April 15, 201412 yr Hint : The answer is "Under no circumstance" If you can't honestly answer that question with a resounding " I will never Smoke again, no matter the circumstance" then you still need to work on your quit mindset. only when there are no doors remaining will you be completely comfortable in your quit.
April 15, 201412 yr I can honestly think of one or two circumstances in which I might smoke again. :( Not very plausible circumstances (I hope) but just the same...... I know. Terrible, isnt it? But.....Im only 10 or 11 weeks into my quit. At 10 or 11 weeks into my quit of other substances I was still pretty messed up too :p Im walking forwards......they might be baby steps, but they are in the right direction.
April 15, 201412 yr I can honestly say no not one circumstance would make me smoke, had 2 friends over today for half the day and they were smoking every 15 mins, just like yesterday, smoke blowing in my face was driving me mad, made me realise how much I hate those bloody killers called cigarettes.
April 15, 201412 yr Author I can honestly think of one or two circumstances in which I might smoke again. :( Not very plausible circumstances (I hope) but just the same...... I know. Terrible, isnt it? But.....Im only 10 or 11 weeks into my quit. At 10 or 11 weeks into my quit of other substances I was still pretty messed up too :P Im walking forwards......they might be baby steps, but they are in the right direction. There are 2-3 circumstances in my head were I can imagine that I would smoke :-( You have taken a big leap by being honest with yourselves, the next step to take is to work through the logic of those remaining reasons, You can do it privately, or with help from any of us, but ultimately it would benefit your quit mindset and in turn your long term chances of success if you could get passed these stumbling blocks. some might think that the chances of these events happening are rare and unlikely to happen anyway, and therefore are not too important? Any reason to smoke highlights that the belief isn't there yet. that is what this exercise is designed to show up. work on your belief system and remove those doorways to relapse, they have claimed too many quitters already.
April 15, 201412 yr Planet killing asteroid with a trajectory of direct impact spotted. Grid killing EMP - smoke em if ya got em 'cuz they won't be making them anymore. Any offer greater than 5 thousand cash to smoke a pack. Any request involving pitols and backs of heads to me or mine. Nope - I'm no zealot!
April 15, 201412 yr I will not smoke under any circumstance. Smoking will never fix our problems. I've already been through this test at my mom's funeral. I didn't smoke then and I plan to never, ever smoke again. Blech.
April 15, 201412 yr Author I will not smoke under any circumstance. Smoking will never fix our problems. I've already been through this test at my mom's funeral. I didn't smoke then and I plan to never, ever smoke again. Blech. I'm sorry you lost your Mom :-(
April 15, 201412 yr Thanks Jonny. Sorry if I'm a bit of a downer, but I used to truly believe that if I lost a parent (especially my mom who I was very close with), I'd most definitely smoke again. I didn't. I had a few too many drinks, but I did not smoke. That is no longer an option in my life.
April 15, 201412 yr Author Thanks Jonny. Sorry if I'm a bit of a downer, but I used to truly believe that if I lost a parent (especially my mom who I was very close with), I'd most definitely smoke again. I didn't. I had a few too many drinks, but I did not smoke. That is no longer an option in my life. You've nothing to apologise for :-) We surprise ourselves sometimes with what we can handle don't we :-)
April 15, 201412 yr When I first ventured into doing this quit thing it was my first time and I just wanted to be able to run longer and faster ...and then I wanted to prove a friend wrong that I could last 21 days...which he was 100% sure I would not. At that time in the beginning I could think of several times I would probably start smoking again. ((in fact I remember thinking to myself before I quit that if I ever got in a car wreck I would definitely smoke again)) I remember really hoping everything went smooth for at least 2 months for me while I felt out what quitting was like. within the first few weeks of quitting I wrecked my car....I overdrew my bank acct hundreds of dollars...I scrambled to work 50 hour work weeks to pay back my bank and to get the deductible money on top of that...I found out someone I was in a relationship with for nearly 2 years had been lying to my face for months about using cocaine....I got denied two promotions that I was well qualified for....((which all of this is detailed in my BloggyBlog :))) Now as I said originally it was only to get better at running... and then to prove someone wrong. but as the car thing happened before the 21 days...normally I would have thought this a reason to start again...but I had to prove him wrong...then the bank thing happened...I was not at my 21 days...I still had to prove him wrong... I proved him wrong... all that other stuff started pouring in. People around me (including the person who doubted me) was surprised I had not said "F*** this..." ....several people proactively offered me cigarettes at times I was desperately crawling out of my skin and completely in situations way out of my comfort zone without my cigarettes. But I declined.... I took every second as it came...then the minute...then the hour...then the day... one thing happened...then another... each time I got through it (even though sometimes I got through it cursing, screaming, crying, sleeping, seething) and then the next thing occurred I would think to myself... "well, Rachael, you just got through a car wreck and 24 hours later are not smoking....why the hell would you smoke because you overdrew your account when you could have started right after wrecking your car? What a waste that would have been of that stressful situation..." so I'd just keep on trucking along.... then I'd get to where I found out about the lies from someone who was very important to me and I thought to myself "you got through the car wreck...waiting on getting it back...you got through the huge overdraft...why in f****s sake would you waste all those hard times you pushed through without a cigarette on this fool?" ...so I kept on going... then I'd get to where something felt like it was taken right out from under me and given to someone with way less experience and ability over office politics...twice... and I thought again... "you got through the car...the bank acct...the lies... and you could have smoked through all of that if you wanted but you didn't so if you start because of this promotion crap...that would make absolutely no sense..." and so on..and so forth. Any time I thought I was encountering a situation where I thought it was even a slight possibility I would throw it all away or that it was a reason I would give up my quit for... I would give myself a time out and we would just sit there in silence and I'd make myself try to think of what that cigarette would do to help the situation I was in. ok...so you wrecked your car? what is a cigarette going to do for you Rachael? Is it going to rewind time so that this wreck didn't happen? ...well no... Is it going to fix the car for you? ...obviously not... is it going to make you worry less about how you are going to pay to fix it? ...absolutely not... so then there is no need to have one. end of conversation and I would move on. I have literally had this conversation with myself several times over the last 5 months or so. I never wanted a cigarette in these situations but if I thought for a minute something was going on that had the possibility of me letting my guard down or being vulnerable I would force this internal conversation and that would solidify that none of these circumstances had anything to do with smoking...nor would it assist me in any way, shape or form. before November 1st... Any one of those reasons I would have told you would be reason for me to give up my quit and say screw it. if someone would have told me before the day I quit that I was going to have a wreck after 2 weeks I wouldnt have even tried to quit then. because at that point that was a reason to me to smoke. but now that seems so trivial a reason. all of it does. I'm sure crazier things are in store for me that will test me but I cannot think of any situation that would come up that that internal conversation wouldn't immediately shut down. I can definitely think of times that it could be extremely hard to resist, and may God help me through them...but I can think of none that smoking would ever help me with in any way. And the longer I go without smoking the less I would ever be able to justify to myself that something would be reason enough....I'm not one to throw away things that are beautiful. And, to me, this quit just gets more beautiful everyday.
April 15, 201412 yr I instantly thought...oh no, there probably are a couple instances BUT then when I actually tried to think of what the circumstances would be, I came up with none! Nope, no reason to ever smoke again! :)
April 16, 201412 yr Author I can definitely think of times that it could be extremely hard to resist, and may God help me through them...but I can think of none that smoking would ever help me with in any way. I loved your story, thanks for sharing with us, I'ts nice to get to know people a little better. I just wanted to pose the above statement back to you. reading it back to yourself, do you really still believe it would be hard to resist? you know that you are not getting anything from smoking so what's to resist? it's like saying I'm gonna find it extremely hard to resist doing something completely pointless and without reward. I think you have this nailed more than you realise :-)
April 16, 201412 yr I would never know how I would react to a situation until I entered the situation. For example... losing my mom. I can only imagine how terrifying that would be to me... I cannot imagine ever reaching for a cigarette for anything even that....And I know smoking would do nothing for me and I would most likely have nothing to do with a cigarette if anything of that magnitude were to happen. maybe extremely hard to resist was the wrong wording... more like I can think of situations where I'd have to have bring myself back to the reality of how smoking does nothing for me...since i can see some situations that can initially cloud your mind due to intense emotional activity. But I do not ever see myself smoking again or any reason that would justify it. :)
April 16, 201412 yr Author I would never know how I would react to a situation until I entered the situation. For example... losing my mom. I can only imagine how terrifying that would be to me... I cannot imagine ever reaching for a cigarette for anything even that....And I know smoking would do nothing for me and I would most likely have nothing to do with a cigarette if anything of that magnitude were to happen. maybe extremely hard to resist was the wrong wording... more like I can think of situations where I'd have to have bring myself back to the reality of how smoking does nothing for me...since i can see some situations that can initially cloud your mind due to intense emotional activity. But I do not ever see myself smoking again or any reason that would justify it. :) very good answer :-) I had a baptism of fire on the family death front in January, 3 reletives, my Grandmother and Wifes Auntie included, all dead in three seperate events in less than 6 hours, granted the news filtered through during a single day, not 6 hours, but even so, that was quite a shitty day!
April 16, 201412 yr very good answer :-) I had a baptism of fire on the family death front in January, 3 reletives, my Grandmother and Wifes Auntie included, all dead in three seperate events in less than 6 hours, granted the news filtered through during a single day, not 6 hours, but even so, that was quite a shitty day! I remember that jonny, That was a bad time for you and yours. Very sad. I quit doing that. I don't smoke. Ever. End of story for me.
April 16, 201412 yr I don't think I can answer that firmly! Triggers strike when I'm weak? The thought of smoking just like a black cloud hanging over my head these days. That sucks!
April 16, 201412 yr I don't think I can answer that firmly! Triggers strike when I'm weak? The thought of smoking just like a black cloud hanging over my head these days. That sucks! is your quit date wrong under your profile picture on your posts? looks like its in the future :)
April 16, 201412 yr very good answer :-) I had a baptism of fire on the family death front in January, 3 reletives, my Grandmother and Wifes Auntie included, all dead in three seperate events in less than 6 hours, granted the news filtered through during a single day, not 6 hours, but even so, that was quite a shitty day! wow, I am sorry to hear this. I am sure that was hard...but very inspirational to anyone quitting who thinks they cannot get through things without smoking.
April 16, 201412 yr is your quit date wrong under your profile picture on your posts? looks like its in the future :) OOOOOOPSS! That is why I keep wanting a cigs! I haven't quit yet! Thanks Rachael!
April 16, 201412 yr OOOOOOPSS! That is why I keep wanting a cigs! I haven't quit yet! Thanks Rachael! hehe you're welcome! :)
April 16, 201412 yr can't think of a single reason I would give up my quit kind of like deciding what circumstances would I sell off my grandbaby....she's precious...and so is my quit...and I would protect them both with my life
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