..Rome is Freedom …and you have to do anything to get there .. NRT has helped a lot of folk arrive at Freedom… As long as you follow the plan ..this is important … Your lungs are probably still developing…once they are damaged there is no going back .. Most of us here have sad horror stories of watching or suffering from the damage cigarettes have done .. You can quit …xx

Good to hear that you're still committed to a smoke free future, Susie! The one thing I'll note is to be careful about placing too much emphasis on a "better" time to quit: most of us have found that any time one chooses has its (sometimes profound) challenges, and waiting for the right time can sometimes be an unconscious avoidance strategy. It will suck whenever you do it (and it will probably still suck with NRTs), but it will be so worth it. C99

Congratulations on the 7 year quit and thank you for all you do. Best wishes.

Well done Recip a great example and encouragement to others

Nope....

NOPE!!

I know it's very difficult, the cravings are terrible, we all know exactly what you are going through!! What I found that helped me is taking a cinnamon stick and holding it like a cigarette and sucking on it, making believe I was smoking plus the taste of the cinnamon was nice. You can also use cut up straws. Even if you need NRT's then why don't you use them? You have to use whatever will help you. The urges will get less and less as time goes on, I can promise you that. I was a basket case the first couple of months. I was acting absolutely horrible to my husband and family that I was insane! It was a terrible time but I got through it and you can too, you really can!! Just keep coming on here and vent to us, we are here to help you! Whatever your triggers are for smoking, try and get away from them. For example, after I would eat, I would go outside and light up a cigarette. In the beginning of my quit, I would do something else, anything that is different from what I would do when I did smoke. After a while you won't even remember that you wanted a cigarette. You can definitely do this Susie!!!

Hi Susie, So glad you decided to quit! I know it's not an easy decision and it's quite scary with all sorts of emotions going through your head. I am a relative newbie here as I am only 8 months quit, although this is my 2nd and last time that I quit smoking. The last time I was quit for 6 years. Anyway, the people on this forum are amazing and will help you get through it so just ask for help when you need it. They helped me tremendously and I am very happy to call them my friends! They will listen to you complain about the urges and just about anything else because they have all been through it. So keep close to the "train" and it's "riders" and you will do just fine!!

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required).

NOPE!!

Congratulations! 7 years is amazing and yes, upon reflection: I hope that you celebrated well yesterday!

Great Job Reci! Freedom is wonderful! Congratulations on SEVEN!

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NOPE!

Big congrats @Reciprocity , so happy for you!

Way to go @Reciprocity!! A truly inspiring achievement. Congratulations and thanks for all the encouragement.

NOPE…

NOPE!

N O P E ! ! !

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required).

Nope! Hope you're starting to feel a little better Chris.

Congratulations Reci, on such and incredible quit. You deserve to reward yourself today.

Thank you Reciprocity for the help and the wise comments you shared with myself and others along the quit path. Congratulations on an amazing 7 years clean. .

You know today I was reflecting on smoking and quitting and it dawned on me that 7 years ago today I could not imagine not lighting up upon awakening in the morning, after a meal or after finishing any task yet today, after 7 years being smoke free I can not for the life of me fathom why I ever smoked those damn things. They did absolutely nothing positive for me! Quitting brings about a complete metamorphosis in your life! You come out the other side as a completely different person free from the chains of addiction and able to live your life to the fullest.

Ok, I'm gonna give it a whirl now.

NOPE!

18 Maybe we can help you out with the sleep thing?

Congrats Reci on hitting 7 years. Thanks for being around and showing others the way.

Yaay!!! Congratulations!

Congratulations Reci!!! Quite an accomplishment. And thank you for all the fun and laughs you bring here Go ahead and take some time off of chicks and sticks….you deserve it

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Nope... I will not cave to the crave

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Chicks take away one; sticks add 1. When the score gets to 20 Sticks win. When the score gets to -20 chicks win. You can only post one post at a time. You have to wait for another person to post a number before you can post again. Tip - when you post a number, scroll back at least one post to ensure your number is correct. Many times, if two people post at once, your number may be wrong because the other person's number was recorded first before yours. The other thing to watch for; if you haven't posted in a while, make sure you are posting on the last page and not looking at numbers posted two pages ago. In any case, people will correct you (with a friendly slap down lol) if you screw up Having said that. Chicks must be a member of the board for 10 years before they can play that game

You cant play I keeeeed .... read to 1st post of the thread chicks are - sticks are + .... first to 20 wins.

2 Chick Throw Down!

20!

Yup, politicians like to tell us every single lie in the book, that's all they are good for!! That's great that you don't have any issues...hope it stays that way!!

9. Drop mentos into a two liter bottle of coke

Thank you @Gus. I think from reading what you said that you think I'm still not smoking. But unfortunately I am. I felt so horrible by day 3 and started again. There is no way I could have gone to school today feeling how I did. But I'm not going to stop trying. I learnt a lot about myself and I'm going to try again. I didn't use any NRTs. I think I either need to use them or have more time when I don't have to go to school. But if I do use them I don't want to use them for long. I'm still thinking about what to do and when I will do it but I am determined to quit. The help here is amazing and I know I can do it!

My oh my how time flies! Big congratulations on 7 years! May there be many many more!!!

Yup! 7 years today. I remember that day like it was yesterday. So glad I managed to make it through the quit process and prevent further damage to my health. When people ask me how if feels to be a non-smoker, I say this: Then I do my Happy Quitter's dance:

Congratulations @Reciprocity seven years quit already is AWESOME! And thank you for all the support and fun you bring to the board. Have a great day my friend

I just want to explain a bit more about myself. I think my situation is different to a lot of people. Hardly anyone actually knows I smoke. My best friend knows and she wants me to quit too. Some of my other friends have asked me about it because it's hard to cover it up completely but I always deny it and say the smell must be from my mom. I don't smoke while I'm at school. It's mostly just at home. I usually smoke a few cigarettes before school and then a lot after school when I get home. I'm used to going all day at school without one. I thought that would make it easier to quit. I get cravings in the afternoon but I can handle those. I also haven't been smoking for as long as most people but I did start when I was very young. I didn't start because of peer pressure or anything. I was just on my own. And it happened at a very difficult time for my mom and me. I started before covid and increased a lot during the lockdowns when I was at home. I know everyone says to work out my triggers and avoid them. But I don't think I have ones like most people do. I do smoke when I’m doing homework so I suppose that’s one. I’ve been trying not to do that. I can't say I hate smoking because actually I don't. I enjoy it. But I also don't want to be a smoker. I want to quit before it affects my health. And I hate trying to cover it up all the time. Especially around boys lol. When I first thought about quitting I read an article about how bad secondhand smoke was for kids because lungs aren’t fully developed until you are much older. I hope I haven’t already done too much damage to my body. There’s nothing I can do about that now but I know the sooner I quit the better. So far I haven’t noticed any problems with my breathing. I play sports during summer so I think I’m quite fit. Maybe that helps. But I did get very sick when I had covid and I had a cough that lasted for a long time. I don’t know if that was worse because I smoke but it’s possible. My friends who had it didn’t get very sick. After reading a lot of information on here I was already expecting it to be difficult to quit. But I thought I could handle it. I had no idea I would feel as bad as I did. After a couple of days I just couldn't cope. I cried a lot. I had a headache all the time. My lungs felt horrible. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sit still. At the time I thought I was the only one who had to go through that. But I know everyone goes through similar stuff. It was definitely much worse than I expected though. So I'm now just trying to work out how I can deal with everything better next time. My main plan to distract myself was to do a lot of exercise because that always takes my mind off smoking. But the weather wasn't great so I couldn't go outside much. And I also felt so bad, especially with the headache, that I couldn't make myself do anything anyway. I did have things like candies and other stuff to eat. I don’t like cinnamon much so that’s not so good. I made an air cigarette which helped sometimes. I didn't use gum or lozenges or patches because I know it's going to slow down my quit. But I think next time I'm going to try it. Maybe just for the first few days. It might just help enough so I can do the other things like exercise. I know some people don’t agree with doing that but I think stopping smoking has to be most important thing. I read that post about Ellen getting addicted to lozenges so I want to be careful. I love that everyone is so understanding on here. I didn’t even want to post anything at the start because I was worried what people would think of me. But I know now that everyone just wants me to quit. I really do appreciate everyone's support and ideas and suggestions. But at the same time it's been very overwhelming for me. Trying to work everything out in my head has been hard. Anyway that was a stupidly long post lol. Sorry! I am determined to do this. I'm going to do this! I just need to work out what’s gonna work.

LOL!!! So the sticks are the men? If that's the case, how do I know who is a man if it's not obvious in their username or it doesn't say in their profile? Ok tell me if this is correct....say Doreen posts the number 15 and then I come along and post 14. Is that correct?

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Given that you suffer with depression and anxiety, you might want to work with a doctor on this. It could be dangerous to drastically alter your nicotine intake. Also, if I'm not mistaken, there are some anti-depressants that help with getting off nicotine. I think Wellbutrin is one of them.