Coming in, as usual, a day late and a dollar short ... (and totally wondering what's up with Dune Dude's purple gorilla thing...)
But me, like Dune Dude, freaked back in the day when we heard about 70+ quitters giving up the quit. I was so grateful for their honesty and openness and, dare I say it, humility, in exposing their weakness and "failure" to this entire group. They, more than spouse, more than drugs, more than anything, kept me on track.
Their message was always the same: it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how long you've beem quit, it doen't matter how strong you think you are, YOU CAN'T HAVE JUST ONE, BUCKO.
These heroes exposed their lives and broken hearts and wills to us to persuade us that NOPE is a lot more than an acronym. They came back to us from standing outside in freezing weather. They came back to us from their smoke-infested basements. They came back to us from their cars with windshields too sticky with nicotine to see through.
They came back to us with their tears and heartbreak and self-loathing to tell us that no matter how enticing it seemed, it was truly not worth it. Each one of them, God love them all, and Dune Dude will back me up on this I know, had that one coveted, longed-for smoke, and came back and told us IT SUCKED and they felt like hell for doing it.
I miss it still. Part of me still says I need it. Part of me says I'm far enough along to enjoy one little smoke... no big deal. The reality was, I had a "planned slip," if there is such a thing, at the end of January. I intended to smoke to see if I found it revolting after 3 months. I smoked, and to my horror, I was not revolted in the least.
I didn't chamge my quit meter because I didn't see it as a "slip;" I meant to do that to see where I was. I learned first hand what those wonderful prophets who came back after smoking "just one" have been trying to tell me: you can never, ever, ever, have that "one."
I did the "one" to see if it was true, and discovered that at least for me, it is very true. So now I know without a doubt. I can never smoke again. Period. I value my clear lungs more than I valued that quick nicotine rush. I value my smell -- whatever I might smell like at the moment, it's not cigarettes -- mor