Ex smoker here - agree with @riffraff , once you acknowledge it is a addiction, it is easier to understand. I gave up cold turkey but i had made a rather significant money bet with three others. We all contributed $$ into a pot and the last one to not smoke got the lot! I wanted the money. Yes, it was hard and yes, I gave up drinking beer as i associated it with the smokes (I changed to wine). But, deep down, I knew it was killing me and it was up to me to change the habit. I realised I was a lot stronger than what i thought. The temptation still appears now and again but, I don’t want to go back to that ill health universe.
I reckon smoking and nicotine is absolutely insidious and more addictive than almost anything.
Not born into a smoking family at all, but after a few nights out with heavy smoking mates decided to give it a go to see what the fuss was about and found it quite enjoyable.
Then bought a pack one night and worked my way through half of it over the course of a good 10 hour session.
Then smoked the remainder at home with a coffee in the morning, then it became a daily ritual, turned into a pack a week habit for probably two or three months until I realised how much money I was blowing on it and how bad it would be for me.
All happened very quickly and found myself, after committing to not buying anymore, feeling like something was missing through my day, even though I can’t say my habit was exceptionally large.
Even now not having touched a dart for a few months, don’t reckon i would be able to say no if someone offered me one, or if I were around them. Completely rewires your brain. It’s bizzare and shocking and can’t imagine how difficult it must be for people born into this garbage.
Ex smoker, pack a day for 20+ years, tried quitting several times no luck cold turkey, patches, etc. Switched to vaping planning to ween myself off, within 2 days I was on straight vape, then wound down the Nic to over a few months, then stopped that recently. Done. Keep a small bottle of juice in the cupboard in case I get an urge. No Nic.
Last time I went cold turkey, I started developing weird mouth ulcers, apparently auto immune disease where the body is used to fighting of the smoke and creates it’s own disease to fight
You know you’re free when the very smell of cigarette smoke is enough to turn you off food and drink. Found that out in China a few years ago where they smoke every funkingwhere. Glad I’ve reached that point cos I don’t want to head down that tunnel anymore. Cold turkey ain’t that hard when the alternative is coughing up chunks of lung every single funking morning, day and evening.
Maybe try a multi vitamin supplement to support your system. Have a chat to your Dr, and they might give you better suggestions as to why you get the ulcers.
Might sound weird but what helps me cut down now in these days of WFH is having older kids in the house who come and go at all times of the day. They know I smoke, but I don’t want them to see me smoking so I never know when it’s safe to sneak outside. Agree that hearing the trials others have faced is really helpful.
There were times in China, when l had to move tables to get away from smokers in restaurants. The airport in Macao had a couple of rooms for smokers. They were right in the middle of the concourse, and the ridiculous thing was they were only separated from everything else by glass partitions about 1.20 m high, so the smoke was free to waft around the rest of the entire terminal. They changed over to full enclosed and dedicated smoking rooms about 6 years ago. The smoking rooms at Don Muang in Bangkok are so thick with smoke at times, you can barely see some of the people in them!
My step father was a pack a day man. Sometimes as kids we would be tasked with buying him a pack of Craven A cork tips, when we went up the street to do the messages (shopping) (this is starting to sound like an entry in the Reminders y are getting old thread). In those days kids could buy cigarettes with no questions asked. Mum never smoked, my younger sister did in her teens. I remember when l was in fifth grade watching the 6th graders smoking. They staggered out from behind the shelter shed, coughing their lungs out. I asked them what did it do. I figured that if evolution had intended for us to smoke, we would have been born as dragons. The 6th graders tried to explain, but were coughing so much it was hard to understand what they said. That was enough right there, that was enough to convince me that smoking wasn’t such a great idea. I did smoke a fair amount of dope for the first couple of years at college, but gave that up, when l decided l would rather be in control of my life, and wouldn’t let some drug take it over. I did ponder about starting to smoke at one stage in my mid 30’s, but never got around to it.
Fast forward a couple of decades and we are having Christmas lunch at my brother’s place in Wheeler’s Hill. After lunch we decided to go for a family walk. Dad only got about 300m and had to stop, he had such a reduced aerobic capacity by then, that e couldn’t go on. That was enough to convince him. He decided soon after to give up, cold turkey, and his health improved markedly within a couple of months, he never smoked again and he never missed it.
At one stage l got set up on a blind date. The girl was attractive enough, but when we weren’t eating, she chain smoked the entire evening. She no sooner finished one cigarette, than she was lighting up another. I couldn’t wait to get outside the restaurant and into some fresh air. I thanked for the evening and said good night. I didn’t have the heart to tell her, l couldn’t see her again, as l just couldn’t take the smoke. She was a fairly nervous individual, so l am not sure how she would have taken such an announcement, then again being nervous maybe he reason why she smoked so much.
By the time l got home, even l stunk of cigarette smoke. It wasn’t just my clothes that smelled and l dumped immediately in the laundry, but also my skin, so l had a shower. I became so intolerant of the smoke that in the end l gave up going out to clubs/pubs, places where l knew that there was going to be smoking. When l first went to Indonesia over 40 years ago, it felt and looked like every male over the age of 14 smoked. It isn’t quite that bad anymore. My wife of 5 years is from there and was a smoker. She gave up smoking for me, although l never asked her to. In return l have given up alcohol for her, to comply with her religion, not that l am at all religious. It just seemed that it was only fair that l give up something for her since she has given up something for me.
I was a smoker- very addicted & tried many times to quit. The ‘just sneaking one’ was always my downfall. I had tried giving up so many times that my ‘giving up smoking again’ plans became a standing joke with friends.
Finally I used the patches and they really helped, especially in the early days, but the biggest thing was my promise to myself to never have another one again. There’ve been many times I really felt like one but I just had to push through & do something else until it I could cope.
I am so glad now that I don’t smoke- it’s been over 20 years since I’ve had one and I’ll never have another- ever.
You’ve got to really want to give up & if you’re like me & cannot just have one or two casually (I could never understand how people could do that) then you have to decide that’s it - forever.
Good luck, don’t give up trying - you’ll be glad in the end.
people are addicted in different ways. example, I’ve been smoking with a drink for 15 years
I can go days without a smoke, doesn’t bother me. Never smoke at work. I generally don’t drink Monday-thursday. Fri/Sat/Sunday when im on the beers, it goes hand in hand. to the point where I don’t like a drink without one, it’s not the same