Five Years Without a Cigarette

(And over seven without alcohol!)

This essay originally appeared in the Exploring Sobriety newsletter.

Photo by Lex Guerra on Unsplash

Reaching a Milestone

I quit smoking on September 19, 2019, which makes September 19, 2024, exactly five years without a cigarette. I’m writing this newsletter a little in advance, so I haven’t quite hit the milestone yet, but by the time you read it, I’ll already be past it.

It’s hard for me to believe that so much time has passed since I quit. I’ve double- and triple-checked the dates because it truly doesn’t feel real.

I smoked occasionally in high school, but my nicotine addiction fully took hold when I was twenty. I began with an occasional cigar, which quickly became a daily cigar. Soon I was craving nicotine all day long, and I turned to cigarettes to feed the addiction.

By the time I graduated college, I had left cigars behind and was smoking a pack of cigarettes every day.

I remember already trying to quit smoking when I was as young as 22, but it wasn’t until I was 32 that I finally managed to stop for good.

Quitting cigarettes was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was even harder than getting sober.