So after 15 years smoking its time to stop. I'm 30 and definatly feeling the effects, mild smokers cough, knackered after running half a mile, bad facial complexion and sorry if you are having your tea terrible breath even after several brushes. Whats more'worrying started getting tension feeling in ribs, my body is telling me to stop! I've recently become a father and now spending time with other people who despise smoking. Dont get me wrong I have enjoyed it and seen me through stressful times at work plus to social aspect, fags breaks at work and at the pub. It has come at considerable cost though, I,ve shortened my life and worked out that it has cost £25-30k over 85,000ish fags but whats worse my patio is fag ash stained, its gross. So from tomorrow (had a last day blow out today) all lighters including car one going in bin and walking to work as I smoke a lot in the car.
I do hope this is the time. Who else is having a go? Did Humph stop?
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My FiL still puffs, but he's only 87.
My brother still puffs, but he's a youngster at 76.
/(*_*)
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He claims he did, I have my doubts tho.
I was a 20-25 a day man, for about 36 years, In the past I tried giving up, but about 6 years ago i did.
I realised that all the previous times I hadn't really done it seriously, didn't really want to give up. I decided I really wanted to give it the elbow, and just stopped. No aids, no placebos, no patches, no gum. It wasnt easy at first, but its just a matter of will power.
Its much easier now its banned nearly everywhere you go.
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>>I do hope this is the time.
YES it is !!!!!! GO FOR IT. You know it makes sense.
Dad, I do hope you make it cos little one will be programmed to hassle you.
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If you remember two things you`ll succeed!
1. dont have the first fag of the day
3. It`s not will-power you need, - It`s won`t power.
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I long ago gave up trying to give up. I'll continue my ten a day till they cart me off feet first, whether it's caused by smoking or that disgusting green stuff Mrs RR keeps putting in my sandwiches for "health" reasons. To my way of thinking, if food is green it's probably because it's gone off.
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>> If you remember two things you`ll succeed!
>>
>> 1. dont have the first fag of the day
>> 3. It`s not will-power you need, - It`s won`t power.
>>
From what I have been told
Deprived from placing fingers on lips , placing food in lips can occur with a resultant weight gain.
The sense of smell and taste will be enhanced ( returned to normal ?) so food is even more attractive.
The environment for you to suceed is so much better now.
We are a non smoking household and when bans started to be introduced I no longer had to change my outer clothes at the front door to avoid badly affecting SWMBOs breathing.
On arriving home from a smokey place I no longer had to jump in the shower / wash hair again to avoid impacting SWMBOs breathing.
Set an example to the new member in the household and ejoy the £££s in a different way.
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Well, if it helps to tell you this...
A friend of mine is 76, he was one of nine children. They are all dead except him and the eldest, who is 90. They are the only two of the nine who didn't smoke.
I stopped the fags in the 80s and took to small cigars. On Burns night 1992 I think, I was in a pub in Wealdstone and the air was so thick my eyes were streaming. As I took out another little stogie I laughed at the realisation of the stupidity of it, and that was it.
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I stopped - cold turkey - around 39 years ago.
It was surprisingly easy, after the first week or so. I started at 18 when in the forces and on board ship, tax free tobacco was, IIRC 1shilling for 20 Senior Service.
(A horse's neck was 8d - 6d for the dry ginger and 2d for the brandy - but that's another story!)
Today the smell of smoke is abhorrent to me.
My motivation was (a) a young daughter, (b) Mrs. R. had stopped while pregnant and (c) the cost, even in those far-off days.
When I think of all the money I have not spent on smoking, I'm happy.
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If you want to do it, you will and responsibility to a child who depends on you, health included, is as good a reason as you can find.
Ive never smoked, so its not an issue for me but my wife does and she has had a couple of goes at trying, but stress at her job tends to lead to a fall from the wagon. As such we are now tackling her stress and relaxation away from work to make sure we cover all bases rather than just the actual smoking.
Good luck.
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I went from twenty a day to a pipe about forty years ago. I gave up about thirty years ago, but then after about six months went on holiday with SWMBO and the kids............
I finally gave up around ten years ago. I don't know when, because I didn't make a song & dance about it. I just fell out of love with it. Work colleagues didn't notice for six months, because I still went to the smoking room with my cuppa twice a day (I realised I did it more to get away from the 'phone and catch up with gossip). The smoking room regulars took even longer to notice!
Later that year I had a fag at the works Crimble dinner - I didn't enjoy it.
I still enjoyed second-hand smoke for a couple of years and it doesn't bother me now.
I've said it before, I reckon we should encourage smokers, because they're saving us a fortune in taxes.
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>> I've said it before, I reckon we should encourage smokers, because they're saving us a
>> fortune in taxes.
Well, we should certainly thank them if they insist on doing it.
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I've not smoked cigarettes for 40 yrs apart from the odd roll up with coffee at a lady friend's house.
I've always had a selection of pipes and enjoy a drag now and again...never in the house tho'. Cigars were my great love, my bike buddy and I both gave up cold turkey about 10 years ago when we saw how much we were being ripped off for the same ones in the UK as we were getting in Belgium or on the ship. I liked the little Cafe Creme cigars but at 40+p a smoke, it's a no-no.
We both still fancy one when out on the bikes, like today coming back from a weekend in Brecon, and stop for a coffee.
SWM smokes a few Silk Cut a day, kitchen or back door area. She does get irritable and snappy when she tries to stop, though.
Ted
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>>I reckon we should encourage smokers, because they're saving us a fortune in taxes.
+1.
As for the OP - pretty sure I read a study a couple of years ago suggesting that smokers who stopped before 30 could be considered the same as non-smokers for life expectancy.
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What is it with all these stupid names?
Previously we've had Movember, now Stoptober.
IMHO, whoever comes up with them are a right bunch of April Fools.
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From Zero...
>>I realised that all the previous times I hadn't really done it seriously, didn't really want to give up.
And that is the point. You have to want to give up. If you’re trying because you think you should, you think it’s sensible, the money, the wife is telling you too, whatever, all that will happen is that you will be miserable for a period of time, and then start again.
And not just wanting to give up, you have to carry on wanting not to smoke.
It doesn’t matter why, what your reasoning is, but you have to WANT to stop.
I smoked for 30 years, or thereabouts. I was a heavy smoker, 60 a day or thereabouts, often more if I was stressed.
I stopped about 10pm on a Friday night when I was half cut in at the village pub. Very shortly after I couldn't remember what pushed me into it, and I still don’t know. But when I got up in the morning I realised I wanted to stop.
Don’t get me wrong, the next three months were miserable. The next 6 months weren't all that clever. But its 8 or so years now and I haven't so much as had a drag.
I’m fairly sure that if I had one drag now, I’ll have smoked 60 before the end of tomorrow, so I don’t.
Patches worked for me. They don't stop you wanting a cigarette but they control the symptoms enough for me to carry on working and not kill anyone. I heavily overdosed on the number of patches, the strength of patches and the length of time you’re supposed to take them.
In fact for some while I used to slap on a patch as a reaction to wanting a cigarette.
I made heavy use of secondary smoking as a release and I took up apples.
Sounds daft, but a colleague recommended an apple instead of a cigarette every time I wanted one. It worked for me but I ate a LOT of apples. Never touch one these days.
I don't carry about others smoking. Secondary smoke doesn't bother me one way or the other, neither does the smell.
Within about three months my health felt better. My wife says that I lost my hacking cough within about the same time period. Maybe, but I didn't even realise I had a bad cough.
I guess I must be healthier, but I do notice two advantages;
I don't have to get annoyed about smoking restrictions because they don't apply to me.
I don’t have to get annoyed by the zealots, because they've nothing to attack me for anymore.
And cash. Three packs a day takes a lot of cash. These days I get a few quid out of the machine and a week later I’ve still got some of it. Previously I’d run out in a couple of days.
But like I say, if you don’t actually WANT to give up, then don’t torture yourself.
And if you want to give up, then give up now. All this rubbish about I’m going to give up next week, end of this packet, on my birthday or whatever is just that, rubbish.
If you want to give up, then stop smoking this second. If you can’t do that, then I’d guess you don’t want to give up and you’re going to fail.
However, what I think and what works for me is not relevant. But life is a lot less irritating if you don’t smoke so its best if you can give up.
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vaping is an alternative. no coughing, sense of smell and taste back to normal and the strength can be varied of the 'juice'
and you don't stink
I only mention if the OP really cannot give up.
these anti smoker do gooders never seem to realise this
Last edited by: diddy1234 on Mon 1 Oct 12 at 09:01
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Well, good luck. I won't try to tell you it's easy. It's not, but if you are in the right state of mind to stop then you will.
For me I had to stop feeling deprived by not being able to have a cigarette but rather to feel pleased that I hadn't had one despite wanting one.
Can't really say why I stopped in the end though, I never felt any obvious ill effects and have always been otherwise fairly fit. I really did enjoy every single one I smoked. I suppose if anything I'd just become fed up with how inconvenient it has become to be a smoker.
The cravings are your enemy. For brief spells in the early stages of giving up they will feel impossibly strong but just remind yourself that they pass. Usually lasting only 5 minutes or so and each time you fight one off it'll get slightly easier to deal with the next one.
Eventually, you just forget to smoke.
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and don't forget the massive head rushes as oxygen flows in the blood easier ( after the first few weeks of giving up).
this was enjoyable and how helped me giving up.
Every time I fancied one, I had a few deep breaths and got a nice lovely head rush. yeh
just goes to show how much smoking effects you.
teeth problems are a mixed blessing though
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I started smokimg at the age of twelve.Pinched cigs from the old man senior service.Cheap at sea.After that rolled tobacco,When we where kids the majority of people smoked.Always enjoyed a smoke after a meal.Stopped smoking at 27.Not easy tough to get the drug out of your system its a way of live.Grandfathers smoked pipes and chewed tobacco.Not a good example.>:) Keep it up if you can stop saves you money.
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>> I've recently become a father
>>
Yhat is teh best incentive you have. Do it for your son/daughter.
>> It has come at considerable cost though, I,ve shortened my life and worked out that it has cost £25-30k
>>
Every penny that you don't spend on ciggies, put it aside in your child's Junior ISA
www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/junior-isa
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sounds a good idea.
I bet you could save up a healthy sum in that time.
then when they are 'young adults' still living at home and off your wallet then you can get really fed up and start smoking again. he he
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>> Yhat is teh best incentive you have. Do it for your son/daughter.
>>
edit: fat fingers.
"That is the incentive you have. Do it for your son/daughter."
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Do it for whatever reason. Smoking has given me a permanent reduction in lung capacity, even though I gave it up over 40 years ago, after another 30 years from first puff. This was no act of will: I simply didn't like it any more.
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I smoked for 24 years and I was fully addicted. It got to the point where I used to buy a pack of 200 every Friday plus a packet of 20 every weekday, and I was starting to spend more money than I was earning.
I gave up using hypnotherapy, and I can fully recommend it provided you choose a competent hypnotherapist. Hypnotherepy works by putting thoughts into your subconcious mind, which you can't do of your own accord. (You can only put thoughts into your conscious mind.) It involved 3 sessions of about an hour each, about a week apart.
After the first session the hypnpotherapist said I could still smoke if I wanted to, but it would need a conscious effort to take one out of the packet rather than doing it without thinking which was often my previous practice. (Any confirmed smoker will tell you how you can be smoking one cigarette and then take a second cigarette out of the packet whilst still smoking the first!)
After the second session he said I was now an ex-smoker and would have no further desire to smoke, and would suffer no withdrawal symptoms. I didn't believe him and I went home thinking that it had been a complete waste of money. About 10 hours later I suddenly realised that I hadn't smoked during that time, and that I still had no desire to smoke. I never had any withdrawal symptoms. From that point onwards I was convinced it was money well spent.
At the third and final session the hypnotherapist explained that my brain still saw me as an ex-smoker, but that at the end of the session my brain would see me as someone who had never smoked and the process would then be complete.
Some people said that in reality I had used will-power to stop smoking but that was just not true. I knew that from the fact that I never suffered any withdrawal symptoms.
As an aside, what surprised my about the hypnotherapy course was (as he explained) that after I had become accustomed to the hypntherapists voice, it was all done by recordings. During each course it was just as if I was very drowsy ~ I was not unconcious as most people imagine! The hypnotherapist explained that I would still be able to hear external noises, such as the doorbell ringing, but I would just ignore them.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Mon 1 Oct 12 at 10:39
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Sounds a bit like NLP (I probably say that because I don't understand hypnosis),
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
which some consider quackery. Can't speak for his 'quit smoking' book, but Boy used Paul McKenna's 'Think Yourself Thin" with complete success. I don't think he calls it NLP but to me it's recognisably that.
The theory seems to boil down to that we behave as we do largely because we are programmed to do so - by learned/repeated behaviour, like lighting a gasper with a cup of tea presumably. If you can programme yourself differently, you will behave differently. Simples!
Anyway, Boy went from 15 stone to 11 something with no fancy diet or calorie counting. He just stopped overeating, I won't bore with the details. Having seen the results of that, I just looked up the reviews on "Quit Smoking Today" on Amazon and they are overwhelmingly positive, so for £7.26** I'd give it a go. You will of course need the willpower to read the book and listen to the CD...
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0593055365
**is that about the price of a packet of coffin nails now?
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I eventually decided to quit when I found myself on the Surgeons table, with my Breast-bone sliced in half and the two halves spread about a foot apart! - tends to focus the mind! ;-)
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I smoked about 1/3 of a Consulate whilst at school and have never touched one since. Just saying.
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A couple of drags of a Consulate would put anyone off for life. It's like smoking a crushed polo mint.
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>> A couple of drags of a Consulate would put anyone off for life. It's like smoking a crushed polo mint.
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While at school I worked in a chemist.
I used to make our own version of Consulates. A large menthol crystal was inserted into a stanadard fag and friends who smoked were offered it to try.
All went well initially until the heat reached the crystal (s) and the strength of taste hit their throats. The results had us rolling with laughter.
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>>The results had us rolling with laughter.
A bit like putting PTFE from wire insulation into a smoke.
A few died before the world realised how dangerous it was.
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Stoptober - stopping smoking - Dog
