good morning/quit smoking

[Guest guest]

I know that I don't post a lot in this group, but I do read and seeing that we touched on something that I am currently battling myself, thought I might add my two cents.

Quitting smoking has been a pretty easy experience for me THIS TIME. I have quit 2 other times. And the last time, I sank so far into a depression that's when i found out the true meaning of depression. In the past 7 months I have lost one Great Uncle to multiple types of cancer and then about two and a 1/2 months ago I lost a cousin to breast cancer, well many others for her also, but that's where it spread from and within the last year my mother's sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was there when they told my uncle that his cancer had stopped responding to treatment, is growing and developing in old and new places and was left with the responsibility to pass that message on to the rest of my family, first and foremost, my grandmother. I quit smoking 8 weeks ago, 2 weeks before my cousin passed away. No matter what the knowledge I had of what smoking does, it was a crutch like no other. In my eyes, it relaxed me, gave me a time out to calm down from whatever had given me the reason to smoke, it was a best friend that was always there for me, no matter what my mood. My kids are 12 and 10 and watched all the sorrow that went on with my uncle and my cousin. They watched the reaction all those times that we got phone calls that one of them was back in the hospital again, thinking okay is it going to be this time that they pass. I can't even begin to tell you how many times they watched my mother and I go thru this. It was a huge deal that I quit smoking and now a days they push so hard on the anti smoking in schools I am hoping that all of this will stick in my kids minds and they won't start. Their father, smokes outside.

Cliff will quit when he is ready, and he's got to be ready. They say it takes an avg. of 7 quits before a person is really done with the smoking. The thing about the patches is they still carry the nicotine, they just taper him off slowly, so it's not such a shock to his system. It takes around 96 hours for nicotine to get out of our system. After that it's the habit of smoking that tempts us back to smoking. We have to find a new habit to occupy our time, our hands and that's when we make it thru the withdrawals that we experience after quitting. Like I said, psychologically, smoking is a friend that is never mad at us and always there for us. Evil, never turns us away.

No matter how much I pleaded with my mother when I was a kid and my kids pleaded with me, it was something that my mother and I had to do in our own time. An addiction is an addiction and is something that will stop when the addictor is ready for the quit.

Please don't get me wrong, I am still the ciggy butt counter for my hubby, I am the reformed smoker towards my husband, still keeping tabs on how much he smokes and encouraging the new quit date that he has not set for himself yet. It took THREE major tragedies in a years time and a tax increase on the price of cigs again to quit. That's how powerful this drug is. I will pray for Cliff and you, you because you have to live with him while he is quitting.

Patti

-- good morning

good morning everybody hope you all are having a great morning well its not that cold outside just the wind makes it feel like it is its 59 outside but that wind makes it feel colder ,well we got a lot of our christmas decorations up yesterday well the outside cliff put them up so he wont smoke he not doing good on his smoking i am calling our dr this morning to get cliff the patches to help him not want a cig or whatever they have to help him not smoke ,i think he smoke some yesterday so all please pray that cliff be deliver form this horrible habit that destroys the body well i pray everybody has a great day ,i got a lot of ironing to catch up on and do some crochet for christmas gifts so talk to you all later

cheryl