Quitting 101

Here’s what I don’t like about bsarno’s post: he’s not describing tough situations. He’s describing life. That’s what many of your will not “get”. And that’s why a fair number of you WILL cave and come back (some 3 or 4 times) with a story of woe….which will be told in response to “what happened?”. Don’t give us the fucking “woe was me” story. That aint’ why you caved. I actually think some cavers come back and assume that quitters (real quitters, not pausers) live some sort of charmed life.

Here’s some news for you…

• over half of you WILL go through SERIOUS spousal issues and get divorced. Unless you live in that town were all the kids are above average.
• your parents WILL die. Some of them will go through a lot of pain before they pass. You will feel a lot of that pain.
• You WILL get sick and have some serious health scares.
• 32,000+ people WILL die in auto wrecks. You WILL know one of them.
• You WILL get laid off, fired, demoted, or pressured to do shit you’d rather not do.
• 800,000 people will end up filing bankruptcy this year. You WILL be one or know one or have one asked to crash on your couch.
• You WILL lose a spouse/partner. Half of you will be alive when it happens.
• A growing number of you WILL outlive your children (primarily to to obesity)
• That asshole with the checkbook WILL be in front of you at the grocery store, and they WILL refuse to write one fucking letter on that check until the last bottle of Ensure is rung up and they’ve determined that the 2-for-1 coupon does, in fact, cover the large can of SpaghettiOs.
• You WILL go through the same kind of shit everyone throughout history has ever had to go through… not using nicotine does NOT change the laws of “life”.

All these things WILL happen, so do yourself a favor and realize it right now. Bitch about it…sure. But KNOW that quitting every day means that eventually you’ll have to quit on the day Lassie kicks the bucket, the day you your grand baby is diagnosed, the day you lose the big account, whatever. Know it now….today…accept that you will have some dark-ass days ahead. Pray that they pass quickly. Hope that you live a charmed life. But PLAN on having to deal with the shit every one of us has dealt with, or will deal with. Life expectancy is 79 years…how realistic is it to think you’ll not have some seriously damn stressful days ahead?

This is all Quitting 101, and I’m not surprised when the same shit comes up in every new group. But I am always surprised with the number of people that seem to assume that everyone else DOES NOT have issues like they do, and thus need an explanation of what “life” is like. Quitting nicotine does not give you a pass from shitty life choices or shitty luck.

I’m not picking on Sarno…well yes…I am picking on him. No one here owes him a first shot much less a fourth. It is a privilege to be here, and he’s thus far taken advantage of that privilege. I don’t give a shit about his fourth opportunity to fuck us over. I’m not writing this for him. I’m writing this for you, the desperate one who has just realized that this nicotine thing has got them by the nads, and that they want help, and that they are desperate enough to actually put in some effort to make this thing stick. I writing this for the foggy bastard who just may read bsarno’s load of boo-hoo and conclude that we aren’t serious about really quitting, that it can not really be done. To you I say this…it can be done. It IS being done. YOU can do it. REGARDLESS of what comes at you. And when you “get” that…nicotine will be but a joke to you.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member Zam