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Thought for today

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Frosty funny - even though we are in a chinook here lol

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Repost:  No Man's /Woman's Land.

Love this one.
KTQ
Cara
D6918

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No Man's/Woman's Land ... ACK Blech.. !
From ClearColors on 11/23/2011 10:14:02 AM

repost

Peace to all who read this.

I seldom start a post, unless it is to honor someone's anniversary. But I feel compelled to share something that I seem to be sharing a lot of lately... and that is my thoughts on 'No Man's Land'. No Man's Land is a dangerous and scary place... and it is a lonely time during a quit.

I call No Man's Land that period of time between about 1 month and 3 or 4 months into your quit, or about the time from the end of your first month until you become an Elder. This is a time when many people slip and go into a full relapse and have to start over... if they can start over, that is. I have some observations that may help some of you who are literally hanging on by your fingernails... or who may find yourself there tomorrow.

The first month is an exhausting but exhilirating experience... you are locked in nearly daily struggles and you get the satisfaction of successfully beating your addiction that day. You go to bed a WINNER each night (as Troutnut would say), and you are justifiably proud of yourself. Your friends and family are also supportive as they see you struggling each day to maintain your quit. And you are being constantly supported here, whether or not you post... just being here is good for your quit. And so, the battles are won and it actually becomes easier and the battles occur less often as you finish 30 days or so.

Around 60 days, you're starting to have some really good days, with very few craves and some nice insights about yourself... but then again, you still have some bad days. Those bad days can really be depressing... you begin to wonder if you're ever gonna be able to relax. Your junkie is whispering to you, telling you that 'just one' won't hurt. You've conquered your daily triggers, but now you start trippiing over the occasional ones... a death in the family, unexpectedly bad news, money problems, health problems, going on a long car ride, a trip to the bar, or whatever. You have a strong crave and you begin to doubt your ability to keep your quit.

In addition, the 3D support that you used to get is pretty much gone... non-smokers figure you should be 'over it' by now, smokers don't like to hang around you much because they feel guilty and addicted (remember that feeling?), and people who have quit may not remember just how much love and support you need well into the first few months. They all think you should be 'over it', you think you should be 'over it'... and the temptation is to have 'just one' to see if you ARE over it.

But of course you're not over it, are you? That 'just one' whisper becomes much much louder and becomes 'just one more'... and each time you give in to that whisper, the craves come harder and sooner. The one way to guarantee that your craves will never go away is to light up, to slide that old cigarette needle into your arm and shoot up. Those craves will be back and keep coming back. But if you protect your quit, your craves will eventually weaken and become even fewer and farther between.

As you get to around 100 days or so (some will be a bit longer)... you will begin to really get a healthy perspective on your addiction. You will see the huge role that smoking played in your life, you will see clearly what that addiction really cost you. And you will understand that it was a very high price to pay... the loss of your confidence, your emotions, your self-control... your SELF. All enslaved to your addiction.

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Good morning all
Happy Friday and a huge TGIF!
It was a short week but it did not feel like it. I am up and going off to my problem child centre. Children are fine it is the adults. Cannot wait to retire. No matter, I will not be smoking today or any day. Saying NO to smoking keeping to my path along the Freedom Road. Hand offered to the next winner joining me kicking ash to the curb today.
Have a great day
Cara
D6918

3Y 11M
Life Saved
$102,732
Money Saved
186,786
Unsmoked

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Good morning! It's 5am in middle Tennessee. Have been up forever. My brain is in overdrive. Just had a conversation with my daughter....she is in eastern time zone so it's an hour later there....

Well here goes the reason for the sleepless night. Yesterday was crazy stupid. We had snow in the morning, as a result my first showing of the house was cancelled. Had 3 video showings of the properties I am interested in down by my kiddo. Then the requests to view my property started coming in. I... Show more

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Good evening WaynenMary, thanks for starting the Bonfire! I'm tossing in 119,400 unsmokeds tonight. Have another awesome smoke free evening everyone!

Go To Discussion

I'm throwing my 2,912 unsmoked cigarettes onto the bonfire!I'm throwing my 2,912 unsmoked cigarettes onto the bonfire!

Go To Discussion

I'm throwing my 131,780 unsmoked cigarettes onto the bonfire!

Go To Discussion

Only by Gods grace I'm throwing my 257,950 unsmoked cigarettes onto the bonfire! Thanks WaynenMary for hosting Thursday night bonfire woooooWOOOO glad today is ending it was a rough one for our household

Go To Discussion

Thursday February 20 Self Serve Bonfire

Welcome to the BONFIRE this beautiful Thursday Evening! It’s a self-serve bonfire so carefully throw your unsmoked nasties into the bonfire and head over to check out the many different diversions available on NOPE Island! We encourage you to toss any worries or problems you are experiencing tonight into the fire as well! 🔥 Everyone is welcome at the Bonfire! Whether you have 2, 20, 200, 20,000 or 200,000 stinkeroos, we want your unsmokeds to make this fire blaze high. We especially welcome...

Go To Discussion

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Just VENTING
It is that time of illnesses sicknesses in my area of Illinois
Hubby has early stages of pneumonia
Has covid which they have medicine IF caught early which the doctors at the ER said we did BUT with hubby medicine for
Diabetes
High blood
Cholesterol
The COVID meds could NOT be given
Dr said only IF NOT on any drugs can they give my hubby COVID medicine
So none for hubby
So he gotta ride it out like the flu
Let it work it's way through his body
He got an IV saline drip because he... Show more

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Thought for today

+1

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Frosty funny

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Today is my birthday!

I am very blessed to see another birthday. As you can see, it snowed in my neighborhood yesterday. We had between 10 to 12 inches. With advisement from a couple of people, I decided not to go to work this morning. I was going to attempt to go, but I do not know how bad the roads were gonna be.

Today, I have to help my mom shovel our driveway and then go to my grandparents house to shovel their driveway. I am glad I did my chores yesterday.

I am just glad I do not smoke... Show more

+3

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Repost:  It's Not a crime to admit you are struggling....

Always ask for help - remember the 3 post rule.  I was either 4 or 5 years quit and had an extremely stressful situation come up and the thought of smoking came to me.  I came and posted to help and saved my quit.  I will never again smoke without asking for help.
Quitting is doable.
KTQ
Cara
D6917

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It’s NOT a Crime to Admit You Are Struggling……….rp
From melder7 on 1/1/2012 10:47:35 AM

….no matter HOW far into your quit you are.

One of the things that longer term quitters often try to avoid admitting in here is that urges can STILL occur even after you’d think we’d be long past them. Usually the reason that we DON’T like to discuss this kind of stuff is because nobody wants to discourage newer people just in case they see this as a deterrent to staying quit.

Well frankly I think it’s good that we talk about this stuff. This addiction can be tricky….by talking this stuff out we are much better able to avoid some of the traps that can occur if we see ourselves as being alone in our struggle.

Whether we are at day 1 or at day 1000……we are still on a level playing field when it comes to that “just one.” We can’t ever forget that.

But that knowledge is NOT something to fear or be ashamed to admit.

We are recovering addicts.

Hiding from the truth of that won’t protect us. Let’s face it……how many of us had such a great fear of the unknown that we were reluctant to even TRY to quit.

It’s o.k. to have urges………and it’s ok to talk about it no matter HOW long you’ve been quit.

I’m planning on being quit a very very long time.

That means looking this addiction head on.

maureen
Day3429

ps

Smoking and the DESIRE to smoke can be beaten

Getting there will probably require just a little bit of accepting that you will probably be tempted along the way.

The secret to getting there is do NOT smoke...NO MATTER WHAT.

(and yes you can)

Repost: It's Not a crime to admit you are struggling....

Always ask for help - remember the 3 post rule. I was either 4 or 5 years quit and had an extremely stressful situation come up and the thought of smoking came to me. I came and posted to help and saved my quit. I will never again smoke without asking for help.
Quitting is doable.
KTQ
Cara
D6917
... Show more

Good morning all
Happy Thursday to you!
Week has changed - I am off to the office today and out to Cochrane tomorrow. Today, tomorrow, anyday I will be shouting NO to smoking and keeping to my path along the Freedom Road. I offer my hand to the next winner joining me kicking more ash to the road today.
Have a great day
Cara
D6917

3Y 11M
Life Saved
$102,717
Money Saved
186,759
Unsmoked

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Charmaine H TODAY
Happy birthday dear friend and many more

+2

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Good morning! It is freaking cold in middle Tennessee. It is 16° right now and still dropping to our expected low of 13°. Our high will be a whomping 21°. This is not fun! I want spring!

Today is going to be chaos. Have the first showing if the house. Along with 3 video showings on houses in Knoxville (my daughter and her hubs are with the realtor). This could be a very long day. Or it could be unexpectedly easy which is the route I prefer. In any case it's a NOPE day. No smoking here today!!... Show more

+2

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Twenty Four Years. 
Quit February 20, 2001

Originally January 26, 2001 but tested myself with some puffs at three weeks.

It took me 33 years of smoking, most of that time really wanting to Not Smoke to actually Quit Smoking.

Of course, with each cigarette, I really wanted to have the cigarette more than I wanted to really Not Smoke  and there in lies the problem.

I really felt like I could not Not Smoke . That I was unable to, that I would never be able to not smoke.

I spent many years using nicotine patches or nicotine gum the wrong way.

For me, they just encouraged me to smoke more. The extra nicotine was not what I needed and I did not have the discipline to use them in the prescribed way.

I wanted to smoke more.

The day that I finally made up my mind to not smoke I found the site QuitNet

This was in the early days of public  forums with strangers.

It did make me feel a huge sense of community to see everyone with the same struggles that I had,  anxiety and fear.  Doubt that I could ever be successful

I saw that people actually could make it half an hour,  they could make it an hour, they could make it through several hours, they  could make it through one day without literally dying because they weren’t smoking.

Seeing  the people make it through one day, two days,  three days,  gave me some confidence that maybe,  maybe,  maybe,  I might also be able to do it.

The people with one day,  two days, three days, were my heroes.

The people further out than that were way too far out for me to even relate with.

Although a person I was in contact with did say stick with the winners.

Look at what the people who are doing, what they’re saying, and that really is what also took me through.

For the first time in my life, I was around people who had the same problems that I did as far as stopping smoking.

Reading stories and spending so much time on QuitNet,   that is what made me successful.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all the people and to QuitNet and now to NOPE 365.

I could not have done it without you and I thank you from my heart.

To all of you wanting to quit. You can do it. You should do it.

The help is on the site for you. 
There is absolutely nothing that cigarettes do that is beneficial. Your mind needs to make the decision to stick to the mantra Not One Puff Ever.

If I can do it, anybody can do it and that is the truth.

Stop smoking. Smoking Kills.

Again, thank you to everyone. 
Hello and best wishes to everyone who I know and who I do not know.

We really are all in this together.

Much love and gratitude from me.

You will never regret your decision to not smoke.

Twenty Four Years.
Quit February 20, 2001

Originally January 26, 2001 but tested myself with some puffs at three weeks.

It took me 33 years of smoking, most of that time really wanting to Not Smoke to actually Quit Smoking.

Of course, with each cigarette, I really wanted to have the cigarette more than I wanted to really Not Smoke and there in lies the problem.

I really felt like I could not Not Smoke . That I was unable to, that I would never be able to not smoke.

I spent many years using... Show more

+1+6

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