Abstaining from the first 60 cigarettes is harder than abstaining from the hundreds even thousands that follow.
Do you remember how hard it was to get past that first real crave you faced after you first quit? That hard and sharp gut wrenching crave that seemed to last forever and left you light headed and wondering how you�re going to get through this. Do you remember how they kept coming seemingly out of no where and how ruthless they were, taking energy from you until you feared you had none left then you found more energy somewhere to get through the next one. The first days were like this and the nights were not much better. It took a few days before you could abstain from smoking without losing so much energy in the struggle. Do you remember what it took to get you through it?
After the days it took your body to detoxify it became a different kind of struggle. Abstaining now was more mental than physical. This part redefines your relationship with the junky and will last for however long. It�s here we can easily get lost because the memories of the struggle of the first few days fades and then are lost.
Abstaining months after the quit is easy and nearly effortless in comparison. We get to a point where we have to remind ourselves that we once smoked and that nicotine is still a threat to us. We get bored with our quit, it�s old news and the excitement of meeting the initial milestones is gone. We are comfortable in our quit.
Right here is where it happens, you entertain the idea of smoking one and wake the junky. I can have one; I�ll just quit again, it�s easy. Once the junky is awake the desire returns because now there�s a possibility the junky will get fed, your thinking about it and now all it needs to do is reinforce the idea and lead you where it wants you to go.
The reasons we quit are still there, we just don�t respect them as much or they aren�t in the front of our minds like they were. The memory of the first few days is gone along with the lessons learned. Our arrogance fools us into thinking we can control it and we continue thinking that until the junky has control of us again.
N.O.P.E.
You really can�t ever have just one. You�re a junky, an addict. Addicts can�t have just one they always want more. If the addict can get you to smoke one then there will be more. Maybe not right away, but you did it once so you will do it again. We are addicts and we must never forget that we are addicts.
If we could bottle up the first few days of our quit and make it into tablets that can remind us what we faced and beat to be where we are, just relive a small portion of the detox, maybe it would revive our quit. It may help us gain back the respect we had for all we went through to get here and all that motivated us to quit to begin with. If we truly valued our quits we would not easily part with them.
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]3/15/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 123
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,460
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $516.60
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 19 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 27 [B]Seconds:[/B] 9
