Hi All
Just wanted to share my story. I've been a packet a day smoker for 21 years. I have tried to quit at least 5 times are year for the last decade. I only once ever made it to 6 weeks and that's the most I have ever done. This time it feels different to every other time. I started this quit journey 4 weeks ago and I feel awesome. I have been feeling really run down with no energy and generally feeling down. I was also drinking everyday of the week. I was having a smoke on the Easter Sunday and was half drunk and a voice inside my head said. What are you doing this for?? I couldn't think of 1 good reason, and it was in that minute I decided to quit. So I started to cut back how much I was smoking, on the Tuesday I went and bought a packet of 24mg patches, it was a 2 week packet. They are not cheap, so I decided to cut each patch in half. I have found in the past a whole patch would always makes my arm hurt and gives me bad dreams. cutting the patch in half worked for me and I don't even noticed I got it on. I didn't tell anyone I was quitting. I always felt a lot of pressure when ever I let the cat out of the bag and told people I was quitting. But this time no one knew and I felt no pressure to succeed. Heck I'm doing this for me. I also decided to not drink for a while. So for the first week I did not have any smokes during the day at all, as I was quite busy at work and it kept my mind off it. but I would have about 5 smokes a night. After the second week I decided I would not buy any more smokes as if I didn't have any I couldn't smoke. So its been 2 weeks now and I haven't had a smoke. It hasn't been easy. I think about smoking quite a lot but they are not cravings they are just thoughts. My sense of smell is better then ever and when I tell you I feel awesome I really mean it. Last week one of the guys at work said to me, have you quit smoking? I instantly started to feel pressure and got really worried, but then everyone started praising me and told me,they are really happy for me and I started to feel proud of myself. Today I feel like I have quit, I know its only the first few steps in a long journey, but for the first time in my life I know where I'm headed, and it feels right and this time its for good