Turkey's Triumphs: Page 24

One year free from smoking. Smoked for 35 years. So you all can do it! Thanks Whyquit.

Andy Coleman
England

I found your web site 3 years ago as I started my search for online aids to help me quit smoking. It's funny I saved your site on my favorites back then and visited it again tonight. I started smoking when I was real young, maybe 14. I smoked my last cigarette on 6-5-2010 (my 42nd birthday) and I will never smoke again. I just wanted to let you know that your site helped me quit,so keep up the great work.

Thanks

Tim

• Smoke getting in my eyes and hurting like it was blinding me - wondering what it must be doing to my lungs even though they don't have the same nerves to feel it.
• Forgetting my lips were too dry and ripping the sticky skin off on the filter, making them bleed.
• Waking up exhausted, and half-remembering that I was coughing viciously during my "sleep."
• Smoking for 5 hours while driving to see my parents, then stopping at a gas station a half-hour away to dump the ashtray, change my shirt, wash my hands and car interior, put on aftershave and deodorize the car, and still being too self-conscious to really hug my mom when I got there because her sense of smell is so strong. (Even as a grown man, I was too ashamed of my addiction to admit it to my parents.)
• Knowing their cat could smell the smoke on my fingers, and being glad he couldn't talk.
• Going for an hour-long lake swim with cigarettes and lighter in a ziploc baggie under my ball cap.
• Dropping my smoke while driving, burning my fingers and my bum and my car seat, and almost killing myself or others while I veer the car and try to find the cherry at the same time.
• Constantly gagging and dry heaving while brushing my teeth, sometimes even throwing up a little in my mouth.

{taken from a forgotten notepad of smoking memories from about 6 months into my quit}

Dear Joel, John & Whyquit.com,

I have waited exactly one year to write you this letter. At first it was a "pipe dream" (hah!), as I was certain I'd never make it a whole year. Then slowly, it became possible, and I began to look forward to it like a kid before Christmas. And now, I don't quite know what to say. So I will try to only say what is most important, but I will probably end up rambling a bit. Sorry.

I couldn't join here because by the time I knew the rules it was too late for me. I was mad about that at first, but anyone reading this in the same shoes needs to know - it doesn't matter. Everything you need to understand your addiction and keep your quit is all here whether you join or not, for free. And you need to read as much of it as you can. Because you need to understand. You are an addict. Your brain has physically adapted to nicotine, and you need to rewire it, and it's going to hurt. And because of that, your brain has become your own worst enemy, and is not to be trusted.

And yet, somehow knowing "why" makes all the difference. I found I could step back from myself, and be objective in the most literal sense of the word. I not only was ready for the pain when it hit, as it must, but I could see it for what it was, and know that if I could just stand my ground and hold on, it would subside. And if I could KEEP hanging on, and hanging in, bit by bit it would start to weaken.

Folks, this is called "rope-a-dope", and it's how you win. At first, when it hits you, it will chop you to your knees. And then it will keep on hitting, and you will despair. But then you dig even deeper, and it hits you and you keep your feet, and you wipe the blood off your lip. And you smile. Because you just realized that you're starting to win.

And after a year, at least for me, it's hard to even remember what it was ever like to be a smoker - like waking from a nightmare that you can feel yourself forgetting. In fact, that's the real danger now. Yes it'll take you lurkers and newbies a whole year to get where I am now - but it will only take me about 30 seconds to get back where you are. As this is my one and only quit, I just have to take that fact on faith. And so do you.

And if you're not sure you can do it, try it anyway. I know people say you have to want it more than anything, and be completely committed - I think sometimes that scares people into giving up before they try. I had no intention of ever quitting, and when I did I didn't even really believe it. And now here I am, waiting for you. Like some other person said here before me (paraphrasing): "Try it for a year. If you don't like it, I hear it's a cinch going back." Yup. Fat chance.

Most of all, to everyone involved with this website, thank you. It's difficult to really express how grateful I am. I know beyond a doubt that the only way I've kept this quit is by understanding and internalizing the lessons and stories on these pages, and that above all else, 1=all. And so I find that maybe I owe you all my life, along with a lot of others. And I just don't really know how to say thanks for something like that.

Your friend,

Ben
Vancouver, Canada

I started smoking at the young age of 15. My whole family from my mother's side are smokers, and I was raised to be a smoker. They smoked in the same room even when I was a baby. Many relatives have died of small cell lung cancer. I'm 30 now I have been quit for 1 year. I exercise, run and feel that I have my life back. I'm living life to the fullest. I want thank Joel and his whyquit.com lessons as they were the fundamental tool for my success. I will never take another puff!!!

Cruz Lara

Feb 17 was one year free of cigarettes. This forum was instrumental in getting me though it. I just wanted to thank everyone here for the support and encouragement. And let people know this can be done!

Christine DiPietro

March 5, 2009 at 5:52 AM, That was when I smoked my last cigarette, and the day I started Thanking all of these people.

THANKS! to my Coworkers, who keep saying you do not look good, are you sick?
THANKS! to the Nurse at work who called the Ambulance.
THANKS! to the ORMC Ambulance driver and EMTs that arrived on the scene.

THANKS! to the Emergency room Staff and Doctor that kept me stable till the Life Flight helicopter got there.
THANKS! to the Helicopter Pilot and the Paramedics on the Life Flight ride to Des Moines.
THANKS! to the Mercy Hospital Cardiac Cath Lab Doctors and Nurses.
THANKS! to the ICU Nurses.
THANKS! to the regular floor Nurses.
THANKS! to my friends and family who came to visit.
THANKS! to every one that sent Get well Cards and gifts.
THANKS! to my friends who got my car out of the parking lot at work.
THANKS! to the discharge Doctor that let me go home and told me to NEVER SMOKE AGAIN!!!!!!!!.
THANKS! to my friends that brought me home.
THANKS! to the ORMC Cardiac Rehab Staff.

THANKS! to WhyQuit.com for giving me knowledge to realize it can happen without warning!!!! and it did!!!!!!!

Now when people offer me a cigarette, I say "No thanks, I am allergic, apparently they make my heart stop beating."

Thanks for sharing your information. Four Years Quit and Happy, very very Happy to "Never Take another Puff."

Hank

I wanted to be rid of cigarettes forever, but fear of letting go stood in my way. Knowing exactly how nicotine was affecting my mind and body, and having a complete understanding why I became addicted, ultimately gave me the inside information I needed. Reading how this drug chemically lies to the mind and body, fooling me into wanting more, boosted my courage to begin walking through the withdrawals and stay quit.

I didn't want to think of myself as a "drug addict", but the truth is: I am. The only reason I would light up a cigarette, and inhale that toxic smoke into my precious lungs and body, was to get the drug nicotine. I have made the choice to never be a slave to my addiction again. Whenever someone asks me how I quit, I send them to this website, and tell them my story. You can free yourself from the grip of nicotine addiction!

Thank you. I have read and shared your web site many times. It helped me stop smoking, and stay quit. Today, I celebrate 5 Years Without Smoking! That's 1,825 Days Tobacco Free.

Brian Hamilton

Dear Friends,

Please allow me to express my sincere appreciation for your efforts in helping the nicotine afflicted free themselves. I count myself among them. Today marks 4 and a half years of being nicotine-free. My most recent trip to the dentist brought the memory of it all back. All of the tell tale signs of the damage that smokeless tobacco had on the inside of my mouth are gone. Still, I understand that I remain at an increased risk of various cancers of the mouth and throat, although that risk is steadily decreasing.

Simply said, the "WhyQuit" website was invaluable in helping my break free from an addiction that I am not certain I would have been able to overcome without.

Sincerely,

Stephen J Browne
Chadwicks NY

I was on facebook today congratulating a friend on her successful quit of two years!!! And I told her how I've kept my quit since June 29th, 2007!!! And how your website helped me tremendously.

So I thought I would come over to your site and just say thank you! When I discovered your website back in the latter part of 2006 I was currently working at a hospital. I understood a lot about smoking, but I understood a lot MORE about how much I DIDN'T want to do it!! Ha!

But the knowledge I found out when I read and re-read your online materials over and over, I REALLY understood THEN that I DIDN'T understand how I could not have even have just one single puff or I would start my addiction all over again.

How terribly ADDICTIVE the cigarettes were was something else that was made so much more clear to me through reading. And then lastly, really understanding the whole dynamic of what my withdrawals were going to be like was another amazingly insightful and helpful couple of web pages.

I have to tell you thank you!!! It was because of your website that I truly came to the knowledge that set me free from this viscious viscious waste of health and money addiction!!!

With the knowledge always there in my head, I truly walked so much more effortlessly through my withdrawal symptoms, PLUS the later (even years later!!) sudden temptations!!

When I understood, REALLY TRULY UNDERSTOOD WHY I couldn't have not one puff something deeply clicked in my brain and my heart. For that I thank you sincerely, because I've kept my quit!

There is so much more I can say about the website and the accountability it caused me to respect enough to take the whole thing seriously. The lists of why we think we like smoking, why we smoke (the excuses we make up!!!), why we should quit, the website just rocked!!!!

But I want to make sure I send this because for some reason I never have written you before, but yet ive literally told hundreds of people about your site! So gentlemen, thank you for your efforts, for your hard work, for everything you do. From my heart I thank you.

Very Sincerely,

Michele Colaner

In one month, I will be smoke free for three years. I smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for forty years, and I was a slave to nicotine. I could afford to smoke, I didn't cough or wheeze, and nicotine had somehow convinced me that I actually enjoyed smoking. In reality, what I was enjoying was the lessening of the anxiety, irritability, and restlessness, that the nicotine had caused in the first place.

This site, and others like it, provided a "quit" blueprint so that I knew just what to expect. I eagerly awaited the challenge because I was ready to regain control of my life. I chose a day and pulled the cold-turkey trigger even though I knew it would be hell or worse for the next three days. As each wave of mind-numbing desire for nicotine washed over me, I rated each of them from one to ten. The highest-rated wave hit me late on the second day - it was about a twelve, but I didn't flinch - I embraced it. As I staggered to my feet, I might have even said "Is that all you've got"? Trust me, knowing exactly what to expect when you quit will be the key to your success. You can do it!

My sincerest thanks to Why Quit and the "victory sharers" for all of their amazing help,

Dave Freeatlast