Quitting smoking

Hey everyone.

Just reading the Sane info page on quitting smoking, and after a week of planning it, I'm going to do it.

I went and saw my GP as the health pages say to do and we talked through the aids to help to stop the habit.

I have bought patches and I feel committed to it, but also a little scared.

What if I can't do it?

What will I do with all those feelings of wanting one?

How will I fill in those bits of time I usually do it?

I will try to focus on the health benefits.

I will keep busy.

I will do my best.

It's tricky because I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. I have schizophrenia which I manage to keep at bay with meds and support, and quitting smoking a BIG goal to try to pursue. So why would I try to quit when everything is going well, and cigarettes serve me in some ways?

I kind of had this awakening last weekend.

I have gotten well and the symptoms of my MI have subsided, which made me realise I have to do a bit more.

"Do a bit more" as in begin to create my life not from the perspective of 'being and having an illness' but from 'righto, I'm well now, what can I do to create the life I want?'

I wrote a list of the things I am tired of, and from there, ways I could overcome them. Overall, my list on my wall includes a healthy lifestyle, or as I like to call it, a journey into body, mind and soul.

I made it sound exciting and adventurous, because it will be. I am going to undertake some things that will be hard for me, but they're all part of my own personal adventure - without having to go overseas or white-water rafting (which, awesomely, I will be able to afford to do if I quit smoking).

So my personal adventure began on Monday and so far I have explored the health benefits of quitting smoking, talked with people and some of their strategies on how they quit, went to my doctor who supported me, shopped at the wildly cluttered chemist full of amazing lotions and coloured nail polishes, walked in the crispy dawn, and made an appointment with a really good psychologist next week.

I also wrote on my list of goals, that as I achieve them, new ones will come to fruition. And these steps after steps could be really wonderful.