Do Smokers Ever Quit Smoking? What to Do?

Bloodyhands

Bloodyhands

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I was a smoker for many years and became a loser a** quitter a few months ago. I always enjoyed being a smoker, and had long ago accepted that yes, it was probably going to be the death of me.
Now that I have quit I don't think about it on a daily basis. I always resented the addiction part and resist this type of control, so quitting was easy for me. I just went off of it cold.
However, now that I have quit and have that yummy nicotine out of my system I have begun to wonder if it is going to be the death of me anyway.
Should I just get back on the horse and ride off into the sunset, whenever that is, with a smile and a Winston or stay a born again non-smoker with healthy tendencies?
What to Do?
 
Stay strong. I had an Uncle die slowly when I was a kid, and listening to him hack was downright depressing. And the nurses showed me the lung patients at Duke when I had heart surgery. They made me feel like a damned olympic athlete or superhero. They could have been Walking Dead cast members. If you want to punch your lights out there are less painful and quicker ways to do it.
 
Here's a decent article regarding the timeline of how the body recovers and repairs itself after stopping smoking.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

Timeline after quitting smoking

A person can experience the benefits of quitting smoking in as little as 20 minutes. Learn more about the timeline of benefits here.
www.medicalnewstoday.com www.medicalnewstoday.com

You definitely made the right choice.
 
I quit 4 Jan 2015 after being told to quit or loose my leg. Last Christmas after dinner the gf niece was there and smokes the same as I did for 24 years. I tried one because it just smelled good.

I coughed so hard I'm sure I saw my liver and the entire length of my large and small intestines inside out through my mouth.

I now enjoy some foods that I didn't like the taste wheel smoking

That wagon has went on down the trail.
 
Maybe keep a pack locked away for when the meteor or megatsunami or supervolcano or ... happens?

I miss my pipe and cigars, but if I'm honest about it, I'm pretty glad my wife put a stop to that.
 
Over eight years for me and I'll never go back. I also have finally lost the extra weight. Life is good. My father died of lung\brain cancer. He smoked like a stack, pall malls. BRAZILIAN pall malls, not the weak azz American stuff. He quit at 55 and if finally got him at age 89.
 
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Stay healthy buddy. I COLD TURKEY DROPPED A 2 PACK A DAY HABIT YEARS AGO. Its hard but my lungs and body thank me daily and im happy to not have to stop at the gas station daily saves me money, esp now they are so pricey.

Stay strong. You have to replace that motion with something else. I chew gum as part of that. The other thing is to have a few people you can call and talk to when you want to smoke. Just call and shoot the shit and then your mind will be off the craving.

YOU CAN DO IT.

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I am with ya'll on this one, and @Chuckman had to pull up that really good link (you suck for that BTW);) and @GreatGazoo reminding me about the wife, who was probably my tipping point to quit. (Thanks)😛
I appreciate the support and ALL the honest reminders. I know you are ALL Right... When going day to day though the micro and macro can get hazy, and that makes it easy to step back in the bullshit sometimes.
I guess it is kind of like a toxic relationship. You get out for awhile then start thinking, "that wasnt so bad" until she comes to the strip club and goes beast mode on your car with a ball bat...(possible bad analogy)
Nobody likes getting back into a bad relationship though, and I suppose Me and the super sexy Winston Box pack have a pretty toxic partnership.
I am steadfast in quitting, but will likely end up coming back here from time to time to read this stuff, and to talk about it. 🦾🖖
Everyone's Input and experiences are Appreciated and Do have an impact!!! Thank Ya'll!!
 
My mom was the youngest of 6 kids, grew up on a tobacco farm in Goldsboro. She was probably 12 when she started smoking; it's just what you did then. My dad smoked. My mom's first heart attack was when she was 44...by the time she died at 66 she had several MIs, clots in her feet resulting in amputations, just crappy health. My dad died of a heart attack at age 39. He did have multiple combat tours in his 20 years in the Marines, but aside from smoking he was pretty fit. So I am an anti-tobacco champion.
 
I quit in 2004, after about 18 years of it.

I'm glad I quit, but I wouldn't have called myself addicted at the time. It was just a habit. Once the habit became an inconvenience (hiding it from the kids, trying to wrench on a car with a lit cig in my mouth), I decided it was time to let it go.

I smoked my last one the day we were leaving on a week-long family vacation.
 
It’s been a little over 20 years since I quit. Honestly the hardest thing I have ever done. My tipping point was two fold. First seeing my aunt at Christmas and other family events sitting around with oxygen strapped to her face and still smoking like a freight train. Yet she couldn’t walk across the room without help or she would fallout. Second was the birth of my son. I grew up without my dad who was killed in a car wreck. When he was born, I made a promise to myself that I would do everything possible to make sure he did not suffer the same faith. Well not only the same faith but I wanted to be healthy enough to enjoy ball games, fishing, hunting and shooting with him. Stay strong my friend, it is possible and worth every moment living without tobacco.


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October 15, 1994 was my cigarette quitting of 2 packs. It doesn't get easy, to this day I still think about a cigarette especially if I have a good bourbon (cut down on the drinking too) - STAY STRONG FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
 
Don't do it!

FWIW, I was just diagnosed with lung Cancer for the 3rd time since 2005

PET scan tomorrow. Bronchoscopy next week. Chemo to follow.

Trust me, you DO.NOT want to be in my situation, weigh the odds if you continue smoking.

Don't do it brother, I am not so sure I will win this time!
 
Ben Jefferson said:
Don't do it!

FWIW, I was just diagnosed with lung Cancer for the 3rd time since 2005

PET scan tomorrow. Bronchoscopy next week. Chemo to follow.

Trust me, you DO.NOT want to be in my situation, weigh the odds if you continue smoking.

Don't do it brother, I am not so sure I will win this time!
Click to expand...

You will be in my prayers brother. Fight the good fight with all you have.


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Never smoked. The Greatest gift @RS ever gave me was when she quit about 3 years into us being married. 27 years later...still the greatest gift!

I can't offer much advice as I have no personal understanding of addiction. Just stay the course. Sounds like you're doing fine.
 
62 now, quit 2 packs a day when I was 38. Used "the patch", worked pretty good. Makes you want to puke if you smoke from nicotine overload.

Stick with it. Avoid things that trigger the urges like drinking alcohol, eating(lol), etc. A big one for me was walking out of a movie theater, that was a tough one. You can do it.
 
I have known people that would take their oxygen mask off so they could smoke. I’ve known people that have lung cancer continue to smoke.
It has to be horrific for something to have ahold of you so strongly that the thought of a painful horrible death doesn’t deter you from doing it.

Stay strong.
 
I smoked cigarettes from age 15 till I quit at 33. Going to work in an office where you couldn’t smoke made that transition easier, plus none of my co-workers smoked either. Smoking a pipe for a year or so before my kids got here also made it easier, although I did crave the pipe after I quit that. But I had small kids then, and lots of life insurance, and life insurance companies don’t like tobacco.

I said once I retired and the kids were grown I might pick up the pipe again. I did 25 years later. Then I started to remember how horrible and ghastly my dad’s death was due to cancer. I was with him the last 72 hours of his life, and it is the most terrible thing I have ever been through trying to help him die. The smells, the bodily fluids, my inability to help him when he was flailing in bed like he was three feet under water because his lungs were drowning in their own fluids.

Yea, I put that pipe back down after about six months. I don’t know how I’m going to go one day, but I hope it’s not like that.
 
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I smoked from 14-32 or so with a few months long breaks went up to two packs a day and dipped a bit at the end there too. Quit cold. I stay off for my kid and the money, it's gotten crazy expensive.

With 20 years and counting exposure to all manner of chemicals and fumes 40+ hours a week I have little doubt cancer will visit me, I take heart in not actually buying it directly. Too often anyway, still enjoy a cigar a couple times a year. Oddly the only craving I ever get is for dip and I never really loved it.
 
We smokers and ex-smokers are idiots ....Present company included!
The rationalization gymnastics we employ are only as limited as our imaginations...Been there, done it, got the Tshirt!
”A pack-a-day ain’t that bad.......”I’ll quit after this pack”..”.”When I’m through with this carton”......”Next weekl”...
.”Jan 1st ( Years resolution”)..etc. etc.
I smoked for 57 years Lucky‘s and Camels..(no wimpy Kent’s or Winton‘s for me,,)
Mom and Dad both smoked up thru my teen years and finally quit together but the big ”C” finally got Dad!
Throat cancer left him with a hole in his throat and forcing him to wear a trach.
A few years later he lost half of one lung and a third of the other.
The amazing doctors at Emory U helped him survive another another twenty years! Did I quit? Hell No!
Like an idiot I continued to smoke another SIXTEEN YEARS! even AFTER being diagnosed
with Emphysema and COPD. Finally put ‘em down cold turkey for good in 2015.....
Friend, don’t give up on yourself....quitting is doable.
You’ll smell things you haven’t smelled for years, food will
taste fantastic and you’ll finally understand how foul the odor of cigarettes really is. Hang in there and best of luck.
 
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You stay healthy, that's what.

You want simple incentives? OK.

You like steak? How about Thanksgiving dinner with the family? Got a favorite candy? Remember how much better it tastes now that you're not a smoker. Smoking adversely affects (dulls) taste.

You like the smell of the seasons? How about the smell of seasoning while cooking? Like your wife's (significant other's) perfume and the smell of her hair when she's snuggled up next to you? Remember how much your smell sucked while you were a smoker, because smoking screws up your sense of smell just like it does for taste.

Remember how your wallet feels with money in it? How about seeing a nice, comfortable balance in your checking account? Smoking is an insanely expensive habit that pretty much amounts to you throwing fistfuls of dollars out the window as you drive your car.

Everybody likes to talk about how smoking adversely affects your health. And that's all well and good. But people also need to realize there are other aspects to not smoking that are real incentives to keep from lighting up. I'm not a smoker...but I grew up in the heavy smoking era where everybody around me smoked. So while I can't attest first hand how it affects people like outlined above, I CAN attest that it DOES affect these same things for people who live around smokers. So it's GOT to be at least an order of magnitude difference.

And trust me...I love the smell of a well seasoned and grilled steak and the glorious sensation it produces when I eat it. I love the little smells in life, like my wife's hair when I hug her, the kid's flower projects when growing up, the smell of gun oil lingering long after I'm done cleaning. And I love the $2,000 or more dollars a year I don't have to spend on cigarettes.
 
I've quit 13 times since 1978. Tried it all. Last time was in 2006 on Chantix. Stopped for 97 1/2 days. Shouldn't have taken vacation. Was fishing with the guys on the Cherry Grove pier and as usual when fishing was slow we'd play some card game to take your money. One of my buds offered me a beer and I gladly accepted. Then he noticed I wasn't smoking. I should have never said that I had quit. Aw man, one won't hurt you. Ended up buying a pack before I left the pier.

I'm gonna try once more pretty soon. Not gonna tell a damn soul before I do it.
 
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