Quit 1 year 1 month ago
posted 1 month ago
We have made some changes to the QuitNow website. We are committed to continuous service improvements for QuitNow, and as part of this work, we have made changes to our website.
Welcome to the new QuitNow Community Forum. You may notice the Forum has been refreshed, and you aren’t seeing any past posts. We look forward to seeing your new posts and messages of support for each other.
If you are new to QuitNow, you can Join Now to get started on your journey to becoming nicotine-free. As a member, you can reach out to our experienced Quit Coaches by phone or live chat, participate in our Community Forum, and create a personalized Quit Plan.
Welcome to the new QuitNow Community Forum. You may notice the Forum has been refreshed, and you aren’t seeing any past posts. We look forward to seeing your new posts and messages of support for each other.
If you are new to QuitNow, you can Join Now to get started on your journey to becoming nicotine-free. As a member, you can reach out to our experienced Quit Coaches by phone or live chat, participate in our Community Forum, and create a personalized Quit Plan.
Quitting in 1 month
posted 1 hour 47 min ago
I will soon be schduled for hip replacement surgery. In order to have a more successful recovery I need to quit smoking.
Quitting in 9 hours 6 min
posted 8 hours 42 min ago
Today is my new quit date. I am done putting my body through this. I have cut down the last couple of days. Going to use NRT gum to quit. I have stains on my fingers and teeth. Already looking forward to a better future. It's now or never so I will quit now. This site is so invaluable to me for all the best tips. My longest quit was 11 months of vaping but I soon got depressed and went straight back to smoking. I hope I am this motivated by the morning. How to maintain my mental strength and stay quit strong I don't know but one hour at a time. 16 hours of wake time to battle. Can't wait until it gets easier.
Quit 3 years 11 months ago
posted 12 hours 19 min ago
Here's something I posted a while ago but since the old posts are gone and there's some new quitters around, I thought I'd put it up again. It's a bit of a long read but I'm sure you all can relate to some of the metaphors in this story:
The Rope
So, I start reminiscing a bit about the early days of my quit. I remember other members who were more established than me popping in to post their celebration threads. 1 week, two weeks and even a month or more. It felt downright intimidating. Here was I, with my seemingly tiny little insignificant sum of 2 days, 3 days, 5 days and so on... clinging to my quit like someone clinging to a life line thrown over the side of a ship to a man overboard in a turbulent sea. More comfortable ex-smokers would roll past on their skiff, yachts and cruisers, each with the same advice. Keep climbing that rope sir! Don't let go of it. It'll get easier. We promise you that!
To me, those people seemed like heroes. From my perspective, they were superhuman, with this gift of comfort I couldn't even imagine at that point. I dreamed of being like them some day, but it seemed hard to fathom that this splintery rope would really get me there. It was hard, and I was tired. But, I really wanted to be like those amazing people, and everyone of them told me the same thing… keep climbing the rope, don't let go. Simple. A real slog, but it’s really very simple.
So, I took their advice, kept climbing and didn't let go. Lo and behold, it was true. It did, in fact, get easier, and easier. There was the odd bit of rope burn, and occasionally a seagull would take aim at my dome with an unwelcome gift, but all-in-all, it got more and more doable, less and less of a chore, and at some point, almost without noticing it, I found myself reclining on the Lido Deck of that ship with the other 1 year and multi-year quitters! That was years ago now. I've been kicking back up here for a good long time now, and I can tell you it's really very nice.
So, what's my point? My point is to you, the newcomer. Down there on the rope. Yeah, you. You're looking up at me, and the others who have so much time under their belts, and thinking, "man, that guy's almost surreal. Maybe he's got something I don't. How in the world did he get up there? Surely, he didn't take this blasted rope?! He must know some secret that I don't. He's gotta have supernatural powers to have such comfort. My point to you is this: Every one of us got here the same way. We took the rope. We climbed it. We didn't let go. And, just like we were told, it got easier. You will also get here that way.
Three years ago, I was where you are. Everyone here has been there at one time. We understand what you're going through. Nobody here is a superhero. We're just addicts like you who found the rope earlier. And, we can each promise you… the rope is climbable, it does get easier, and there IS a place for you up here.
There's one other way in which we're all similar. None of us have wings. We let go of the rope, or step off the side, of the Lido Deck and we all plummet into the abyss the same way. One puff and it's all history. I learned that on my way up too. People who'd seemed almost unreal they were so comfortable, for no reason that I could understand, suddenly got up from their comfortable seats, walked to the side of the Lido deck, and threw themselves off.
Breaking the metaphor, so that it's perfectly clear, they took a puff and relapsed. Some of these were people who had experienced months and even years of freedom from slavery to their addiction. One day, for their own reasons, they decided to chance it, and lo and behold their freedom was gone. They returned to their old levels of smoking, often even more. All it took was one puff, and it was back to being an active smoker again.
So, while it may be tempting to look at some of the longer term quitters with awe, consider that we are, and always will be subject to the same rules you are. One puff = relapse. If I were to slip down to my local pub right now, walk up to a friend, and take a drag off of his cigarette, I know full well that I would be out on my deck tomorrow night with a pack of smokes and an ash tray putting my freedom and everything else I've given myself over the past 3 years in a deep hidden locker that my junkie brain would work overtime to prevent me from ever opening again.
It’s important to point this out with respect to nicotine addiction, you and I are the same, just separated by a bit of time. I guess because it's tempting for a new quitter to allow himself or herself to believe that all of these people dispensing education and encouragement here, couldn't possibly understand what they're going through. It may be tempting to listen to your own junkie brain telling you, "You're different. These people aren't like you. They don't understand what you're experiencing. You know that you'll never be able to be like them. It's impossible for you."
My long-winded, metaphorical point is to tell you that that's all bunk. While you are different from me in many ways, our addiction to nicotine is the same. You will find comfort (emphasis on WILL) just as I and every other long-term quitter has by never taking another puff, and you WILL maintain that comfort the same way we all must - by never taking another puff!. The factor that really defines our addiction is not how hard or how easy it is to quit but rather how universally easy it is to relapse. One puff and any of our quits will be defeated. That’s why NOPE (Not One Puff Ever) is so critical. It’s the only universal and steadfast rule!
The Rope
So, I start reminiscing a bit about the early days of my quit. I remember other members who were more established than me popping in to post their celebration threads. 1 week, two weeks and even a month or more. It felt downright intimidating. Here was I, with my seemingly tiny little insignificant sum of 2 days, 3 days, 5 days and so on... clinging to my quit like someone clinging to a life line thrown over the side of a ship to a man overboard in a turbulent sea. More comfortable ex-smokers would roll past on their skiff, yachts and cruisers, each with the same advice. Keep climbing that rope sir! Don't let go of it. It'll get easier. We promise you that!
To me, those people seemed like heroes. From my perspective, they were superhuman, with this gift of comfort I couldn't even imagine at that point. I dreamed of being like them some day, but it seemed hard to fathom that this splintery rope would really get me there. It was hard, and I was tired. But, I really wanted to be like those amazing people, and everyone of them told me the same thing… keep climbing the rope, don't let go. Simple. A real slog, but it’s really very simple.
So, I took their advice, kept climbing and didn't let go. Lo and behold, it was true. It did, in fact, get easier, and easier. There was the odd bit of rope burn, and occasionally a seagull would take aim at my dome with an unwelcome gift, but all-in-all, it got more and more doable, less and less of a chore, and at some point, almost without noticing it, I found myself reclining on the Lido Deck of that ship with the other 1 year and multi-year quitters! That was years ago now. I've been kicking back up here for a good long time now, and I can tell you it's really very nice.
So, what's my point? My point is to you, the newcomer. Down there on the rope. Yeah, you. You're looking up at me, and the others who have so much time under their belts, and thinking, "man, that guy's almost surreal. Maybe he's got something I don't. How in the world did he get up there? Surely, he didn't take this blasted rope?! He must know some secret that I don't. He's gotta have supernatural powers to have such comfort. My point to you is this: Every one of us got here the same way. We took the rope. We climbed it. We didn't let go. And, just like we were told, it got easier. You will also get here that way.
Three years ago, I was where you are. Everyone here has been there at one time. We understand what you're going through. Nobody here is a superhero. We're just addicts like you who found the rope earlier. And, we can each promise you… the rope is climbable, it does get easier, and there IS a place for you up here.
There's one other way in which we're all similar. None of us have wings. We let go of the rope, or step off the side, of the Lido Deck and we all plummet into the abyss the same way. One puff and it's all history. I learned that on my way up too. People who'd seemed almost unreal they were so comfortable, for no reason that I could understand, suddenly got up from their comfortable seats, walked to the side of the Lido deck, and threw themselves off.
Breaking the metaphor, so that it's perfectly clear, they took a puff and relapsed. Some of these were people who had experienced months and even years of freedom from slavery to their addiction. One day, for their own reasons, they decided to chance it, and lo and behold their freedom was gone. They returned to their old levels of smoking, often even more. All it took was one puff, and it was back to being an active smoker again.
So, while it may be tempting to look at some of the longer term quitters with awe, consider that we are, and always will be subject to the same rules you are. One puff = relapse. If I were to slip down to my local pub right now, walk up to a friend, and take a drag off of his cigarette, I know full well that I would be out on my deck tomorrow night with a pack of smokes and an ash tray putting my freedom and everything else I've given myself over the past 3 years in a deep hidden locker that my junkie brain would work overtime to prevent me from ever opening again.
It’s important to point this out with respect to nicotine addiction, you and I are the same, just separated by a bit of time. I guess because it's tempting for a new quitter to allow himself or herself to believe that all of these people dispensing education and encouragement here, couldn't possibly understand what they're going through. It may be tempting to listen to your own junkie brain telling you, "You're different. These people aren't like you. They don't understand what you're experiencing. You know that you'll never be able to be like them. It's impossible for you."
My long-winded, metaphorical point is to tell you that that's all bunk. While you are different from me in many ways, our addiction to nicotine is the same. You will find comfort (emphasis on WILL) just as I and every other long-term quitter has by never taking another puff, and you WILL maintain that comfort the same way we all must - by never taking another puff!. The factor that really defines our addiction is not how hard or how easy it is to quit but rather how universally easy it is to relapse. One puff and any of our quits will be defeated. That’s why NOPE (Not One Puff Ever) is so critical. It’s the only universal and steadfast rule!
Quit 2 weeks 4 days ago
posted 17 hours 27 min ago
Hi Everyone,
It’s day 18 of my quit and I just want to say thank you for being so supportive here. It really does make a difference.
I would say a lot of the physical symptoms have eased for me but I feel very emotional. Have any of you felt like this? I am hyper-sensitive at work and home and the tears are always on standby. I am hoping it’s related to the quitting, not to the ongoing Covid situation and restrictions, plus the winter season? Maybe some of you with more experience have some tips. I am going strong on 💦 water, exercise, vitamins B12 & D and sleep. Could be missing something. Thanks in advance 🙏 Sabritas
It’s day 18 of my quit and I just want to say thank you for being so supportive here. It really does make a difference.
I would say a lot of the physical symptoms have eased for me but I feel very emotional. Have any of you felt like this? I am hyper-sensitive at work and home and the tears are always on standby. I am hoping it’s related to the quitting, not to the ongoing Covid situation and restrictions, plus the winter season? Maybe some of you with more experience have some tips. I am going strong on 💦 water, exercise, vitamins B12 & D and sleep. Could be missing something. Thanks in advance 🙏 Sabritas
Quit 6 days 14 hours ago
posted 1 day ago
Hi everyone I hope you are all doing well with your non smoking journey. Just checking in.. I’m still here and on day 6. Been feeling lousy for the last couple of days and have just wanted to stay in bed.. feeling exhausted and a lot of stomach issues. Probably not what I should be doing but I don’t have the energy to do anything at all. Kind of a waste of two days off. Feeling good about not smoking and hope I start to feel myself soon. Have a great day and keep up the fight!
Quit 4 years 10 months ago
posted 1 day 1 hour ago
For those of you who wish to express what you would like to have to improve the forum, please take a few minutes to do the survey (Have Your Say) It really needs improvement and without your input may never be even close to the last one. I know many of you are disappointed, so please let them know how you feel and what they can do to improve it. Thanks Lucille.
Quit 1 week 3 days ago
posted 1 day 3 hours ago
Hi Folks.... Well, im going to sadly leave the forum here... for a couple of reasons... first one being that it is really poorly set up..... secondly... well, that is something im going to keep to myself.... I have however REALLY appreciated all the feedback & support from each one of the members here.....my leaving has nothing to do with any of the members... I am still not smoking & i hope to be rid of it from my life completely. I wish all of you success not only with stopping smoking, but in all things in life. Stay safe, stay healthy take your vit D & zinc, have a good life... take care.. Neo
Quitting in 2 weeks
posted 2 days 9 hours ago
Hi all I’m new here I’m wanting to quit smoking have tried many times before and was unsuccessful but not only my kids but my health is begging me to quit. Does anyone out there have any suggestions to help me quit.
Quit 1 week 3 days ago
posted 2 days 17 hours ago
Hello fellow quitters...I’m 7 days smoke free..last few days I kept forgetting I quit..especially after a meal..then I stop and say..wait a minute, I don’t smoke! I’ve been reading the forum to keep me on track. I must have quit at least 5 times in my life...66 years young and just tired of the nicotine love/hate relationship now. Enjoy reading the comments..I know I’m not alone in this journey. Thanks!