I just realized I’m 9 years quit and here’s my quitting story.

I started smoking at 18 to piss off my parents during their divorce. Absolutely genius of me, I really got em’. I joined the Navy at 20 and had the perfect out. I hadn’t smoked for weeks! But of course I bought a pack as soon as I hit the airport. I remember doing it and thinking to myself the this was a dumb choice. But it didn’t stop me. I would only smoke more before I quit. I went to two packs a day, unfiltered camels or lucky strikes. I got out and smoked until 2017. Though I quit for a very short period at some point before then, I just don’t remember when.

I remember around 2014 I was homeless, working the kitchen in a bar and just broke up with a long term toxic relationship. My only out was to take my grandmothers offer to move in with her. I got back on my feet there and cleaned up my act. I stayed there for a bit got a good job and decided it was time to quit. I had fully made up my mind. It was time to cut it for good. I tried gum and patches. Didn’t work. Just made me sick to my stomach enough that I didn’t touch them again. Then I went to vape. It got me off cigarettes, but it was just too interesting and fun with all the flavors and vape rigs people were building. Then I realized some weird symptoms I was having were an allergy to propylene glycol. It was then, after all of it that I had the determination to just quit. I had made up my mind so strongly that it didn’t matter that my grandmother smoked in the house. I was done! That held true to this day. I only lapsed once when my biological father died. It physically hurt when I did. I threw the whole pack out right after.

I have about a craving once a year or more. There’s still nothing as nostalgic as the smell of a fresh lit cigarette from a passerby. I was actually able to enjoy a true Cuban cigar on my honeymoon in 2022 without triggering my addiction back up.

If you are reading this and trying to quit or struggling with your addiction. Please know that you can do it. You are strong enough. You do not need that cigarette. Your body and brain have the tools to get you through whatever stress or trigger you are experiencing. You just need to push through. Even if you relapse, that’s not failure, that moment is another chance to stake a claim to your body and the universe that you are DONE smoking!!

I believe in you.