Still winning

It's ok to think of it, not ok to have it, smoking is not an option right now...so what could you do instead now?

Fab!! Easier to simply not think too much and get busy/distracted if you start to think about it. x

Lol, you'll be a crazy reformed smoker too :) Go careful with the advice thing, it can alienate some people, best is to let people and let them ask you questions I found. x

Nope'ing away here in the last day of school hols.

Happy birthday my lovely. Have a beautiful birth day :) x

Brilliant work from a top bloke!! Hope the house is settling better and you are enjoying your life again. x

Great work and congrats on 8 months of freedom. x

Hey :) Great news for you my lovely, I love love love the free fall happy quit. Plus gives you time to enjoy the last of the summer there. x

Initially the sayings - smoking is not on the table and you can do anything except put something in your mouth and set it on fire! Taking those options out forced me to focus on what I would do to cope.... Understanding that there was no physical pain to quitting. Don't know what I imagined as such, but I expected awful and painful. The reality was I just thought about whether I would smoke or not many times a day. I chose not to every time and the thoughts got less and less. Reading all the horror stories on whyquit. Education came later but the initial horror of reading people my age dying of lung cancer etc just because we chose to smoke gave me a right old kick to the gut and made a difference - educated to realize I was actually poisoning myself. Posting - I needed a brass band following me round cause I was simply astounded I was actually quitting haha. I smile now but every atta girl etc felt like a soothing balm. I don't get that support in real life (I am always the "supporter", not the suportee lol) so yeah, posting was big. AHA moments. There were two I think. 1.When it finally sunk in that all smoking was doing was fulfilling the need for nicotine from the last cig - it was actually not only addiction pure and simple but also slavery. It didn't sit well with who I believed I was so I changed and realigned myself. 2.In the midst of a snotfest caused by some brutal emotion or other (and quite possibly wine) I thought for a fleeting second that I might smoke and straight behind was the thought of "what's the point, it doesn't help".

Wow, that sounds really intense hun ((Chrysalis)). Your poor mum and poor you too. xx Sister smoking, use it to re-inforce your choice, your fight for freedom will not be marred by a sister who will cough and splutter and stink of stale smoke while being financially worse off. Don't over think it, she smokes, you don't. xx

The build up is more scary then the doing it. You simply take control, yes weirdly it's your own thoughts you need to control. I found once the decision had been made in my head that smoking was no longer on the table, I was forced to find other things to do. Ideas of things to do. Get a bottle of water, take sips when you crave. Hard boiled candy, by the time I'd finished a sweet the craving thought had gone and I could carry on with my day. Stock up on cleaning products :) Suck air through a straw if you need to do the habit thing. Repeat NOPE or a mantra in your head. Write down all the reasons you don't want to be a smoker and stick the list on the fridge. Write down a "treat" plan, at 2 packs a day that's a lot of money and treating yourself regularly is a way to look forward. One more thing people said and I paid no attention to but hey, I should have listened is physically move. A lot of people walked or ran or did some form of exercise when they craved and it truly bats the thoughts out much easier there. Keep posting. x

Hi Jen, how you doing? x

fuckin DON!! Big up :)

of course, some men are ok, yada yada. lol. Ok, I get it, you do kinda live and breath for your son, I know this, you are good peoples :) Most people are not like you.... and nowhere near my level of love cause hey, I wasn't supposed to be able to have any children and I literally risked all for two...so I think I'm the "don" of parenting lol. But yeah yeah, you're all good :)

I am sorry for your smoking dream, those are tough dreams. xx

My experience is when I felt like a crutch would help, I used a crutch. One the patch, one chantix...both helped...but because I wanted to quit smoking. I ditched each of them within a week due to side effects but most people don't suffer the side effects. The question I think is more, do you need something to "help you" or do you want to do it "yourself". People here have quit both ways, cold turkey and patch. What's your thoughts Natalie? x

Doreen, My first, some Mum I didn't even know had to cart me out sobbing and snot filled. (classy bird!). I feel worse this time. A time only another mum would understand. Thanks for your thoughts. x

Not my style, not my way but I think I just done wallowed the last two weeks of my life away? Sad, unhappy, over thinking, questioning myself, my life, my parenting - but not my quit. I love that bit by the way, even when life feels like it utterly sucks balls for no apparent reason my quit is still in the "oh yeah, doin it" section. August was the most abhorent, scary emotional month I have seen in some time. I am utterly jaded but re grouping. I am brutalized I was too unwell to complete my healing module in the legitamate "insurance" world. FFS, I have been using my skills since before I knew what the skills were!! - and I can't practice in the real world due to insurance?! Why has my path gotta put so many road blocks in the way to make me always think I'm missing something I need to know. Meh, sucky stupid timings. So, phew. Ok, it's time to put my childish thoughts behind me. It's my birth month :) The time where I reset my year, my year by the way, i get the january the 1st thing but I think at your birthday, you should do a life review and set in motion your plans for your next year. SO .... By this time next year I want to have clients, who I can lay my (non smoking YEY) hands on and help. I need to start working on a "proper job" skill set and I still have no clue, but 7 days left. So if now, when my baby girl starts full time school (mortified). And my Mum is still utterly scared but possibly closet smoking again (div). And the world feels like it is testing me - if now - my quit is in safe hands.... then I'm going to assume that even though I have an occasional thought to smoke that I'm all good and not worry anymore. I love that I can pay it forward though, that's so fab! 11 days until 6 months quit!! Multiple quits inspired by mine!! New friends!! I don't know why I spent a month uneasy?? It's as great as it always was :) A blocked path is not a roadblock, it's an opportunity to know more. Stay focused. Quitting is a journey, not an event. Eternal vigilance. Addiction. All true, but look at the strength that surrounds this site, these people. This is a great time to be here and it feels amazing to pay it forward. I think I will be happy about it for a while. PS, I may have had a wine, thus promtping such happiness lol, but still, it's pretty cool being a small part of this place that saves people and heals them :) x

1 week is humongous!! Game on Wendy, kicked nicotine to the kerb!! Totally agree with Bakon on a name change. Nothing about you associates with smoking now and that's amazing news :) Massive congrats on your first week of freedom. xx

Wow Wendy, what a different post, I am SOOOO excited for you!! See what being quit can do, it serves as inspiration for others!! Lol at the bike riding cushioning needed!! I think attempting said bike riding is extreme bravery, virtual hi five!! Love seeing these quits progress :) x

I like that this post is entitled nerd help...and yet I looked haha, and no, no idea lol. Hopefully an actual nerd will be along shortly :)

Oh my poor lovely lady. You're having a bit of a panic, but you just need to remember who you are and how hard you fought for this. Out of your depth is no reason to give up your freedom - shush now woman, what are you thinking about?? How would you explain this, the later part where something smoking related slaps you up!! What about that that beauty of a niece I saw with you in a fun picture, this the example you want to set?? There's none for that at all, get your mind away from those thoughts. Race yourself to dismiss them, with a mental baseball bat! Ask michael to cut all the ties that bind you to those thoughts. Handily I can suggest this back to you as you did to me once, guess what - it really does help. Each and every time I do it now I feel stronger. Not my weird but somebody else's now as I kept feeling the energy was really "off", I'm not naturally insecure (lol, really not) and am focused at least, almost positive but the last month I feel like I been wading through emotional treacle. I had a 4 day wallow time too and then I read this by Sarah someone or other and thought HA! That explains it then: After the intense pressure (both positive and negative) many have experienced during August, September 2014 comes as something of a relief! It offers a break of sorts during which we can catch our breath, take some time out and settle into our ‘new normal’. There has been a recent energetic theme which can best be characterised as the ‘return of the repressed’. This Freudian term is used to denote the emergence into consciousness of repressed thoughts, feelings and memories many of which we may have believed were over and done with. Such a process often occurs at times of intense change, largely because it is our unconscious which conspires to prevent us from changing in fundamentally life-altering ways. During a time such as we have been through these past few months, the gates to the unconscious are flung open with every suppressed fear, denied emotion, ignored desire bursting out to assault our senses and do its level best to keep us from stepping out of our comfort zone. Just when we thought we’d dealt with our lack of self-worth bam! Self-hatred rears its ugly head the likes of which we’ve not encountered in a long time. Just when we thought that depression we struggled with for so long was healed, there it is again, penetrating every corner with its heavy, oppressive presence. Just when we thought we’d really got to grips with ‘this whole compassion thing’, we can’t bear to be in the same room as anyone else for fear of ripping their head off! We can end up feeling like nothing has changed and we’re simply the same person we were a year, two years, ten or twenty years ago!! Loves my beautiful friend, pm if you want to wallow/whinge/vent. x

Shit init :( Sorry for you too. x

Ah good, damn bank hols, Chrispy's back :) Unreal the dufus ex just picked the kids up and asked was their uniform in the bag - like I would let the emotionally stunted twat take my baby for her first day of school - pfft - **** off dickhead! And ooohhhh, my baby starts full time school on Thursday, no more babies at home for any of a long day now :(

PS, I forgot to say. In max one week, I couldn't see any future in me ever smoking again. Even on tough days I still made a choice not to smoke. Don't worry that you can't picture it, that's only because you haven't done it in so long. It will honestly just happen if you don't smoke. xx