BS: No Smoking-4years on

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: ard mhacha
Date: 30 Dec 04 - 06:16 AM

McGrath, Fair play to you, you must be made of stern stuff, you say that you never had any problem when you gave up smoking, well, I went through hell, but being a stubborn cuss I fought it out for months, yes, months.
In no way is kicking this bloody awful addicition easy, it was well into a year before I could safely say I beat that most addictive drug.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: polaitaly
Date: 30 Dec 04 - 05:33 AM

I smoked my last (I hope) cigarette on £1 March of 2001. I begun smoking when I was sixteen; I quit at twenty. Then I begun again at 23 or 24, and stopped four years later; and then begun and quit again and again, four or five times... I think that for the last thirty years I smoked half of the time, more or less. And almost every time that I was at it again, I had to blame Bobert's "peace pipe wink wink" because the little tobacco in it was enough to trigger the habit again. Once a smoker.....

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 09:06 AM

Ebbie
The point I was trying to make, which you clearly missed, was that although Nutty has done extremely well to have survived without a cigarette for so long it is VERY easy to slip back into smoking, as I and many others who have quit for a long period have found out. It is akin to being the evil drink, once you have been an addict you will always have a propensity to fall victim to the drug you where addicted to.
Good luck in the continued fight against the evil weed Hazel, I wish you well

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 08:43 AM

Really, really well done nutty - I'm guessing you and your clothes probably smell a lot nicer these days!!

cheers, Terry

(then again, you do have a dog, don't you......)

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:42 PM

I hadn't thought about the possibility of Freckles trying to light up, Joybell! On the other hand, my matches were not the kitchen 'strike anywhere' kind, so I don't suppose he would have been successful had he tried.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Joybell
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 05:18 PM

That's great, nutty! Congratulations.
Ebbie, so the matches were safely hidden then? Lucky thing. Clever monkey. You had enough to last you 21 times as long. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 03:39 PM

Chief Chaos, in what way did they change the treatment? One of my life regrets is that I didn't quit while my daughter was still at home. I smoked in the house and just about every where I pleased. Sh hated it. She does not seem to have suffered any ill effects but who knows in future.

The really sad thing is that some of us can't quit for the sake of someone else- it has to be when WE are ready.

Once in awhile though I had to laugh. At one point, I had a squirrel monkey. One night I shook out the pack and found I had only three cigarettes left. Figuring that would carry me through the middle of the night cigarette and one when I arose for the day and one for the drive into town I went to bed.

In the morning my three cigarettes were neatly broken into 7 pieces. I had left the monkey out overnight.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 02:51 PM

For all those that haven't quit, I'll give you another reason.

I have been suffering from a pretty bad cold (coughing so bad that I was on the floor, pulling muscles in my back, abdomen and accross my shoulders) which has gone on for three weeks.

The doctors didn't know what was going on and were treating me as best they could with little result.

When I told them that I didn't smoke but had grown up around smokers they changed the treatment regimen totally and radically.

I'm recovering nicely now, but now that I know that it does make a difference I will never allow my children to smoke or be near smokers. If not for your health, please quit for your loved ones and those around you.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 02:23 PM

I'm with Wolfgang on that, but with cigarettes. On the rare occasions I've smoked a cigarette since I gave it up (maybe 20 or 30 years ago) I've never felt any craving to take it up again.

But I'm perfectly aware that for a lot of people that isn't the case, and for anyone who had a hard struggle giving it up, I certainly wouldn't advise risking it.

I remember when I decided to stop smoking I just gave it up like that, no hassle. I'm sure it's not a matter of willpower, it's just that different people seem to be wired up differently when it comes to such matters.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 12:12 PM

Wolfgang, they say that cigar and cigarillo smoking has a different effect on a smoker. Cigarettes are insidious.

Raggytash, 27 years ago when I proudly told my doctor that I had quit smoking, he asked how long it had been. I said, Three weeks. He shrugged. Then you can't really say that you've quit yet, he said. I could have punched him. Keep in mind that the longest I had gone withiut a cigarette in 25 years was 5 days; this time I knew I had quit. All that doctor demonstrated was that HE had not quit.

Congratulations to all who have made it and to those who keep trying.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: ard mhacha
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 08:02 AM

I gave up smoking 22 years ago and I can tell anyone trying to give this filthy, unhealthy habit up you will reap the benefit health wise, this is certainly much better than what you will save in money.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Gurney
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 04:16 AM

23 years and counting -I hope- for me. I got aversion therapy of a kind, too. It was a pain in the chest that took 2 months to go away, and I was convinced, despite medical reports, that I had the big C.
An easy way to give up. I've never even thought about a smoke since.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: freda underhill
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 04:03 AM

ps my mother, also a heavy smoker all her life, died of cancer when she was 56. Both her brothers smoked, and they also died before they reached 60.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: jacqui.c
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 04:02 AM

I had my last cigarette on January 1st 1983. I got withdrawal symptoms so badly that I NEVER want to go through that again - aversion therapy worked for me.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: freda underhill
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 03:52 AM

good luck and congratulations to anyone who tries.

my father smoked from his early years and said that he'd rather enjoy life and smoke and be damned. When he was 80 he had a stroke, and his doctor told him that if he didnt give up smoking he could have another one, much more damaging, and end up living for years mentally incapacitated. Much to all our surpise, he gave up smoking after being a heavy smoker for over 65 years. Three years later (when he was 83) I asked him how he was going as a non smoker.

He lifted his chin and said he never even thought about it, and had never looked back. (he was a proud man, and would not have admitted to anyone if it was tough)

he died two years after that with a tumour on his lung.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: greg stephens
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 03:34 AM

Oct 22, 2004(as far as I recall). Still going strong! Not a whiff has passsed my lips since then(not even a peace pipe, Bobert).

Subject: Quit Smoking Today!
From: GUEST,jhoyd
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 03:20 AM

"Your life can make extension every 1 hour, if you just Quit Smoking!"


* Benefits of Quitting Smoking *

        -    Quitting smoking at any time will make life not better but also longer.
        -    If you're pregnant, quitting smoking will improve your chances of having a             healthy baby
        -    Infants and young children are at special risk and could suffer permanent damage due to cigarette side-stream smoke.
        -    You will have extra money to spend on things other than the cigarettes.
        -      Studies have shown that more than 25 % of US adults smoke and if you are a 45-year-old woman who does smoke, the odds that you'll die in the next decade are 50 in 1,000.
        -      Although 70% of smokers want to stop smoking and 41% attempt to quit smoking each year,only 2.5% succeed.
        -      Smoking can restrict the blood supply to the lower spine, leading to chronic back pain, and also can slow recovery form bone surgery.
        -      Research has determined that a heavy cigarette smoking by female smokers doubles the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.
        


      So Quit Today! And you better try NOSMOQ Cigarette. The Smoking Aid Device!
For more details just visit there website, e-mail them or you can contact those numbers listed below:


   Website:        
   E-mail:        [e-mail]
                [e-mail]
Telephone        [phone]
Fax                82-2-927-8884

Address:        KAWAI Bldg. 6F, 1-32-6, Higashi-Ikebukuro,
                       Toshima-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 170-0013

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 07:48 AM

congratulations to all the non-smokers & ex-smokers. I'm a non-smoker since 1976 & remember picking up while trying to stop. And I also remember knowing I had stopped when I tried to light a cigarette for a friend without putting it in my mouth!! (ps. it wouldn't light)

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: My guru always said
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 06:09 AM

Well done nutty & all who've managed to give up!!! 4 years for me too come January, though I like to sit next to a smoker occasionally :-) Yes, beware temptation, one thing leads to another!!

ps. peace pipes are quite acceptable Bobert *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:48 PM

Good on you, nutty...

19 years and holding here...

'cept for an occasional puff on the peace pipe (wink, wink...)

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:42 PM

Four Months -

You will be dead before May Day.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST,amergin
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 08:32 PM

Think I did it around march/april of 2001...every once in a while I'll get real pissed and smoke one or two...then have the stench lingering and can't breathe and such in addition to the hangover.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: vectis
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 07:16 PM

Well done nutty. I'm 16 months since my last puff (with Morty) and still on the nicotine gum. Not yet a non-smoker but on the way.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: jeffp
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 02:58 PM

You and I must have quit about the same time, Dave. My last cigarette was April 16, 2001, my 47th birthday. I tasted one that fall, but it was one of the worst sensations I have ever experienced. I just can't see learning to enjoy that again. Since then I have been tempted a few times, but never seriously.

Raggytash, that 9 years is not lost, that was 9 years of your lungs clearing themselves out instead of getting worse. And you can always quit again.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 11:20 AM

Beware the "one puff for old times' sake." It ALL comes back, and fast.

Perhaps that's true for most people and/or for cigarette smokers.
I smoke about one cigar or cigarillo per year (some years I skip, some year I smoke two) since more than twenty years without even the slightest temptation to smoke more than that.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Davetnova
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:32 AM

3 and a half years here and no worries. Best thing I ever done. Well done Nutty.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:28 AM

Nutty, as someone who has just returned to the evil weed after over 9 years, please don't count your chickens
I too thought I'd given up, but circumstances, new job with lots of hassle, a barmaid who left her fag burning in front of me, no will power ............. and there you are, 9 years out of the window.
Keep taking it one day at a time and I wish you all the best in your continuing to be an ex-smoker

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:06 AM

I congratulate and commend all those who are succeeding...and encourage those who are still trying.

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:01 AM

Ten years. It CAN be done!

Beware the "one puff for old times' sake." It ALL comes back, and fast.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 09:58 AM

Your membership of Hull Smoking Club is hereby revoked nutty!!!

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: s&r
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 09:02 AM

Don't ever believe you can have the occasional cigarette just to be sociable. I made that mistake the first time I gave up. Second time is thirty years and still running. Well done!!!!!

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: bbc
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 10:03 PM

That's wonderful. Congratulations!!!

Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 08:42 PM

Goodonya!! Just think of the money that you have saved - you could probably afford a round-the-world holiday now.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Hollowfox
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 02:54 PM

Wow, it's been that long? Great job!

Subject: RE: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: Amos
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 01:28 PM

Way to go, nutty. Been well over a year now for me, and my life is better for it by far.

A

Subject: BS: No Smoking-4years on
From: nutty
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 12:52 PM

Exactly 4 years ago today I posted a thread on Mudcat to say that I was giving up smoking.
I had tried before with litle success but had such amazing support from Mudcatters that This Time I made it.

Thank you all Mudcatters who offered encouragement, listened to my ramblings and generally were there to give me strength whenever I felt that I was weakening.

It's been a hard 4 years. The habits of the previous 30 years were well entrenched and until recently I still felt like an ex-smoker.
Now I can say that I am definitely a no smoker and that feels really good.

I'm sure that over the next few weeks there will be others taking the plunge. I just wanted to let them know, that with the help of this community anything is possible.