I like being a "Quitter"

Did I mention that exactly 2 months, 2 days and 24 hours ago, I quit smoking for the last time. I'm free after smoking 1+ packs a day for 20 years, I'm finally free! I thought it was going to be the hardest thing I would ever have to do, after all, cigarettes were my best friend for most of my adult life, and some of my childhood, or were they? The prospect of losing something so close to me was very scarey, but guess what?? I did it, and this is how I did it.

First of all, I admitted to myself that I was a nicotine addict. Smoking is an addiction, not just a bad habit. Second, I threw away any and all paraphernalia having to do with smoking, matches, lighters, etc. I got rid of all my ashtrays too. I started on a Friday morning and locked myself in the house, then used the entire weekend to rid myself of the nicotine that was in my blood stream. I drank LOTS of water, slept and cried, then cried and slept some more. Frankly, I was a mess. It was like mourning the loss of a loved one. I didn't think I would get through it so I enlisted the help of a few smoking cessation groups on line that provided me with so much information about tobacco companies and the truth about smoking that basically SCARED ME STRAIGHT! I already knew what the truth was, I just didn't want to confront it until then. BTW, educating yourself is CRUCIAL when trying to quit. I couldnt have made it without the help of the wonderful people on those forums. ( Muah!)

After 72 hours my blood was 100% nocotine free. After that, and to this point, it's all mind over matter. I don't physically crave a cigarette anymore, it's my mind that wants one. THAT'S the ugly demon I still struggle with, but it really does get easier every day, and as long as I remember that the "thought" of smoking is just that, a thought, I'll be okay.

I also remember that I am, and always will be a nicotine addict, and that just one puff could send me hurling back to square one, and I'll be damned if I repeat the initial 72 hour withdrawal period again. No thank you!!

I have been quit for 2 Months, 3 Days, 14 minutes and 5 seconds (62 days). I have saved $496.07 by not smoking 1,240 cigarettes. I have saved 4 Days, 7 hours and 20 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 29/01/2007 12:30 AM

Today's Headlines.......

It's been awhile since I've opened up a newspaper. I used to read it everyday without a second thought, until one day, I just didn't want to know what was going on in our world. That was two months ago, today.
I would, of course, catch glimpses of the news now and then, so I wasn't totally oblivious to it all. I just didn't obsess over it the way I do with everything else that scares me.

Anyway, I couldn't believe some of the tragedies I read about. Murders, kidnappings, missing children, mother's killing, or abandoning their babies, war, prisoners, drugs. It was as if the problems of our society were a lethal drug, and I was taking it all in one dose, instead of a little each day, like I normally did. It really frightened me, so much so that my heart started beating faster. That's when I had to stop.

I guess reading everyday, you just expect to see bad things, and you get so used to seeing them that nothing surprises you. You become immune, until one day you decide to stop reading, and then for the first time in a long time, you pick up a newpaper and the headlines seem to leap out at you and grab you by the throat, choking you. WAR, DRUGS, MURDER, GLOBAL WARMING, PRISONERS. Uhhgg!! Talk about horrifying! I should have left well enough alone. Maybe I'll just stop reading the newspaper all-together. My stress level goes WAY up when I do, and I just don't think it's worth it.

It really scares me to think of what's happening to us. I know that not reading about it isn't going to change anything, but reading about it isn't either. My heart is full of the world's problems, but my mind just doesn't have any room left.