Being a very independent person, I found it hard when quitting smoking even thinking
of going to a smoking support group because smoking cessation I thought was something I
could manage on my own. My theory was that all I need was will power and I knew I had
plenty of that but as it turned out I didn’t have as much will power as I thought.
My first mistake and inspite of thinking I had plenty of knowledge about the side effects
from quitting smoking I was wrong again. So with a heavy heart I had to give into the
thought that maybe I was unable to quit smoking on my own and decided to join a
stop smoking support group.
Joining a quit smoking support group at first it felt like an admission of guilt, that I
didn’t have enough will power and knowledge to handle this by myself. Before looking into
a support group I thought I was in control of my smoking habit and would be able to quit
when I wanted to. I soon found out that smoking was controlling me and even though I
knew that it was bad for my health,I was finding it hard to quit. By joining the quit
smoking support group I was finally admitting that smoking was an addiction to me and
that is the one thing I didn’t want to admit to myself. The image of myself in my eyes I
didn’t see myself as an addict I thought I was a stronger person than that, so the one thing
from joining the quit smoking support group made me realise and understand that this first
step is very painful and I needed to be honest to myself and the support group helped
because everyone else in the group were the same as me and that I was not alone,
when first starting.
At first I was not even going to go because I was ready to give up even before the first
meeting. But thankfully I did go because they welcomed me with open arms because many
of them had gone through the same experiences as me when coming for the first time.
I made new friends quickly and we worked together to quit smoking.