MarylandQuitter

NOPE!

I went through some hard times nine months into a quit and made the choice to smoke. I smoked for about a week and quit. This time, smoking didn't help, I felt guilty for relapsing and I didn't enjoy smoking in the least bit. I remember talking to a fellow-quitter friend while I was driving home from work and I was telling her how I was kind of scared because I felt the addiction stronger than I ever had in the past when I had quit. She said, "well just quit then". Okay, so the next evening I smoked my last cigarette and put it out at 7 PM. I'm now 4 1/2 years quit and have been through some very tough times since and not once did I consider smoking. What's pleasantly surprising is that when stress comes, as it always does, smoking doesn't even enter my mind whereas in the past (especially when I was a smoker) it was the first thing that entered my mind. Not anymore. I strongly suggest that you quit immediately. At this time tomorrow you'll be one day quit and the very instant you put out your last cigarette, you're a non-smoker! Don't delay because the longer you wait, the longer you're a smoker. Don't be that person 10 years from now wishing you'd have quit now.

What you're doing now is putting time in between your last cigarette and the rest of your life. As with most things, they get easier with time and living without smoking is no different. In fact, each day you should treat as a milestone because it is! Each and every day is a victory, especially at the beginning. Reward yourself for making such great progress and sticking to your commitment to quit smoking.

Communication from Joel regarding notsmokinjo's comments about 1% success rates using nicotine gum: Hello everyone: There seems to be a little bit of confusion as to what I actually have in a couple of my videos. I have never said that only 1% of people who use nicotine gum quit successfully. What I have said is that according to Gallup polling done in 2013, only 1% of people who have successfully quit smoking credited nicotine gum as their quitting method. Here are two videos that I have that discuss this issue: http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/whatever-you-do-dont-quit-smoking-cold-turkey/ http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/gallup-poll-most-quitters-credit-cold-turkey/ Here is the direct link to the Gallup poll's page regarding the survey: http://news.gallup.com/poll/163763/smokers-quit-tried-multiple-times.aspx Two other videos that I have that relate to this current discussion are http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/i-quit-the-wrong-way/ and http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/relapses-are-not-determined-by-how-you-quit-smoking/ Also related to discussions raised in this string is the page http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/is-cold-turkey-the-only-way-to-quit/ for it specifically talks about the fact that some people do quit by means other than cold turkey and those people should not be made to feel that their quits are in some way diminished because of the way they did it. Also, regarding the use of statistics that are often quoted as to an individual's chances of quitting, check out the page http://whyquit.com/joels-videos/breaking-free-from-nicotines-grip-is-more-doable-than-most-people-think/. Hope this clarifies the issues at hand. Joel

New video added. You've relapsed, now what?

Nope!

Every now and then there's a little hiccup with all the different experiences, opinions etc. Tolerance is the key to any relationship, especially when it comes to tossing a bunch of people into the big salad bowl.

NOPE!!!!

Perhaps something needd tweaked in the program. I'll look into it.

Please let me know the details for your ticker and I'll add it for you.

This new video explores the question that some former smokers find themselves asking of how long it could take them to get re-addicted to nicotine after they have been off smoking for a long length of time.

Congrats!!!

Thanks for sharing your story, Stzr500. What an amazing job to stay quit with all of that on your plate to deal with; all of it major, major life issues. A lot of us say, "if I can do it, so can you". However, you can say this and send a powerful message. Your story is the perfect illustration that no matter what happens in life, smoking doesn't fix it and certainly is no help is coping with it.