I've only been a smoker for year now, my problem is I don't want to quit. I really don't know what else I would do at the bar, on break, when bored, hanging out.

Now I can't really afford to keep on smoking from a money and health perspective. What did you guys find to eat up that extra time and get you out of the office for 5 minutes or so?

 

Carl hope that you are doing well in this time and if I may I have put an observation together to post after this for any one that may want to see another point of veiw on tabacco usage in general. I will hope this will encourage and reencourage to stay strong against nicotine and for others that have not done that long, there is truly so many other things to do. It took me forty years to figure that out. This posting is dedicated to you Carl and to the ones that have fell to this addiction and could not stop fast enough.

 

I remember how hard it was to quit tobacco as there had been plenty of times that I have quit through the years only to get caught up in stress at work, at home, or both so when the stress was on I was quite sharp at times and even somewhat hateful which also helped me justify the need to get a can so that my work would go smoother and my family and friends would start liking me again. After the habit was restarted for me it would be a few weeks of a raw mouth while it got used to Copenhagen again but in the mean time things would be good again except my breathing changed some along with a cough and at nights when I lay in bed I could hear my heart pounding. There would be a little heart burn if I ate too much Copenhagen as well and in the last years if I didn’t eat quite right I would wake up in the middle of the night with a gastric upheaval such as abdominal pain that may last a day or two but was noticing the frequencies were getting closer. In my mouth my gums would start to look better over time and to some degree regenerate as the gaps in my teeth were not as pronounced but it only took a few weeks to get my gums back into the shape they were before with a hole showing up in my lower front teeth burrowing down into my gum that was requiring cleaning at the last a couple of times a day or it would get to burning pretty good. By the appearances of others my breath was burning as well. But this is all good for my mouth would get used to it again and easily handle a can a day and I have chewed and smoked some most of my life starting at 9 years of age with out any “real” troubles and because I have been around smokers all my life and chewed so long there was something missing in my system that required nicotine, noticed most when a customer legit or not would be chewing my rear end over a car repair to which for me there was nothing to do but dig out that nice sweet little can of tobacco and have a real nice dip while staring them in the face and spit a glob of brown crud on the ground in front of us while we discussed, all the while in the back of my mind I was a real man also worked with matrimonial difficulties as well. Last but not least we do not live forever so what is all this worry about tobacco after all if I start to have any real problems I will be the first to quit.

In the end the real first thing that brought me to my senses was a panic within when I was told my favorite tobacco had not come and would have to drive some more or wait so later that day as an unplanned quit on tobacco took effect I realized how much I would lie to my self to keep this habit first having a complete memory loss as to why I quit for I had started to feel better and then the stress, looking back now the majority of my stress under any conditions involved what I put on myself in false guise to convince me that I really needed nicotine to handle thinking out complex assemblies on a project or dealing with irate people to making sure my brain was turned on all the way before I diagnosed a automotive problem and last but not least it gave me courage before talking to a prospective date as I did not always fix my matrimonial problems the way I thought it should go. I can only imagine how charming I must have been. As time went along I suddenly realized that big feel like I could run a hundred miles never really kicked in but I lost the nagging cough, my breathing is alright again and have not had one those funny twinges I was getting along the way that would make my breath stop with a gotcha felt deep in my chest and my intestinal system has returned to it normal functions noted many years before and haven’t had heart burn in a long time. I find I can still deal with irate customers, children, wife, and ex plus I have a project going now with no need for nicotine to stimulate my thoughts, it seems to be going along just fine.

“If I start to have any real problems I will be the first to quit” was uttered out of my own father’s mouth while discussing others that chose to keep smoking regardless of health implications along with the proclamation that the tobacco he smoked would never give him emphysema (honest) well by the time he was forced to quit he had only a third of his heart and about a third of his lungs left with no options left for with no more lung capacity than what he had there was nothing to be done but wait, but he was right about one thing he did not have emphysema, he was just plugged up from all the tar.
I know the fight many of you go through and the days of self doubt and then regret after falling back again but it is still a battle worth fighting. I’ am still “green” yet because I have been off about 14 months but I have yet even lately to even consider going back for now I remember what it was like and even though young at 50 I feel truly free.

 

Since I quit smoking I noticed I don't cough up flem hardly ever any more. I used to hack up crap in the shower every morning and usually would hack one up in the toilet every time I went to the bathroom, and all over the floor at work.

Right after I quit I got bronchitis, the doc said it was from quitting. Since that got better I feel great, except I think it's gotten harder to fall asleep but that may be from other factors.

 

Congratulations to all of you folks out there who have quit and my best wishes to the folks who are in the beginning stages of the process. I hope to join you again very soon. My best has been 3 full days without a smoke in the last 30 years. I'm going to give Chantix a try this time.

Just some random thoughts, looking inward:
I've tried to quit a few times but my biggest issue is that I don't "want" to on some level. It's probably the addiction talking. I can think of hundreds of reasons to quit; the cost, the health issues, the wheezing, the coughing, the smell... It's easy to minimize those things in your mind, much like an alcoholic or drug addict who keeps using after the loss of everything else in his life. It's easy to ignore those things when you "want" to smoke, even though I can't think of a single valid reason to keep smoking.
I think another obstacle is fear of change. Change is unknown, change is "different", change can intimidating, hell change can be down right scary. A part of my brain can't imagine what it would be like if I didn't smoke.
I'll beat this habit eventually, hopefully before it's too late.

Strange story;
Back in 1990, my wife (now Ex) quit smoking when she became pregnant with our daughter. Wanting to be supportive and unselfish, I quit too. We were still newlyweds and hadn't had an argument to speak of for a long time. I hadn't had a smoke in about 18 hours and wasn't really feeling a craving. Life in general was pretty good.
We were snuggled on the couch watching TV and I suddenly got the most overpowering urge to haul off and belt her one. It was really bizarre. I didn't feel angry or resentful that I recall, but the thought of doing that was so strong that it really scared me. I went out to the front porch and lit one up and it soon passed. Never before or since have I ever had a feeling like that. I never told her about it.

 

The lady wanted me to quit smoking so I quit cold turkey 7 days ago. It sucks pretty bad and I would LOVE to go outside and light up but I figure my health and her are more important. Plus they're damn expensive. I'm just wondering how long it's going to be like this, with me wanting to go smoke all day long. I've got a good support group since my girl is allergic to cigarette smoke lol. I spent the last year we've been together ducking around and smoking when she wouldn't be bothered by it. It's got annoying. She would punch me in the face if I went to go smoke now after not doing it for a week. I say that literally

 

Addiction can make your mind do some pretty weird things. I've heard a lot of good things about Chantrix. You can do it.

 

I quit twenty-two months ago. That's about six hundred and sixty days, at five or six bucks a day, (your costs may vary,) so I'll use $5.50. That's THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY DOLLARS that I have saved so far.

That kinda makes it worth while.................... yes?

 

I know exactly what ya mean... my only problem is when i am at class or work and she aint around I just really dont got nothin to do and just find myslef outside getting some fresh tobacco heated air. I need to stop this, but damn RJ Reynolds just made these things too darn enjoyable. Hopefully I'll find somehting in this thread that will help me get my act together

 

Well, I occassionally go outside with the smokers just to get away from the desk for a few mintues. I don't partake, and I try to stand where the smoke doesn't hit me (ain't it funny how the wind will low the smoke toward the non-smoker?).

 

How about this. I'm a paramedic and probably 60-70% of the problems I treat are smoking related. What's worse is most of these people know exaclty what they are doing and won't quit. Try breathing through a straw. That's your life at 50-60.

Pretty much everything is made worse by smoking if it's not the cause anyway.

Mike

 

My 40th birthday is coming up real quick now I have decided to quit as a present to my self I have smoked a pack a day since they were 55 cents a pack 29 years and my doctor says I have lungs of a 20 year old. My trucks are when I will miss it most working on them means the smoking light is on. Maybe I'll get more done if I am not waiting to finish my smoke before I disconnect that fuel line. Ha. Ha. My plan is to get busy and stay that way till I can handle the withdrawls I made an attempt a couple of years ago and after 3 months it was still eating me up I was ready to kill someone and was to the point that, the someone, might have been me. Ha. Ha.

 

Thanks!

 

I QUIT!!!!






(trying to quit.... since i started trying to stop smoking my beer intake has in creased.... so im going to quit with my plans of quitting...

 

Quitter...