Giving up. DO IT NOW.

[peck]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51279355

Recent study shows that lungs magically mend themselves when you stop smoking.     I gave up 5 years ago and it was definitely the best thing i ever did. I gave up with the help of Vaping, i used it sensibly and steadily cut down the nicotine content until one day i said to myself "i don't need to vape anymore, i am now an ex smoker" and here i am 5 years later and not coughing at all.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done!

[Zapp]

Agree.  I gave up 11 years ago, went cold turkey and never looked back.  One of the best decisions I've ever made.

[Westward]

Good work! Pleased for you.

[figgy]

12 years for me, tried all my smoking life to pack in. Said if they bring out a tablet I'll take it. Champix got me stopped and my mam stopped a month after I did with tablets 

Whatever works to get you off the tobacco.

[mick miller]

Gave up 15 years ago. Best move ever, I just drank a bit more for a while and, as I hate being drunk and drinking too much, it was easy to scale that back down to normal levels again. No patches, no vapes. Job jobbed.

[billytheghillie]

im still on the vape.

[tonker]

Stopped when I was 40 that's 27 years ago. tried twice before but my hair fell out alopecia. started when I was 9 so smoked for 30 years. Once you've beaten it you'll never look back. I did it with willpower. Best of luck anyone about to try well worth it for you and your family.

[Zapp]

24 minutes ago, mick miller said:

Gave up 15 years ago. Best move ever, I just drank a bit more for a while and, as I hate being drunk and drinking too much, it was easy to scale that back down to normal levels again. No patches, no vapes. Job jobbed.

That's interesting.  I stopped drinking for 6 months when I quit the cigs as I knew I'd have no chance of staying strong  after a beer.

I still enjoy a pint but tobacco is long gone for me.

[panoma1]

Yep, stopped smoking cold turkey at the third attempt....that was 35/40 years ago!....I’m told a packet of fags can cost in excess of £10 per pack of 20 today.....health aside, how can anyone justify spending that amount?

[Newbie to this]

I'd also smoked from a very young age.

Gave up cold turkey on first attempt. Can't remember how long it has been. Didn't stop drinking or drink any more than usual. 

I kept an opened box of 20 in my pocket until the cravings stopped, never touched them, just felt that the urge to smoke wasn't such a panic when I could put my hands on a one instantly, and the urge didn't last long.

For me the key was actually wanting to give up, not just saying I wanted to give up.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Newbie to this

[Dougy]

Its only when i have a drink that i have the urge to have a smoke, i can go a week without a smoke, but go out for a couple of beers and i get the crave. Its either a bag of Cheese and onion, a bag of Nobby's or the land lady crashes a ciggy. 

Ive not had one since last Sunday and not bothered, until, I have a pint. 

[Grandalf]

Gave up for eighteen months way back in 1968.   Then the woman I loved changed her mind and I started again.

Gave up again in 1980.   Picked my week when all was supposed to be quiet in my world and then all hell broke loose.   I had just got married.   Then the next week I got made redundant.   Then I got offered another job on the Monday provided I learnt another aircraft - The Shorts SH5 Belfast - and took all the pilots exams on the Friday afternoon.   Frankly that, without giving up the weed, was totally impossible.   Then, as I was on the way to the village shop to buy another packet, I thought - If I can get through this week without smoking and pass the written exams on Friday - Then nothing will ever make me smoke again.

I didn't smoke.   Did it cold turkey.   I passed the exam.   I got the job and my life was sorted out again.   Still got the wife.   Have never smoked again and, at eighty, never will.

Use any method possible to give up.   You will never forget it.

[OJW]

I'm 29 days in having smoked for around 14 years. I've tried and failed in the past but ,having recently turned 30, this time I'm determined to close the book on it. I've managed to stay strong while having a beer and while out shooting thus far. 

Edited January 29, 2020 by OJW

[mel b3]

I smoked 60 a day for twenty odd years , I was a real nicotine addict , I haven't had a cigarette for probably four years now , but I'm still a nicotine addict and rely very much on my vape . I hated smoking cigarettes but I do quite enjoy vamping. 

[spurs 14]

Been packed up for 17 years , said I’d stop when we had our daughter , helped by using patches and realised it was habit ! As in working outdoors smoking at same time same place every day as previously mentioned I can’t see how any one can afford to smoke these days ! 

[Zapp]

23 minutes ago, OJW said:

I'm 29 days in having smoked for around 14 years. I've tried and failed in the past but ,having recently turned 30, this time I'm determined to close the book on it. I've managed to stay strong while having a beer and while out shooting thus far. 

Good.

Think about every time you've nearly wavered in that time but haven't.  If you give in, that was all for nothing and the effort was wasted.  Keep going one urge at a time and you'll crack it.

[Agriv8]

Smoked my last cig sat outside maternity unit calling my parents and telling them they were grandparents. Nearly 14 years ago I used patches and 1 cig left in a packet it my desk draw made a pact with myself that if started again that cig had to be the first one I smoked . Still love the smell of a Marlboro light !!  Ps yes the cig is still in my desk draw !!

Agriv8 

[islandgun]

Stopped roll ups about 12 yrs ago, cut down to 2 [very thin]  a day then thought it was silly. very glad i did

[strimmer_13]

Gave up last Aug, cold turkey. Didn't work out too well and started again because of stress at work this month. Plan to try again, just got to move jobs first! 

 

[Dave-G]

Gave up about 15 years ago - too late though - emphysema was already on the way and that's not clearing up. It was aggravated with fibreglass resin fumes and dust.

I don't get infections now but I think that's down to not having taxi passengers cough germs over my shoulder, seems people don't put a hand in front their mouth any more,  the phlegm is always clear these days and I don't get the throat tickle urge to cough up like I did with infections.

[Sha Bu Le]

Gave up almost 5 years ago with the help of the lovely Chloe who works at the local chemists, tried patches, silly sucky things and finally prescription tablets.

Defo recommend going to your local pharmacy, its free and they wont easily write you off.

[Scully]

It’s a mind game. I smoked from about 13 to about 42, I’m 60 now. I’d tried to stop many times over the years and knew when my kids were born that I really needed to do it for keeps. 
Ex did it with patches and I bought The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Alan Carr. 
I can remember laying in bed the night I finished the book and knew without doubt I’d smoked my last fag, and so excited knowing that. Sat in an on-site caravan the next day with four smokers and it didn’t bother me one bit, and sat in the pub drinking later that night without any problems, feeling fair chuffed with myself. 
No withdrawal, no pangs, nothing, just a euphoric sense of freedom. 
Like I said, it’s a mind game, and the book just gets your mind where it needs to be.

I feel so sorry for those folk I see stood sheltering in doorways whilst at work, having a quick parch; they’re not enjoying it, they’re just getting their fix. 

[Bobba]

13 hours ago, peck said:

Recent study shows that lungs magically mend themselves when you stop smoking. 

Only upto a point. (As I understand it).

I gave up in 1985 at which time I was a 40 a day Marlborough Man. In 1993 I took up SCUBA diving and a few years later became an instructor. Part of my medical was a lung functionality test. The then equipment was a large graph paper type board. You blew down a tube until you could blow no more and the graph needle had to cross to the other side of the board before it fell to the bottom of the page. Mine only just made it with a long downward arc touching the right hand side marginally above the bottom line. Then came the question "Do you smoke?" . No says I not for about 10 years. Congratulations, came the response. Since quitting your lungs have and will continue to improve but 25 years of smoking have taken their toll and the "elasticity" of your lungs has been permanently affected.

When I retired full time work I worked part time for a mail order company selling smoking cessation products to organisations helping people quit smoking. What I learned there seemed to confirm that which I was told all those years previously at my diving medical.

Proud to say I have remained smoke free since 1985 which I achieved by "Cold Turkey"

[ehb102]

I still celebrate my quit date because giving up smoking was the hardest thing I ever did. The turning point for me was when I realised I was an addict, no better than the winos on the city streets. I enjoyed smoking, it was more socially acceptable for a fat woman than eating or drinking. But then an addict loves their drug. Even now I sometimes say to smokers "I am an ex-smoker, do not give me a cigarette, no matter how hard I beg." But I rarely get a craving now. Once every three or four years.

Back in the days of newsgroups there was a piece called "Junkie Thinking". It explodes all those tricks your mind plays on you. Here's a link to an archive version: https://sites.google.com/view/junkiethinking/home.