notsmokinjo

Congratulations @Grund for being 1 year smoke free. Welcome to the Lido Deck!! Well done on all the work you have put in to achieve your first year of being smoke free. What a fantastic gift you have given to yourself and your loved ones. Make sure you do something special to reward yourself and celebrate this achievement and all the dedication you have put in. Fantastic work.

Confession: I love watching Survivor and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Congratulations @Robert32 for being smoke free for 4 months! Well done on your quit and making it to 4 months. Rewards are an important part of any quit so make sure you do something special in recognition of being 1/3 of a year smoke free. I would be great if you could pop in and let us know how you celebrated and to introduce yourself too.

wot 20 days... how did that happen, you only quit yesterday yeah?????? Awesome work Linda... you so have this and you should be so proud of yourself too. Well done on being smoke free for 20 days!!!!!

Oh look, here's one for our own Lord Kent, Sslip...

Congratulations @Tammy for being smoke free for 2 months!! Well done Tammy!!!! What a great quit you have started. You have worked so well to protect and grow it. its also great to see you so active around the boards and thank you for al the support you offer everyone else. It really is our pleasure to be sharing this journey with you. So rewards are important. Make sure you do something to celebrate today and definately do something to spoil yourself because you certainly deserve it.

This is my favourite facepaint I did... it was for a competition and the theme was "Out of The Ashes"... so its obvious what its about....

Handsewing the hand sewing parts...ok having a break.... There will be pictures... until then here is her banshee from last years book week.... oh and here is her zombie bride from dress up party...

Not saying it wont change it, people knowing wont change who I am, and if me telling it helps even one person then the whole sorry mess had a purpose.

^^ truest statement ever!

Um... Pamukkale thermal pools, Turkey..

Hi Blur, Welcome, and just because your still smoking for now doesn't mean you don't belong here. I didn't really have a quit plan to start and it depends how you plan to quit. In the end I had a plan to get of NRT gum which I used to help me in the early stages but the key with any plan is to be flexible. I am the sort of person who a rigid plan makes me doomed to fail, I need to be able to have a bit of give and take in any plan of attack. Doreen gave you the perfect advice. Read or even listen to via You Tube the Alan Carr book. You start this while you are still smoking... it will really help you.

Congratulations @Kermit for being smoke free for 7 months. Well done Kermy... what a great quit you have going. Well done on reaching 7 months. So rewards, celebrations.... you need both... how have you marked the occasion this month? Seriously it takes a lot of hard work and commitment to get to the 7 month mark and you have achieved that. So a well deserved celebration, oh and some footage of you I found kicking the nicodemon's butt...

Oh so didn't think of that Doreen.... I was just thinking of a dumping ground for the funny stuff I find when I go looking for numbers....

Sunday fight song @Sslip.... busy sewing and spilling my guts....

Ok... I started drinking at around 12... just a shot when I was stressed, or couldn't sleep or felt bad... then it was a shot to got to sleep every night by uni it was 1 bottle of vodka a week with another bottle or two on the weekend when i binged... in my early 20s this was binge drinking (to the point of not knowing what I had done in the morning some days) from Thursday to Sunday... I was also smoking at least a pack a day, and doing speed or blow most weekends and havin cookies (E's) or acid (so I had an e and speed for the first time at 16)... basically if it was an upper or a psychedelic I went there... so I would leave the 'hard' stuff for the weekend (Friday night to Sunday).. i'd have the occasional cone to re-kick an E... so I started smoking at 18... quit at 21.... started again at 27 (quit when pregnant, no issue because it wasn't a real quit, just til the kid wasn't breast feeding)... tried to quit a few times here and there...had a planned quit at 33 that didn't pan out after I ended up in a comma and in hospital for nearly 3 weeks... first thing I did when I left.. light up.... and now this quit, which is the sticky quit. So... grog .... hard, especially because it is such a huge social thing here and in my circle of friends and family.... so I cold turkeyed due to kidney issues and did fine for about 8 years then started to have a 'social' drink here and there which meant a total binge once a month when the kid was with her dad.... lasted for about 4 months and ended up with a kidney bleed and haven't drunk since... because I know I can go for days or months without drinking but once I have that first drink I will drink until oblivion... then just stop again until the next one. Physically I can not afford to drink, and you know what I don't want to anymore, I'm sick of running away from my crap and it doesn't fill the hole. Physically kicking this and detoxing was much harder than that side of quitting smokes, the withdrawal/detox aspect. Psychologically much easier. Emotionally it had been my go to crutch since I was a baby... that took a bit and socially i felt isolated a bit and even still sometimes I feel pressured to drink at times. But the health impacts of giving into this are now pretty immediate. Speed... I stopped that when ice first started making a scene here and it was being cut in with the speed... the speed was different, I didn't like the high, I didn't like the come down... I kicked it pretty easy... but i was sort of doing a partial detox every mon-fri anyway. I don't if think about this anymore and don't miss it... I did always feel more centered and focused on speed or blow but if it was lined up in front of me... nah wouldn't bother. Blow, E's, Acid, Mushies, GBH, Liquid Fantasy, Special K.... I just said one day I'm done and I was... that first weekend to the middle of the second week were not nice, the first weekend I thought I was going to crawl out of my skin. To be honest, with the exception of those who are family, I have cut ties with all the 'friends' from that time... they all still use or transitioned to ice... I think I got out of that scene at the right time. Cousins will still offer me product from time to time... I just say thanks but no thanks... I think I just grew up.... yes when I was on it, life was fantastic... I could escape the dark shit I carry and I felt like I fit in and belonged and was worthwhile... but i also felt more focused and attentive on louie or blow.. and then I felt like the only way to be that was to be ripped off me tits and I was over it... I think I grew up.... and honestly, now I have a kid I can't because that kind of escapism isn't conducive to being an even semi decent parent. So for me... the physical withdrawal of alcohol and hard drugs was much harder than the physical withdrawal of smokes... the emotional side was on about a par for me... the habit/routine side is significantly harder with quitting smokes and the psychological side of quitting is all the others combined and to the power of 10. That's me, that's my story. So... Hard drugs... nothing since Feb 2004 Dope... see above, wait no, I had a toke maybe 10 years ago but I don't know why I bothered I never liked it, only ever had it to give an E a boost. Alcohol... not a drop since July 2011 Smokes...not one puff since 28 Nov 2017 nrt...l think not long after i joined here... it was before the end of softball season.. so late feb/mid marchish Sniffing Underwear, of anyone... never been an issue. I lucked out, I was an extremely functioning junky... I held down a job which gave me pretty decent money to fund my hedonistic lifestyle and I could seperate work jo from weekend jo... god only knows how because I sure as fvck don't... do I regret it... who wouldn't regret basically outting a house up there nose or down their throat over an 11 year period... but you know what there is no point regretting it... it made me who I am today and lead me to where I am... so it is what it is and it can't be changed.

Hope your still hanging in... you are so much stronger than you give yourself credit for... it seems like you one of us who has a hell week for week three.... week 3 was when I googled forums to see if it was normal I felt like it was not improving or even getting worse and found a support group... and you know what its normal for some. There is no making moment when it all stops and its done.... but there is a moment and it comes slowly.... so another quitter here posted in their SOS to themselves... "you had anxiety when you smoked.... if you smoke noe its not going to make the anxiety any better... and it wont... same goes for depression.... you had it before when you smoked, smoking isn't going to make it better or go away... its going to make it worse because you have come so far and you don't want to throw that away... I'm tipping its been a rough weekend, after a rough week with the parental units.... deep breath, hold, and out.... when you breath in think about all the wonderful things in your life... you hubby, your son, your fur babies... hold those precious things then when you breath out think about the anxiety, the depression and the horrible things leaving your body.... then repeat... it helps, it really does... its not going to get rid of the memories or the anxiety but it will centre and calm you you.. 1. You don't want to smoke, because you posted here. 2. You have already kicked the physical addiction, gone, because you are just that frickin good. 3. You are working on the emotional and psychological addicition and the motor memory habits. a) this takes longer because the nicotine has re-wired your brain and you need to give it time to re-route and learn all the right synapses and responses b) the habit/muscle memory side of things takes a bit longer than detoxing the stuff out of your system. 4. You can do this. Its just for today, you pledged NOPE for today... so ride it out, its not that much longer. OK... sometimes it helps to sleep through these days... or at least for a few hours, if you don't do sleeping tablets you could have a night time could and flu tablet... it will relax you enough to ease some of the angst... but only do this if you have had them before without issue and you know they don't interact with any other medications. Post here 1000 times if you need... we would love for you to do that and not smoke.

OK so I have been slack... 17th.... the smell of lavendar and lemons instead of the offerings of my daughter spewy mc chuck.... ok and getting a bargin on the fabric. 18th... spending the day with my dad. 19th.... finishing the flippin elf costume.... starting the flippin elf costume might make that easier. 19th... Living in a community where volunteers exist and are respected and valued.

Don't you love it when society just works the way it frickin should.

oh @jillar and you look so purtee in you costume...

nope .. volunteer... out here most of the country fire fighters are volunteers... my brother is a marine biologist & environmental engineer and does something to do with rivers and estuaries and irrigation and somehow that give him some skill to do with fire fighting and prediction of patterns and using the fire and environment to put it out... we love our cfa, cfs, ses, boys and girls who put their arses on the line as volunteers.. some are paid but most are not... where i live is outside mfb (melb fire brigade) boundaries so we only have the cfa (country fir authority)...i think we have a dozen paid but the rest are volunteers. oh..nothing against the carreer guys and girls .... just as brave

Brother's been sent to NSW... where it is winter and we have over 70 fires burning... sadly one of the water bombing choppers crashed when the bucket got caught in trees killing the pilot. Hope things are easing up in California.. looks like it will be a long fire season here.