[B]Quitting smoking is the most amazing thing you can do for yourself.[/b] I heard this a lot when I first joined the SSC. I have to disagree at this point. [B]Staying quit is the most amazing thing you can do.[/b] While the initial quit is the most difficult as far as physical and mental withdrawals, it is learning to live life without the crutch of smoking that is so incredible.
I use to really wonder why someone that had been quit for a long time would give up a quit. Living a smoke free life is something most of us never even imagined being successful at. Who in their right mind would let that go once achieved? Personally, I'm one of those quitters that did not have an easy time at it. I quit during a very hectic time of my life and along the way a lot of emotions that I didn't even realize I had emerged. There have been several times I've considered going back to smoking for what I term as sanity. The real sanity comes in staying quit.
Smoking is an escape and a way to hide from issues that we don't want to deal with. Just as an alcoholic hides behind drinking, a drug addict hides behind their drug of choice, a nicotine addict hides behind the cigarette. Hiding is no way to live. Sometimes in life we have to go through the storms to get to where we are meant to be. We may want to run away, hide, turn around and go back to where we came from but if we are truly dedicated to ourselves, we know that these really aren't options. I have been quit for 1 year and 9 months now. I do not have any intentions of ever smoking again but I know that I am only one puff away from being a smoker until the day I die. I fought for my quit and I think long and hard when the junkie thoughts come knocking on my door. I know deep within myself that I could not quit again.
If you were around you know, and if you weren't you can go back and search, I struggled and fought tooth and nail for this quit. I learned so much about myself and the person I am deep inside. Quitting was worth every bit of agony that I went through for all those months. There isn't anything
I can think of that would drive me back to smoking. I have faced the death of child that I was very close to for his entire life. I have faced heartache, rejection, denial, job issues,