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NOPE!!

Nope

I am not going to smoke today. NOPE.

NOPE

N.O.P.E. 🙏

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever

NOPE

NOPE!!

Congratulations on your precious 5 smoke free months @GonSo I'm glad you're proud of yourself as you should be! Soon you'll be half a year free! 😊

NOPE! 💫

NOPE!

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever

NOPE for today!

NOPE!

I am saying NOPE to smoking for today.

Thanks all!! Very proud that I haven't smoked for 5 months. And yes, there are some difficult moments every now and then, but compared to the beginning it is going so much better.

NOPE for today!

How hard or easy it is for you to quit does not predict the long term outcome of your Stay Quit. All quits are NOT the same either whether it be our own quits or others’ quits. In my experience I found that the harder it was for me the more personal work I had to put into it & the firmer I built my foundation. It was a good thing for me although I didn’t feel that way at the time. Education, mindset, commitment & perspective made a huge difference when I quit smoking this time. It helped me understand & overcome the initial “Lizard Brain” most of us have as active addicts which told me many things including that I could not quit cold/smart turkey. I didn’t appreciate & value my first quit (of a year & a half) because it was so easy for me to quit (sorry, but true). This time it was hard. Much, much harder. Chosen meds were removed from my Tool Box one after another. I felt great anxiety just at the thought of quitting without “help”. Chantix (my miracle drug for my easy quit) was stopped on Day 6 (a day before the actual quit day) because of an extreme side affect. The patch was stopped after 11 days due to a severe allergic reaction and then Wellbutrin had to be discontinued on Day 32 also due to an extreme side effect. (I realized much later that I had truly taken smoking as an option off the table from Day One because smoking never entered my mind with my initial setbacks. It really worked!) My point? If you are using a aid & it “fails you” it does not mean you have to return to smoking. Instead piece the different methods together & use your other chosen tools from your “Tool Box” and keep moving ahead smoke free. Your doctor can also be a great resource so I highly encourage you to get your doctor on board with your quit. Mine was with me every step of the way. We never know how much harder it may be for us the “next” time so I encourage you to just hang on & keep building on your smoke free days. Piece your aids together if you have to & don’t return to smoking. It doesn’t matter how “ugly” you do your quit because if you don’t smoke the days count the same. In fact, the harder won it is the more you may appreciate your Stay Quit. No matter how I felt or what happened to me or what I thought I cemented my quit foundation one hard day at a time in the beginning. I appreciated any smoke free time. It was my most precious gift to myself & I treated it as such and hung onto it for dear life. It’s hard when you’re an active nicotine addict. No doubt about it but if you don’t smoke and give yourself time you can regain control of your brain … or at least to the point that the Nic O. Demon is no longer whispering constantly in your ear. (By the way, the reason those whispers are so powerful is because the Nic O. Demon is YOU (your self-talk) and knows all your weaknesses & likes to exploit them fully to try to bring you back to Nico Land.) If you are going through hell with your quit recognize that it’s because of your smoking and what you are going through is the price we pay to rid ourselves of our active addiction. It’s temporary. Focus on the goal … to be smoke free and to achieve peace & gratefulness about it. The when for each of us varies. Don’t smoke & give yourself the gift of time to reach Freedom for yourself. If you have to keep piecing your quit tools together … do it … it all counts. (I wrote this 4-30-19 but it is still relative today. I hope it has something to say to those having difficulty quitting or staying quit. Best Wishes.)

Thanks everyone! I can’t believe 5 years has passed. It just doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I remember crying tears of joy when I survived the first year and then it seemed that the more time that passed the less it felt like I had ever even smoked at all. Sometimes I feel like something is missing and I realize it for what it is, but this chic ain’t never going back to those chains. I appreciate each and every one of y’all.

NOPE No Smoking on the Good Friday 🐸

Gday congratulations ….. your on a roll now!

Congratulations on 5 months smoke free @GonSo Great job!

Big Congrats 5 months is Fabulous Stay positive..

NOPE

NOPE … not Today 🐸

Whoopeee @GonSo your rockin this Quit 5 months already , nearly half way to the Lido Deck … keep going Font forget to treat yourself for all your hard work 🐸

I am saying NOPE to smoking for today.

Nope

Congratulations @GonSo on 5 months smoke free!🎉 You are doing really great! Treat yourself and onward to half a year without smoking!!

We carved out really deep smoking neuro pathways in our brain for years when we smoked. It was easier for many of us to postpone, procrastinate, and avoid people, issues, and situations using smoking as a crutch instead of dealing with our life stuff head on. The new neuro pathways we make when we quit smoking, the healthy recovery ones, just aren't that deeply ingrained in us in the beginning so its easy, even compelling, to want to revert back to our old familiar patterns. It takes time & repetition to rebuild new pathways to replace the old ones (and to stop our addiction from leading us astray). Be kind to yourself (especially with your self-talk). Don't judge the urges you are having; just turn them away. It gets much easier & better with more smoke free time. Every time you say "NO" the concrete foundation you are building becomes stronger & firmer. Patience. It takes time to build new auto "go to habit" responses. It takes time to rebuild US. (Written by me 12-3-21. Nicotine addiction (or any addiction for that matter) physically changes our brain. It takes a while to recover ourselves once our addiction is dormant (but still lying in wait should we ever decide to use our DOC again) so remember to be kind to yourself. Best Wishes.)

N.O.P.E. 🙏

I had an ugly quit. Realizing that I was truly an addict almost broke me completely. Me? An addict?! Yeah. Nicotine, my drug of choice. Crap totally rewired my brain. Sometimes I still can’t enjoy my second drug of choice, caffeine because ever since I quit smoking I’m hypersensitive to it. It’s something I can’t overcome. So I do have that reminder of having once been a smoker. That nicotine once controlled my whole life. So thankful that I suffered through the initial wuit and am still wuit 5 years later!

Congratulations Gus on 5 years smoke free! 🎉 That is an amazing accomplishment! We hope you come back on to celebrate! All the Best!

Fabulous idea! I couldn't think of a better reward but you @Reciprocity you came to the rescue!

NOPE! 💫

Mullet hairstyle rules 🤘☺️

Five years!!! Such an awesome achievement, @Gus. Huge congrats, and thanks for all the encouragement you shared when I was first quitting. You helped me so much!

Gday Well now you’ve really gone and done it. Hope you happy with yourself! You should be …. congratulations is definitly in order here!

Congratulations Gus on the 5 year Quit!!!! Celebrate!!

What a great milestone @Gus! I hope you celebrated somehow or at least did something nice for yourself to mark the occasion.

nice job @Gus hope you are still celebrating the milestones.

Congratulations on 5 years smoke free @Gus Great job!

Huge Congratulations Gus 5 years is Wonderful… Don’t forget to Reward yourself for all your hard work 🐸

Congratulations!! 🎉 5 years smoke free is amazing.

Congratulations @Gus on an amazing 5 years smoke free! 🥳 Halfway to a decade! You must be so proud! Make sure you reward yourself, it's well deserved! 😊

By DOCMarkC --- 03-12-2009 5:19 AM I want you to stop trying to quit. Yes, I said that. Even more, I mean it. I browse around here and see post after post from people saying that they are "trying Chantix" or giving the gum a "try". Some are "trying to quit" for the sixth or seventh time. Others are quite positive. "I tried to quit many times before, but this time I'm going to try something different." Any of you who have played a sport with a coach can tell you that the coach NEVER said to you: "OK, I want you to go out there and "Try" to win. Give it a good "Try". If they did, then it was for a pickup game or T-ball or something that was more about playing than winning. At a job interview, you never tell your prospective employer that you are going to "Try" to be on time and be a good employee. You don't "Try" to keep your kids fed. This addiction you are breaking isn't a game. "Trying" is what you do when failure is an option. As Yoda put it! "Try not! DO!... or do not. There is no try." When you quit an addiction you do just that. You QUIT it. It means that you put it down and you don't pick it up again. I see many posts about backtracking or slipping up. Invariably the replies are encouraging rhetoric like "It's OK, everyone makes mistakes. Pick yourself up and try again" (That "Try" word again). Now I understand moments of weakness, and I believe in getting back on the horse, but think about a relapse and about having a smoke again! It isn't as if you tripped over a slipper in the hallway and fell mouth-first on an errant cigarette that had been left on the floor next to the fireplace where an ember jumped out and set the smoke alight while the dog jumped up and down on your back forcing you to inhale. You made a decision that the cigarette was going to fix this intangible stress. Years of conditioning had made that feeling almost subconscious, but it was with a purpose that you got out the smoke and lit it. That was giving up. That was starting the quit counter back to zero. You may have gone a day, a week, a month. But guess what? that no longer matters. Now you have to do it all over again. Was that worth it? After that one smoke were you forever better? I say what you do by "Slipping up" is strap yourself into the rollercoaster again. The nicotine is back in the system and your body is going to scream at you to keep it there. When it was gone your brain still had conditioning telling you that smoking made you happy, but it was a lie you could ignore. Now that lie is compounded with physical withdrawals again. Was that better? I quit almost a year ago. It was the hardest damn thing I have ever done. I was an Army paratrooper! An infantry medic in one of the most combat deployed units in the military. All of my training, survival testing, and combat was nothing compared to the will it takes to just not put the cigarette in my mouth. But I'm not "Trying" to quit. (Reposted with his permission. He asked that I mention he is on tiktok!)