MSN Home  |  My MSN  |  Hotmail
Sign in to Windows Live ID Web Search:   
go to MSNGroups 
Free Forum Hosting
 
Important Announcement Important Announcement
The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
askjoel[email protected] 
  
What's New
  
  AskJoel  
  Ask Joel  
  Questions/Answers  
  Prior Questions  
  Who is Joel?  
  Joel's Library  
  Links  
  No Medical Advice  
  Joel's Videos  
  
  
  Tools  
 
General : A relapse can lead to decades of smoking and and a lifteime of misery  
     
Reply
 Message 1 of 4 in Discussion 
From: Joel  (Original Message)Sent: 12/14/2005 3:12 PM
I need help.  I quit cold turkey and stayed off of this drug for 8 years.  I have been smoking this time for 23 years.  I have to stop  It is more difficult this time..
 

Basically, you know that quitting smoking by going cold turkey is possible considering you did it before. You also know that over time not smoking becomes relatively easy--a belief you probably didn't have the last time around. The most important think that you should know this time is that one puff--even after eight years, has the full potential of taking a perfectly good quit and tossing it out the window.
 
That one lesson is the most important thing you are going to have to understand if you are going to pull off a permanent quit. As far as recent attempt to quit being harder than before, that is fully possible. Every quit is different and often I will encounter people who at one time had an easy quit--lost it thinking that quitting again would be no big deal, only to find that the subsequent quits are much more difficult than the first time around. Difficult or not--quitting is possible and what ever suffering you may encounter from quitting will pale in comparison to the suffering you might go through if you don't quit and end up developing any of a number of conditions that cigarettes can cause.
 
I am actually heading out the door to a program I am doing tonight. If you go to the AskJoel board (http://groups.msn.com/AskJoel/askjoel.msnw) you might want to pose your question there. Another manager may be able to steer you toward some material to help. Otherwise, let me know if it is okay to post your letter there and I will direct you to some articles to help--although I many not be able to get to it until tomorrow morning.
 
Let me know if you want to proceed at the board.
 
Joel

You may post it.  Just to let you know the first time I quit smoking I fooled myself and thought that one cigarette 8 years later would not lead to a full addition.  I was wrong it lead to a 23 year addition which is more difficult to stop now.  I know I am in over my head this time.
 
One cigarette can lead to a life time of misery


First  Previous  2-4 of 4  Next  Last 
Reply
 Message 2 of 4 in Discussion 
From: JoelSent: 12/14/2005 3:18 PM
Related readings:
 
 

Reply
 Message 3 of 4 in Discussion 
From: MSN NicknameStarshinegrl-GoldSent: 12/15/2005 10:22 AM
Dear ??,
 
Thank you very much for allowing us to read your message.
 
One of the things that really helps me the  thought of how nice it would be to have Just one little puff sometimes and thankfully only for a nano-second (most of the time anyway) now is that I really and honestly don't know if I would have another quit in me. Your message shows all of us once again in a very powerful way what that one puff can lead to.
 
You said you need help and I admire you for that.
 
There are many people who also need(ed) help (3773 to be exact and the last time I checked) and who joined the best classroom anybody could think of in order to learn everything there is to know about our addiction. If you decided to enrol there as well, you would also find the most caring and wonderful group of Quitters to help you over any bumps you might encounter this time around on road to a really comfortable, nicotine free life.
 
I don't know whether you have done a lot of reading already but I would strongly recommend that you start educating yourself about nicotine addiction if you haven't already.
 
Your message made me think of the following ... for a start ...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You never know ... you might be among those who will very soon be able to say "I feel 100% better since I quit!"
 
It looks to me as if you are truly ready to take back your life. Go on, start with baby steps, take it One day, One hour or even one minute at a time.
 
There is nothing to be scared of at all.
 
You can do it, you must have learnt such an invaluable lesson from your last relapse that you will now be able to make the full Journey home.
 
Wishing you simply the best.
 
Gitte
384 days and a bit

Reply
 Message 4 of 4 in Discussion 
From: MSN Nickname_forza-d-animo_Sent: 12/15/2005 7:50 PM
We don't know your name.  We don't know if you are a man or a woman.  Truthfully, it does not matter.  We know what we need to know about you - You are, by your own admission, addicted to nicotine.  Once addicted to nicotine, you are never cured.  You know that now.  Many people relapse for the same reason that you did - They think that they are cured either because the don't understand addiction (They never learned.) or because they want to believe that they are different (They are in denial)
The only thing keeping you from quitting again, is you.  You know what you must do.  If you want to learn about your addiction to make the transition from active drug addict.  If you want to free yourself from the self imposed prison sentence of nicotine addiction and live free one day at a time instead of for the rest of your life then perhaps you will be interested in what we have to say.
 
 
 
Joseph
Nicotine free for 14 months

First  Previous  2-4 of 4  Next  Last 
Return to General