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

NOPE!!

NOPE!!

NOPE!

Nope.... another round of lake effect snow heading my way. Expecting a foot and a half by Wednesday. 20250120_204502.mp4

NOPE…

NOPE!!

NOPE

Many thanks! My quit is starting to feel like my new normal. I really do appreicate all your support. Kind Regards, Gene

NOPE

Nope!

NOPE! I like myself!

NOPE

NOPE!

NOPE!

NOPE!!

We're on our fourth day of crappy weather here, so I'm inside working on our family history. Unfortunately, all the online resources are also having issues with the weather, so they're frequently going offline. It's been a bit frustrating, but also productive. I've managed to clean out a lot of the tangles and dead weight on the family tree--people that we thought might've been connected but aren't, duplicates, and so on. So far I've pared away 200 names, and finished the second draft of my dad's and my continuation of my grandfather's family book.

Thanks! It happened so fast I didn’t have time to post. I’m back on the train. Hopefully this time sticks.

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

Sorry I missed this @Genecanuck. Congratulations on 5 months quit, you're doing great!

Congrats @Genecanuck! 5 Months is spectacular, almost a half year ... can you believe it? It's been quite a journey and it's not over yet so keep the failth. It will only continue to get easier all the time now. Enjoy the ride buddy; you're on your way!! A little something to warm you up during this Polar Vortex we're suffering now!

Congratulations on 5 months smoke free @Genecanuck You are doing great!

NOPE…

Glad you’re back! Be fierce in protecting your quit this time.

@Genecanuck , we have read all the replies and feel like our members handled his posts appropriately so no further action is needed at this time. In the future instead of tagging you can report the thread (upper three dots on the right of the user reply you're reporting) this will notify the administrator and moderators.

Congrats on your 5 months of freedom from nicotine! Keep rolling and you’ll be dancing on the lido deck in no time!

NOPE!!

3…2…1…. Go 🚀

NOPE NOPE Never

I'm sorry you smoked again @Kdad 😥Please stay close to this forum, as I believe if you come on here every day or at least every other day in the beginning of your quit, you will have more success. We can and will help you when you are in those situations. So please don't smoke any more cigs! They won't help you. Stay close to us! We are the ones who will help. 👍

😭

I’m gutted …. Gutted because you never posted a SOS How can we help , if you don’t give us that chance to get you through the rough time . Was that one cancer stick worth it , to lose your fabulous Quit … @Kdad we can give you all the tools we can , but the work has to come from you You have to ask yourself , do you want to remain a smoker or truly want to rid yourself of this killer addiction . 🐸

Congratulations @Genecanuck 5 months is amazing and time is sure flying for you!!! All the best to you and onward to 6 months and the Lido Deck!

Congratulations! That's about the time I really started to feel like I might be free from my addiction forever. It's a time to celebrate, and to be vigilant. You've come this far, so stay on your guard and keep going! Treat yourself to something nice today.

Hey !!! Congratulations G Sorry it’s a bit late , you’re nearly half way to the Lido party … Great Job 🐸

Great post G ..🐸

NADA Posted January 10, 2019 I'm not sure if there are others out there who believe that smoking and lying go hand-in-hand, but I found myself lying to people throughout my life about whether I smoked, how much I smoked, and if it was effecting my health. This is a post I wrote a few years ago. Most of us smokers began our years or decades of addiction back when we were teens. We learned to lie about smoking right from the very beginning. Usually it started with our parents asking why we smelled like a rancid ashtray. “Oh, I was at Johnny Picklefork’s house and his mom smokes like a chimney” I nervously responded. “That Bertha Picklefork really needs to cut back” my mom would chuckle. A few months later my mother met me at the door with a pack of reds in her hand as I returned from school. “Young man, what was this doing in your sock drawer?” I let out a small sigh of relief knowing that it was only the cigarettes that she found. “Um, Tammy Tamblanadana’s brother was grounded for smoking so Tammy asked if I could hold on to them for a few days”. Sometime later my dad drove by me holding a cigarette in my hand while hanging out with the neighborhood kids. When asked about this at dinner, I effortlessly told him, “I was just holding it for Jin Dong while she tied her shoe”. Once it was second nature to lie to my parents about smoking, it became just as easy to lie to myself about it. I can quit any time I want. I just do it to calm myself down. It relaxes me. It’s just a habit. The list could go on forever. It kept me in the cycle of addiction for decades until one day I called it out for what it was: Pure Bulls&@t! Not only are the health benefits endless when you quit, but it’s incredibly liberating to stop lying to yourself and others. P.S. The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent. Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/11725-the-lie/

Yes, this is what addiction does. So liberating to be done with all the evasions, the minimizing, and the justifications. Freedom is sweet on a lot of levels.

Go Go… you can do it Stay close … Read all the information and watch Joel’s videos they all will help 🐸

Hey MLMR, SOS - I would suggest using it a lot. If there’s someone you can call, that may help also. Sending positive energy your way!

First off, thanks for taking the time and making such effort to respond. It means a lot to me, more than I can find the words for. English is not my language and sometimes I’m having a hard time to find the words and that makes me embarassed. Sorry in advance if I say strange things. @DenaliBlues thanks so much for your answer. It brought me to tears yesterday evening, because what you said about being real about the proces meant a lot to me. My fear of depression is a realistic one: ive been there too often. It can be a litteral matter of life and death when that happens. Nicotine does make depression worse. Thanks for saying I belong. That is the essence of where things go wrong in my head/heart. @Paul723 avoiding depression is really only partially ‘choice’. I agree with you that to some extend it is a matter of doing things that are beneficial (sports, eating healthy, etc etc. My toolkit is there). But: It would be too simple to state that it is ultimately up to me wether I get depressed or not. It just doesnt work like that and it implies a sense of ‘its your own fault’.. maybe Im not totally getting your response, would you care to explain then? @Christian99 Your approach is definitely worth concidering. I think I need to add two or three things to my weekly schedule, as to enrich my life. To shift my focus from quitting, to adding good stuff. I am seeing a friend tomorrow morning, will ask her to think with me in that. @intoxicated yoda your words are of help. I will read them again at some point.

Hi MLMR-- I, too, struggled with serial failed quits, and I know how discouraging it feels. Realizing that my approach wasn't working, I decided to take a more radical approach: instead of "just" quitting, I decided to situate quitting in the larger project of GETTING HEALTHY. This included significant changes to my diet and a really serious fitness program, which gave me lots of positive, proactive things to think and learn about instead of obsessing over the thing I was ostensibly denying myself. In addition, I hoped that these new activities would accelerate the process of seeing myself as a non-smoker, creating another line of defense during those inevitable moments of vulnerability. While this new approach certainly didn't make quitting easy, it made it possible for me; I'm forever grateful that I tried it. It's probably true that I went a little overboard with the diet and exercise during that first year, but many years later I'm still convinced that this was the way it needed to be for me. My point really isn't to encourage you to adopt my method (though it's worth thinking about); instead, I'm sharing it as an example of doing something(s) different. What would a different set of actions look like for you? Shifting the emphasis to practice--and pretty radical practice at that--as opposed to how I was thinking about cigarettes really helped me. We know you can do it! Christian99 23+ Years Quit

My best advice, and it may not apply to you, would be to live for life, not be lived by life. Engage yourself in your life, both good and bad. Quitting is just one aspect and there are many positives you can make yourself connect with (as you know!). The dark place will be there weather you smoke or not; not smoking is not what takes you there. Avoiding depression take a conscious and continuous effort just like quitting smoking. Denali has given you excellent advice.

Hey @MLMR. Thanks so much for this post. It’s important to be real. Quitting is hard enough physiologically and cognitively, but I’m not sure we have enough honest talk about the emotional and mental health aspects of addiction and recovery - bleak bits and all. When I first quit I was most terrified of despair. Terrified that I would never be happy or whole without smoking. I was wrong. That was not an accurate assessment of my mental health - it was addict mind panicking about losing control. Those moments that feel like you MUST smoke (or that there is nothing to lose) cannot actually be trusted. In fact, I think nicotine makes depression worse… I won’t lie - it was gnarly. I was messy a lot. But it did not destroy me. In fact, it fortified me… to be free of the shame, the shackles of compulsion. My advice for what it’s worth: get a good therapist and try again. You belong here, my dear.

Sazerac Quit Date: October 23, 2013, A Good Day to be Free. Posted July 24, 2016 Some quitters may have trouble with the never/ever part of NOPE (Not One Puff Ever). To tell you the truth, in the nascence of my quit, I bluffed my way through never/ever land. I remember Cristobal and Stuart qualifying never/ever with the caveat, 'just for today' and that was the truth too, it is just about here and now. As days and weeks passed, I absorbed the truth about addiction. Once I clearly understood addiction is forever and the brain's neuro pathways immediately re-connect to addiction after one puff, I embraced never/ever/forever. If addiction was in my brain for the long haul, well dammit...I was too and I was going to Win ! I want to include our friend, Joel Spitzer's video (and a link to resources) about this subject. He uses the phrase, 'Never Take Another Puff' as we use Not One Puff Ever Never Take Another Puff (resources) and the video Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/7334-nope~nevereverforever/