"I have smoked more than 40 years, quitting now is impossible!"
~ Freedom's fabulous forty-year plus fighters ~
GrumpyOMrsS (Gold) - Jan 23, 2001
Many years ago.....forty or more to be exact, smoking was considered tres chic, the "in" thing to do....the classy way to live and the best way to stay slim, beautiful and attractive. Smokers were considered to be happier, have more fun, be part of the crowd and one of the guys....or gals. Smokers were glamorous movie stars or politicians, our neighbors, our friends, our doctors and our relatives. Smoking graced the cover of magazines, was on TV, was allowed just about everywhere we went and was part of everything we did.
Then, in the early sixties, it was finally realized and made public that smoking was none of the above....smoking was deadly, smoking killed. Over the years we learned more and more about our deadly addiction....but we felt that we were not the people that they were talking about.....us get cancer?.....us get emphysema? heart attacks, circulatory problems, asthma?......still we kept smoking.
Now some forty years later we are finally seeing the light....we are getting cancer, we are getting emphysema, we have lost relatives, we have lost friends and we are finally learning that smoking is indeed the deadly addiction they have been warning about. Now many of us at forty years plus are realizing the truth....we are living proof of what smoking can and does do to us. Some of us have been lucky.......some of us are suffering and still more of us do not know what the future holds.....but what we do know is that we are finally quitting.....finally saying enough is enough and wondering why in the world we did not have the guts or courage to quit and quit for good before.
Online support and the wonderful information provided here at Freedom has helped many of us 40-year plus quitters to finally see the light. Many of us, for the first time in our lives, can look in the mirror and smile at ourselves and think.....wow....I did it and am I sure proud!!
For some of us it has been somewhat difficult....but many of us forty-year plusers...have found that quitting has been the biggest relief of our lives. Quitting was lots easier than we expected. We found that not only do we breathe better, smell better, look better....but we walk taller, we smile more and we have learned that no matter how long we've smoked....we can still quit and that there is a wonderful life after quitting.
So this thread is for those of us at Freedom who have smoked for forty years or more. Please, all you wonderful quitters.....join me in adding your story to this thread so that we may show the younger quitters not only what it has done to us over the years....but how it is possible to regain our freedom from the deadliest of the addictions. And may it tell our younger quitters that we wish that we had had the courage at their age to do what they are doing now.....gaining their freedom so they don't have to worry when they become our age about what damage they have done to their bodies.
Linda.......After smoking for 41 years...I have been smoke-free for one year, two weekS, five dayS, 10 hourS, 1 minute and 16 secondS. 7708 cigaretteS not smoked, saving $1,156.25. Life saved....3weeks, 5 days, and 18 hours.
GrumpyOMrsS (Gold) - Jan 23, 2001
Come on all you quitters who have smoked for 40 or more years.......tell your story....why you smoked and why you quit...I am using the story I used for the Great American Smokeout thread....so here goes.
Linda's Story......
A year ago, when this day arrived, I did everything I could to try to forget what day it was. Why? Because, me being the addict I was, I truly felt that this day was not intended for me......afterall, I smoked for 41 years and I was doing just fine. All those doctors telling me I should quit, all my friends looking at my husband and me and asking, "you still smoke?".....my co-workers asking me to please not smoke in the backroom because they could not breathe when they had to use the restrooms.
Our dentists, doctors, friends, coworkers, and family....forgot the family....why are we still smoking, they asked. Well, we were still smoking because the junky in us told us it was ok to smoke. Stressful jobs, might gain weight, withdrawal hard, tried before and did not do well....why make ourselves miserable when we could continue to smoke and be happy. It soothed, it warmed, it motivated and it kept us from eating......how the heck bad could it be? Look at all those people I see when I'm out and about still smoking. Standing on street corners, outside of office buildings, sitting in cars, sitting in special sections of restaurants, outside of airports....look at them all just puffing away. Why, they still sell them in the stores....how can they do that if they are killing you? Junky thinking....folks!
Well, the inevitable happened....a year ago now, my husband went to the ER for what turned out to be a gall bladder attack. While doing tests on him they found three aneurysms.....a ballooning of the arteries caused primarily from smoking. Not only did he need surgery to repair them or they would rupture and he would die.....but the surgeon refused to do the surgery until he quit smoking and had been off the cigarettes.....so here we were....each 40 plus year smokers being told....there cannot be any more waiting....it was do or die......and in our case....we needed to do it together.
Surgery was scheduled for the 3rd week in January....after a shaky start, on January third we held our noses and took the big plunge. I found online support and another world opened before my eyes! There were so many people like me doing the same thing at the same time. I found not only a wealth of information about my addiction....yes, we are most definitely addicted to the most deadly of substances, nicotine, and I learned that I had to treat my quit as such, but also so much information, so much support.....was I in for a wonderful surprise!
My quit was indeed a pleasure. So was my husband's. We made a commitment and we were sticking to it. We wanted that 41-year-old addiction licked. We wanted to get rid of those stinky, smelly and deadly things that had been controlling almost our entire life....and with this attitude...it was easy. Each day we did not smoke was a victory....a wonderful one.
Miss those cigarettes?....not on your life. Each day that separated us from them made us that much stronger in our resolve to remain smokefree......Each day has been a step closer to better health and a longer life. And guess what....there is most definitely life after smoking....a wonderful one. We learned that whatever we did with a cigarette, we could also do without.
No more running out to buy cigarettes when we started running low, no more standing outside in all kinds of weather to smoke, no more missing things because we ran off to get our hourly dose of nicotine...no more smelly clothes......this was wonderful. Today, we are healthier, we look better, we stand taller and we smile at ourselves for doing what we thought would be impossible. We dumped a 41-one-year addiction and have never, ever, for one day, regretted doing so.
So to all of you sitting and reading the wealth of information here at Freedom and wondering if you can do this.......yes, it can be done and it can be wonderful. We have Joel, our professional quit teacher, we have his library that has saved so many lives over his thirty years teaching people that they can quit and stay quit, we have WhyQuit.com and all the reasons we need to do this and we have the best group of quitters on the www ready to help you along the way.
So hold your noses and take the plunge....or hang on to your hats for the ride of your lives....but know, that like all of us here at Freedom.....you can quit smoking and stay quit too! Just remember to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! Linda....written 11/16/00
newlife (gold) - Jan 23, 2001
Right on, Sweetie!
I'm off the weed now for just a piddly 2 weeks and 5 days but I never felt as good about a quit as I do now. Why? Because of this group. You see I, too, am blown away by the honesty and sincerity of this group, and I feel so lucky that I stumbled upon it this past January 3rd, which was my last day of smoking. This computer is finally good for something, isn't it?
Anyway, though I am not a "heavy" smoker, I've been smoking an average of 18 cigarettes a day since about 1965, though I first "dabbled" with cigarettes around 1961. I distinctly remember going to the candy store for my father to buy his "Winstons" when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I'd buy 3 packs at a time, and I remember they were around 23 cents a pack. Back then, they never bothered me about my age, all I had to say (if asked) was that the cigarettes were for my father, which they were....initially.
Like you said, smoking was "in". Smoking was just about everywhere, although I do recall a lot of people (mostly women) who didn't smoke for the simple reason that it stank and served no useful purpose. Smart people, weren't they? No question about it, more men smoked than women, perhaps because it was more of a manly thing in the blue-collar neighborhood I grew up in. But even my doctor smoked while examining patients! I can still remember waiting to see the doctor and seeing people smoke in the waiting room. Yessiree, I remember the ashtrays on the end tables next to the magazines. Life magazine, of course, along with Look and the usual National Geographics.
And elevators! Don't forget the crowded elevators with people smoking in them. That was a carcinogenic delight, wasn't it? Can you imagine smoking in an elevator today? You'd be shot!!! Smoking was allowed in drug stores, city halls, movie theatres, anywhere and everywhere, except of course, in ammo dumps and fuel depots.
And oh yes, the TV commercials. How I miss them. Especially the one with the doctor smoking a cigarette and saying that if you want to feel good, light up a Lucky Strike! That was a good one, wasn't it? And the Phillip Morris boy, the Old Gold Rockettes, or whatever they were called, and, of course, if you care more about good taste than good grammar, you'd smoke Winstons! And what about those wonderful coupons that you could collect for prizes and gifts that came with each pack of Raleighs? Oh, and on your way to the cemetery, don't forget to show us your pack of Larks!
Like ancient Egypt, that all seems like another world or civilization that has bit the dust. Amazing, isn't it, how so many people could be so wrong at the same time? Wow, who would've thought something so "cool", so "chic", so "high society", so "AMERICAN", could be so "fatal"?
Christiana - Jan 23, 2001
Relieved is exactly how I feel about being able to quit smoking and stay quit after living in a full-fledged addiction since 12y old. If someone ask me today what I did for a living I would have had to say, I smoked, and I smoked a lot. Looking back, I can now see that most of everything else is what I did in between smoking. Depending on things, there were times when I could smoke a pack in a few hours. and I know what it feels like to overdose on nicotine. In short, very sick. On average, I was a pack and a half a day smoker. Or so I have figured. Many years I am sure it was more.
About 14y ago, I knew I needed to quit. The news was out about how harmful smoking was. And convincing me even more so was how badly I was feeling on most given days. Yet, I continued to smoke, and smoked throughout a gillion failed attempts to quit. I get kidded about how much a gillion is but I kid you not. For the last 14y I failed at quitting smoking on a near daily bases.
So besides being not ever able to stop, physically feeling bad, which mostly felt like no energy, and a fairly constant pain in my right lung, which I still feel when I get into certain positions. I also felt despair, hopelessness, and quite aware I would die an early death, and probably still will, in comparision to someone who never smoked. Lastly, I felt mentally ill to a degree. I became convinced I had a death wish. Who else of what else could explain this behavior I couldn't stop.
I'm not sure what gave me my last chance to get motivated, but I did. I got my computer about two years ago, and had success with another addiction a while back with the help of support. So I searched. I landed in two previous sites before arriving here and had repeated relapses until the night I arrived here. I immediately felt relief.
I have often stated that when I read what I read, it was like someone telling me I would never have to do another dish for as long as I lived. AND I REALIZED WHAT A HORRIBLE BURDENSOME CHORE MAINTAINING MY ADDICTION HAD BECOME AND IT WAS OVER.
I was being told to Never Take Another Puff!! I don't know how much I took in the first few days except I could feel the care and concern regarding nicotine addiction. What was also remarkable was the full inclusion of support. Everyone was supportive and very up front, coupling support with constant encouragement to learn about addiction to nicotine. I learned how not to take another puff, little by little.
I cried when I read Joel's article stating he never had a client call and tell him "Hey, I got what I wanted, I got cancer." So I learned I wasn't mentally ill, and trying to kill myself with cigarettes. I learned why I failed before, almost constantly tripping over the same stone. And then I learned how to fine-tune my own addictive thoughts and how to counteract them, and how to always be one step ahead by knowing what to expect.
There is so much I could say, I need to stop, and say this. The last 4 months of my life have been the most life-altering and life-affirming time of my whole entire life. I am always ashamed and embarrassed to say this but I worked in the addiction field for 9 years. And today I sit in amazement as I realize it never occurred or struck me as being exactly the same as other drugs.
I am not a stupid woman and today I credit the power of nicotine addiction for keeping me in the dark for so long. After all, if it didn't, it wouldn't have gotten what it wanted, which was another puff.
Recently, I have heard some constructive criticism regarding how we speak of nicotine addiction. In particular the word nicodemon. Everything needs a language or it can't be talked about. Personally, I like giving addiction an identity of its own, God knows it takes on a life of its own, except it is yours and mine.
Until now mostly what we have heard from nicotine addiction was raspy voices, gasps for breaths, chain stoke breathing, and last breaths. Nicotine addiction is about death and dying and nothing else. And it isn't even that merciful. There are struggles, pain, sickness, foul smells, decayed parts, and loved ones taken and left behind. As I walked to work, about one mile away three days a week, I am grateful for being able to do this. If I could walk that mile on my knees it would begin to express my gratitude for the last 4 months of quality life I have had.
yqs
Christiana
JanieB (Staff 1) - Jan 23, 2001
YoooHooo...It's JanieB here. I only smoked for 38 yrs. but that could easily be rounded up to and even 40, so I'm just going to chime in here. I would like to make a point about the why of "and still we smoked."
When my last child was born in 1978 we were allowed to smoke in the OB/GYN's waiting room! The nurses behind the desk were smoking while we signed in. Is it any wonder that we had a hard time seeing what all of the fuss was about.
It's not that we didn't understand that there were probable health hazards from smoking, it's just that the addict in us looked around and saw that even the medical profession was smoking and/or allowing it in their offices and hospitals. So....Ole Nic said... don't worry...be happy, they smoke so why not you.
(Good thread Linda, thank you. I hope you don't mind my barging in here)
Janice
~4M~4D~
improud (golder) - Jan 23, 2001
Great words of wisdom. Newlife, I can't believe you remember all of that. When you stop to think, smoking WAS everywhere. I started around 12 or 13 all of my friends smoked and I had to be in. I hated it at first but kept it up, smoked through pregnancy (two), smoked in my baby's faces, and now my grandchildren. Shame on me and everyone who did just that.
I have actually apologized to my best friend, who is not a smoker, for smoking in her face for the last 5 years. My grandkids were over for the weekend and I was so HAPPY that they were finally in a smoke-free environment, MY HOUSE. IMPROUD that they will never get the secondhand from me ever again.
2 wks, 5 days, 12 hours smoke free
Bolko (Staff3) - Jan 23, 2001
I was smoking for 44 years and at least 25 years ago I realized I have to quit because smoking is not good for me. I quit once for over a month but I thought I can have 1 cigarette for fun... You know the rest.
The time I regret my smoking habit most was the 11 months I was locked in a POW camp. In such a place, tobacco serves as the only currency exchangeable for all available goods among inmates and guards. All smokers, including myself, had to give up chocolate, cookies and candies, clothes, cosmetics, books, medications etc. for cigarettes.
"Fortunately," pretty soon we started to receive from an International Red Cross and many private charity organizations a lot of packages where cigarettes were always a major content. So we had both currency and smokes for ourselves. But if I would be a non-smoker, I would be dressed like a prince, have uncontrolled family members visit, weekend passes etc. I chose to smoke instead.
For the last few years I felt increasing pressure on my chest, shortness of breath, I was getting tired quickly and my only response to those symptoms was my daily routine statement: "I have to to quit." And nothing else. I don't know if I was waiting for a miracle or something. I gave up my annual physical because I hated when doctor always asked me as a very first question during each visit, "Do you still smoke?" And his comments after I gave him an answer, "I'm working on quitting."
I don't have shortness of breath, pressure on my chest, coughing anymore. I am not getting tired even after 10 miles fast walk. The cabin in my truck doesn't look and smell like one big ashtray. I'm going to bed whenever I feel like it, without desperately checking if I have enough cigarettes to "survive" until next morning. I don't have to behave like a teenager and sneak for a smoke in my workplace anymore. And so on, you name it.
Thanks to:
- taking a good example from my wife, who quit 2 weeks before me and she survived.
- my determination and commitment; "I can do it."
- priceless support from Freedom management and members.
I am finally smoke free: Five months, three days, 13 hours, 20 minutes and 58 seconds. 3757 cigarettes not smoked, saving $466.03. Life saved: 1 week, 6 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes.
Please, excuse my accent.
Ed Canuck - Jan 23, 2001
Don't really know whether it's been 44, 45, 46 or what, but it's been at least 44 years, at, roughly, 2 packs a day.
Back in the '50's and '60's, although smoking was frowned upon officially until you were adult (at least 16, otherwise it'd "stunt your growth"), certainly all the other messages were that you had to smoke to be "Kool". Naturally, since I, and my buddies, were so much more mature than our tender years , we had to sneak 'em at every opportunity! One of my most vivid memories is that, since we couldn't often afford the 25 or 30 cents it cost to buy a full pack, we used to get 'em 2 for a nickel at the candy store across the park from school.
I guess what's so amazing to most of us 40-year+ quitters, from my experience and what I've read from your posts, is that, regardless of the changes in understanding, awareness and attitude since the time we started, we've maintained for all that time, to ourselves at least, that smoking's OK (who the hell does Dr. Koop think he is, anyway?)!!
We've resented the banning of it from public places, restaurants, private homes, etc. We thought that people were totally over-reacting. After all, we smoked for years in all those places and nobody complained, so it's just the rabble-rousers getting everyone stirred up. And second-hand smoke??? Geez, if I can inhale 2 packs a day for 40 years, and I'm still healthy (cough, cough), how can second-hand smoke hurt anyone?
Even when we tried to quit, it was more because of social or family pressures than because we really wanted to, or felt we really should. God, talk about being in denial!!!! I certainly hope the other stages of my quit aren't quite as long as that one, or I'm in real trouble!!!
Ed
44+ years smoking and five days, 12 hours, 24 minutes quit........
elec7 - Jan 23, 2001
Great thread!!! Started smoking full time at 12 and had been swiping from my Dad for probably 2 years before that. My addiction to nicotine lasted 46 years. Tried many times to quit. Used the patches. Smoked while wearing them. Growing up most of my friends smoked, we were so cool.
I believe if you really want to quit and stop making excuses and have the benefit of information and support YOU CAN QUIT. I was addicted as anyone on this list I believe when you are HOOKED you are HOOKED no matter how much or how long you smoked. To keep your quit staying on guard is very important. So many times we tend to forget what it was like as a smoker. I taped one of my coughing fits and listen to it from time to time. Can't believe it is me on that tape. So just never take another puff and enjoy your freedom from a deadly drug....
Ed
AFTER 46 years proud to be nicotine free for five months, one week, 12 hours, 1 minute and 56 seconds. 4012 cigarettes not smoked, saving $953.22. Life saved: 1 week, 6 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes.
Hal(Gold) - Jan 31, 2001
Hi all. I have been smoking for almost 55 years. I started smoking at age 15 when smoking, as so many of you have said, was COOL. My wife and I live in the mountains in Nevada at 7400 feet. We have a three-story house, with the kitchen on the second floor. When I used to bring the groceries up the stairs, especially after 2 or 3 trips, I was so winded I had to sit down for 5 minutes to catch my breath. Of course, this was also a good occasion to light one up. My doctor said I had the beginnings of emphysema and of course to quit smoking. On the evening of November 28, 2000, I had a coughing fit that just wouldn't quit, and both lungs hurt.
I went downstairs and ground up the 5 remaining packages of cigarettes in the garbage disposal. I'm surprised the garbage disposal didn't throw up. lol. Anyway, I haven't had another puff since that night. I am still having trouble with cravings, but I keep telling myself that No matter how bad I feel, smoking is NOT an option. I also have a problem in that my wife still smokes, and she is nine months older than I. She will turn 70 in March, and to smoke menthols is a double whammy I am told as supposedly the menthol crystallizes in the lungs.
NOT ANOTHER PUFF, NEVER. 2M 2D 2h 1m 11s, 2523 not smoked, Savings of $315.42. LS 1W 1D 18h 15m
improud (golder) - Feb 13, 2001
Are we not the coolest!!!! INTO MY 6th week NIC free after 40 years.
Patticake (Gold) - Feb 25, 2001
I guess after smoking for 40+ years I can relate to just about every reply I have seen here. I guess no matter how old you are stopping an addiction is difficult. But I want to tell the young people who are here for support this: Please stop now, don't let nicodemon become part of your history and your future.
I kept telling myself I was going to quit, I kept asking myself when. Smoking is life-threatening, smoking is expensive, smoking smells, nowhere will you find one positive thing about smoking. When I first started smoking I thought why not everyone else is doing it. My aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, friends, movie stars, total strangers on the streets, I thought it was the thing to do. I didn't have a clue it was addictive, and I don't think anyone ever warned me it was, and my family was in the medical profession.
I can remember in the early 60's a new mother could smoke in her room in the maternity ward and you could buy cigarettes in the lobby of the hospital. Smoking was allowed in doctors waiting rooms. And if one thinks the cost of a pack of cigarettes is high just think about the cost to your body after long-term smoking. I am being honest when I say this has been one of the most difficult steps I have made in my life, this has been hard and I don't ever want to go through this again. I have been smoke-free for one month and one week today and I take it one day at a time.
Tessa - Feb 25, 2001
I was an addicted everyday smoker at the age of 17, but had sneaked smokes with friends on occasion before that. I will soon be 56, so cigarettes had been a part of my life for 38 years. The first pack I bought was 24 cents and the other penny from the quarter went for gumballs in the hope of covering the smell. Ashtrays were as important as milk bottles and coffee cups in our house and every aunt and uncle and almost every visitor smoked.
Every event, christenings, weddings, holidays and funerals (in the adult room) took place in a fog of smoke. It was just a way of life, you just sort of grew into. I'm so glad to see it fading away from social events and becoming a social tabu. Sure is easier on the non-smokers, and really gives a little affirmation to us ex-smokers who are trying hard to make the addiction a thing of the past.
I wish Freedom had been a part of my life at least 25 yrs ago but am grateful I found them when I did.......
Tessa
I hope to be smoke-free the next 40 years !!!!
Two months, two weeks, three days, 11 hours, 9 minutes and 49 seconds. 1589 cigarettes not smoked, saving $238.39. Life saved: 5 days, 12 hours, 25 minutes.
Chet Kast (Gold) - Mar 21, 2001
In 1955, amongst other things, it was simply really cool to smoke. Especially growing up in the streets of Brooklyn, NY trying to be a big guy and accepted in the crowd at your local candy store. As one of Joel's writings said, everyone smoked - my parents, my family doctor, my friends, dentist, Elvis, everyone. Why worry? Ha!
Chet
I have Quit for: 1M 14h 16m 4s. I have NOT smoked 789 cigs, for a savings of $118.48. Life Saved: 2D 17h 45m.
bonnie123(silver) - Mar 23, 2001
I started smoking at the age of 14 about 43 years ago. Before many years went by I was smoking 3 1/2 packs a day. Tried to quit many times through the years, all of them ending in failure. But now, for the 1st time, I have found hope here at Freedom. Thanks all. Hugs,
Bonnie
Two weeks, 6 hours, 21 minutes and 21 seconds. 998 cigarettes not smoked, saving $112.33. Life saved: 3 days, 11 hours, 10 minutes.
Chuckie - Mar 30, 2001
Smoked for 35 years, have been smoke-free for two weeks. All the stories and anecdotes in this thread about smoking in the 50's, 60's and even 70's may sound incredible to us in this day and age. However, I lived in Europe (Belgium, Spain and Greece) for eight years up until two years ago and I can tell you doctors and nurses do smoke in some hospitals, smoking is permitted in doctors' waiting rooms, some movie theaters, libraries, etc.
The smoking section at most restaurants is most of the restaurant (non-smokers are seated at the little corner table by the kitchen). Non-smoking signs at some airports are mainly for decorative purposes, since most smokers ignore them and most non-smokers usually wouldn't confront a smoker with such petty technicality (a sign). Funny thing is that even airport security personnel smoke inside some airports.
Young teens can buy lose cigarettes almost anywhere. Joe Camel is really big (literally), and is seen in full 3D glory on tens of strategically located billboards throughout major cities. For the most part, the police are not familiar with penalties associated with smoking in non-smoking public places. Fact is, in some countries penalties are not enforced at all, or are not even on the books.
I hope you understand that I'm not trying to criticize any country or anybody. Heck, when I lived there I loved it since I was a heavy smoker. I could smoke anywhere I wanted, anytime I wanted and I did. Things are changing though. And some countries like England are even tougher with smokers than even here at home.
Stan (Gold) - Mar 30, 2001
I also sucked on those nasty sickerettes for over 40 years and for about 35 of those years knowing full well that there were serious health risks involved. I started smoking at about 15 to be one of the "cool" guys. Had to work hard at getting addicted (dizziness, coughing, etc.). But, by golly, I was not to be denied. By the time I was 16, I could inhale with the best of them and even blow smoke out my nostrils and I know that impressed everyone, particularly the girls.
Could roll up a pack of Lucky"s in my t-shirt also, ala James Dean. Oh, I was just so "cool." As a pilot in Vietnam, I can remember taking off my oxygen mask shutting off the oxygen (always safety first) and having a sickerette. At about 30,000 feet, not only hard to light but hard to keep lit. Suck like crazy and the fire nearly comes back into your mouth.
As I look back that was really smart.....and now I think of my Grandparents who I just adored. Neither of them ever smoked but I would go in there and smoke like a chimney. Of course, I was not alone but I now know how that must have smelled to them. It was a dirty rotten stinky job and I'm glad it's over and now I have been smokeless in Dallas for: Six months, one day, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 27 seconds. 7309 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,005.23. Life saved: 3 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours.
Mari (GOLD) - Mar 31, 2001
Stan, (fellow Texan) I know you didn't mean for it to be funny, but at 30,000 feet???!!! My cartoon mind just went wind with that mental picture!! You're much "cooler" now. In fact in today's jargon you'd be called "kewl", I think that's spelled right.
Hugs, Mari
Robert2(Bronze) - Jun 18, 2001
Thanks for all the sharing. Rang a lot of bells with me. James Dean? But of course! It was just part of me, I never saw Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin without a cigarette, did you? Forty-one years and enough is enough is enough! Three weeks and two days.
With Love,
Robert2
Toast (GOLD ) - Jun 18, 2001
Hey, ya know I didn't smoke for 40+ years - only 20 - but I know folks who did! My grandfather - the one who died from a series of debilitating strokes - smoked from childhood til he was in his 70s. He quit cold turkey after his first stroke. Lucky Strikes. Ha. I remember he had cartons all over - in the car, by his sofa, etc. He grew up raising tobacco, as did my mother, his daughter. I still remember the sweet, oily, tobacco-y smell of the curing barn on their farm ...
His wife never smoked, but had suffered TB in the 30s and ended up dying from COPD. No doubt, 60 yrs of living w/a smoker didn't help. My mother smoked from teen years til her death at 60 from an aneurysm. She had a habit of making sure she had a pack stationed where ever she tended to sit a spell. It was her Silva Thins I first snuck, via the popular unsealing the bottom of the pack method.
My dad smoked from his teen years all the way through his year and a half of terminal cancer, chemo, radiation and until his death at 49. I remember visiting him in the hospital after one or another exploratory surgery and finding him sitting in bed smoking. They had smoking and non-smoking hospital rooms back then. I remember the hell we raised when the same hospital made us start smoking outside. He smoked regular Camels, giving me my first puff at age 4, no doubt hoping to make me sick and make an impression. His mother died of lung cancer but never smoked. Both his brothers died from cancer too, one lung, one skin. His father from a heart attack.
As a young child, I remember begging, pleading and lecturing my parents about smoking. I remember the long car rides with them smoking and me carsick. It seemed so obvious to me that they were killing themselves with the damn things. But at such a young age in understanding, little did I know about the power of addiction, even in the face of a strong desire to quit. So, by the time I was 14 or so, my father still newly dead, and me feeling like I didn't do something or other enough to make him stop before it killed him, I decided I'd "show them."
I know now that it wasn't my job to make him stop, wasn't my fault he died, but nothing like youth and the hormones of puberty to make the world seem so black and white. I started smoking when I was out with my friends. I told myself it was in part to having something to do while they were getting stoned, which I wasn't much for. I see now that I was doing it too in a desperate act to get attention, to get confirmation that this was wrong behavior, and also hoping someone would show they cared enough to beg me to stop.
Man, teen years are hard, no?? Such a martyr. I could buy 2 packs for $1. What a grown-up! I remember the day I finally told my mother I smoked (how did she not notice??), we ended up at the drug store buying me a carton. Her advice and I quote: "You know the dangers." I look back now and see that my mother had lived so long with her addiction, her hopelessness with it, that she couldn't see anymore that I might not yet be so hopeless. My parents were of the generation where it was sophisticated to smoke - smokers made their own choices! You learned to hold your liquor and smoke. Alas ....
So anyway, sorry to ramble on. Thanks for being there! I'm not craving, just remembering ...
:) Melissa
3 Weeks 5 Days 9 Minutes 1 Second ago I decided to express how much I care about myself by putting down cigarettes. Since then, I have not smoked a potential 520 cigarettes, at a savings of $70.22.
GrumpyOMrsS (Gold) - Jun 18, 2001
((((Melissa)))
What you just did was good....you got a heap of feelings off your chest and that has a way of working miracles.
Don't let your children see you suffer the way you watched your parents and family suffer. They sound as if they are pretty much from the same generation I came from when smoking was considered the norm, not the exception. We smoked because we thought we liked it and kept on doing it because we did not know how to stop.
Little did we know that we were addicts addicted to the deadliest substance there is, and like most people, we did not know how to break that addiction until we found Freedom and the wonderful information here. Knowledge is power and the more we know about our addiction and its hold on us, the easier it is to defeat it.
Keep on rambling sweetheart, and keep on healing!
hugs, Linda
1yr, 5+months
SonKist501(GREEN x2) - Dec 30, 2001
Just wanted to put in my two cents worth. I was born into a family that smoked. I had 2 grandmas that dipped snuff instead of smoking.
I tried cigarettes on and off all my life. Started smoking full-time at the age of 17. My mom and Dad both smoked, and it was just so cool, I was a rebel that didn't need a cause!! All the cool kids at school smoked!
Of course, I married a man that smoked. He dropped over of a massive coronary 10 years ago due to his 5 pack a day addiction. I heard the doctors tell him years before, "You don't have time to taper off cigarettes, you have to quit today or you are a dead man."
I raised 2 children and, of course, they smoke. My daughter just quit a few months ago.
I feel as tho this addiction has taken so much from me, and after 38 years, I will not give it anymore. I only wish I had done it years before. NEVER ANOTHER PUFF, NEVER!
So newbies and lurkers, you can do it!! I am living proof its doable and you will be so happy you did. Never take another puff!!
Betty
FREE 1 month, 5 days, cigs not smoked 2005, $saved 150.38
DebD (GOLD) - Mar 31, 2002
I started smoked on the sly at the age of 12, that was at least 2 sickarettes/day and started smoking full time at 18, am 52 now. Sickarettes were 25 cents/pack from the machines. I remember saying I was going to quit when they went to 35 cents. But being the true blue addict that I was I paid the 35 cents, then 75, and every increase til now! I have been smoke-free 10 days,11 hrs, 57 min. and very proud! I am one of those that have no ill effects at present but what the future holds, time will tell.
Here's to remaining smoke-free and enjoying it!
DebD
Eileen D (GOLD) - Jun 01, 2002
I too started smoking when it was so cool to do, and to this day that is my worst junkie thought. it's almost like I am not myself without the cig in my hand. I never realized how it controlled so much of my life. It was the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing at night. Like all addicts, I always said that I could quit whenever I wanted to and I still really believe that. All my other quits failed because my heart wasn't in it and I didn't want to quit. This time I made up my mind to do it and with the help of everyone at freedom I did it. I started smoking when I was 15 and I quit on May 1st 2002 ------- I turned 56 on May 13th 2002
Lilac (Bronze) - Jul 29, 2002
Well, crum, I posted my "story" this morning and then noticed at the last minute I had typed an extra i in quit. Of all words to misspell. So I hit cancel and the posting disappeared, never to reemerge. I hope by posting again the original post isn't residing someplace so I have made identical posts. Top off my troubles for the day, I answered a very interesting posting which I completely misinterpreted due to not seeing clearly the most important word which was CHEW. I saw chew as CHOW and responded in kind. I am not going to post again for a very long time. My ego doesn't need it----wow! Here is the smoking history of a 55-year smoker--because I feel I more or less promised to write it.
I really have nothing to add to the stories other long-time smokers have related. They have told the smokers' tale much more vividly than I can tell it. I also have trouble remembering how it came about that I loved smoking from the start or what really, in the end, led me to quit.
I believe I started to smoke out of curiosity. I had been taught that it was vulgar for a woman to smoke. This was in the forties in a small town. When I affiliated as a student nurse in a large hospital in a city, I had my first cigarette. From then on cigarettes and I were inseparable. We went through life together, never apart for a day. I was a perfect slave. And so it continued until three weeks and three days ago.
I have a very close and loving family who, for too long, have been deeply concerned about my smoking. I finally really made myself look at their concerned faces and listened to their concerned voices and I said to myself, "This is nuts! Why am I still doing this to people who love me?" And that is that.
I would take back the years I caused them to worry but you can't live backwards. All I can do now is join them in our mutual delight that I have FINALLY quit. And it hasn't been that bad. Most amazingly, it hasn't. Have been Helped a great deal by this forum.
A thought or two for unconvinced smokers: Smoking makes your skin wrinkle very early on, especially around the mouth which causes lipstick to bleed.
Smoking helps bring the early onset of brittle bones. Fractured hips, ribs, and spine are very, very painful. Smoking is bad for your teeth. You will hate dentures. They may look good if you are lucky, but they will always feel foreign in your mouth. And you don't have to be old for the damage to be done.
I always knew that, but I let it happen anyway. However, on the positive side--after only three weeks or so of being nicotine and tar free, I walk with a springy step, I breathe easily and deeply, and I feel strong and able to tackle anything. And I no longer grieve (often) for the loss of my treacherous little friends.
Lilac
3 weeks 3 days quit, 55 yr. smoker
GrumpyOMrsS (Gold) - Sep 15, 2002
Earlier, I read a post about "people of age" and while I'm not sure what it was about or it's origins, I do know one thing for sure...
It makes NO difference how old we are, how long we smoked, or what physical problems we might be suffering, there is nothing in the world as wonderful, especially for us "older quitters" than to have finally realized we can live our lives without nicotine. The hardest thing, I believe, for us "people of age" (thank you Lilac, I never thought I would love that term, but I do), is just getting started. We are fortunate, here at Freedom to have found Joel and to have the tools to teach us about our addiction. Once we begin utilizing those tools, and reading, and learning, and yes, communicating with others going through this with us, we realize that quitting is not the horrible, dreaded act that we thought it would be.
Some people, usually long time smokers afraid to try, will say that it is more difficult for older quitters to quit. But believe it or not, if you look back at these posts, it is not difficult to quit. It may be a little scary at first but in actuality the act of quitting has been a lot easier than most of us thought it would be.
What a relief to finally be able to say "I quit"! There is absolutely no better, no more wonderful, no more exhilarating and certainly, no more self-satisfying feeling anywhere in the whole world to know that we NEVER again have to take another puff.
My husband and I are both aging, grateful, and very happy ex smokers,
Linda
After 41 years of smoking, free for 2 years 9 months
Tellmeemore Silver - Sep 25, 2002
Back in 1952, I sneaked cigarettes from my dad's drawer. So did my sister. We went to the show and sat in the balcony and puffed away (it was ok at that time). Well, one day my Dad ask my mom what was happening to all his cigarettes, they were going fast. He had a carton. Now there were only a few packs left. Well, my sister and I decided to confess not knowing what would happen to us. To our surprise Dad said he was glad that we smoked his cigarettes rather than taking cigarettes from strangers because so much "dope" was being used and someone might give us some without us knowing it.
So he said if we must smoke he would buy them for us. Little did we know at that time what cigarettes did. I've tried many times to quit but have never had a site like this to communicate with. It makes all the difference in quitting and smoking. I think after a lot of prayers God had a lot to do with me finding this site. The first day I quit I needed help and didn't know where to go. So, I used the keyword stop smoking and guess what came up. I didn't know this site even existed. I've had support before but not like this. It really does work. I am proof. I haven't smoked in 7 days and hardly any withdrawal at all. Amazing.
Dionne (gold) - Oct 18, 2003
"Forty Plus Linda?" That be my group! Before I forget and probably something all of us ex-smokers know already, The only truly hard part of quitting is the time BEFORE the act. It is so scary thinking about being parted from our horrid stinking monkey on the back nicotine habit that we actually panic at the thought of not having it to rely on! Plain Fear! Which almost (I think) slides away soon into the quit as we start to get the notion (with a very tiny smirk) that we are actually doing the deed. We have made the commitment of quitting. "The seemingly unmanageable act." "We're doing it ." And not only are we still alive, we're gaining something we didn't even know about. PRIDE. What a gift that was for me.
Linda, I think it's an interesting thread to have some replies from the over 40 years group. And what I would like the 'younger' bunch to know is that today at 62 I never realized I could feel so full of just plain good old-fashioned happy energy!
I have so much oxygen in my blood it gives me the opportunity to dash about my days doing what I want when I want. Which is exactly why I wanted to quit smoking. It was literally robbing me of how I wanted to live my life.
When we enter into a major change in our lives it can get lonely if it's too drastic for all around us, which is why this Freedom Family is so important to keep around us. When I've been away for too long it feels a bit lonelier in the world. And truth be told it's easy to forget the monkey is always lurking about searching for weaknesses. Remaining a working part of Freedom ensures our safety as plenty of you are there reminding all... NOT ONE PUFF!
I see the original thread is over two years old. Works for me today!
Yours as always,
Sweet Smelling Dionne
3 years, 10 days
dookiejane - Dec 02, 2003
Hi, I'm glad Toast brought this up for me. I shoulda been here a week ago. What an interesting thread... forty-year plus fighters. And some great messages too.
I smoked for 49 years and even though I knew what it was doing to me I kept on. When I found this site and read what everyone had to say about how they quit I began to believe that it was possible for me to quit cold turkey. I had tried all the other ways.
One of the things I learned from here was that using NRT kept me in a constant state of withdrawal but in using nothing I was free of nicotine in 72 hours. Also that a craving would last about 3 minutes, and...the crave will go away whether I smoked or not.
You've heard people say, "if I could go back in time and know what I know now?" Well, If I could go back and know what I know now I would NEVER have smoked even the first cigarette. Most of the health problems I have now was caused by smoking. If I had never smoked I would be in pretty good health at almost 61 years old.
Oh yes, by the way....cold turkey was the easiest so far.
Dookiejane
I have been quit for 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 20 hours, 1 minute and 53 seconds (19 days). I have saved $98.17 by not smoking 595 cigarettes. I have saved 2 Days, 1 hour and 35 minutes of my life.
( more time to chase after the grand younguns)
TOM DPLN1 GOLD - Mar 04, 2004
HI LINDA,
I TOO HAVE THE DUBIOUS DISTINCTION OF BEING A 40 PLUS YEAR SMOKER. AT THE AGE OF 58 I HAVE BEEN NICOTINE FREE FOR OVER THREE MONTHS AND BEGINNING TO FEEL BETTER. THE MOST NOTICEABLE NOT HACKING MY GUTS UP EVERY MORNING. ALWAYS BLAMED IT ON THE MINT FLAVOR OF THE TOOTHPASTE. TALK ABOUT JUNKIE THINKING AND DENIAL !!! WELL, ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO QUIT. ONE LAST POINT, DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO QUIT, YOU MAY NOT BE AS LUCKY AS SOME OF US LONG-TERM ADDICTS. STOP NOW.
TOM 3 MONTHS FREE
redislegirl - Apr 27, 2004
Well, I guess I am a member of this club whether I like it or not. Forty years of addiction...it's hard to believe. When you talked about smoking being the "in" thing forty years ago you brought back a flood of memories. Everyone in my entire family smoked right down to my dear Grannie (who started late in life and never inhaled but had the uncanny ability to smoke an entire cigarette down to the filter without flicking the ash once. To all our amazement, the ash would be the whole length of her cigarette!).
At family gatherings, there would be aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins around the table and when the meal was over the whole gang would carry their cocktails and cigarettes into the living room. There everyone would settle down in front of the black and white TV and through a haze of blue smoke, we would all laugh at Dean Martin as he held his smoke in one hand and his martini in the other and slurred out jokes. Ahh... those were the days. It's no wonder we took up smoking in our teens, by then it was as natural as breathing in and out.
But that was then and this is now and now is soooo much smarter. I won't go into a detailed list, but many of those family members died of smoking-related illnesses, including my mother, whom I sat with until she struggled for her last breath from lung cancer. I don't know what lies ahead for me, time will tell, but I do know that after forty years I have put them away forever. Thanks to Freedom and all the dedicated folks here I am finally free from a lifetime addiction. Neither my daughters nor my grandchildren have ever smoked. The cycle stops here!! I will never take another puff!
Pam
3wks 5dys 2hrs Free
jennifer - Apr 27, 2004
I am also a member of this club I smoked for 42 long years and I never quit I had 4 children and smoked through all my pregnancies which is terrible I do not know what damage I have done to myself because the last couple of years before I quit I was smoking 50 a day. I am now feeling so much better even though I have put quite a bit of weight on I have made a promise to myself that as soon as I have been quit for a year I am going to start to watch my eating I know I will be able to lose weight if I can quit smoking I can quit eating.
I have watched a lot of my family die from smoking-related problems and I really do not want to die of lung cancer or any other cancer for that matter. So, all you young newbies out there, it is doable. If us olbies can do it, you can stick with it and Never Take Another Puff. I have been nicotine free for 9 months 1 week 21 hours and sooooooo proud of myself.
SurrenderGold - Apr 28, 2004
I am also a member of this group. After 40 plus years of smoking I gave it up with the help of this site. Never thought it was possible but it was. Even after 17 months nicotine free I sometimes get some cravings but know that as long as I never take another puff I will remain an ex-smoker. Freedom gives me the education I need to remain smoke free. I Surrender!
One year, five months, five days, 11 hours, 31 minutes and 49 seconds. 7314 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,279.97. Life saved: 3 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours, 30 minutes.
TickTockGold - May 19, 2004
After smoking for 50 years, I guess I have to admit that I am also a member of this group. Joining the Freedom family was by far the smartest thing I have done in my life. Quitting was fairly easy for me, I am sure it was because of the education I received here, as well as the constant support that is so freely given. I quit several times before, twice for approximately 15 months, both cold turkey, 2 years ago for 11 months, using the patch.
Numerous other times, also using the patch, which I would promptly take off as soon as we got together with smoking friends. Thus telling myself that it was impossible to quit. That is, until my daughter sent me the link to WhyQuit.com and Freedom. Then I knew without a doubt that I could quit, and not only that, I knew I would stay quit. I am so comfortable right now, I cannot imagine ever having smoked. It just gets better. This is so simple to do, one day at a time and NTAP
Dina - Free and Healing for Two Months, 21 Hours and 29 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 5 Days and 8 Hours, by avoiding the use of 1547 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $558.48.
Canadadel gold1 - May 19, 2004
I have been part of this wonderful group for over 4 months now, and I just realized I haven't mentioned I'm in the over 40 group too.
I puffed on that obnoxious stuff for 44 years. I tried to quit several times. Each time those big birthdays would come around, like 30, 40, 50, I was going to quit for sure ... Then there were the many times in between, but it never happened or, if I did make an attempt I failed. Then it got that I was afraid of failure and I saw myself as weak and spineless.
I was surfing the net one day, looking for something that would encourage me to quit. You'd think that knowing the damage I was doing to my health would have been enough, but it wasn't. I especially wanted to find something that would show me what the health benefits might be. I wasn't sure that there would be any for someone who had smoked for so long. I needed something positive to hang on to.
Luckily, I found that positive information at WhyQuit. Then I started to read, and read, and read. I was so happy that someone understood how I felt and that I was not alone and that there was a group that helped each other in such a positive way. It was so good to learn the facts about my addiction.
Armed with motivation, education and wonderful people I took the plunge and quit. I was so afraid I'd fail. But, I'm here to tell you that being a quitter is the most wonderful thing I've done in my life. My heart and mind are free and happy. I handle stress much better now, by dealing with issues and life, instead of hiding behind a cloud of smoke. I love walking. I even break into a jog now and then. I've smelled the wonders of Spring. I never cough. I made it through winter without sinus and cold symptoms. I don't have to think about smoking! In another 6 weeks or so, I'll be Silver.
If there are any newbies reading this, please believe me .... you can do it. Tough it out through the rough spots, read Joel's library and be happy and proud of each and every smoke-free day that goes by.
johnny - Jun 07, 2004
HELLO, I SMOKED FOR 42 YEARS.I TRIED TO QUIT ABOUT 4 TIMES OVER THE YEARS BUT NEVER LASTED MORE THAN 2 WEEKS.I ALWAYS HAD AN EXCUSE TO GO BACK AND THEN I WOULD FEEL TERRIBLE FOR DOING IT. I GOT SO SICK AND TIRED OF TELLING MYSELF THAT I SHOULD QUIT. I DO FEEL A LITTLE BETTER NOW, ESPECIALLY MY BREATHING. BUT I DON'T FEEL GREAT AND MAYBE I NEVER WILL, BUT I DON'T HAVE THAT MONKEY ON MY BACK ANYMORE. I FEEL PROUD OF MYSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS, AND I DON'T HAVE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR ANYMORE AND SAY, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO QUIT AND NOT DOING IT.THIS QUIT HAS GIVEN ME PEACE OF MIND IN THAT RESPECT, AS WHEN I LOOK IN THE MIRROR NOW, I RESPECT MYSELF FOR DOING SOMETHING I NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE! ANYBODY WHO IS THINKING ABOUT QUITTING SMOKING, JUST DO IT NOW!! IT IS WORTH IT, IT HAS BEEN FOR ME. JOHNNY-37 DAYS OF FREEDOM THANKS TO WHYQUIT.COM AND FREEDOM AND MYSELF
Marequits Gold1 - Jul 09, 2004
Thanks, Linda for this insightful post from January of 2001. You are truly an inspiration for me, a brand new 40+ addition to Freedom.
Loving it -
M.
Mrskrumm - Jul 09, 2004
What a great thread to pick up. I, too, am a member of the over 40. I burned a hole in my wedding dress because I was smoking while I was pressing it before the BIG DAY. Not only did I smoke while I was pregnant with both children, the nurse brought in fresh ashtrays so the room would be "nice for visitors." I smoked while I nursed the babies (it's a blessing they were not burned from a falling ash) and I smoked daily around them.
I have tried many many times to quit, never managed but did manage to not smoke around the grandkids, at least not in the car or house, and thanks to WhyQuit and Freedom and all the wonderful people here I have been quit for 6 weeks 16 hours and 34 minutes and healthy and happy.
Blessings to all
Sharon
wannadanc - Jul 17, 2004
Hello you wonderful 40-something crowd - and how grateful I am to be part of all of this!!!
If I had ever dreamed that quitting could be this easy, ....well ......actually.....it wasn't easy, was it? The 45 years that it took me to get here was a tortured journey I won't ever have to repeat.
I'm here - and happy and healthier .... and I thank you all so very much for holding my hands.
Vicki ... heading in the right direction for 6 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours, 39 minutes, 4 seconds leaving behind 2,224 unsmoked cancer sticks and pocketing $222.40 in the process.
tylicoma4 - Sep 19, 2004
I'm very grateful to Patience for sending me this link. It's really encouraging to see so many over 40 year smokers. I started when I was 13, 41 years ago. I also smoked while feeding my babies, even in the hospital. I have 4 grandchildren, 2 with asthma, so we really try to stay away from them when we were smoking.
I'm happy to be a part of this group. I can't believe how much easier it makes it to quit. Thanks everyone.
Marie
I have been quit for 5 days, 20 hours, 13 minutes and 57 seconds. I have saved $17.52 by not smoking 116 cigarettes. I have saved 9 hours and 40 minutes of my life.
Evolvingkaren1 GOLD - Sep 27, 2004
I'm 39er, not a 40 but it's all of you that keep me going every day, a day at a time. Thanks for this post on a Monday morning!
Karen 131/2 days
WideEnlightened - Oct 08, 2004
Thank you Mrs. Grumpy O!!!!
After 46 of steadily destroying my once young and healthy body, I need to know I'm not alone.
I have lung problems, but they are steadily improving, despite the unbelievable number of years I was actively trying to commit suicide with my addiction. It got so that all I had left was my cigarette and my own smokey closet. How isolating this addiction is.
I am hopeful now. And I am hopeful for all of the younger people who come here. There are no detox centers for nicotine addicts (there should be) and not much accurate information via the media. Freedom is hope. We cannot continue to die from this lethal substance.
Thank you all for your compassion and perserverance.
Mary Ann - 68 days nicotine free..NTAP!
Crystal View1 - Dec 21, 2004
I just saw this thread up here....I had seen it before. It was one of the first threads that helped me believe I could do it! Thanks Linda!
I have been reading, reading, reading and more reading. I am SO awesomely impressed, most of the time, with my quit....the other part of the time, I am challenged, and reading at Freedom. Whenever I am challenged and I come to Freedom and read and get more education and wisdom, I end up, well, awesomely impressed again!
I have included my "current" favorite string with a quote that is helping me hold my quit TIGHT. For today, after 40 years, I am NOT using nicotine!
Turning the Corner... Acceptance - a couple of times and I hold this quote from it dear....dear because when I read it, I knew someone knew and I felt "safe"! I am playing for keeps !!!: "We question a future where celebrations and defeats, excitement and boredom are experienced without the presence of the powerful drug to which we were actively addicted for years. We question our mettle. We've made it this far, and we've proven to ourselves that it's doable. But, now we're playing for keeps. This is for good. This is permanent. Can we imagine the rest of our life as an ex-smoker?"
Katie - After 40 Years! Free and Healing for Two Months, One Day, 3 Hours and 9 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 3 Days and 16 Hours, by avoiding the use of 1056 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $211.79.
Jean - Jan 20, 2005
Yes it is possible as long as you arm yourself with knowledge and courage, just wish I had done this many years ago!!!! After 45+ years, free and healing 2 months 1 day 15 hours and 44 minutes, refused 1566 death sticks, saved $471.14 and gained 5 days 10 hours and 32 minutes.
TOM DPLN1 GOLD - Jan 21, 2005
After a 44+ year, 2+ pack a day addiction I am enjoying 13 months of glorious freedom. Pay attention newbies and lurkers, this journey to freedom is doable. It may not always be easy, but it is always simple - no nicotine today. We here at freedom are rooting for you all. NTAP
Tom
mauricesmom - Jan 21, 2005
Started smoking at the age of 15 and kept going for 41 years. I would often just pray or hope that maybe the next day I'd wake up with the strength to quit but that didn't happen. I don't know why or how I decided to give it a try and do a New Year's quit but I did and I'm sure it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't found the Freedom site on my computer. After finding the Freedom site, I started reading and the reading and reading some more. It was like a light went on in my head and it was clear to me for the first time ever just what had happened to me.
I was an addict and unless I knew how to address this addiction there would be no quit that would work. Now that I have the helpful knowledge and all this wonderful support here at Freedom I can see for the first time in my adult life that this thing is doable. It's not easy to quit but it's simple, I can never take another puff. I want this quit to work, I only wish that I could have done this years ago!
P.S. when I see runners on the road running I always think how lucky they are that they can run, I would love to be able to run again, and maybe, God willing, I just might still be able to someday.
HappiestDeda - Mar 02, 2005
Linda, Thank you for your story. I have been a smoker for 42 years. I started at a time when smoking was very glamorous. Everyone in my life smoked. My parents, my grandparents, aunts and uncles and anyone who reached 18 years old was just kind of expected to pick up the habit. (we called it a habit then). I remember receiving a gold lame cigarette case from my mom when I turned 18. It was a kind of rite of passage I suppose. I felt very grown-up.
Now, forty-two years later, I'm trying to learn how to NOT SMOKE. I'm finally quitting and I still think it is a miracle. The wonderful information found here at FREEDOM is the only way I could have finally quit. I can't remember how many times I screamed out at God. "Why don't you just take away my desire for nicotine" and the very next day just continued to smoke like a chimney.
I had to have FREEDOM explain it to me. This is not just a habit, but a true addiction. I'm just amazed that I have continued to expose my body to hundreds of deadly chemicals on a daily basis for over 40 years and by the grace of God have not developed cancer or emphysema.
I am just so thankful to be here speaking to you younger smokers and to tell you just don't wait until your my age to quit smoking. Just save your body and mind all those years of abuse and just stop the insanity now. My greatest regret is that I smoked through 2 pregnancies and raised both my sons in a smoke-filled home and car. What did I get for this kind of ignorance? Two sons who smoked. One has quit, but the other one is severely addicted to nicotine to this very day.
After smoking for 42 years - I have been smoke-free for one month and I intend to NTAP.
Linda
mslindy6 - Mar 14, 2005
Hello, all you fabulous forty-year plus fighters - and newbies and lurkers. I would like to share my story with you. I started sneaking smokes from my Dad when I was 9. Not many, one or two here and there. Those were the days of the cigarette boxes full of cigarettes on the coffee table - beside the fancy lighter. Guests were offered drinks and smokes. So how could all these grown-ups be wrong?
I officially smoked at home at 16. I was given a carton of cigarettes for a 16th birthday present and a very fancy lighter. My parents were not cruel, they just did not know the implications of what they were doing.
Times were different then. I smoked with my Docter in his office on my prenatal visits with both my children. I smoked when I was in actual labor. The hospital allowed you to smoke in bed in those days.
If fact, I was in the hospital for an operation, developed a lung problem and still smoked a carton of cigs while waiting to get better. At work, I had an ashtray on my desk. More likely than not I would light a smoke and let it burn away while finishing my work, but that lovely secondhand smoke was still floating around the office.
I tried several times to quit, and many different ways. I mostly wanted to quit because I could not afford to smoke. Not the best reason - but a reason.
I did aversion therapy, this is where you walk around with a dirty glass jar full of your stinky butts for days and increasingly smoke more and more until your quit day. I felt awful and had nicotine poisoning - but I did not quit.
I tried acupuncture, hypnosis, NRT nothing worked. But my reasons were not good enough. I did not believe smoking would hurt me, I did not believe it was that bad for you. In fact, I knew very little about it. Just that, perhaps I should quit.
Until one day I thought I was having a stroke. I was rushed to the hospital and lucky for me it was not a stroke but a TIA which mimics a stroke and gave me a huge warning. Now, I know that smoking is bad - I had to quit. I tried Zyban and that did not work for me. I was one of the few people that actually got depressed on the drug...LOL. So, I read and read on the internet looking for the EASY way out.
Then, I found WhyQuit.com and Freedom. I read and read and read. It all made sense now. I was an addict. I needed to get clean. There was no easy way, there is only one way and that is to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF.
So after 40 years, I have quit, I feel better already, I feel liberated and pleased with myself. And in actual fact the first three days, though very hard were NOT as bad as I imagined them to be.
SO..I have now stopped smoking for 11 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes, 39 seconds. That translates into 239 cigarettes NOT smoked, for a savings of $106.95CDN! I have increased my life expectancy by 19 hours, 58 minutes, 47 seconds.
Thanks to you all at this site!
Linda
karenelizabethsr - Mar 27, 2005
I found this string this morning and am proud to add my little bit. I too remember the "good" old days when there were no rules about where or when or how we could smoke. It horrifies me now to admit that I even smoked while nursing my babies. I grew up in a family that was anti-smoking for religious reasons. I started to smoke as a part of teenage rebellion and also because I really believed that I looked sophisticated. I lost count of the times I tried to stop and the methods I've used. (I even got the staple in my ear twice). It was the nature of truth on this site that woke me up. No kid gloves, no excuses, Just plain old truth. I am an addict, I am not receiving anything positive from a smoke. I am only feeding myself nicotine to satisfy my addiction. And there is only one answer. Never Take Another Puff!
Thanks for being there,
Karen
After 40+ years of smoking I am proud to be FREE and HEALING for Two Months, Three Days and 12 Hoursastra2785 - Jan 12, 2006
An oldie but a goody - and that goes for the thread and each of these wonderful older quitters.
All of you have been such an inspiration to this old bird - nearly 66, a smoker for 47 years and a quitter for just over a week.
It is so good to know that it isn't too late to make the quit count, to stop an addiction that has been negative in my life for all those very many years.
I feel good.
Maija
october skies wa - Feb 13, 2006
Thanks to all of you for the advice on this thread. I am really at home here, and reading through each of your stories I recalled how easy it was to become an "entitled" smoker at age 15 ... in my parents' house, at my high school in the school parking lots, at my after school job at the old A & W Root Beer - heh heh. Yes, adults not only allowed our smoking, but we actually took pride in the way we looked when we smoked.
I remember going to my first formal dance in my Freshman year of HS and rehearsing with my cigarette case in front of the mirror in the dining room offering my date a smoke - wow. My favorite television shows all included smokers - the biggest lie I can remember was the old Mission Impossible series where Peter Graves would have one cigarette at the start of the mission and not smoke again in the whole show ... remember that? Not exactly me a little over a week ago having to smoke 4-5 "real" cigarettes (Kool Kings or Pall Mall) in the morning just to be able to "breathe", huh?
My Mom died of complications from Emphysema at the ripe old age of 67 years, and even after watching the woman who taught me the Fox Trot die from that disease, and not be able to sit up in the end without help ... I still didn't quit. She was one of the first women of her generation to work outside the home in a real profession other than teaching or nursing, and took great pride in her intellect and sophistication - her cigarette of choice was Chesterfield Kings - remember those? There hasn't been a day go by in the last week that I haven't thought of her, and I know she would be proud of me today for having the courage finally to "call a spade a spade", huh Mom?
Anyway, enough for now. I'm on day 6 and day 7 is tomorrow. I have a square dance lesson to attend this evening and I'm just hoping I can get through it without having the wrong thought at the wrong time and freaking someone out by bawling in the middle of a dance ... Wish me luck ... NTAP
I have been quit for 5 Days, 14 hours, 53 minutes and 1 second (5 days). I have saved $54.08 by not smoking 196 cigarettes. I have saved 16 hours and 20 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 2/6/2006 11:00 PM
Bill B in Seattle
FoolishWorkinj - Feb 13, 2006
Thanks for this thread. I remember my father -- who smoked Chesterfields -- catching me smoking late at night in our living room, and my dad cried. This was in the late 60s. He reminded me that when I was a little girl I used to ask him not to smoke in the car because it made me sick, and here I was smoking, and he felt it was all his fault.
My dad was lucky. He quit smoking when he was 60 and lived into his 80s. But his tears were out of guilt, even back then, and I have shared those same tears over my own children smoking. Our children see our addiction and believe it must be okay. Now, after smoking 40 years, we can finally show them a different way. I don't think I could have quit without the support and education at this site. Thank you to Freedom.
Best, Joanne
I have been quit for 1 Month, 2 Days, 14 hours, 14 minutes and 18 seconds (33 days). I have saved $275.45 by not smoking 1,343 cigarettes. I have saved 4 Days, 15 hours and 55 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 1/10/2006 8:00 AM
Bob F - Mar 13, 2006
Pack a day times 40 years =292,000 cigarettes.
Did not start with a whole pack a day, but many times smoked 2, 3 or 4 packs in a day since then if I was drinking or camping or at a party or just spending time outside (my daughter outlawed smoking in the house when she was about seven years old "twenty years ago" and still to this day does not smoke.....smart kid)
Bob F - Free and Healing for Eight Days, 13 Hours and 1 Minute, while extending my life expectancy 14 Hours, by avoiding the use of 171 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $42.73.
anhef - Mar 13, 2006
44 years ago, smoking was "cool." It was a sign that you were "grown-up." Everybody did it. Well, almost everybody...at least "everybody who was anybody." Or such was the thinking of the time.
Little did i know that when I took that first puff, I'd be going out to buy a pack the next day...and every day after that until I was able to buy cartons instead.
Pretty soon, a carton didn't even last a week...lucky if two cartons did.
Eventually, the day came when I finally realized that I was puffing my way into the poorhouse on the way to an early grave. luckily for me, I stumbled onto this site on that very day and I have been quit for 1 Month, 3 Days, 2 hours, 18 minutes and 41 seconds (31 days). I have deprived the tobacco companies of $201.85 by not smoking 1,554 cigarettes. I have saved 5 Days, 9 hours and 30 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 2/9/2006 7:11 Pm
annie
MawRosie - May 27, 2006
Just thought I'd keep this one going, Great String Linda. I can relate to everything written.
I can remember my first puff, I was 15. I thought it would be real cool to smoke and I thought it would make me real grown-up looking. I bought a packet of Cigs called Bristol. I wonder if any of you remember that brand. You could buy them in packs of 5. I went upstairs on the bus, stangely enough it was empty. Which was just as well because when I took that first puff, I thought I was going to choke to death. Coughing and spluttering all over the place. But goodness, practically everyone who was anyone was doing it, so I just practiced harder.
I had two before I reached my destination, and came off that bus, looking a shade of green I'm sure. But we all now know that you don't have to practice hard for very long. And I can safely say after that bus journey, I was a smoker. That was over 40 years ago, and do I ever wish I could turn the clock back. As I'm sure every smoker in this land will tell you, they wish they had never started. I'm sure you would be hard pushed to find anyone out there who would tell you anything different.
I came across this site by accident and I am so glad I did. I truly believe if I hadn't found this site that I would still be smoking, because I would never have lasted the 57 days I have, without having sneaky puffs here and there. But the knowledge we gain here lets us know that is where we were going wrong. The sneaky puff was what was doing the damage. NTAP, dead simple.
Rosie
57 days and Still Game
warmharted woman1 - May 27, 2006
BRAVO !!! Great String....I started smoking in 1961....Camel straights..I was almost 14 years old. It made me sick as a dog...green around the gills...but it was cool and I was so lonely..it was a cool friend. My parents knew I smoked and all they said was don't smoke around us...you look silly. I wasn't mature enough to smoke with them and their friends. Times have changed.
It is NEVER too late to quit...until 2 weeks ago...I thought what's the point....and then I wrote down all 30 reasons why it's not too late...and I quit ...as a Mom. as a Grandmom, as a Senior Citizen, as ME.....I quit!!! HOORAY
gally66 - Jun 02, 2006
I began smoking when I was 14 or 15, because that is what young rural kids did to be cool. I know I was smoking regularly, and openly at age 16; this would have been 1952, got my driver's license that year too. I switched to the pipe after maybe 10-12 years, with some cigarettes and cigars thrown in now and then. About 1985 I decided I should quit smoking for a number of reasons, most of them wrong, and the craving and desire never went away. After about 5 years, sitting in a hotel room one day, I said to heck with this and went out to buy cigarettes.
One funny thing, looking back now, is that my best information at the time suggested I needed to overcome the addiction as well as the physical habit of smoking. To accomplish this, my idea was to chew tobacco while I got used to not smoking physically, then stop chewing. Well, it kind of worked but when I tried the same idea about 1991 to stop again, I never stopped chewing - so I have chewed for the past 14 years or so. Just a couple of years ago, I decided to try the nicotine replacement route so purchased the gum. After about 3 months I was "hooked" on the gum, so went back to tobacco; at least it was cheaper.
For some reason, I kept thinking about quitting, and off and on, I would surf the web looking for ideas. Most of what I found did very little for me (mostly they were so-called professional advisors, you know the ones who help you plan your quit rather than tell you to quit). But I eventually found a link to Whyquit and started reading Joel's library; this gave me a very positive feeling, direct information about addiction, advice on how to go about quitting, and hard-nosed, no hugging advice on what I had to do to stay quit. I found a second site that talked a lot about handling feelings during the quit which helped fortify my desire.
So thank you Freedom, NTAP, and all the support.
Graham
Free from nicotine for 12 days after 50+ not
gally66 - Jul 22, 2006
Hi everyone in 40+.
I just made it to my 2-month birthday and feel confident about joining this illustrious group of ex-smokers. I smoked cigarettes off and on, smoked a pipe for 20 years, cigars when available, and ended my nicotine career chewing tobacco (about 15 years). I think I started cigarettes when I was 14 or 15 so I say I was not free of nicotine for 50+ years (I will be 70 in about 6 weeks). I did quit once about 20 years ago for nearly 5 years but it was a struggle all the way and I finally said to heck with it. I understand now that I did not have a plan, nor did I bother to look for support. Which brings me to the story I would like to offer, partly to free myself of the issue.
I am a recovering alcoholic; I have not tasted any type of alcoholic beverage for a little over 23 years. I achieved this success through membership in a support group where I learned about alcohol, addiction, and how to change my thinking and lifestyle to become free of alcohol. I refer to myself as a "grateful" alcoholic because the program changed my life dramatically. I would never have known how great life could be if I had not become an alcoholic. Now for the really difficult part.
I have spent 23 years learning about alcohol addiction, to some extent helping others overcome their dependency, and yet I found it impossible to apply the same principles and ideas to tobacco. I was convinced I was so addicted to nicotine it was impossible for me to quit. I had to find WhyQuit.com (and one other good site for me) to learn about nicotine addiction, and a possible program to free myself of this dependency. My only explanation is "addiction," its power, its cunning, its ability to keep one's mind right where addiction wants it, preventing the addict from applying anything resembling common sense and reason to the issue.
I had learned that one symptom of addiction is denial, denial of the nature of addiction, denial of the effects of the addiction. I can say with regard to nicotine, I was motivated not to quit by continuing medical evidence that I had not suffered any "notable" effects - I have had chest X-rays, my carotid arteries checked, etc. etc. Of course, all this means I was one of the very lucky ones who, up to this point at least, had managed to escape by chance the great adversities that should have befallen me.
Maybe this story adds to someone's understanding of how impossible it is for most of us to free ourselves of an addiction without solid help from others. I do not know why WhyQuit.com works so well, and I am not going to try to analyze it - take for a fact, reading the material, following the advice, going 72 hours, and then having the courage to apply for admission to Freedom will give one the greatest chance of success, bar none.
At first, I was put off a little by the "one chance only on Freedom" then I realized there were many problems with letting repeaters post, but also that taking the chance of joining (having the courage I think) adds to the commitment and motivation for a strong and lasting attitude toward NTAP.
Thanks again, everyone. Will be looking back regularly.
Graham
Free for 62 days (2 months) after 50+ years not.
chel - Aug 23, 2006
I am 59 and had my first puff at @14 addicted by 17 that is 42 years ago! First wanted to stop at @ 30 and kept on trying more and more seriously. Thank God NTAP was explained to me so clearly on this site! I am still adjusting and facing life's problems without those cigarettes that wouldn't solve anything anyway. I know now I smoked because I was Addicted.
I have been quit for 5 Months, 1 Week, 3 Days, 5 hours and 8 seconds (163 days). I have saved £424.34 by not smoking 1,632 cigarettes. I have saved 5 Days and 16 hours of my life. My Quit Date: 13/03/2006 06:00
kckid1967 - Oct 04, 2006
I'm one of the 40+ years of smoking people. What bothers me the most is not what I have done to my body, but what I have done to those around me. The love and patience I received from my family over the years was amazing. Who else would put up with the stink, the smoke, and the health risks I put them through every day? This healing is for me and for them. I owe it to them.
Gary
I have been quit for 5 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days, 23 hours, 42 minutes and 20 seconds (171 days). I have saved $825.54 by not smoking 6,879 cigarettes. I have saved 3 Weeks, 2 Days, 21 hours and 15 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 4/14/2006 8:00 PM
realmarino - Apr 19, 2007
Love this parade!!! Thank You!!!
I smoked right after a root canal (couldn't wait to get to the car to light up).
I smoked just after my babies were delivered (in the hospital).
I smoked just before and right after a workout at the gym.
I smoked while nursing my children.
I smoked in the grocery store.
I smoked in class.
I don't smoke anymore now!!!!!
NTAP
I have been quit for 1 Year, 1 Month, 14 hours, 38 minutes and 36 seconds (396 days). I have saved $1,130.32 by not smoking 4,759 cigarettes. I have saved 2 Weeks, 2 Days, 12 hours and 35 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 3/18/2006 11:00 PM
Eileen D (GOLD) - Jul 09, 2007
I smoked for 41 years starting at age 15. I was in a car accident six years ago. In the hospital they asked if I smoked and how many a day. After I had a chest x-ray the nurse said that once in a while people get a second chance in life and that for all my smoking, my lungs were in pretty good shape and I should think about quitting. So, I thought about it for almost a year and then read about Freedom on a Suzanne Somers chat site. I made up my mind to quit and I did it.!!!!!!!!
Five years, two months, one week, one day, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds. 56857 cigarettes not smoked, saving $8,528.67. Life saved: 28 weeks, 1 day, 10 hours, 5 minutes.
starbirder - Oct 18, 2007
HiYa, This is a long thread of Fabulous 40-year plus FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
I still consider myself fairly new here in the presence of so many goldings, but do have some greening and now bronze under my belt, so thinking perhaps this thread can help someone just starting on their journey FREE FROM NICOTINE or for anyone needing a good read to comfort them or celebrate one more minute free.
All these people, including me, used nicotine for most of our lives and are still here, by the grace of God, but certainly not 100% of wellness. So all you newbies and those in-between to oldbies +++, continue with your quit. learn from us...........Never Take Another Puff, live well.
Star
Free and healing 96 days, after using nicotine for 40+ years....and feeling and breathing better each day.
allanb - Jan 01, 2008
I'm pretty new at 49 days and this is a wonderful thread…..I started smoking at 15, I'm 55 now and by some miracle, I'm still here….My mother is dying of lung cancer as I write this (she's 77), my uncle died of lung cancer at 56 ten years ago and I just kept on smoking….
This site and this thread is a gold mine of support and every posting gives me hope and direction (much needed!) This is a-ok. I quit smoking so now what do I do with myself?????" WITHOUT eating food until I explode…..there are some answers like learning patience one day at a time and knowing this struggle is shared by so many others. I started smoking during the summer of love and cigarettes were just one more thing to get hooked on but it's the hardest to let go of…… But I'm doing it and I keep coming back to WhyQuit to stay strong and share.
abprime
I have been quit for 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 22 hours, 1 minute and 54 seconds (49 days). I have saved $187.18 by not smoking 1,247 cigarettes. I have saved 4 Days, 7 hours and 55 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 11/11/2007 9:34 PM
Doc460704 - Feb 19, 2008
Hi all, my name is Pat. Though I've been hanging around the WhyQuit boards for a while I'd never noticed this thread. Anyway, here's my sad story.
I started smoking when I was 19 years old. Since I'm over 60 that qualified me as a forty year+ addict. During that time I'd tried to quit an untold number of times. Sometimes I'd start the quits with drugs like Wellbutrin, other times with NRT gum or patches, and a few other times just trying it "cold turkey."
I used to kid people that the nicotine patches were the worst way to quit because they were so hard to light. In actual fact, I was never even able to quit cigarettes for more than a week using any technique other than the "cold turkey" method. Every quit attempt eventually failed. I'd have "just one" cigarette and would be back to two packs a day within twenty-four hours.
In December last year, I told my wife I'd like to try one more time to quit. She has been very supportive. My parish is trying to build a new church building and I thought that I could reach my financial pledge by giving up smoking and actually come out ahead. After working the numbers on paper it's true, we will come out ahead.
The actual reason I wanted to quit was not for my sweet wife, not for our wonderful kids or grandkids, not for the church or the money and not because I had a heart attack two years ago (though those are all worthwhile incentives) but because of my incessant cough, because of my shortness of breath and because I was so disgusted with my inability to walk away from a habit that I knew was killing me. To help me, this time I did some research on the Web and was just plain lucky to have stumbled across WhyQuit.com.
Everything I read on the site rang true. I learned that I didn't just have a bad habit but that it was an addiction. I learned how that addiction worked and more importantly, why my quit attempts had failed. They failed because I simply took another puff. I found out why my previous attempts using some type of nicotine replacement therapy were doomed, because all I was doing was prolonging the withdrawal period till I just caved in and started smoking again. The symptoms of withdrawal and their duration I read about on the website were also right on the money.
I started this by calling it "my sad story." Because I've been armed now with accurate information on the nature of this addiction and the support I've received from everyone (newbies and especially oldbies) on this site I fully intend to make it a happy ending by Never Taking Another Puff. I hope this inspires just one more person to take the same small steps that I have. As long as you have a breath left in your body you can quit no matter how long you've smoked.
Pat (free now one month, 18 days and ten hours)
wendyaannn - Oct 16, 2008
haha I love this thread! I want to send it to my mom's best friend, who wants to quit smoking after 42 years but can't seem to get the courage up and who told me I couldn't possibly understand how hard it would be for her as I'd been a smoker for "only" 23 years :)))
grandmaroux - Mar 08, 2009
I don't think that my story is any different than all of the others that I have been reading and enjoying. We certainly would do just about anything to be "in" or accepted by our peers and those that we looked up to when we were teenagers. I remember my very first little puff, I was about 7 years old, my much older sister of 16 was smoking and I believe that little puff was to keep me quiet about it. Funny what we will do eh! It wasn't until about 14 that I started huddling with the "in group" around the back of the school. I was so cool!!! I was not some "goody two shoes." I had guts.
I was smoking behind my parent's back, I was a rebel. Neither of my parents smoked, out of 8 children 4 smoked and there were only two remaining, myself and my older sister. I think she is what may be considered by the unconfirmed addict a "social sometime smoker." She still smokes it doesn't really matter when or how much.
I too smoked through 3 pregnancies, right out of the delivery room, while I was bottle feeding my babies, while I was doing anything. It didn't really matter, some people would say you shouldn't smoke when.... whatever it really didn't matter, I smoked whenever, wherever I wanted. I knew very few people who didn't smoke.
I first tried quitting when I was about 26 or 27, that is probably when the first smoking cessation programs were starting up and I wanted to be one of them. Not that I really wanted to give up smoking at the time. I just wanted to see what all the hype was about. I was a full-fledged "love my cigarettes" nicotine addict smoker.
Never once did I admit to that. I just used any and all excuses I could: too much going on, not enough money (that was so redundant) too stressed, hubby won't quit, I should but it's so hard, I have really cut back, (lies lies lies all lies), now is not a good time, the government wants us to smoke, they won't let us smoke anywhere but they will still sell to us, I'll show them. I tell you any and all excuses I have used. Quit once for 3 months then became a closet smoker for YEARS, what a fool!
Now I have finally owned up to a lot, a lot of things that I never thought I would own up to. I know that I am an addict and that was a big one, a real big one. I know I have to take care of this quit like the newborn baby it is. I have to guide, nurture and gain its trust. I have to continually educate myself. Continue to read, encourage and be myself, who I really am and that is NOT a smoker.
Enjoying Freedom for 21 days (3 weeks yahoo!) 59 minutes 52 seconds. I have not smoked 315 nicotine fixes I have saved $151.50 and 1 day 2 hours and 15 mins of my life. Congratulations to me!!!!
Doris
theMazeSays - May 11, 2009
Well, I've been an FFN devotee for several months now, and I finally decided to add my story to the 40yr+ fighters topic. Honestly, it took me a while to feel comfortable with this choice because I'm not proud of the fact that I smoked for so many decades. I'm looking for the cathartic value and hope that after posting this, I won't need to tell the story again!
I took my first puffs during the summer of 1966 at age 10. I remember the tree fort we had built high up in an ancient oak far out in a Kentucky cornfield near Fort Campbell where my father was stationed. My friend Johnny had stolen a whole pack of Lucky Strikes from his Dad. There were maybe 5 of us in the gang and it took a couple of days to finish off the pack. I don't remember much after the first puff, it was horrible--the hacking dry cough, dizziness, nausea. But we smoked them all!
Fast forward to 7th grade, age 13, a new tree fort and my first girlfriend. Unfortunately, she was a smoker, and so it wasn't too difficult for me to become a smoker too, having had some small experience with it. It's 1968 and a pack of cigs is only 25 cents in Boulder Colorado; all I had to do was steal a quarter from Mom and I was set. Since age 13 until recently, at 53, I've been a pack-a-day smoker, pretty much without fail.
And not without the quit pangs every smoker feels. In the mid 80's I tried the gum on my doctor's advice. In the early 90's I tried hypnosis. In the late 90's I tried bupropion. And finally, just last year, I tried varenicline. That's about the gamut. There are two important points about these quit attempts. First, I responded "very" positively to every one of them. I always managed to stay quit for a couple of weeks, and in one case even several months! This attests to the deep desire that I had to be set free and the internal conflict that was ever-present. The second point is that every attempt failed; I had not learned the law of addiction and I had failed to understand that I am an addict.
But I had one thing going for me--I would not give up! I knew that millions of people had to have successfully quit; even I had a couple of friends who had quit cold turkey. I began to think that some evidence of these people had to be on the Internet, and so I started seriously searching. Mark my word: serious. At last count, a Google search on the phrase "tobacco cessation" returns 536,000 results. Not just a little daunting, but I began the process of looking at every one of them and keeping notes as I went. I finally got to WhyQuit.com after about 10 pages (100+ results); that is several days. And it didn't take me long to realize I'd hit the jackpot! In December of 2008, I downloaded and printed the books by Joel and John and had read them through before January rolled out. This was the ticket, and I was packed for the journey.
Now, it has been 72 days 17 hours and 3 minutes since I arrested nicotine addiction. Refusing to inhale the exhaust from 1454 burning tobacco sticks has saved me $290.84 and added 11 days 2 hours and 36 minutes to my life!
signed with heartfelt thanks
~maze
Trisha52 - May 18, 2009
Everything on this site just keeps getting better! This thread is where I belong! I am age 57 and had my first puff at age 11. In fact, my own mother would give me cigarettes at that time. (There were really no smoking issues back in 1963) I became a full-time addict in 1966 at age 14.
I never even really tried to quit over most of my 43 years of smoking. Due to pressure by family and friends, I made a few measly quit attempts over the last 7 years using nicotine lozenges, or Zyban or Chantix. The lozenges were absolutely no help. In fact, a friend of mine got addicted to the lozenges for more than 3 years! Fortunately, he never did smoke again, but he moved away and I do not know what happened with the nic addiction to the lozenges. The last I spoke to him, his Doctor had just said "beats smoking!" Zyban and Chantix both got me down to 3 or less cigs per day, but publicity about the safety of both of these drugs got to me and scared me off of them. (smoking did not scare me though??!!)
Furthermore, I never committed to the mandatory quit date for these programs - I know now that I really had no intention of quitting at those times because I was trying to do it for everyone else but me. I would continue to sneak a puff whenever I could!
I have just finally reached the point where I could not stand smoking anymore. My city (Rochester, NY) forbids smoking in all public places, even on outdoor decks. Hospitals and schools forbid smoking anywhere on their grounds, even if you are in your car. You must leave their premises in your car before you can light up! Getting a fix while working requires a 10-floor elevator ride down and up each time. There is no outdoor shelter in the wintertime and Rochester gets very cold and snowy!
I'm tired of walking away from my friends and family every time I need a fix. I'm really tired of the expense - a pack of name-brand smokes now costs over $9.00 here! I'm really, really tired of the stench! Most of all I am tired of hiding from my 2 grandchildren! How I pray they will not become addicts!
I do not want to be an addict anymore! I am starting my 8th day of freedom today - I still have a long way to go, but I am totally amazed at how far I have come!
dixieanny - Aug 11, 2009
Please, all you wonderful quitters.....join me in adding your story to this thread so that we may show the younger quitters not only what it has done to us over the years....but how it is possible to regain our freedom from the deadliest of the addictions.
Some of us have been lucky.......some of us are suffering and still more of us do not know what the future holds.....but what we do know is that we are finally quitting.....finally saying enough is enough and wondering why in the world we did not have the guts or courage to quit and quit for good before.
Many of us, for the first time in our lives, can look in the mirror and smile at ourselves and think.....wow....I did it and am I sure proud!! For some of us it has been somewhat difficult....but many of us forty-year plusers...have found that quitting has been the biggest relief of our lives. Quitting was lots easier than we expected. We found that not only do we breathe better, smell better, look better....but we walk taller, we smile more and we have learned that no matter how long we've smoked....we can still quit and that there is a wonderful life after quitting.
I am Ann and I too have smoked about 40 years. I always thought I could quit anytime I wanted, scoff... It wasn't that easy. I thought it was the cool thing to be doing. I thought it kept the weight off me. I thought it was my best friend. Best friends do not hold their hands over your face when you breathe. That is what it eventually felt like. Best friends do not cover you with that putrid odor on your clothes and everything you own. Best friends do not make you lie in bed for days instead of working because you have to have I.V.s run through you and nebulizer treatments and wait for the nurses to tell you what's next with the lung treatments.
I wish I were one of you who has seen the light early before waiting until you have damaged your lungs like me. I am one of the lucky ones so far. I say, so far. I did it. I really finally did it and I feel proud to have joined this "Freedom's Fabulous Forty-year plus fighters" to let you know, it does get better and it is worth it no matter what your age or how long you inhaled that poison. You can do it and we can help!
Like Linda said, "Many of us, for the first time in our lives, can look in the mirror and smile at ourselves and think.....wow....I did it and am I sure proud!!" "I found not only a wealth of information about my addiction....yes, we are most definitely addicted to the most deadly of substances, nicotine, and I learned that I had to treat my quit as such."
Come join us here at FREEDOM and know that you too can have a much better life after smoking!! Remember Never Take Another Puff!
Ann
Free and Healing for Three Months, while extending my life expectancy 12 Days and 18 Hours, by avoiding the use of 3680 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $1,071.25.
glhage - Jan 07, 2010
My name is Georgetta (George) and I just found this thread, even though I'm still a newbie (just turned green), I'd like to share my story.
I was born in 1955 and yes, it seemed like smoking was just part of growing up and I don't even remember any adults that didn't smoke. My first cigarette was in 3rd or 4th grade. I stole a pack of Pall Malls from my mom and a few of us were in a garage. I think there were just 3 of us and we sat and smoked the whole pack, one after the other. Boy did we get sick!! After that, I just dabbled in it once in a while but didn't inhale.
I was very shy in jr high and didn't smoke at all, then I hit high school and met some new people. They had these alcoves outside the front doors of school that seems there were put there just for smoking! All my friends would go out to smoke and since I felt stupid just standing there, of course, I started smoking. Everyone did it and it was allowed everywhere. The movie theatres had smoking lounges and had an intermission so people could go have that smoke and not miss part of the movie!! You still had to be 16 to buy cigs, but it was common to just write a note saying they were for your mom. I think most clerks knew they were made up but didn't care.
Over the years my addiction grew to 2 packs a day. I was in a bad accident in 1980 and was hospitalized for 3 months. I don't know why but for some reason, I didn't smoke while I was there. I had a private room and could have smoked in my room but didn't. I did like going down to the smoking lounge though because there was always lots of people there to talk to. The day I went home, I started smoking again.
I never thought about quitting until 1988 when I got pregnant for the first time. The best I could do was cut down to some low tar cigarettes. Still didn't really believe smoking was all that bad. My mom smoked through six pregnancies and we were all OK. Tried again 3 years later with my second pregnancy but still no luck. l well remember the looks and comments I'd get for smoking when pregnant. That's when I started learning to hide my smoking at times.
Going to school events when my kids were little and having to figure out how to sneak off to have a smoke. I volunteered in my kid's classrooms during grade school and had to hope people wouldn't smell it on me. I started subbing for the school district and even lost chances at some jobs because I smelled like smoke. I've been subbing pretty much at the high school for the last 6 or 7 years. Now part of my job was catching kids trying to sneak a smoke, how sad is that? I started really hating smoking and tried numerous times to quit. The more times I failed the more I hated smoking and myself for being so "weak".
The summer after my daughter graduated I came down with bronchitis. We were having her grad party over the 4th of July and it was really hot out. Bronchitis made it so I had little energy and had a hard time breathing outside in the heat. I pretty much stayed in the house (smoking!) and really didn't get to enjoy anything. It took well over a month to get over that and it scared me enough to try again to quit smoking.
I got Chantix and did pretty good for the 3 months (just cheating a little), when the 3 months was up, I went back to full-time smoking. Since the Chantix kind of worked, I asked my doctor if I could try again. Same thing, I kept doing the little one puff or one cig and after about 6 more months of this went back to full-time smoking.
This fall I came down with bronchitis again. This one lasted even longer than the first one. The doctor told me he didn't think I have COPD but I was heading there. I felt like I had a 20-pound weight sitting on my chest and started thinking what it would be like to feel that permanently. Started thinking about trying to quit again. Then I found this website, started reading and one day decided to just stop.
Wow!! Education really makes all the difference. I see my addiction for what it really is now and understand how all my other quits were doomed because I kept thinking I could have that one puff once in a while. Anyone can quit, then it's just a matter of NTAP. I think of it like a monster from the horror movies. He gets killed but somehow keeps getting back up. That's how nicotine is. I killed it and as long as I NTAP he will stay dead, but if I take even one puff, he's going to get back up and come after me again. And this time he will probably kill me!
I'll be reading and reading and you will see me here when I hit bronze, silver, gold, and beyond!!
mikodo - Jun 19, 2010
Hello everyone,
I'm Mike. I am 57 years old and started smoking when I was 13 in 1967. Back then a lot of people smoked, and anywhere they wanted. Hospital rooms even. I had pneumonia in 1968, was hospitalized and was smoking away in my hospital bed when my "strange" grandmother walked in and found me smoking. She was the strange one; or so we thought, because the other grandparents and both parents all smoked; but she did not and really hated smoking.
She had made me promise as a young child to not ever take up smoking and promised me $1000.00, if I didn't smoke until I was 21. Well, she caught me. She took my cigarettes from me in the hospital and again, offered the thousand if I quit and didn't smoke again before 21. I promised but didn't make it. Now, in 1968, $1000.00 was a lot of cash for a kid to think about; I wanted it, but couldn't muster the gumption to quit. I always thought I would smoke a little more, and then quit, collect the thousand at 21, and grandma would never know the difference.
What that started was a 43-year journey of denial and use rationalizations; I would use to successfully blind myself to the need to permanently quit smoking. I attempted to quit smoking before I reached 21; during my 20's; 30's, 40's and 50's. Initially, I tried to quit smoking about once a year, and in the last 20 years, I tried to quit at least once a week; often every day. No Kidding! Sometimes going a week or more without cigarettes was really hard, sometimes not so bad. All took a major commitment; from my first attempt, until this last one; which is only 22 days old.
I have, since a young boy, had Asthma. Now, I have smoked myself into COPD; with mild Emphysema and quite debilitating Chronic Bronchitis. Suffice to say, I am sick, and at times find it difficult to breathe. I cannot do the things, that other people my age easily do. Oh how I wish, I had listened to my "strange" grandmother, and not smoked, or quit after being in the hospital. Here I am again, with tens of thousands of dollars spent on nicotine; in very poor health and attempting a quit once again; one no easier than the quits I attempted during my teenage years. The only thing different now is the knowledge about the Law of Addiction and the support available via this site.
So, any of you youngsters starting a quit, or continuing one; please don't take me as a "strange" old grandfather, and not heed the message of my addicted life. I could have quit, and stayed quit, on any of my previous attempts; I know of many friends and acquaintances that did over the years. I chose, to deny the need to quit; and promoted my use rationalizations at every opportunity. If you don't know what those are, look around at this site, and learn about them, and how you have or are using them, too.
Let's all make this the quit that lasts... yours will be a much more beneficial one; with a much healthier life lead than mine. A Psychiatrist colleague of mine was fond of saying, that his definition of insanity was "Knowing what we should do; and then not doing it". He was right. That is how my smoking career has made me feel for over 43 years. It was insanity to smoke all those years; doing the harm to myself, that I did.
Mike
Doc460704 - Jun 26, 2010
Dear Mike,
Thanks for bringing this thread up on the board again. I read a reply I posted over two and a half years ago. We 40+ year smokers can quit and I'm living (thankfully) proof. All we have to do is NTAP. How simple is that?
YQB,
Pat (double gold and a bit)
JimH - Oct 16, 2010
I started in the fall of 1970. Freshman year of high school. I was 14 years old. I quit once, for about 3 weeks, because I couldn't afford cigarettes. (I had a gambling problem at the time.) By 2009 I smoked 3 packs a day, unless I went out for a beer, in which case, it was 4 packs -- or more. If I was awake, I was smoking.
I could feel it. Of course I could. Tight chest, sinus headaches, sore throat, dry itchy eyes. At bedtime, I would lie in bed listening to the breath wheeze in and out of my lungs until I fell asleep. Sometimes I would think, "I sure wish I could quit. Maybe I can quit in the morning." Then I'd wake up and, no matter how much it hurt I'd light up that first of the day. Some days it hurt so much I kinda had to force myself to smoke the first one.
I have a friend who I met in 2008. Non-smoker (never smoked), interesting character. We've become close friends. I am unhappy with my weight and make frequent disparaging remarks about myself because of it. One day, in exasperation, Michelle scolds me, "You know what to do about it. Are you willing to do what it takes to change it? 'Cause if you're not, I don't wanna hear you whining about it anymore."
I spent a lot of time asking myself that question about a lot of things over the next few months. Smoking was central. How can I increase my exercise when anything that gets me breathing heavy causes a coughing fit? I even avoid laughing too hard because it often causes a coughing fit. Spring of 2009 I get an umbilical hernia. Probably caused during a coughing fit. Getting that diagnosed and repaired is the first time I've been to a doctor since the 1980's. I know what's wrong with me, I smoke 3 or 4 packs a day, I'm overweight and I don't get any exercise. I don't need a doctor to tell me what to do about any of that. Again, "Are you willing to do what it takes to change it?"
By now I have an answer, "I know what to do. First, I need to quit smoking. But I'm not sure I can. How do ya quit? Maybe I could find help online. I know there are government websites they advertise."
Of course, you can guess what I found. I have told so many people about WhyQuit.com not because it convinced me that I SHOULD quit. I knew that. It was obvious. But because WhyQuit convinced me that I COULD quit. And better yet, I found instruction on HOW to quit. And understanding of what goes on when someone quits. So there's the short version of how I wound up here.
Jim - Free and Healing for One Month, Twenty Two Days, 20 Hours and 50 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 12 Days and 20 Hours, by avoiding the use of 3701 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $834.49.
JW - Nov 22, 2010
If you want to quit, surround yourself with successful quitters. After 1 month, 3 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours without a fix, I have successfully turned my back on 1595 nicotine providers which would have cost me £520.81. In doing so, I have gained an extra 5 days, 12 hours, 55 minutes to feel good about life.
Although it's been less than 2 months, I guess I should add to this thread.
I'm 58 and started smoking at age 12 - a mere 46 years. I can still remember buying cigarettes in a 5 pack (Woodbines). Very quickly I progressed to packs of 10, my favorite brand being No.6 and Cadets. The No.6 had coupons inside which could be exchanged for gifts. If asked I used to say I was saving my coupons up until I had enough for an iron lung. A joke at the time, but not really funny when you think about it in the light of knowledge.
By 14, I was on 20 a day. I had two paper rounds to pay for the habit. I should have been quite well off for a 14-year-old in those days but most of it seemed to go on cigarettes. Smoking was allowed just about everywhere you went, including hospitals. Being so 'sociably acceptable' seemed to make it OK and we were always told it was just a habit - addiction was never mentioned.
As the years went by, I frequently tried to stop, but never managed to last more than 24 hours. I would stop then kid myself that, as I hadn't smoked all day, it would be OK to have a cigarette at midnight - AS A REWARD for doing so well. I remember kidding myself further that, as I had gone all day, I could do this every day and just have the one at midnight. Right !!! That lasted about all of two days. So it was up and down with the amount I smoked and I felt caught up in this web of smoking that had a grip nobody could escape from.
As technology progressed, along came patches. Thinking this would work I bought some. Ha - after the first day I was smoking as well as wearing a patch. I even remember seeing if I could smoke my normal amount with a patch on - how sad is that???
One year went into the next and the next......... Coughing and wheezing became the 'new ' way of breathing. Excessive laughter caused me to have a coughing fit, so that had to stop too. Exercise never took place as it became too strenuous. I tried switching from cigarettes to cigars to a pipe and back again, but nothing helped me to cut down or stop.
After the great U-turn, when smoking became the new 'social leprosy', places where smoking was allowed began to reduce in number. Like most smokers I quickly learned to adapt, even managing to time whatever I was doing to perfection so cigarettes could be fitted into the schedule.
None of this was helped by having a Grandfather, who died aged 94, a confirmed smoker all of his life, and my Father, at the time 90+ and also a smoker. I felt invincible and would even tell myself smoking wouldn't affect me. But eventually, I woke up. It WAS affecting me and I knew it. My circulation wasn't what it should be, although I didn't know this was due to smoking. My breathing was difficult and the mildest exercise would cause shortness of breath. I began to despise myself for being so weak and unable to stop.
So, to cut it short, amazingly, on 30 September 2010, I did stop. I didn't plan it, other than thinking for a long time I should quit. In reality, I didn't expect to stop for more than a few hours. When I stopped at 3 pm, I was panicking by 3.30 pm. I began searching the internet as I already wanted to smoke again. None of the sites were of much use. Even the government sites just seemed to bang on about NRT and other quitting aids.
Then I came across FREEDOM.
An instant lifesaver. I loved the format, the ethos, and zero tolerance. Brilliant information, advice, guidance, great people. I took to it immediately and, for once in my life I made it beyond 24 hours and kept going to where I am now.
To anyone out there reading these pages yet still smoking - stop making excuses for why you smoke and start learning reasons why you shouldn't smoke instead. I can assure you that in such a short time, my circulation problems have gone, my breathing is fantastic and improving all the time, I never have to consider smoking when I do things like go out to restaurants, etc. Life is just fantastic and I can only see it getting better.
Thank you WhyQuit & Freedom for giving me my life back. I will repay you by never taking another puff - ever.
John (JW).
LenaGruber - Mar 18, 2011
Would you believe that teachers in elementary grades smoked in the teacher's lounge and college professors smoked in classrooms along with students? When I went to high school there was a smoking area for students across the parking lot. They built us a nice little shelter there. Any kid could buy cigarettes with a note from mom or dad. In nursing school and the early days at the hospital, we smoked at the nurse's station and all patients could smoke in their rooms along with their visitors.
Remember "I'd walk a mile for a camel" and "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should"? Most frequent billboards and TV commercials were cigarettes. Then came "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health" that was the Surgeon General's warning, 1963 I think. I remember reading it on the package of cigarettes I'd snuck from my mom's carton. I was ten.
It seemed like everybody smoked and it was considered the cool thing to do, Remember James Dean, he always had his cigarettes rolled up in his tee-shirt sleeve. He was "dreamy." It was media brainwashing at its best.
I am thankful that my grandchildren are getting a more honest picture and pray they never start smoking. By the time you get to be my age, (57) and smoked most of your life, chances are you've watched one or more of your family or friends die from a smoking-caused disease, or there is a good possibility you have yourself been a victim of a smoking-related disease or disorder. You will start to believe that cigarettes may be hazardous to your health, YA THINK!. The best thing to do of course is never start smoking. The next best thing is never take another puff.
Bev022811 - Mar 23, 2011
This is a great thread, especially for us newbies to read! Thanks to everyone that posted here! Well, here is my story!
I began experimenting with smoking when I was probably 12. A friend would steal cigs from her father and we would go to the barn and smoke, even though it made us cough and dizzy we were learning to be cool. Then, by age 14, I had a new neighbor, she was 18 and newly married. Well, me and my older sister became good friends with her and she would give us cigarettes. My sister even put one out in her hand once when she almost got caught smoking by our Mom. Our Dad smoked 3 packs a day, so we would sneak them from him as well.
Then, the summer I was 15 we took a family trip to SC to see my oldest brother in the Navy. Well, we were about 3 hours into the trip and my sis and I were dying for a cig. My mom knew this and she told my Dad that he may as well go ahead a give us one before we went into a nicotine fit!! Well, that was just dandy, no more hiding and dad gave us cigarettes!
Can you believe it! That is how naive our parents were! They never knew they had just given us permission to slowly kill ourselves. I was even in the hospital once for 3 weeks for chronic bronchitis at age 16 and I smoked in my hospital room! You could truly smoke ANYWHERE in those days...
I have tried to quit over the years, the first time was cold turkey. I was 21. I quit for 2 whole years, then a divorce came along and I started smoking again to fit in at all the bars! That was in 1980..then I quit using Zyban, then Chantix, I was always looking for that magic pill. Each one of those quits would end when I stopped taking the meds. There were always side effects to the meds and I always went back to my beloved cigarettes.
Three years ago my sister was diagnosed with PAD, peripheral artery disease, caused by smoking. She was and still is unfortunately a very heavy smoker. I was a pack-a-day and she is 2-3 packs. She went through 3 surgeries that almost took her away from us. It took her an entire year to get back on her feet, but she still smokes!
What I witnessed her go through has bothered me tremendously, and my dad has had quadruple by-pass, has diabetes, COPD, CHF and is on oxygen 24/7. He quit smoking at age 49, he is now 77. He had a sister die at age 45 and a brother at age 57, both from smoking-related illnesses. So yeah, for me quitting was my only option.
So this is why I am so grateful for Freedom and for Joel and John. Having found this website has made my quit possible! I know that this time it is for good because it is backed by all the knowledge and support I could ever ask for. Thanks to all that are here, I have come home!
Bev
Free and Healing since February 27, 2011
NoNic4Neal - Mar 29, 2011
Thanks, Jim H, for bringing up this old thread. I too am a not-so-proud member of the forty-year plus club. I was the youngest of 4 kids so I started at a very early age. I started experimenting at 10 and was inhaling like an adult by 11. I thought it made me look older and cool. Now after 42 years I am 53.
I have tried quitting many many times, but my Junky mind would always come up with some creative relapse excuse. Now thanks to WhyQuit and Freedom I am really learning the error in my ways. I have been nicotine free for 79 days. I've hungrily hoarded an awful lot of knowledge in this short time.
My father always said if you want to be good at something, imitate the people who are best at it. I come on this site daily and imitate the successful long-term quitters. I live one day at a time and congratulate myself at the end of each day, I never take another puff, I keep all the nicotine on the outside, I live on the right side of the bars, and I watch my life get better and better.
These are not just words, but words to live by. I'm enjoying finally living my life the way I was meant to. I'm enjoying my journey back home and trying to find that lost little eleven-year-old boy.
YQB Neal - No nicotine since 1/9/11.
mash - Jun 11, 2011
I've smoked for just over 40 years. That's a shock to see it in writing. I started about 10 yrs old, loved seeing the clouds of blue smoke. By age 15 I was properly hooked and wanted to stop but couldn't. A work colleague told me he'd quit and felt great [I always felt dreadful like a sick child, which I was]. He said the 1st day was the hardest and then it got easy. I couldn't even manage 3 hrs so I gave up that idea deciding it was just too hard.
A year ago I stopped for 1 day and I was over the moon. I could not believe how fantastic and liberated I felt. Of course, I celebrated with a smoke and I was plunged into a foul depression which I'd always been in but didn't know it. I'm now on my 4th attempt at recovery, two of which were for 6 and 4 months and this time cold turkey for 13 days. I've been wanting to stop since I started and now I don't ever want to be its idiot addict again. No one told me all those years ago what freedom felt like. It is the most awesome experience. I wish I'd got it sooner. My life would have been so different.
Grateful,
Mashx
time4me - Jun 11, 2011
Now that I have 3 months of freedom under my belt I think it's time for me to post as one of the "fabulous forty-year plus fighters." I started at 14, I am 55 now. I'm not an idiot - I have known for many, many years how destructive smoking was. What I didn't ever really believe was that bad things could happen to me and those I love - not just to other people.
I spent 40 years telling myself "I'll quit in time - I'm not in too bad of shape yet". The thing that finally made a believer out of me was having my best friend (my best 40+ year smoker friend) die unexpectedly from a smoking-related illness that hadn't even been diagnosed. She was 55. She ran out of time and she never even knew it. That's when I truly began to understand that smoking was going to kill me also - maybe not as quickly as it did her, but it was going to.
I came to WhyQuit and began to learn about my addiction. I began to believe that I really could quit. And guess what - it wasn't that hard. Even after all those years, it wasn't that hard. Now, three months later, I have an occasional want for a cigarette - I can't even call it a craving anymore, just a thought. But there is no way, no how, that I am ever going to take another puff, and I'm good with that, I know I never will. If I could do this anyone can do this. Really, I promise.
Stella - I have stopped nicotine for 3 months, 4 days, 21 hours, 19 minutes and 3 seconds. I've not smoked 1938 cigarettes, and saved $583.65.
racoon99 - Aug 16, 2012
I'm a newby with 40+ years of smoking. Your post is honest and speaks to me. Thanks.
Q the dancer - Jul 20, 2013
For 45 years I was a smoker. Started at age 14, while living in Winston-Salem, where it was impossible to get away from it! Yeah, smoking was cool in those days, and I really didn't notice what it was doing to my health (and I was a dancer!) until about two years ago. Well, first I put it down to the aging process, and for all I know that may even be the greater part of it, but I was getting short of breath, lacking energy, etc. I had started expanding my teaching into coaching, and one day I just couldn't bear the discrepancy anymore. I mean, here I was, telling people about their great personal power, encouraging them to take their lives into their own hands, and after a session, lighting up a cigarette!
If there were ever a time for "Physician, heal thyself", then this was it! I was pretty scared to take the plunge, but on May 7th, 2013, I did. And I love it! I love not poisoning myself; I love not tying up so much of my energy in denying my addiction; I love encouraging people. This experience is uplifting and humbling at the same time. Humbling because I can see that no matter how smart I thought I was, I was blinding myself to the fact that I was slowly but surely killing myself. And uplifting because I now understand that freedom is a choice.
When I think about all of us who are choosing freedom day by day, I feel so happy I could dance!
Love,
Q
WhyQuit Recovery Gateways
- Group Support: Turkeyville
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- Free Ebook: Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home
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Knowledge is a Quitting Method
