Nicely said, Ron. It IS so great to be free of the addiction. Your emotional rollercoaster was a lot like mine.....Still have bumps now and again....but so proud to free to be me without killing myself. Enjoy your 6th anniversary and be sure to celebrate YOU!!! Keep the Quit, Dave
Great post Ron and a huge congratulation on your climb up quit mountain. I remember your early days in your quest to beat nicodeamon and like Pen I too watched you struggle as we all did starting out on our quit. Your success is due to your will and determination.
Again a huge congratulation. Duffis
It's hard to believe I came here on this site on June 12th or around that time and set out to say that I was to give up this horrible nicotine habit and somehow was able to stick to a quit date of June 17th six years ago. I some times look back and wonder how I did it. I mean I was never very strong willed. I was really good at hiding my habit to others. I still pretended to exercise, didn't have any really bad health effects.
I guess I did it because I knew I was not living up to my best potential. I also believe that I was hiding away from anything and everything that would cause me distress which turned out to be almost everything. Quitting brought me to deal with all of those emotions I was afraid to confront. Was it difficult...Yes. Did it take time....Absolutely. But once I got through the Hell and the Heck and the Blah, and so on the boat started feeling pretty good (50 days). The beach at 100 days was even better. I started kind of liking the getting to know myself again. Did I tick some people off, yep I did because I decided I was going to be true to myself and be honest about what believed in my heart. Why not, I've got nothing to lose including my own precious life. Well I still play the same tune 6 years later. I'm no longer stressing about small stuff. I take each day as a wonderful gift, and don't think I would be this way if I didn't quit. I know it's easy for us old time quitters to say newbies to quit but remember I was sitting there just like you back then. I remember Pen (now 10 years quit) telling me how great it is to quit in my first week and I would think he was crazy for saying that. The fact is I'm right behind him at this point. A day becomes a week which becomes a month which becomes a year which becomes many years. The longer you do it the easier it becomes. If I can say just one thing it would be give it a try. One hour, one day, one week and so on. It's really an amazing journey you will not regret.
Ron
Enjoying a knowing I kicked that ol Nicodemon AAAAssssssssssss.