I just had to come on today and tell you that come tomorrow it will be 12 months since I last put a cigarette to my lips.
Those of you who know me from the past will remember that I found quitting so hard. Even though I was desperate to clean my act up and stop smoking I always seemed to mess up.
It took me a while to get my head into action and realise where I was going wrong. After all, all I seemed to be getting from smoking was a nasty cough and a guilt trip and to make matters worse I was choosing to pay for it. It was time to stop my deluded way of thinking that I couldn't enjoy life properly unless I had the security of a packet of fags within reach at all times. I stopped looking for excuses to keep smoking.
It was a year ago today when I finally came to my senses and started to just get on with it properly. I told myself that of course I could do it.
I read a lot of the success stories on here and it was noticeable that all of the successful quitters had adopted a positive and common sense approach to their quit right from the start. They made their decision to quit and for them failure just wasn't going to get in the way.
Well I stopped looking at quitting as some sort of self inflicted punishment, I stopped whining to myself about how hard done by I was because of it and I stopped feeling sorry for myself. As each day passed it slowly began to dawn on me that I didn't actually want or need smoking in my life and this was such a good feeling. Even the odd craving became easy to dismiss and soon I found myself not even having to think about my quit. I just carried on and here I am now one year later and so happy to be sharing this with you.
I never thought I would be able to stop smoking and now it seems unbelievable that I allowed myself to smoke for so long.
Smoking is a strange thing though and even now there can still be the rare odd occasion when thoughts of it just pop into my mind, usually completely out of the blue. These thoughts are few and fleeting and I can honestly say that I am not tempted by them at all. In fact I would say that just the opposite is true, the last thing I would want to do now is start smoking again. I am free at last!
I've had such a lot of support from my friends on here who never judged or gave up on me and I truly cannot thank them enough.
I don't want to sound as if I'm blowing my own trumpet but I feel so happy that I've come this far. I see smoking for what it is now and I won't let it be part of my life any more. I love being able to say "I don't smoke".
To those of you who are still on your quit journey my advice has to be 'Never give up on giving up'. You can do it and when you do I can promise you that you'll be so glad you did. You will get there in the end if you really want to.
Good luck and best wishes
Evie x
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Well done Evie......and a warm welcome to the penthouse.
I remember how tricky you found this......what was the name of your quit buddy? I forget......but I remember he simply vanished......hopefully not in a puff of smoke
I worried you wouldn't get back on track.... and am very delighted to read of your well-deserved success.
Great stuff. Well done. Really happy to welcome another who has triumphed over the tricksy beast.
Oh Dippy, it's really lovely to hear from you again.
I'm so pleased I found this forum and everybody on it because it was such a lifeline for me. Even when I wasn't posting I still used to pop on every now and again to keep myself motivated.
When I first joined it was 'Phil from Gozo' who was my quit buddy. I used to find his stories so entertaining but he suddenly just disappeared off the radar. I remember him reading me the riot act when I had my first failure - I was feeling bad enough already and wished I hadn't owned up after that. I often wonder what happened to him though.
Welcome to the penthouse Evie. I was only thinking about you the other day and hoping that you were still going strong and here you are celebrating a year quit. I am so happy for you Evie you found it difficult at the start but you didn't give up you kept going and your reward is you have been smoke free for a year!!! Evie....Well done you! Lovely to hear from you too. I used to love reading the adventures of Evie and Phil, they were so entertaining. I hope you keep popping back and let us know how you are, if we don't hear from you before have a lovely smoke free Christmas and a very happy smoke free New Year.xxxxx Lots of love to you.xx
Well done Evie......and a warm welcome to the penthouse.
I remember how tricky you found this......what was the name of your quit buddy? I forget......but I remember he simply vanished......hopefully not in a puff of smoke
I worried you wouldn't get back on track.... and am very delighted to read of your well-deserved success.
Great stuff. Well done. Really happy to welcome another who has triumphed over the tricksy beast.
Lovely to hear from you too Dippy! Hope all is well with you.xxxx
Lostie I've just left a message for you on your other thread - Lovely to hear from you and a massive Well Done to you. xx
Haze - it's lovely to hear from you too. I've been looking in recently and it was good to see you back posting again - there was a while when you didn't seem to be around. Anyway it's great that you're back because you are such an asset to this forum and you were a tremendous support to me when I was floundering. It's good to see that the forum is as busy as ever with people helping each other out and sharing their experiences both the good and the bad. It's to good to be able to share a laugh as well, anything that makes quitting pass more quickly and easier to manage.
Thanks Hawkeye. Not long until your 1 year milestone either so Well Done to you too. It's a great feeling to know that is no longer part of our lives isn't it - I can remember a time when I never thought I'd be able to say this.
Phil from Gozo.....that's the fella! Wonder if he made it?
All is VERY well with me and all my super troupers Evie...thankyou. I can hardly, honestly even remember that I ever smoked. Sometimes I clock someone having a fag...either on telly....or for real..... and I think...eeeh....jeepers jooooopers...how stupid are they? (I like to think I was never that stupid) It just looks sooooooooooooooooo styoooooopid to me now Actually.... I can smell a fag a mile off. I'm like the child-catcher......only with fags. I'll be walking to work...and my nostrils twitch.....I can smell it somewhere.....where? I'm always right....miles ahead....well yards ahead, at least....I spot them. Eeeeeeehhh yuk. Havent quite gone as far as chucking them in a cage yet
Haze. Our lovely Hazel. Hello sweetie cakes. Always lovely to hear from you....you smashing great big hero of these here forums. Such a wonderful support to me and to many. x
It was all about getting my head around this quit, and it took me quite a long time and several attempts to get this far.
Now though I have reached the stage where if something doesn't go according to the way I think it should my first irrational reaction is NOT to immediately reach out for a cigarette.
For far too long I was completely nicotine brainwashed into thinking that cigarettes were my best friend and the answer to everything but not any more. I had to have them in the house at all times and can even remember going out in the middle of the night to buy them just in case I ran out before morning - that seems absolutely ridiculous now and I can't believe I allowed myself to become so addicted.
I honestly don't think I will ever smoke another cigarette in my life.
I hope you're well Karri, good luck with the quit. You will do it. x
Thanks Kat73 but from what I've been reading on here you're a bit of a Superstar yourself. You've handled your quit fantastically and been a tower of strength to everyone else as well.
I did make quite hard work of my quit for quite a while before I mastered it so you put me to shame really.
It was worth all the effort I sometimes had to put in though and I am so pleased and relieved to have got this far - free at last!
I wish you well Kat, see you in the penthouse.x
;)Dippy - your last post really did make me smile and it's lovely to hear you sounding just the same as ever. I will have to look out for Una (did she ever go to New Zealand), Helen and Carole the Cat lady and all the others I remember on here - sorry for not mentioning everyone's name. I hope you're being careful on that bike of yours now that the dark and icy nights are with us. Take care Dippy, lovely to talk to you again. xx
Congrats Evie You made it, I don't post too much but I do drop by from time to time, it's a good feeling for me just to know that there are still plenty of others make a successful quits and when someone does I love it as I know what they went through.
There's a few new faces on here and all seem to be doing well Be strong you're nearly there even if going through a few keyboards a day like max does going by the post count which is awesome in such a short space of time respectively. Good luck the quit everyone.
I don't want to sound as if I'm blowing my own trumpet but I feel so happy that I've come this far. I see smoking for what it is now and I won't let it be part of my life any more. I love being able to say "I don't smoke".
To those of you who are still on your quit journey my advice has to be 'Never give up on giving up'. You can do it and when you do I can promise you that you'll be so glad you did. You will get there in the end if you really want to.
Good luck and best wishes
Evie x
Ive just cried!!! Im an emotional wreck today! Firstly, may I say well done on a whole year EvieB....you should blow your own trumpet and you deserve to on your achievement too, im so happy for you
For me, Im 8 weeks in, so to read your post was brilliant! It gives us newbies a little kick when we need one and helps cement our resolve too!
Big congratulations Evie, so glad you made it! Your post sounds very similar to how I think about smoking now, surprised at how long I continued to smoke!
You are allowed to be happy and blow your own trumpet, you've nailed it
Well done Evie, you started the day after me last year, I sadly fell off the wagon in may but I am back and am sure I won't fall again. This time I seem to have picked up where I left off, my brain is kicking into the habit of not smoking again, and I wish it didn't take me six months to build the courage to quit again. Well done to you, delighted you have got this far.
Massive well done and many congratulations Evie. I remember when you and Phil started out and then he disappeared and you fell off the wagon. So happy and pleased for you that you got back on and made it to the Penthouse.
Thankyou all for your good wishes and kind words. It's lovely to hear from my old friends again and wonderful to make some new ones.
I know I wouldn't have got here had it not been for the support I got from my friends on this forum, especially during the first few months when I needed it probably more than most.
Got a bit of a shock when I logged in today - the format's changed so much. Good to know that that's all that's changed though and that everyone's still here for one another. I'll try and find my way around and catch up with everything.
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