“It was pretty scary once I realised that I couldn’t actually go a whole day without it. Once you’re addicted I think it becomes a routine and you don’t even notice that you’re doing it. And when you try and quit smoking, it’s like; you almost have to retrain your brain to not pick up a cigarette. I think relapse is a part of quitting smoking and staying smoke-free for the rest of your life. I’m able to work out where I went wrong last time to be able to quit this time around.

…It’s going to be a great feeling when I can finally one day wake up, go through the entire day without really thinking about it anymore, you know? That’s a day when all of my chains are going to be broken free. I won’t have to be, you know, sort of trapped by something.”

Read the transcript:

I picked up my first cigarette when I was 14 years old. My parents raised me to never pick up a cigarette and I always knew that it was a bad thing to do but honestly like, I started smoking because everybody else was doing it. I thought it was cool and honestly now looking back on it, it was probably one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made.

I always thought to myself, ‘I’m just a social smoker’, you know, ‘I’m only going to smoke when I’m with my friends, I’m never going to buy cigarettes for myself.’

It was pretty scary once I realised that I couldn’t actually go a whole day without it. Once you’re addicted I think it becomes a routine and you don’t even notice that you’re doing it.

And when you try and quit smoking it’s like you almost have to retrain your brain to not pick up a cigarette. I think relapse is a part of quitting smoking and staying smoke-free for the rest of your life. I’m able to work out where I went wrong last time to be able to quit this time around.

The last time I started smoking again was right after I had a night shift. The scary thing was it was like my head was on auto-pilot. I drove straight through the servo, bought myself a packet of cigarettes and then I started smoking again and I didn’t even realise it. It does creep up on you like that and it does take over you.

I am a cigarette smoker and because of that I have a lot of mates who smoke as well and if I were to try and quit I’d definitely tell all my mates that I’m trying to quit. Cigarettes are always there and so now that I’m trying to quit smoking, I ask my friends to not smoke around me because it does make me sort of want to go out and just have one puff and then end up relapsing again. They know that it’s nothing personal and they know that it’s just for the first few weeks while my cravings sort of subside, you know, just for this period of time to not smoke around me.

It’s going to be a great feeling when I can finally one day wake up, go through the entire day without really thinking about it anymore. You know, that’s a day when all of my chains are going to be broken free. I won’t have to be, you know, sort of trapped by something.