Julie took a stand and stopped letting cigarettes control her life. But she did it with help.
Everything I did was controlled by smoking cigarettes and my need for a nicotine hit.
It affected everything and I was tired of it. I was sick of trying to fit my life around smoking and making smoking comfortable for me and others.
I took a stand.
It hasn't been easy or fun. Most people I know are very supportive. But I still have smokers in my life. They know that their time to quit will be soon and they have been a bit cautious about commenting on my quitting. I have given up so many times I cannot count.
This time I have given up, just me, patches and the Quit Coach, the people at work didn't even notice until I told them. They weren't smokers.
I hope this is the last time. Each time I started again it was because someone I admired was a smoker and I was spending a lot of time with them. I have a smoker in my life now too.
I gave up patches two days ago. That has been pretty difficult. I just stopped using them. After 5 weeks. I think I am pretty clear now, it's now been about 50 hours since I took off my last patch. I'm still here so it can't be all that hard.
If I can do it anyone can. It's just putting one foot in front of the other.