Night Shift

All right, good night. 🙂

Hi @plasmo, how are you?

@Snuchu, yeah, I know the problem. My two closest people here have been users too. This includes my partner who I live with. I couldn't cut these people out of my life, they simply mean too much to me. This made things a bit more difficult and they weren't exactly helpful either while I was cutting back. But because I was committed to eventually giving up, I still managed to reduce while being around it all the time. When I gave up completely I was surprised to find that my partner decided to stop using too ('on a break' he said but he hasn't restarted), and my close friend has just taken to rarely smoking when I'm around, so as to help me. I think they must have just come to respect how dedicated I was in getting there in the end. In my partner's case, he is really happy he has stopped now too. I didn't try to convince them that they should do this, they just did it of their own accord. I hope something good like that can happen for you too. Either way, you can still do it.

this is on the radio next..,

When it comes to the way you think about yourself, does the 'voice in your head' become kinder as you get older? Or do you become more critical of yourself? Trevor discusses with Professor Susan Paxton, of the University of La Trobe's Department of Psychology.

@plasmo, interesting topic. I think the voice in my head has got kinder as I've got older. This is probably a bit due too wisdom with age and a bit due to better medical treatment for my bipolar (better medication). There are advantages to getting older, and downsides too of course. We all have our difficulties at different times of life I think. From what I've experienced, it just changes over time as to what those advantages and disadvantages are. Other people might think really differently about this.

@Mazarita, interesting. I don't think they would cut down like yours did, but I guess I could ASK them to try to not smoke around me.

Thinking about it, if they did smoke around me, I would (almost 90% sure) relapse because I would remember all the fun I had while smoking. 😞

@plasmo, hahaha. Yeah, they're probably right about the way we talk to ourselves sometimes.

@Snuchu, it's definitely worth asking if they will consider not smoking when you're around, or not as much. But if you start the recording process anyway, you might find that you are better able to cut down more than you think. At the least, you would be working on cutting down on what you are smoking at home. When I started tallying, I realised that was my biggest problem anyway, how much I was smoking when I was alone.

@plasmo, @Snuchu, I'm heading off to bed now. Catch you both later.