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Amy L Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I have...
Amy L Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life 2016
Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. And that says a lot because, like many (maybe most) smokers, I have been through a lot. Smoked a pack a day by 14 and never looked back. Through trauma, loss, and violence, my teen and young adult years were sort of a train wreck. As I got older, things evened out. I became much more balanced, healthier, with a fulfilling job, life, career, friends, marriage.
Smoking was the thing I kept. That pack a day was with me from 14 to 45. Sort of a link between the younger me and my more well adjusted adult self.
I didn't even quit for a great reason! My husband left, and for a year, I sat on the porch and smoked. Then he called and said he had quit smoking and lost 50 pounds and worked out every day. I couldn't believe it. I quit because thst just wasn't going to happen - him smoke-free, after years of me trying to get us to quit? Get healthy? Exercise? Hell no.
Since then it has changed. Keeping this quit is like being in the middle of a bridge and walking forward. I read people's posts about slipping, hanging on by a thread, craving, struggling, and I identify with all of it. Smoking was part of what I thought made me me. Now, it isn't. But I will never, ever understate what a huge change quitting was. Wow, this post got kind of emotional but hopefully in a good way. There is so much to gain in the process of quitting if you let yourself! So post, struggle, vent. It is all good.