March 1, 201511 yr Thanks for having me back. I'm back on board. Stu - thanks. Focused on last cigerette, blank mind, think I just block out the negative. But I do know I didn't even enjoy it, and that the grass always seems greener on the other side. Cigerettes are such a lie, would be easier if they could just get rid of them all together. Babs - don't take it personally please. It was my stupid mistake. Your advice and support and everyone else's has helped me through many difficult times and makes deciding to quit a lot easier. I think of it wasn't for the site I wouldn't have nearly as much motivation to stick. Mike - thanks for your really nice and helpful post from the other side. I hope you get the courage to pick a date in the near future jump back on the train. How we doing this morning Rob?
March 1, 201511 yr Thanks for having me back. I'm back on board. Stu - thanks. Focused on last cigerette, blank mind, think I just block out the negative. But I do know I didn't even enjoy it, and that the grass always seems greener on the other side. Cigerettes are such a lie, would be easier if they could just get rid of them all together. Babs - don't take it personally please. It was my stupid mistake. Your advice and support and everyone else's has helped me through many difficult times and makes deciding to quit a lot easier. I think of it wasn't for the site I wouldn't have nearly as much motivation to stick. Mike - thanks for your really nice and helpful post from the other side. I hope you get the courage to pick a date in the near future jump back on the train. "Cigarettes are such a lie." Rob sums up the truth.
March 1, 201511 yr Morning Rob! How's the head? I think that you are most of the way there - but why do you think that you pressed the 'aww F u c k it' button last night? I am asking because understanding that very thing is what switched the lightbulb on for me. The sub conscious (SC) has been characterised in a million ways, each of them true to a certain extent. I have learned that MINE is a bit of a sceptic, cynic even. I suspect that this is something shared by most addicts. It goes like this: As a kid, I tried a cigarette. It was horrible. My body was revolted. But I persevered. Why? I persevered because my sub conscious saw all of the smokers, puffing away. Some of them were incredibly important role models. My parents for a start. Surely all of these people would not smoke if it was not pleasurable? My SC worked all of this out and came up with the solution. "You are revolted because you are a kid. You want to be grown up and cool. Smoking is grown up and cool (see all the evidence) therefore we are going to suppress all of our natural responses to poison - and push through" Years later, I quit. When not being a jovial fat guy in a kilt, I build businesses. Frankly, I am a bit of a ruthless SOB. If I decide that cigarettes are counter-productive, then I will not smoke them. So I didn't. I abstained. My SC knew that I was in the cool gang and enjoyed a smoke - but my conscious will imposed itself. SC had years and years of empirical evidence, and thousands of learned behaviours to back up its assertion that I was in fact "An abstaining Smoker". As I said, I can be a ruthless SOB. Job done. My will is iron. Things is, will power is finite. That is why people who diet, yoyo in weight. Eventually the SC works out a way to revert to learned behaviour. So, after a few drinks, at a party or whatever, the SC says things like "Lets take a night off quitting tonight. Let's be in the cool gang. tomorrow - back to quitting." What harm could it do? Obviously, the harm is that a night off can become a week, a month etc. Possibly - nights off might become regular things until there are more nights on than off. But here's the thing. The real damage is this; You confirm everything that your SC believes. You confirm that smoking is good, that it is cool and you like it. Sure, you can wake up in the morning and apply your willpower and abstain again. In fact you should. Smoking is s h i t. But the real task is to take on your SC. You need to teach your SC the truth about smoking. You need to teach it the lie. You need to minutely examine each trigger, each benefit, each perceived use of the cigarette - and PROVE them to be lies. This is where the battle is fought. Get your SC onside and you are in the world of 'Easy Peasy.' Your SC is a cynic. Saying "I don't smoke anymore" is not enough. Here is the test. When you can post here with your hand on heart, that if I could prove to you that you are a special case, and can smoke a pack a day for the rest of your life with no ill effects - that you would still not smoke. Then my friend, you have cracked it. There are plenty here reading this post saying "Yep" and there are plenty here reading it with a little gulp, not sure that they are there yet. It's true though. ;) You can absolutely do this Rob.
March 1, 201511 yr Rob how are you this morning, was so happy to see that you jumped back on board again, be proud, learn from what happened and take the lesson learnt forward with you, we addicts cannot be social smokers I have lots of friends who say they are "social Smokers" but to me they are still smokers, clear and simple you either do or you don't, We are in the camp NOPE. I have relapsed twice over the last year and one lesson I did learn was simply if you feel the simple need to smoke and cannot rid your head of the thought post on the SOS board I did last night, and it really helped to talk about how I was feeling, rather than trying to deal with it myself, remind yourself that you are not ever going to light a cigarette again, tell yourself you are far more important than the nicotine, you want to live life and live your life to the fullest, this life we have been given Rob is not a dress rehearsal, its the real thing so make the most of it. Great to see you back on board xx
March 1, 201511 yr Rob, if you have any cigarettes left, destroy them. Today is a new day, a new beginning. Begin the begin and let's go. Put the past behind. If you quit last night, great! If you smoked this morning, then quit now. This very moment that your reading this will never come again. Make this moment count. Start with Joel's Video Library and plan to watch at least one video per day and really think about what is being said. Give this quit your undivided attention and don't let life influence it. We can't let life influence our quits because it's not logical to do so. The Power Of Nicotine Addiction Video explains the full power of the grip that nicotine can take on an individual and the consequences that can be faced if a person does not quit smoking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpYRrZG5l8A Related videos:"I can't quit because I am addicted"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWso5..."I can't quit or I won't quit"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22AI..."Don't let a slip put you back to using"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cfxz..."Lost long term quits"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeHt..."Were you addicted"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWcTk..."Nicotine addiction"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-EGq...The costs of smokinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unQe5... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE-Z6GxSAc8
March 1, 201511 yr Hi rob.....what's going on with you today....you quit sweetie.... If I could turn back the clock....I would quit at your age.....but I carnt.... Don't wait till you have to ...because of smoking ilnesses.... Deep down you want to be a non smoker....
March 1, 201511 yr Author Morning everyone. Thanks for your messages. Yep, slightly hungover. I cut up and got rid of the 17 remaining cigerettes last night. No intention of smoking again. Stu - thanks, good message; I get now that I must work to train the sub conscious. MM - I'll watch those videos now. Jackie - glad you won the battle, and sorry if I contributed to your urge last night! :)
March 1, 201511 yr Well done rob for not giving up on quitting, it can be hard and is but we can do this and get through it together we have got a great support system here. :-)
March 1, 201511 yr Dumm kid on Jimmy's bus to tardville licking the window trying to get some flavor off it.
March 1, 201511 yr Rob...no more looking back except for the lesson in it. Well done for tossing those 17 cigarettes and marching forward in your forever quit. That was a dress rehearsal...this is the real deal because you know...it's not worth it. It is never worth it. 1 puff...no such thing.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.