Ok...so LOL I haven't posted about this except for on Facebook for now because every time I have attempted to quit smoking before I have failed.
This time around though has thankfully been far different from all my other Quit Smoking attempts and I'm not really sure if there is a single reason or a combination...most likely a combination starting with me being really ready to ditch the smokes.
Over the last 6 months or so I have been more serious than ever before about stopping smoking...trying everything from Hypnotherapy to Zyban and in between lol and I think each method played their part in my reaching a successful quit.
The hypnotherapy made me realise how much I bury things and tamp down on my emotions, and smoking was another way to do that...I started smoking full time during a very difficult year of my life after toying with it on and off during my school years...peer pressure, bullying and being desperate to fit in somewhere...anywhere lol
Then the zyban more recently, though I didn't actually quit smoking on it, I did cut down to around a third of my previous intake of cigarettes...this from a 40+ per day habit. That alone was an accomplishment I was proud of LOL
During this time I also started visiting the No Smoking Forum and reading reading reading lol
I have a very active mind and reading and learning has always been my thing 
It was around this point that I started researching books to read after briefly watching a dvd called Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking...though it made a lot of sense it didn't really sink in as much as it needed to at first LOL so I borrowed the book from the library, read it a few times. I think I still hadn't reached that point where I was completely ready to ditch the addiction, a deep part of me still felt like it gave me something and I would be depriving myself if I "gave it up".
Three weeks ago, I also downloaded 3 eBooks: Allen Carr's Scandal, Joel Spitzer's Never Take Another Puff and Freedom From Nicotine by John R. Pollito
I started reading Scandal first, the day before I actually quit, and kept reading it followed by the other 2 while I stopped smoking and they really helped me get through the first days....and see that I was depriving myself of nothing and giving up absolutely nothing.
Since that day that I stopped (10:30am on Wednesday 8th September 2010) not only have I not looked back, aside from a few rough times I have mostly enjoyed the journey...I am breathing easier and day by day feeling healthier...the biggest surprise was my skin, I always had what I thought was a layer of dirt and sweat on my face that I used to scratch off with all this gunk scraped under my fingernails...I have a phobia of water on my face LOL so facial cleansing was not a regular habit for me LOL but since I stopped smoking....that layer is completely gone...completely! No washing needed....it was the filthy nicotine-filled smoke that left it there...YUK lol
So...lol from there to here has now been almost 3 weeks (I will reach that mark tomorrow morning) and...I FEEL GREAT lol
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