Turkey's Triumphs: Page 18
Messages from cold turkey quitters who've remained nicotine-free for at least 1 year
Victory@WhyQuit.com
I had been smoking for about 20 Years, inlcuding 6 years of "trying" to quit... What a journey!
But when I realized what it was all about, I was able to call it quits in the blink of an eye. That was over 6 years ago. I stopped counting the days at week 1 because my new identity was being a non-smoker again. I didn't see the need to drag on counting how far I have moved away from being a smoker. I simply switched identities! One day you smoke - next day you don't. Loved it! (still do)
I wish everyone could do quit smoking like that. I feel for all those who have trouble quitting. There is really no way around it, but the ciggies don't fly into our mouth by themselves. We put them there.
And if we honour our own spirited choices, why would we ever have another puff?
When I was a smoker, I thought it was who I am. Once I discovered I could simply call myself a non-smoker and then behave like one... that was it - I made my choice and haven't regretted it since, on the contrary!
Just be gentle on yourselves, friends of all genders and nations - we all got scammed by what we thought was some cool and neccesary skill to aquire - when we were young and dumb. (remember the sick feeling in the beginning?)
Now that I know much about how smoking made me feel and how it made me a slave to the nicotine $$ industry, I am FREE!
To all who are on this journey right now - bless you, you can be a non-smoker again - because you are born that way. All you have to do is... remember your natural non-smoker and let go of the poison!
Quit smoking happy :-)
Dimitri F.
Whangarei, New Zealand
I smoked for more than 30 years, and was aware I wasn't actually enjoying all the cigarettes I was smoking, but had no idea how to stop. Anyway, in 2003 on Christmas Eve, I passed blood in my urine. I was so shocked and went to see my doctor straight away. After a load of tests and things pointing to kidney stones, I was called to see a consultant who said, "Bad news, I'm afraid; you have cancer."
A small sentence, but with big implications. I had a tumour in my left kidney. He also said that, as a smoker, I had been 10 times more likely to get this tumour than a non-smoker, that I should stop, and would I like to see a 'smoking cessation' officer. My wife and I both went and ended up with patches and nicotine nasal sprays. So now we were getting all the nicotine we could wish for, more than we'd ever had! I had my kidney removed along with the tumour, and two years later my wife and I were still on the nasal sprays! We saw how ridiculous this was and decided to stop when we went on holiday, but withdrawal was so bad we started having a cigar now and then, and of course we were then back on the cigarettes. Every time I smoked I was beating myself up and feeling like a fool!
After many failed attempts, I found WhyQuit.com and learned all I needed to know to stop: what was happening in my body during withdrawal and how to cope with craving; why you can't 'just have a crafty puff'; why you don't need to put on weight, and so on.
I stopped on April 17th 2009, after fishing a half-smoked cigarette out of a public ashtray I had seen a colleague discard (like I was tramp!)! Life is unbelievably good without cigarettes and I can't see how I did it for so long. So now I am still clear of cancer (touch wood!), although I still have endoscopies every year to check my bladder. My wife is still smoking her friends' cigarettes even though it upsets our daughter, so I can see the denial factor first-hand.
I want to thank all at whyquit for enabling me to stop, and hopefully I can lead my wife down the path to quitting.
Adrian
UK
Hello my Dears at Whyquit: I'll be on the road the 8th of Oct. my 10th anniversary so want to stand up and say thank you for helping get me here. Sometimes I'll see someone take a puff on an cigarette and frown with the knowledge that I 'actually' used to smoke. Impossible to image dragging on cigarette ever in my life. Did I really put toxic fumes into these vivacious pink lungs? How could I!
I'm grinning here as I'm still so darn proud of quitting, even after 10 years. I'll never forget you all who held my hand through the tumultuous months the first year, with encougement to continue on as you made me feel I was more than a puff of smoke in this giant universe of ours. You, we, who lend a hand to others are really saying that we value each other and want the best for all and will stretch out with our care into the cyber world to help us become all that we can be. (Sounds like an ad for the army doens't it?)
I'm forever in your debt, and gratefully still a non-smoker with some very healthy lungs still running 4 miles a day at 69. Who woulda thought 10 years ago I'd still be alive much less so fit.
Humbly yours,
"Sweet Smelling Dionne"
I'm very glad to be able to say that life after nicotine addition just gets better with every passing year. When I think of cigarettes at all, it is with gratitude that I don't have to smoke anymore. And EVERY addict can have this freedom! We just need to earn it, one moment at a time, this moment, right now. Everytime we choose, this moment, to NTAP, we say YES! to life.
Bernadette
6 years free!
Your website contributed greatly in my success with quitting smoking, and I never told you. After nearly 7 years of being 100% totally smoke free, I figured it's time to let you know.
The biggest thing I got from your website is that someone who's trying to quit cannot do little puffs and half-cigarettes here and there. That's not quitting, that's smoking. If I'd not been made aware of that, I wouldn't have been so cautious. I credit that one piece of knowledge with a lot of my success. Funny thing is, in all the quit-smoking literature I ever read, I never saw that particular piece of advice written anywhere else.
I threw off the shackles of my smoking dependency the day after my 40th birthday. About 2½ years before that, on an Easter Sunday, I told my uncle that I was planning to quit smoking on my 40th birthday. "Hmm, that's interesting," he said. "I quit smoking on my 40th birthday, and your grandmother quit smoking on hers."
Wow, that was really it. I just had to be successful! I was, but it was really tough. Being addicted to cigarettes is like being in love with an anus.
Anyway, thank you to all of you who developed and maintain this website. It was such an important place for me when I was preparing my mind for the big event. To a large extent I credit your words with my success in quitting.
Elaine Boyd
I just realized it's been 7 years since I took my last puff. I started smoking when I was 12, quit with the help of your website when I was 21, now I'm 28 and so grateful that I quit when I did. I was just remembering how much help your website was, and how many thanks I owe you and the others who maintain it. I still recommend it to anyone I meet who wants to quit.
I am so much healthier and happier now than I would have been if I'd kept up that disgusting addiction. You definitely touched my life. Thank you so much for your help!
Kathryn Thomas
My name is Joseph, and after 50 years of smoking 2 1/2 to 3 packs a day, I have been nicotine free for 2 years, 6 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 57 minutes and 24 seconds (916 days). I've not smoked 54965 death sticks, and saved $2,854.35.I've saved 190 days, 20 hours and 24 minutes of my life.
Joseph
Yes indeed folks, it has been ten years since nasty nicotine has had its way with me! As always, I am saying a rather huge Thank You to my late, great, mom Vivian and everyone here for helping me to quit and stay that way for life.
It has been a wonderous journey of nature walks, flying kites, and great flowers to stop and smell, and I can really smell them now!
Whether you quit 10 years or 10 minutes ago, congratulations!!! Celebrate!!! You are on your way to a better life and a big winner in my book! I am here to tell you that it is soooooooooooo well worth the effort!
Peace,
Geo
Today I celebrate seven years of freedom from nicotine! It has been a great journey. In this road I found myself, the woman who was born without a cigarette in her mouth. I met wonderful friends, some of who are not there anymore, probably because of this terrible addiction. Others continue their journey close to me. I am thankful for all of them.
When I quit I had a really hard time; it was the education I received here that got me through that period, and the support I found in this forum. For that support and education I will forever be grateful of the managers that have maintained this place running for all these years.
I used to spend many hours here during the first years of my quit. Now, I enjoy returning here at least once a year to assure newbies that this can be done, that your life is worth saving, that knowledge is indeed power, and that reading and using the tools available here will help you maintain your quit. You are worth it! Give yourself the chance. There will come a day when smoking will be part of your memories, but not something that you will want anymore for you or your loved ones. I promise that day gets there before you know it! Hang in there, you can do this!
Never Take Another Puff!!!
Cuca
Free and Healing for Seven Years, 19 Hours and 40 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 266 Days and 10 Hours, by avoiding the use of 76,735 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $14,944.45.
2 years ago today, I got up, put on a nicotine patch and "quit" smoking. The "quit" lasted until I got home from work and opened my "just in case of emergency" pack of cigarettes. I chain smoked the entire pack that evening and that was the start of a 2 year cold turkey quit.
In the early stages, I spent A LOT of time reading "Never Take Another Puff" and eventually joined an online stop smoking support group. Understanding the nature of nicotine addiction played a major role for me in this process.
The first year seemed so hard but the second year flew by almost effortlessly for the most part. The only time I ever really think about smoking anymore is when I am exposed to 2nd/3rd hand smoke against my will. At this stage, I find it to be beyond repulsive and even entertaining the thought of smoking is simply not an option for me.
My family and I went out for a celebratory dinner tonight. I recommended this site to our server who has a family member who is trying to quit. Hopefully, this site will help that person as much as it has helped me.
For recent quitters out there who are struggling, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not a train coming at you :-)))).
Never Take Another Puff!!!
Chuck
Southern California
Well, it's again this time of year! I am celebrating the 3rd anniversary of quitting smoking, and I gotta say, it's getting easier by the year.
I read several messages from other people and their stories made me double-happy, for them and for me.
I want to thank everyone behind this God given miracle called WHYQUIT.
Thank you
Dimos
Greece
I quit cold turkey 18 months ago, I had help from a 4 day hospital stay for a Blocked Right Coronary Artery. Heart Attack. 2 stents.
Thanks to Whyquit.com for inspiration.
Thanks,
Hank
13750 Smokes never took a puff on.
I quit smoking August 8th 2009. I had been smoking since I was 14, I am now 32. I had never really tried to quit before because I thought I was too addicted to ever quit smoking. When I would see other peoples struggles with quitting I never even wanted to try. I would see friends and coworkers try NRT's for a week or a month only to eventually go back to smoking. I had also been told that it takes at least 3 quits before a smoker could stop for good. How could I even handle 1 quit? If I missed my scheduled smoke break by just an hour or so I would start freaking out.
Then one day going into work, after not feeling well over the weekend, I realized I had not had a cigarette in 2 days. Just for the heck of it I decided to check out quitting smoking websites. When I stumbled across WhyQuit.com I became immediately encouraged. According to WhyQuit most everything I knew about quitting smoking was wrong. Finding out withdrawal peaked in 3 days was great news. I already had 2 days under the belt, just one more day till withdrawal symptoms peaked.
I immediately followed the tips on WhyQuit.com. Most importantly I threw away my cigarettes right away. I also chose to abstain from drinking for a few weeks. A Friday happy hour beer was always accompanied by a cigarette.
The first couple of weeks were extremely difficult. I would read whyquit.com, and the free eBooks they have available, for hours a day. I read them over and over. I constantly reminded myself that quitting smoking was the most important thing. If I did not quit it would kill me. I was really looking forward to one year without smoking. I could not wait to post to the turkey's triumphs that I too, had gone 1 year, without using nicotine.
As the months passed by it became easier and easier. My visits to WhyQuit became less and less frequent. I would go days and weeks without even thinking about smoking. I can enjoy beer and not even think about needing a cigarette. Perhaps what is most surprising? I totally forgot it had been 1 year since I quit smoking on August 8th 2010. It was a Sunday and I was busy with my weekend activities. When I went to work the next day and looked at the calendar I realized "oh my god! Yesterday was my one year anniversary from quitting smoking!"
Now I am sitting in front of the computer and MSN's website is flashing "10 tips to help you quit smoking for good." I clicked on the tips and I could not believe the horrible advice they are giving. They advise wait 32 days before quitting! They also suggest using NRT's. It reminded me that perhaps its time for me to post to the turkey's triumphs. After all, just one year ago, I could not wait for this honor.
Daniel Elley
I had tried all different methods to quit, during the 20 years I smoked, patches, cessation sessions, herbal cigerettes, and cold turkey. After spending 3 hours reading your site I quit cold turkey & I've never smoked again nor had a craving.
I just wanted to thank you for creating the site to encourage people to quit and let you know it works.
Loui
2.5 years after reading WhyQuit.com
Like an idiot, I started smoking at age 15 and by age 41, I was fed up with it but could not quit. I had tried many times in the past to quit. Sometimes it was semi successful and lasted a few weeks but, I always went back. One day I decided to surf the net and happened upon your web site and read every word. I don't remember everything but I remember the important parts. I even cut and pasted some stuff to print out and keep with me. That was just a little over a year ago. I no longer carry that paper of things to expect when not smoking but, today; I am one year smoke free. I hope I can stay smoke free for the rest of my life. Thank you for the information and inspiration.
Sincerely,
John M. Holt
P.S. I just forwarded your site to a friend to read. That's what made me want to send this note.
As my fourth year of FREEDOM from smoking approaches tomorrow I can't help but bless this place called whyquit.com and all you people here who keep it alive and keep all the lights on for those of us out here in the dark.
Tomorrow I will be busy with my special celebration of four wonderful years and may not remember to get by here and say thank you.
So....
Thanks for showing me how to take back my life. Thanks for having so many answers to the many questions I had along the sometimes rocky road to freedom. And most of all, thanks for the extraordinary feeling of serenity and peace that I now feel every day.
Freedom from smoking brought me a happiness from a lack of stress created by nicotine consumption that can never be described in simple words. It must be felt and experienced.... but it is DIVINE!
And so thank you and bless you all here at WhyQuit.com
(I always read here but never joined for fear I'd fail but because you this site I didn't not fail and I LOVE not smoking!)
Debra Dean
down in Texas
Just a quick note to let you know how much of a help you have been in my quest for FREEDOM. I've been free from nicotine now for just over a year, and it is GREAT. To be honest, it still dominates many of my activites, just being FREE. The knowledge you share so freely has been a tremendous help on this journey. THANK YOU!
Clifford Kellogg
It has been 19 months since I took my last puff and I have been smoking about 30 years. Again, thank you.
Alfredarj
Hi there! My screen name was "KMac." I wanted to let you know that I've preserved my quit, and as of today, have been nicotine-free for a year. I could never have gotten through those difficult early days without the support I found on the FFN boards, and the education at WhyQuit went a long way towards helping me quit in the first place.
Thank you,
Katy (KMac)
Gold!
It's hard to believe that it's been one year since I wrote what I believe is the longest post in Turkey Triumph history. I started this with the intent that this would be a much shorter entry, but I don't believe that I was able to keep it short. Who could keep it quick and not go on and on over spending two years on the free side of addiction?
Without a doubt, the second year had very few difficult times, but I still faced the fleeting trigger that would last a second or two. People ask me sometimes whether or not I still think about having one, and they're normally very intrigued when I say that I will always want to have one. I tell them that I will always want to have one, I want it to be the best one ever, I want it to be the one that you have when you get in the car after a stressful day at work, or the one you light up on a Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee, or maybe the one with pizza and beer on a Friday night. That's the one I want. And I think about that one often and miss that one.
That feeling hasn't changed in two years, but what has changed since the first day two years ago is that I know that I don't have the option of having "one". I've lost quits before from "one". I can go to the Freedom boards and see what happens with "one". As we all must always remember - 1 = all.
But even better than realizing that 1 = all, is having the understanding of why the cigarette seems so good in those situations. It's not that the cigarette made it better, it's that something in each of those perfect cigarette scenarios above all involved nicotine being metabolized right before the cigarette ended dangerously low levels of nicotine. It's not that the cigarette made things better it just kept me out of withdraw and made those situations not as bad. How I can I ever be defeated when I understand my own junkie defenses and can recite the law of addiction forwards and backwards?
I wanted to share something that I've been doing since I quit. I see many of the posts on the Freedom board and even on the Turkey Triumphs mention the amount of money that people have saved. Early on, I decided that I would not only track that, but I would accumulate the money and use it as our family's vacation fund. About 3 days into my quit, I set up a savings account online and started a recurring transfer out of my checking account into this new account every pay day.
As an accountant, it wasn't enough for me to just multiply price per pack X packs/day X number of days quit and keep that amount in a quit counter somewhere. In the beginning..I smoked 30 cigarettes/day at $3.39/pack (before tax), so I transferred $71.18 every two weeks into this new savings account. By my calculations, my family could buy season passes to the local amusement park, have a week long vacation at Disney World every other November, and have enough left over for a smaller weekend trip each year.
As we all know as former smokers, the $71.18 didn't last long. The first big change happened with the SCHIP Tobacco Tax increase, this propelled my per pack price from $3.19 pre-tax to $3.99. I updated my bi-weekly transfer for that. Not long after that, I could convert my life insurance from smoker rates to non-smoker rates - time to increase the transfer again. Finally, after two smaller price increases (leading to a pre-tax price of $4.45/pack) my payday transfer has swelled to $108.07 every two weeks! $108.07 that I'd be spending every two weeks on new nicotine...and I'd have nothing to show for it except a greater risk for death and a few more burn holes in the car upholstery (no those aren't in the bi-weekly transfer).
In November 2009, my family spent our first week in Disney World using the cigarette funds. Can you believe it? A family of four spending a week in the happiest place on earth all from not buying about 8 months worth of nicotine. What sense does the alternate make? I could have a vacation with my family that we'd always remember or I could continue to contribute to the non-refundable deposit on my premature death.
Over two years, we've been to Myrtle Beach, bought three years of those season passes, spent a weekend at Lewe's Beach, DE, a four day weekend at Wildwood, NJ, and a few other smaller trips. Since the increases in cigarette prices were coming in faster than I could spend them on vacations, I started another tradition - my annual celebratory dinner. On my anniversary date of 7/21, I invite most people I know to help me celebrate freedom with a complimentary meal at a local Mexican place - if you attend, everything is free - meals, appetizers, drinks, desserts, it's all on me and my cigarette funds!
Beyond the money, I also had another celebration this past year. Since I was 16, I had suffered from migraines. I'd get them about once every month or so, and I'd get the full migraine with the auras of blurry vision, numbness on one side of my body, trouble speaking, difficulty concentrating, etc. I'd been to two neurologists, had an MRI, had prescriptions on hand, and even had a room at work that I used to sleep off migraines when they came and I couldn't function.
On December 8, 2009, I celebrated one year without having a migraine. Almost 15 years of suffering once a month and running through every possible trigger trying to figure out some game plan to avoid the migraines, I never once considered that the cigarettes were causing it the whole time. I've since continued the streak now for almost 20 months of no migraines.
I had another little milestone on April 9, 2010. I went to an Oriole's game and for the first time since 1992, I got to my seat just before the game started and didn't get up until the game ended. I didn't have to run out to the concourse area every three innings to bring my nicotine levels back to a comfortable level. The logic of paying for a ticket and gladly sacrificing a half an inning three times a game to not watch the game makes my head hurt. I can't believe I ever thought smoking was a choice.
During the first year, I'd spend a lot of time trying to convince myself that quitting was the best thing. Over the last year the thoughts have been more centered on wondering why I ever thought differently. Still with no regrets in quitting outside of not doing it sooner and now charged with one important task - doing all I can to keep my two daughters away from the same addiction that I've battled.
Only one way to stay free - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Gene Short
eugene26@comcast.net
I've skipped my last 21,900 formerly mandatory nicotine dosages over the last 2 years, 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, and 0 minutes (730 days). Avoiding these 1095 packs has extended my checking account balance by $4,939.71 and my life by 76 days, 1 hours, and 0 minutes.
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