I was checking out the April 2014 Resolute Bastard spreadsheet this morning. Looks to me like we have 59 active as of today. If I am doing my math correctly would mean 70 have come gone or caved. 46% success rate. We have more than one member with less than stellar posting records. I am concerned for them. We have all been around here long enough and many have spent a good bit of time reading threads, roll posts and participating in chat to realize the direct relationship between not posting roll consistently and posting more than one Day 1 in your life. The consistent theme of retreads is,"I thought I had this", "I drifted away", "I thought I arrived when I reached HOF", "I thought I could have just one"....the theme is all the same. I know I am still struggling. Is it better?, hell yes a thousand fold. Will the nic bitch be whispering in my ear in few weeks while I am sitting in a turkey blind trying to convince me that turkey hunting was somehow better with a dip in last spring? I have no doubt she will be. I will still be posting roll. I will be reading intros, advice and truth offered to new quitters like I read in AirbusPilot's intro this morning. My plan for now is continue to post roll every day and read and participate enough to assure my addicts brain will always be armed with the truth and that I will never romanticize the role of nicotine in my life. I had a 5 year stop in the 1990's, I am a retread....not on this site, but in this battle I am. I never want to post or have a Day 1 again. I never want to forget what that first 30 days quit was like, how much it sucked, how badly those close to me suffered while I lashed out and was miserable. I forgot this before and it cost me years shoving shit in my lip. That's my truth and my plan. It may not be yours, but as HOF approaches we each need to have the conversation with ourselves.
Sam83...excellent post and I agree especially on 2 points:
1) To the newbies....Never, ever romanticize the role of nicotine in your past life. That nostalgia will lead you to "just one"....and then you're done. Beware of those insidious thoughts. You will see them in various intro threads. Correct the poster. Their words are more than dangerous. For them, and for others reading them who might be taken in by that false charm of the past.
2) There is indeed a connection between poor roll posting and caving. We've seen it in our group. It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. PM'ing them, calling them out on their intro most is sometimes successful, but more often than not generates excuses, or they just choose to go into hiding. It's lame to seem that behavior. As a fellow quitter, I find it frustrating that their give-a-shit ratio is so low. And that's maddening, because this is about something that REALLY MATTERS.
Finally, as my quit rolls on, I find it increasingly difficult to chase or drive every KTC'er that is letting their quit degrade. It burns up my own quit energy....energy I need to drive and succeed in my own quit. Yesterday, I had a day full of craves...but I sucked it up, posted roll, read threads, logged onto our April FB page, and kept busy outdoors with chores all day long. You'd think someone in the 90's would be on auto-pilot with their quit. Not so. It is a daily struggle, and to slip back would be failure and possibly death. We know this is not a game. Quit on with you ODAAFT.
ZC.
