was smoker for 19 years)..Well Folks, I'm here after a long time and I'm here with a good news :)...Though you may not believe it but please do if I say that I've tried thousands time to quit smoking and could not. Have tried all help, patches, gums, antidepressants to name few but did not try Chantix as I got worried after reading its potential side effects....so I was here and left this forum with heavy disappointment. But one thing was sure that I kept trying.....quitting and then again starting..... I've read almost all available help books to quit smoking and also online stuff including cold turkey etc...but none helped....During these times my belief got stronger and stronger that there is something wrong with me ...that I'm kind of depressed or some other psychological problems that I cannot follow what others give as advice to quit smoking...and thus same cycle of guilt and shame ......(I have low self-esteem, I have low confidence, I cannot make anything right, everybody else can do this but not me and all these kinds of messages and self-talk)......so cut short, three days back I was reading a last chapter of book called "When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris" in which he described how he quit smoking but going to Japan. This is not something to help the reader quit smoking but kind of diary the authors wrote while he was in the process of quitting smoking. So reading this chapter is not something one should worry about that it will advise you to quit smoking or how to quit smoking so there is no pressure while reading this....Ok...so I got following four thoughts from the author, i.e.
. Don't be too sensitive about your smoking
. Don't think that you are quitting something but think that you've finished your quota
. Fill a bottle (with old buts) and water and keep it with you
. You''ll have to return to a person that you were before you started smoking
First about the third point, I took a small plastic bottle, put some water few mLs and few butts …and kept it in my pocket for a day…….smelled it few times but does not needed afterwards….some times when I thought about it, I thought of it as my smoking habit, my past that I carry with me and have no problem with it…..
Now, most importantly, I changed my thinking about everything related to smoking and it did not took long. First I realized that in all those previous more than 12 years, I had become too sensitive about this habit of mine….during smoking, during quit times and after relapse, sensitive thoughts all around….so now….I said to myself….don't be sensitive about this issue at all…..so I lowered my sensitivity level towards smoking to about at zero level and still keeping it…..and when I thought of having a cigarette I said to myself I finished my quota (I successfully completed the number of cigarettes that I had to smoke in my life and now its finished)…same I said to my colleagues (two) who are living with me and both smoked. One of these kept asking me to smoke as we used to smoke together but I was able (for the first time in my whole life) to say that I finished my quota and don't have a urge (really I did not have any urge) ….he did not understood what I means by finished my quota but I did….and thus refuse politely and confidently without any hidden thought of having one…..and for a last time point, I am all ready to go back to my life (20 years back) and see how I was without smoke…..so folks…..I just completed my 72 hours while I am writing this….what I want to say in short…..if you are smoking, don't be sensitive about it……if you quit don't be sensitive about it….(don't tell others, yourself that you quit) …..if you relapse don't be sensitive about it either…..reduce this habit to almost nothing and its done…..I did not use any help of any kind and went through three days calmly……living in a same house where rest are smoking and indeed asking you to do it again….(no judgment about them that why they ask someone who quit to start again….may be smokers dilemma) but I don't mind cuz I know what I am doing…..I am simply enjoying my life …listening to songs, jogging, laughing, eating, and doing almost everything but I am not too sensitive about it either …..
You just can not get rid off me, bit like a bad smell!!
