January 19, 201511 yr What was the most helpful part of the QT? Aside from the awesome support from your non-smoking friends, of course ;) I see a lot of newbies right now and am eager to see them explore the entire forum. Everybody is different and what worked for me, might not work for the next person. So, I thought we could each share what helped us each individually here. For those of us that have been here for a while, we could navigate the forums and sub-forums in our sleep probably. I remember as a newbie (also a newbie to forums altogether) the site seemed huge and I was nervous to go anywhere but Quit Smoking Discussions. I'll start :) For me what helped the most was posting in the numbers game, it was a great distraction from the urges to smoke. Even when I was out and about, waiting in a line for instance I was there on my phone playing the game. I sometimes still do this as I am impatient and hate to wait for anything. You can find this game and many others in the Games sub-forum of the Socializing forum. Another big factor was the Celebrations forum. Looking at all those celebrations early on in my quit was amazing. I never thought I could quit for a day and yet people were celebrating quits that lasted months or even years. I found myself posting congrats to people I didn't know. Didn't matter if I knew or liked them, the fact that they were able to quit for so long inspired me. Posting in the Celebration forum had a bigger impact then I realized. In a small way in my early days, I was paying it forward. Something about that made a significant difference.
January 19, 201511 yr No BS …. I looked at non-smoking cats and dogs till my eyeballs grew fur :P True Story.
January 19, 201511 yr Seriously though - most helpful was the support I received, both here in the forums, and pm's. I also found it very helpful reading other quitter's posts. It's comforting to know that others' went through the same things you are experiencing. Made me feel normal? :)
January 19, 201511 yr Joel's videos and the documentaries. Reading, reading and then more reading. Couldn't get enough of it.
January 19, 201511 yr Blogs for me, Julie and KSmedic specifically started me on the trail as they were both chantix too. Even read Bakons :) Was looking for a realistic route of how to do this, had literally no idea how to quit. What helped was nice comments...not the so do it already stuff... and I'm not a pushover, I can tell it like it is, but I needed building up. Later chicks and sticks numbers game when I needed distraction and that positivity thread that was on social, like the positive sayings. Feel like I missed out, never looked at cats or dogs to this day lol
January 19, 201511 yr Slowly understanding that everything that I was feeling and experiencing was real, was normal - and that there was always someone whom had been through it... The knowledge - the willingness to share it... And....when its needed, some reminders that even though this is life or death, we can smile too....
January 19, 201511 yr I'm still relatively new on the site still I can say that the PMs helped tremendously during the first few days. Every morning I'd wake up to new messages and I ended up replacing my morning cigarette with reading and replying to those messages. It was so critical to my quit and I appreciate it so much! (Thanks Marti)
January 20, 201511 yr It helped me a lot to hear over and over again, "The misery doesn't last forever. Your quit will get a little bit easier every day." It helped a lot to have experienced quitters tell me that and it helped a lot to see all the celebrations for long quits. The other thing that made this quit possible was having a list of 3 or 4 major reasons why I chose to quit in the first place and to keep reminding myself over and over again that I wanted these things more than I wanted to smoke. Oh, and "one day at a time, one hour at a time, 5 minutes at a time if necessary" helped, too.
January 20, 201511 yr Welcome PMs were great!! Reading in the Newbie Discussions and gaining knowledge was most helpful. Doing a daily NOPE...seemed silly at first but it makes a difference Finding out it only took 72 hours to get to the other side was HUGE!! 36 years of smoking vs the start of freedom being only 72 hours away...unfathomable.
January 20, 201511 yr Mine was starting threads in the Socializing and Media (books, movie, show etc.) forums. I am more comfortable befriending and finding common interests with people rather than sharing the suffering aspect of what I went through. That aspect of my existence here came out (and still does) slowly over time especially if I can relate to what someone is going through and posting about. I found that playing the games helped to take my mind off of smoking and knowing that I was playing with someone who was going through or went through the same thing that I did made things easier for me. Those threads also helped me get to know the people here and make friends. :)
January 21, 201511 yr I love the sense of humour.... Sometimes I sit here...and see and read stuff with tears running down my cheeks... Having a good laugh...made all the difference and still does....
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