Reciprocity

16 (Go Sticks!! :) )

That's too bad as you need to have some fun while you're quitting just because it can all get pretty overwhelming at times so a little break is good providing you can do it and keep your quit. We all have to put on our Big Boy/Girl Pants at some point and face the tough situations in order to conquer them. Just make sure you're ready when you do :) Like I said before, you can have some fun & keep your quit too! Besides, if you ever lose you quit, Doreen will come after you like this ............

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14 Oh my ... princess; I think not :P

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Congrats Shanakor for getting past 5 days! That is an accomplishment in itself for sure as those early days are very difficult at times and a real test of our quit smoking commitment :) It is good to reward yourself as you reach milestones - that's for sure. It's hard work to quit and a little treat or some fun along the way is necessary. Having said that, be very careful with the drinking thing. I have read many a post where someone's quit as been lost due to over indulgence with alcohol. I can't lie to you here - it's a potentially dangerous situation particularly early on in your quit and I'm sure you'll have others telling you this as well. That's the bad news. Now having said that, in that you are aware of these things, that is a good thing. You know you must be on your guard. I would try to limit the drinking your first time out in this kind of situation until you know how YOU will react to drinking while staying quit. Personally, it has not affected me at any point in my own quit to have a few drinks but I know it does affect some others negatively. Speak with your friends maybe before the night gets going and express your concerns to them. They sound like they can maybe help watch over you to make sure you don't light up. You want to feel like nothing is missing for that day? Sorry, that's not going to happen first time going through this situation as this quitting thing is a 24/7 deal and you will still need to be dealing with the quit symptoms and fighting the urge to smoke while you enjoy your night out with friends. You CAN do both you know if you take things in moderation. The good news is once you go through this experience successfully, you will know exactly how to handle these outings in future and pretty soon, you will feel very comfortable going out to party as a non-smoker. That's how quitting works. You face different situations as a non-smoker and your brain rewires itself to learn how to live life enjoyably as a non-smoker. Be sure to report back in and let us know how things went :)

Congratulations Pedro! 8 months is two thirds of a year without smoking. Keep up the great work :)

NOPE!

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Bacon

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Tater-Tots

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Enjoy those moments to the fullest and be proud of what you have accomplished. You ARE in control of your life now that you have said NO to smoking :) As Boo said, thoughts only have the power YOU give them by either taking action on them or not. There's the control you have over the direction your life is going to go in and right now, you're going in a very positive direction!

NOPE!

Way to go MD! 4 months quit is impressive. Reward yourself with something nice then carry on. Before you know it, you'll be at a half year :)

^^^ And you can now do that better not having to stop for a smoke every 30 minutes or so :)

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Well done on getting into day 4 :) There are several parts to your post that I want to give you my thoughts on. First, and maybe most importantly, you talked about how great you were feeling when you went of a hike with your friend. This is important because you are already noticing benefits to quitting this horrible addiction. Attitude can make a big difference in being successful with your quit. Try as much as you can to focus on the positive things rather then the difficult temporary symptoms. The fact that you are fine with cravings sometimes and struggling with them at other times is normal for the early stage quit. It's a real roller coaster for a while but that WILL even out with time. Things are a little different for everyone in terms of timing but I can promise you that things WILL get better and easier to manage as time goes by. The 6 minute rule for a craving will not necessarily be the case always for you. Some are very short lived and other days, I can remember the whole day seemed like one big crave to smoke. Those are the days you really need to focus on maintaining your quit. As bad as things may seem on any given day, that won't last so just distract yourself any way you can during those times. You also spoke about some challenges in your live and if those are connected to the way you are feeling about your quit. Not really but you are thinking they are because you still believe smoking will help when you are feeling anxious about something. This is dangerous thinking because that nicodemon inside your head is trying to make excuses for you to feel it's OK to smoke again. DON'T listen to that junkie thinking!! Good stuff and bad stuff is going to happen in your life whether you smoke or not. That's just life. All you are doing when you smoke is you feed the nicotine addiction. That's all smoking is. The constant feeding of the addiction. You don't do that any more and yes, that makes you feel anxious and will do until you put in enough time in your quit where your brain has rewired itself to allow you to live day to day life as a non-smoker and not feel like you are missing something. This is the part of quitting that takes a long time and you just have to put in that time in order to free yourself - we all do. You will be fine Shanakor providing you adhere to the one simple rule of quitting - just NOPE every day no matter what :) Another thing you might want to do is make a list of the reasons you wanted to quit in the first place and keep that list handy so you can take it out when you are feeling weak or anxious. You had reasons that were important enough that you were compelled to quit in the first place. Reminding yourself of those reasons often can help keep you on track. You can make a post in the "Prerespond to Your Own SOS" thread. It's in the SOS Board Section at the top of the main page. The benefit of that is that if you ever feel you just can't carry on, read your own post about why you quit in the first place. It may just help to save your quit.

Never on Sunday NOPE!

3 Yes we do stand to pee ..........