Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot 
Those stats certainly give me more incentive to be done with this once and for all! I’ve quit before, for years at a time. I know I can do it again!
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I got my quit time down as midnight tonight, but I remember this is actually about the hour I extinguished my last sickarette nine years ago. My then bestie challenged me and her then boyfriend, saying we couldn’t stop anyway. I rose to the challenge (he didn’t). I never smoked again, no tobacco, no weed, no nothing. Nothing but air in my lungs. Never again.
Sitting at my desk I look around and I remember how my place looked and smelled. How the walls were a sickish brown, how the window frames were sticky with tar, how everywhere there was ash, pieces of tobacco, full ashtrays everywhere, burn holes in my furniture and in my clothes. My fingers brown, tobacco stench on my breath, everything I owned smelling of stale tobacco.
I remember my rasping breath, the coughing fits that woke me up, the ashtray next to my bed where a stub was always available to light, also in the middle of the night after having been woken up by a terrible cough. The shortness of breath. The mist around my head. The time I nearly killed myself, falling asleep with a cigarette in my hand in bed. The times I climbed an incredible hard long steep mountain in the Alps and lighting a cigarette ‘as a reward’ directly after, almost spewing my lungs out in the process.
I remember much more but that gives you an idea. Is there nothing positive about smoking? Nope. Nothing. OK, one thing. In the morning, after coffee and a cigarette (or two or three) going to the loo and doing a dump was easy. That doesn’t happen anymore since I quit. That’s the one thing I can come up with.
On the other hand, quitting smoking has given me so much. Better health in so many respects. Better breath. Better skin. Quitting has saved me about 50,000 euros by now (as a rough estimate). It gave me a number of road trips to the USA, something I dreamed of since I was 10 years old. Intact clothes. Intact furniture. A place that looks fresh after a paint job that was finally worth the trouble.
But the greatest gift quitting smoking has given me is a new outlook on life. It took me another four years to fully understand what an addict is, and that I was one. And that I needed to change my life because otherwise my addictions would kill me. I quit all other substances too, a good 5 years ago now. But that would never have been possible had I not quit smoking first. And found my tribe of quitters who helped me through. Who learned me I can’t do it alone. Life alone is not worth living. Not for me. We’re in this together. Thanks so much for being here my friends. I’m not alone and you aren’t alone either.
Smoking (and/or vaping) is stupid. Quitting is smart. Smoking (and/or vaping) bad. Fresh air good. Much love.
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Wow 9 years!
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Congratulations on the nine years and going forward Menno!!
Nine Years! Wow!
Your day one, you had the commitment to see it through and say €£@$ you cigarettes, I’m done with you.
You saved your life.
It’s really hard to imagine you having coughing fits all night, thank goodness you healed yourself from that and the dang habit.
I feel like you brought yourself from a world of smoky darkness to a world of fresh air light! 
Not easy at all but with commitment and one day at a time ODAAT you did it and have helped so many others while on your own journey!
Not One Puff Ever! NOPE
Congratulations on each and every day!
Lots of hugs and lots of love to your smoke free ( and alcohol free) self.
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You are amazing Mno – 9 years smoke free is outstanding! Grateful to see you doing so well and happy that this put in motion your sobriety journey. Sober and enjoying life on life terms - 
Keep up the amazing work 
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9 years of healing! Awesome!
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That’s great Menno! You are doing an amazing job. That cat has the “Don’t do it” face. 
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Fuck all the smoke shops popping up
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We don’t pay their rent anymore! 
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Yesterday i sat next to a pack and i didn’t see them, don’t feel the pressure, i think i will always be an addict ,even if i won this battle again.
it’s so fuck…good, i now people can do this , now i can see it.
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Glad to hear that you did not feel any urges being so close to cigs. We will forever be addicts - each day we remain sober, we grow stronger in our recovery and gain more tools to deal with the urges when they do appear. Congrats on winning this battle!
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@Tragicfarinelli I had a friend who cut up plastic straws, put cotton ball in the end and “smoked” them. It and a non smoking community got her through it. She smoked them ( the fake cigarettes) for years.
Gave her something to do w her hands and soothed her soul some while not reaching for the cigarette.
Something I think can be helpful is getting a stretchy hair rubber band, put it around the wrist and snap it to divert attn away from the craves.
And the big one … let the craves just wash over you. Feel it and feel it pass.
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I’m four days off vape now! 
Thank you for the tips. I am using a a losenge now and again when I need to.
It’s just time for me to be vape free now.
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On my thirteenth day vape free 
My hands are starting to recalibrate and not reach for the vape.
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That’s wonderful news. Retraining your hands is a major and positive change, and difficult at times. Stay strong, you got this
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Thanks. It’s so hard, but I want to beat this so bad.
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That’s an awesome sign! Way to go with your 13 days TF!! 
I kept quitting the vape, making an announcement about it here, then relapsing after a couple days. This time I wanted to wait to post until I’d made it past the hardest days. Today I’m officially ONE WEEK FREE of nicotine! I’ve come at with a different mindset this time – instead of telling myself I HAD to quit, I told myself I WANTED to, and kept reminding myself why. It’s been easier this time, and I can confidently say its going to stick.
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