When is a blip not a blip?

[nsd_user663_23001]

Hello all

Hope this thread finds you all well?

The purpose of this thread is that I have been reading loads on the forum recently regarding blips in quit. I am beginning to think that it is all down to how you feel with the blip, how you feel in yourself as a person and I suppose what your original smoking level was.

However I am more than happy to be shot down in flames, I shall give you some examples and if you want respond back with your opinions on whether you think that is a blip or not!

1. Quit for 1 month use to be on 30 a day smokes 5 cigs in a week? Blip or not?

2. Quit for 7 months use to be on 10 a day smokes 10 cigs in a week? Blip or not?

3. Quit for 12 months use to be on 60 a day smokes 5 cigs in a day? Blip or not?

As I said above I'm not sure of the right and wrong answers, just wanted your feedback. A lot of posts re blips seem to be people really hard on themselves for example "I've been quit 3 months and I smoked on Saturday night, back to day 1 for me!" well I'm thinking you've been quit 3 months, you stumbled, but you used to be XX a day you had one cig, don't beat yourself up carry on with your quit.

Anyway thats enough for now, I look forward to your responses

[nsd_user663_27121]

Hi Shaun - I'm thinking along the same lines as you. If you fall off the wagon and have a few drunken drags on a Saturday night, then so long as you don't light up the next day, or the next, then it is a blip and you move on, having learnt that you are vulnerable after a few drinks. I don't think you should view that you are back at day one as it undoes all the good work you have done previously. I think mentally, it's best to just move on and make sure it doesn't happen again.

I think if you continue to smoke with any sort of regularity - 5 a week, 1 a week etc - you are still a smoker, you hjaven't quit, and chances are that within a short time, you would be back to smoking 20 a day again, or whatever it was.

I have found quitting relatively easy because as a life long dieter, i actually like the fact i don't HAVE to smoke, whereas I HAVE to eat - it's the choices i make eating that are my downfall but i have chosen to never smoke again, so that means none, never, ever. That said, if i were on a diet and i had lost a stone then i eat a pie - that's a blip and i can get over it and carry on dieting. The stone i have lost won't go back on. I think i'm actually contradicting myself here, but what I'm trying to say is some people stumble a little on their way to a full and final quit, but from the day they quit, it is all effort, unless they choose to give in and carry on smoking - be it once a week or once a month - anything more than a couple of isolated incidents would, to me be classed as a failed quit.

I hope i made myself clear - been a long morning! :confused:

[nsd_user663_20978]

i would consider them all blips as none returned to normal smoking amount

so they were all still trying very hard to control the situation best they could

and providing they jumped back on the wagon as quickly as possible then they just had a blip

its a personal decision i think as to wether its a blip or not as sometimes being so disheartened at starting on day one can put a stop to a quit altogether and thats not good

[nsd_user663_26699]

I don't think there's any valid answer to the question, because it really depends on personal opinion and what happens following the "blip". What is for sure to me is that you can't say you stopped smoking a year ago if you were seen smoking a single cigarette last week.

Alex.

[NicFirth 10 Years Smoke Free]

Its all personal!

For me there is/was no such thing as a blip, I knew that if I allowed myself the option of having a blip I would take it, sooner or later, and that was what had destroyed all of my previous quits.

While my quit was growing through the weeks and months I made the decision that if I was to willingly inhale even one drag it wasn't just a blip it was time to re-set the quit counter.

Taking a strict zero tolerance attitude is part of what helped me stay smoke free. We are all different but that's how it worked for me.

[nsd_user663_7469]

I was the proverbial unintentional quitter when I first stopped, in other words I had no intentions of staying quit for good, it was a stop gap while I recovered from a bad cold that I was scared would go on my chest, so after a couple of weeks I realised that maybe I could do the month without smoking and that’s how it went on, but I knew that I couldn’t smoke one cig not even a puff because if I did that would be quit over and I personally know that there can never be even one cig because I would be letting myself down, no one else just me, so I stay smoke free and will not have another cig then I won’t have to decide if it is a blip or not.

Everyone has to make their own decisions as to how they would deal with smoking a cig while quitting and whether it would take them back to day one or not.

I do tell people to stay at the same time scale in there quit, as long as they are happy with it, ultimately it has to be personal choice doesn’t it, the same as smoking or not smoking, isn’t it great that we still have some choices we can make ourselves, make the most of it because there could come a time when we don’t.

[nsd_user663_7469]

Thanks Una, this forum is brilliant but what we have to remember is that without us the forum would not be here and if the forum wasn’t here then I for one would be smoking and then if we were all smoking there would be no need for the forum and that would be sad because without it a lot of us would still be smoking so we have to keep using it to make sure it’s always going to be there for others to use and help them to quit smoking.

And if you can understand that you are a better person than me and I think that the glass of wine with dinner has gone to my head shall I delete it Naaaaaaa let everyone know I am completely nuts but smoke free.

[nsd_user663_1658]

Interesting question Shaun.

If someone smokes while on a quit...and never smokes again! what is the problem? theyve quit quite successfully and managed the harder task of waking up them smoking thoughts once again!! and destroying them in a day, a moment or an instant! that person deserves a medal! .......Me personally when ive blipped..it might only be a matter of time...a couple of weeks..a couple of days or whatever, but it leads me to becoming a smoker once again! at first I probably considered myself in control of the smoking, but really speaking I think I was just in denial I dont think I could admit to myself that I had failed! ................

So my answer would be A blip is a past mistake, a regrettable moment! and should be forgotten as soon as possible! dwelling is not good for the positive non smoking mind! .......

A blipper is a smoker in denial!