From schmedrake on 4/25/2005 6:26:12 PM
Consider these tips from The Quit According
to Schmed (an admitted hard ass). Feel free to add to it.
Quitting smoking takes time. Give yourself 6 months to a year to get to a place where cravings end and you feel comfortable
and strong in your new skin. (This amount of time is NOTHING compared to how long you entertained your addiction, so no whining!)
The
directions on the back of NRT are not suggestions. They are a the most successful, clinically proven way of quitting with
that type of NRT.
There is no shame in having a hard day on d55, d155, d255, etc. No one said you would never think
of smoking ever again.
Along those lines, elders, doctors, lords, ladies and thousand steppers all have thoughts of
smoking now and then. The difference is generally in their ability to manage those thoughts.
It is no harder for you
to quit than it is for everyone else. The difference is in your ability to manage your quit and accept that there may be times
it's hard to stay quit.
Being a quitter means you never smoke again. Along those lines, if you think you'll be able
to have a cigarette after a few months when you're over the addiction, you're not over the addiction.
Make your quit your #1 priority - above hanging out at the smoking lounge with
your former smoking buddies, above getting drunk your first couple of weekends. Why tempt fate? Save those triggers for stronger
days.
There is no shame in NRT. Whatever it takes to quit and stay quit.
Go ahead and gain weight. You can take
it off later. Don't put the added pressure on your quit of starting a diet, training for a marathon, climbing Mt. Everest,
becoming vegetarian, etc. at the same time.
The #1 reason I had so many failed quits is because I failed to make a
DECISION to quit smoking forever. A decision is the difference between "trying" and "doing".
Listen to your doctors
and the experts first. As supportive a place as the Q is, it runs rampant with conflicting advice. Ultimately you're responsible
for your own quit. Make sure you're making a well informed decision.
The best advice I ever got before quitting was
to have a plan, set a quit date off into the future and to do something you've never tried before in a quit (like use a different
NRT, join a support community, hop three times on each leg once an hour for the next three weeks) ;-)
There is no good
excuse for a slip. Sorry. There isn't. (Which doesn't mean you can't slip, it just means there's no good excuse. Others have
faced the same thing and kept their quit.)
Quitting is only as hard as you want to make it. I've had a mazillion difficult
failed quits. The day I decided quitting could be easy, it was. That was 540 days ago.
If I could do it, so can you.
I NEVER thought I could quit for so long.
And finally it gets better. It gets better than you can imagine (time goes
faster, too). When you finally live life essentially without cravings and completely outside of the prison of your addiction...
there's nothing better. Whatever you're going through, it's worth it.
schmed, d540
~~~unquote~~~
jan. <:} day 886 one day at a time; they
add up
