[Originally posted by me on 21 June 2000]
The new quitters here might not believe that one year is possible, and
the not-so-new quitters might not remember me (I was never that prolific
a poster), but both groups can check the archives and they'll find:
>From: "Adam" <l...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Subject: "This could be the start of something big"
>Date: 22 Jun 1999 00:00:00 GMT
>Newsgroups: alt.sup****t.stop-smoking
>
>Adam, showing off his meter
>
>I have been Quit for: 1D 8m . I have NOT smoked 35, for a savings of
>$3.34.
>Life Saved: 2h 55m.
I'm not really sure what One Year signifies. There hasn't been any big
change since last month or last week, and yet the folks here make quite
a fuss over it, as if something mystical happens at that moment. I
spent quite a while worrying about that and, after a lot of thought,
stopped worrying about it. I still don't understand why a year is
considered so much more im****tant than three months or three years, but
somehow I'm not bothered by that any more. As many people have said
here, stopping smoking is a journey, not a destination, and 1Y is just
one of very many days that are part of that journey.
Nonetheless, here's what got me to this point.
Socrates said, "Know thyself," and as far as stopping smoking goes I
agree with it. Some people make a sudden decision and that's what works
for them, but I'm not like that. I like predictability. So, I set my
quit date well in advance. By the time it came around, it was easier
for me to go along with it than to change my plan.
I did a lot of preparation. There was a "shopping list for quit day"
thread that I started here before I quit, so by my quit day I had lots
of hard candies, videos to watch, crossword magazines, Febreze, and no
major outside responsibilities. I kept a log of when I was smoking and
what I was doing at those times, and that helped me identify my
triggers. Also, I made a "Benefits of Not Smoking" list, with
everything that I thought might apply to me, and looked over this list a
LOT.
If I had to name the three things that were the biggest help (besides
AS3, of course), they'd be:
1) My quit group, the June Bugs. We all quit the same month, and
are all still busy sup****ting each other. I'd encourage everybody to
form a quit group -- all it took for us was an "Any June quitters?" post
here and a look at the official AS3 quit list. I like having a smaller
group to share with, and we've been finding out that we're going through
many of the same things. Again, I'd like to thank all of them: Colleen,
Anita, Josie, me, Cindy, Mrs. K, Allan, Kathy, and Melissa. And also
Mindy, who (as I recall) was the one who got us together in the first
place.
2) The book Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. See this
group's FAQ for a description and praise, with which I agree. It now
has a US publisher, Barnes and Noble Books, and is available from them,
online or brick-and-mortar.
3) A small handheld game, to use at my biggest triggers, killing
time and procrastinating. I can carry it with me anywhere, it's
inexpensive so I won't be too upset if it's broken or lost, it doesn't
require the concentration that a book or magazine does, and it doesn't
matter if I lose most of the time.
After a year, I'm still finding new benefits of not smoking. A few
weeks ago, I was dealing with some minor respiratory ailment, and I
suddenly realized, "I'm glad I don't have to smoke with this." I would
still have been smoking, no matter how much it hurt. But out of all the
things on my latest "benefits of not smoking" list, I was surprised to
realize that the biggest one for me isn't the money saved or the
improved health, but (as I described it at the time) "no worry about
next 'fix'." I don't have to plan my whole life around op****tunities to
smoke. But as they say so often in this newsgroup, Your Mileage May
Vary. Each of us has our own reasons to quit and our own ways of doing
it, and I hope yours work for you at least as well as mine did for me.
Maybe I should celebrate by going out and watching a three-hour movie.
All of it.
Adam -- 1Y quit, 12810 not smoked, over $1,216.96 saved.
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