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Menno D Keeping It Simple Jan 01 2018
Menno D Keeping It Simple Jan 01 2018
Huge congrats to everybody here today. Doesn’t matter if you are three hours quit or 30 years. The fact that you are here says you decided to be free from nicotine addiction. Which is the best health related decision you can take in your life. I want to share with you some of the things that have helped me in keeping my quit so far.
Keeping it simple has been of the utmost importance in keeping my quit. There is no grey in fighting addiction, there is only black and white. I either smoke or I do not. Being quit means no smoking. The rule is called NOPE. Not One puff Ever. This is the bottom line and the basis. Practice NOPE and there is no way to fail.
The beginning of your quit can be hard. As a matter of fact for almost all of us it is. Yet it is always simple. Always remember that you keep our quit by not smoking. Having a puff, or ‘just one’ is smoking, it is not being quit and will lead you back to your old habit in no time. So never have another puff again. Early on you might have to remind yourself of that rule every hour or even every minute. But it will get better I promise you.
Know why you are quitting and remind yourself of that regularly. Do a bit of research on the subjects of nicotine, smoking and addiction. You will find conformation there is really nothing good about smoking. It really is all bad. Being quit is really all good.
Being quit is good for your physical health, and that of those that are close to you including your pets, Everybody by now knows of the adverse effect of smoking on your physical health. Tobacco kills up to half of its users. Tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year. More than 6 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke (numbers are from the 2017 WHO factsheet on tobacco). Smoking causes COPD. Heart disease. Arterial problems. 70 Types of cancer. Please google for a list of all the diseases tobacco can cause. You’ll have no problem to expand this list. And know that quitting smoking will not reserve all bad effects that smoking had on our bodies, but the ill effects will stop. And quitting will greatly increase our chances of having a longer healthier life.
Being quit is good for your mental health. We mess up the chemical balance of our brains by introducing nicotine in the system. Both our hormones and our neurotransmitters get messed up by nicotine. After quitting the natural balance will be restored. Do allow for some time to have this happen, most of us have abused our bodies for decades before quitting. Our bodies and brains need time to heal.
Beating addiction is also a huge boost for our self-image and self-esteem. It is just such a great feeling to know we are able to beat such a powerful foe as addiction is. The feeling of control is extremely empowering.
Being quit is good for our financial health. Before I quit I spent over 10% of my net income on smokes. And the prices of tobacco products are rising faster as other commodities. Both globally and locally the poorer people tend to smoke more. All the more important the poorer people quit throwing their money away by smoking and inflicting harm on themselves, and having even less money to spend on the things that are important in life.
Being quit is good for our social health. Quitters say they are afraid that they will miss out on friends and information because they don’t smoke anymore. The opposite is true. Out of 7.6 billion people in the world ‘only’ 1 billion smoke. And you’ll have many more chances of social interaction as a nonsmoker in today’s world were smokers are constricted to ever decreasing areas where they can practice their addiction. A world where smokers are seen as losers, as addicts, as pariahs. And rightly so.
Don’t do it alone. Being here has been the difference between success and failure for me. Being amongst my fellow quitters, my fellow addicts. Being able to share all this addiction stuff that other people aren’t interested in. Finding support. Supporting others. Reading about other’s struggles and successes. Feeling safe and secure in sharing my vulnerabilities. This place has made my quit work. There are other places which might be just as good. You might have all the support you need in the ‘real’ world. Just do not try to do it alone. Because doing it all alone is addicts behaviour.
Use all the knowledge that is here on the site and on the whole www. Know the 5 D’s. HALT. The 3 post rule. Make and use a Quit Kit. Etcetera. Take the trouble to find out what I am talking about here. Invest some time and trouble in your quit. It takes some work but it is so worth it.
We can ALL do this. Love and hugs from Amsterdam, where the new year started as the old one ended, grey, dark and damp. Never mind, a day not smoked is a good one! Have a great smokefree day and year all.
