Do You Really Want One-_9586

Hey everyone, First off I would like to say congratulations to all the newbies for quitting smoking, heck, congratulations to everyone for quitting smoking!! Though I would like to focus this post on the newer quitters who may not be feeling the comfort yet on not smoking. Are you having a bad day? Is it feeling a little too overwhelming quitting smoking? Are the craves feeling too overpowering? Do you just want a cigarette to alieve these feelings and anxieties? Let's think about that first cigarette that's going to aleviate all these problems associated with quitting. Let's honestly really think about it before we light it up and feel all the quitting symptoms wash away. Right now you're sitting there contemplating smoking. First off, think about that. Why can you contemplate smoking? Because ever since you quit, you now have a choice! The minute you quit smoking, you took control of your life again. You're no longer the puppet, you are now the puppeteer!!! Before you take that cigarette and light it, think about what is going to happen. You're going to take your choice and option to smoke, tear those up and throw them away. Now you'll have 2 other options. You will either have to ritually smoke again every half hour or so of every waking moment to feel so called normal or you will once again have to put yourself through the first stages of withdrawal. Neither one sounds too appetizing. Let's look at this first cigarette that your junkie side is telling you is the cure all for all these stupid problems and anxieties associated from quitting. Will you light up that cigarette, get that great AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH sensation, laugh and scold yourself for ever thinking of doing such a stupid thing as quitting smoking? Before you answer that I would like to share an experience that happened to me from a failed quit prior to this one. Almost 5 years ago I had a 3 week quit going and I was feeling these urges and craves. It felt so overwhelming. I felt I was losing my mind. I was at work and unfortunalty we could smoke on the job. I was just looking around watching all my co workers smoking. I was envious! I was depriving myself (or so I thought) and it was driving me crazy! So after a half hour of letting my junkie side pound into my head that I needed a cigarette, I went to one of my co workers and bummed one off them. Now this where I should have stopped and thought about it first,quit smoking, but I didn't. I needed that AAAHHHHHHHHHH sensation and I needed it now!!! So I lit that smoke(I can vividly remember this one cigarette to this day) and waited for that AAAHHHHHHHHH sensation to come to me. You know what I felt? It felt like someone took the heaviest wet blanket of depression and threw it on top of me. It literally felt like that. I got so dizzy. My vision was blurry. My heart felt like it was beating too fast. I felt nauseous and my body was shaking. I had to kneel down for allmost 10 minutes to re cooperate from that cigarette. What did I feel after that cigarette? I felt horrible, both mentally and physically. You know after 3 weeks of not smoking,stop smoking now, I told my friends that I really didn't feel any better from quitting. After that cigarette, I realized that I felt so much better, because the feeling of that heavy blanket was still with me after 30 minutes of smoking it. I bet you'll never guess what I also did 30 minutes later after smoking that cure all. Yep, I snuck out of the warehouse and walked across the street to the store and bought a pack of cigarettes. I gave up my choice and option of smoking. It took me 2 years to get up the courage to try and quit again. This time I got educated , made this one stick and I'm now over 3 years quit. That day I thought that "One" cigarette was going to fix my problems and look what it did. It put me right back into the grip of addiction. This is why we have to erase the fantasy of smoking. Quitting smoking is never as good as "The Fantasy" of that "One Good Cigarette," but if we act on that fantasy, we will find out how devastating and how false that fantasy really is. I guess the message of this really long post is that I know it can be hard. You will have your good days quitting and bad days quitting, but as long as you continue not to smoke, the good days will start to grow and the bad days will start to diminish until one day the bad days are nothing but a memory that you keep to remind you why you quit in the first place. There might be times when a seasoned quitter will tell you "Hang in there, it will only get better." You might think to yourself (I know I did sometimes), "Easy for you to say, you allready found comfort." The thing is, every seasoned quitter here had to go through all the same things the newbies are going through right now. There are no short cuts or magic potions. It will get better though, actually it will become fantastic ! If it didn't, I would be smoking right now. You just have to challenge yourself to do this. You deserve to break this addiction,. It is the best thing you can do for yourself! As the risk of sounding redundant, hang in there, because it will only get better and better if you Never Take Another Puff! Eric