With the onset of the new year, there are, and will continue to be, many new quitters starting this worthwile journey to freedom from addiction. To all of you, I would like to say "welcome!" You will probably find, if you haven't already, that using a quit smoking website to help you is an amazing tool that is, for many people, the only way they have ever been able to quit successfully. You will make many new friends along the way who will help, support, encourage, give companionship and even drag you along on this journey, and most of you will do the same. When we start this journey, it's full of wonderful new adventures and while it might not be easy, having a site like this to help you along makes it at the very least, tolerable.
But at a certain time in your quit, something will inevitably happen. Life will throw you a lemon, as it does whether you smoke or not. You may lose your job, have to go through a divorce, lose a loved one, get into a horrible financial situation, have health problems, etc... It is these times that will either be a devestating blow or a turning point in your quit.
Difficult situations prove to be some of the toughest to get through for many reasons. For one, (hopefully), they don't happen very often, so unlike most triggers that we deal with every single day, fortunately, we don't have to deal with crises everyday of our lives. But, the cravings that ensue due to these events don't decrease with time like other triggers do because we just don't have to go through them as often.
They are also extremely dangerous to a quit because of the "sympathy factor." We often think that because we are going through something so terrible, people on this site will understand. They won't judge us as harshly because they know that what we are dealing with is excruciatingly painful. We may think that this is just too hard to go through smoke free and others here on this site will understand. Well, guess what!?! The good folks here may understand, but this addiction does not care! No matter how difficult the situation is, this addiction can kill you just as easily. The addiction doesn't say "oh, I'm so sorry you lost your job! I won't kill you because I know how hard this must be for you!" Nope! Sorry. Doesn't work tha