Giving up Smoking

[david63]

We have had umpteen discussions about smoking on here and in most of them there have been comments about having given up smoking.

Partly out of curiosity and partly as a possible help to anyone thinking of/trying to give up - how did you give up?

[david63]

I gave up over 25 years ago. I had quite a bad cold and was literally unable to smoke so I just stopped - never planned it and never went back to smoking.

[Boris+]

Hi David,

Mine was plain and simple - pregnancy! The thing which made me feel 'queasy' at that time was the smell of smoke and the taste of smoking. So for me it was quick and easy - and I never went back to smoking.

Em

[oldbluefox]

I gave up about 30 years ago ironically in a situation where I could buy tax free tobacco.
I had tried several times before and failed but technically I have never given up - I just refuse the next cigarette. It started with a rasping cough and sore throat which gave me a start. After that I told myself if I wanted a cigarette I would have one. If offered one by my friends I would politely say 'Not just now thanks' and if they asked if I had packed up the answer was 'No. I just don't want one at the moment.' For months I had several packs in the cupboard and the freedom to smoke if I wished without soothsayers saying 'I thought you had packed up'.
And I have never touched one from that day to this, although I must say after a lovely meal it was a nice way to relax and I missed my after dinner cigarette for a long time. Now I just don't think about it.

[Kendhni]

In 2000 Julie convinced me to buy a new house ... at some point shortly after signing the contract I wondered how the heck I was going to be able to afford the much higher mortgage and still smoke ... so after a short discussion with Julie, I lost the argument and it was agreed I would give up smoking.

Several people in work were also trying and we all chose zyban (having tried the usual gums, patches etc.) ... Zyban is a seriously cookie drug. Several of my colleagues had to come off it because one of the side effects is that it makes your skin feel like it is crawling, it also has a side effect of insomnia (something I still suffer from 13 years later). You had to smoke for the first 10 days (or so) while taking zyban and it was strange ... after 2-3 days you got no enjoyment from the ciggie, you got no kick from it so you usually ended up putting it out after smoking less than half. 10 days in you just go cold turkey.

The other problem is that zyban is addictive and so you then have to ween yourself off it.

Can I say that one of the biggest helps in cutting it out is getting the support of those around you ..and not just verbal but also in action as well. I gave Julie a long list of 'do not's' including do NOT keep me waiting, do not argue with me and she stuck to that. I was like a bear with a sore head for a couple of months and Julie backed down every single time but it worked ... although 13 years later Julie still reminds me of all the good will she earned back then (usually just before she asks if she can borrow my credit cards)

I would still have the very occasional cigar when I am on holiday, but that is it ... the money I save went towards paying down the mortgage, which is now virtually non-existent, so it now makes a significant dent in the costs of our holidays.

[ChesterfieldJohn]

I quit because I realised that I had gradually increased my daily intake.

I just didnt buy any more and stopped taking them when offered.

After a while it just never bothered me.

John

[Quizzical Bob]

Never having smoked I can't really advise about quitting, but I know many who have. Hypnotherapy seems to have a good success rate and the charges are guaranteed. I know others who had the intelligence and willpower to go cold turkey. I have also had to watch two close colleagues who were smokers die painfully from cancer in their early 60s. One was a committed smoker, and proud of it. The other had given up too late in life to save him. I will not condemn those who choose to smoke, but I will encourage any who wishes to quit.

You never see a happy smoker.

[Keechy]

I gave up over 25 years ago. I had quite a bad cold and was literally unable to smoke so I just stopped - never planned it and never went back to smoking.

You've reminded me that it's two years today that I stopped smoking for much the same reason, except I had pneumonia, not just man-flu! (One point to me I think )

When I recovered, just in time to go on Arcadia to the Caribbean, I bought s few of the electronic cigarettes just to give my hands something to do but eventually I stopped using those too.

My OH on the other hand was quite a heavy smoker - about 30 per day - and I bought her a Socialites refillable electronic cigarette which I call her 'Bong'. That was about a month or so ago and she's down to three or four a day. The Socialites cigarette is expensive at £50 but you get two in the box and a little bottle of juice which you can get in reducing amounts of nicotine also in different flavours. We got our £50 back in about a week so it's been well worth the money.

We bought the cigarette from a stall in one of our local shopping centres but they are available on line. Just Google Socialites.

[GillD46]

I only smoked for a couple of months or so when I was a teenager. I just realised how much money I was quite literally burning and as a nurse saw the effects smoking had on peoples lives and health. I was invited to a post mortem and saw a lung dissection - after that it was a no brainer and I just stopped. I have never regretted stopping and never even thought about smoking since.

[david63]

Gill - that reminds about how my Dad gave up smoking. He had smoked for about 40 years and one night was watching a program on TV about lung cancer and when he saw then cutting damaged lungs out of people he said "That's it" and stopped there and then.

[Romig1]

I was smoking up to about 20 a day from the age of 18ish to 25 (yes I started at University like a sheep ). I had tried to stop on several occasions but it was always half-hearted and I always started up again...usually after a few weeks at most.

After I met Wina, we discussed going on a holiday, but as I had recently bought my first house money was tight and I was saving for furniture etc. I worked out that in the few months to the date of the potential holiday I could save sufficient money for the cost of it, simply by stopping smoking - so I did.

Never had one since then, been smoke-free for almost 20 years now!

[Quizzical Bob]

Congratulations to all those who have managed to escape the clutches of the dreaded weed. To those who want to but can't, try to use the experience of others as encouragement.

[emjay45]

I was like Romig. I started smoking at 18 to join everyone else and because I actually thought it made me look sophisticated. I gave it up just after I married so over 40 years ago now. My reason was like Em pregnancy. Even in those days we were told it wasn't good for the health of an unborn child.

[sunseeker16]

Slightly off topic but I remember reading this ages ago and thinking how much sense it made

If you want to do the best you can for a child (your child, your grandchild, a god-child, niece, nephew, whatever), when they are of an age to appreciate the deal, enter into a 'contract' with them, that if they are not 'a smoker' at age 21, you will give them .....[that depends on you and your circumstances and, to a degree, whether the child is rich enough to ignore you anyway]. The dots could be money, a car, a property, something of great sentimental value which they covet.


Apparently few people become 'a smoker' after age 21, though of course many (most?) will experiment in their youth.

As I said, it sounds like a worthwhile and long-lasting gift for a child you love. And it won't work for everyone, of course.

I think the article also said that 'smokers' tend to be the kids who get into scrapes of whatever sort as well, as they are the 'edgy' ones, the ones a little bit outside mainstream, the true or pseudo rebels, easily led blah, blah. There may be a touch too much cod-psychology in that

[Manoverboard]

As a fairly heavy smoker I gave up over 20 years ago, it was not easy but it was simply a question of will power ... and a lorry load of nicorette-ish chewing gum.

It can be done and there is no excuse for not doing so, the pain of stopping is far less than dealing with the consequences of not doing so.

[oldbluefox]

The downside of giving up smoking for me was the stone and a half weight I put on, which I am still trying to shed. My addiction to cruising doesn't help of course nor my desire, when I see something good to eat, to put it in my mouth.

[Kendhni]

OBF, you got away lightly (excuse the pun) ... I put on nearly 4 stone in weight (and unfortunately am still putting it on ... but that may be love of eating)

[Mo2013]

I had to stop because the day before I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was hospitalised the next day. I went from 6 st to 10 st, was in hospital for five and a half months and bedridden for four. Body's never been the same since but hey, I didn't die.

[gfwgfw]

Hey Ho

I have never indulged in any "toxic" weed

Both my parents and associates were heavy imbibers of tobacco

Two of my best work mates were misfortunes of the weed - tobacco, and knowing that to continue indulging they would die a painful demise, they both continued to suck the toxins into their wrecked lungs and their ASHES are scattered on the beautiful Purbeck hills

The point of this post is

Be a little considerate to our passive smoking brothers and sisters

Passive smoking is truly a misnomer - I am at almost *** years old can still run to catch my friendly number 18 yellow to town

Lubooo

Graham x

[gfwgfw]

. . . . and neither my late Parents or associates could be deemed to be classed as our dear friend from Watercress Land loves to classified those hooked on Benson and Hedgers

[Mo2013]

Hey Ho

I have never indulged in any "toxic" weed

Both my parents and associates were heavy imbibers of tobacco

Two of my best work mates were misfortunes of the weed - tobacco, and knowing that to continue indulging they would die a painful demise, they both continued to suck the toxins into their wrecked lungs and their ASHES are scattered on the beautiful Purbeck hills

The point of this post is

Be a little considerate to our passive smoking brothers and sisters

Passive smoking is truly a misnomer - I am at almost *** years old can still run to catch my friendly number 18 yellow to town

Lubooo

Graham x

My brother smokes like a chimney, has done for years, but is in rude good health - I contend that both you and he have been extremely lucky.

[gfwgfw]

Hi Mo

Yep

I am a lucky so and so, I even phoned the talking clock for a chat

And so grateful for it

Lubooo lots

Graham

[Mo2013]

Indeed Graham. Luboo u too !

[Kenmo1]

In 1992 my OH gave up smoking the day he had a heart attack at the age of 49. We didn't even realise it was a heart attack. He took gaviscon for about a week thinking that the pains he was suffering were indigestion. He looked OK and had always been very healthy and the last one you would expect to have an attack and as he didn't go through the collapsing,clutching your chest type of heart attack we didn't realise what it was and it was only after the week of 'indigestion' when the pain got really intense that he went to the doctor. A year later, after they tried angioplasty, he had to have a coronary by pass because his main artery was 90% blocked and the doctors blamed it on smoking. He gave up the instant he had the attack but he then needed something else and that was Polos and tic-tacs. There were packets of them all over the house/in the car just about everywhere. After 6 months he went back to work as a lorry driver and, touch wood, other than 7 tablets a day like statins/blood pressure tablets/aspirin and all the others for the heart he is fine and recently turned 70 - how different life could have been.

Our son was 18 at the time and really took on board the blame the doctors were putting on smoking and there was no way he would ever touch a cigarette after that. Shock tactics sure do work.

[GillD46]

Kenmo. Very best wishes to your husband, that he has a long and enjoyable life following his heart attack. And well done to him for stopping following a scare - too many don't.