Did you ever smoke cigarettes? Did you quit?

Smoked cheap cigars for about 3 years some 40 years back. I never cared for cigarettes - compared to Muriel’s and Swisher Sweets, they lacked. Those cigars were hard on my lungs as I inhaled them - when I started to get a smokers cough I quit. I did an awful lot of dumb things way back then!
 

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My parents were heavy smokers. I was sick almost all of the time and I think it was from breathing in secondhand smoke. It was my job to wash the ashtrays and I thought it was so nasty that I decided I would never smoke and I never have. They both quit cold turkey when I was in my teens. However, my mother died about five years later from colon cancer and I believe that may have come from her years of smoking. She was 63.
 

I had a stressful job, and the last 6 or 7 years before retiring - it was extreme.

I took up drinking Whiskey and smoking unfiltered Camels right about the same time the stress went way up.

A lot of Whiskey and a couple packs a day.

I retired 1-Feb-21 and by mid summer I had quit smoking and drinking - I just lost all desire for it.

I did not consciously try to quit - I just did not want/need it anymore.

I see now it was a way to cope with the stress. A bad way to deal with it - no doubt.

I am not anti drink or smoke nowadays, just don't have the desire like what I did when working.

I believe that I am fortunate in that I was able just to stop without even trying to as I know lots of folks really struggle with the desire/addiction.

It's interesting looking back now that I'm retired and away from that environment.

Retirement is wonderful.

ETA: My paternal Grandfather died with half a lung left. I remember as a young kid in the mid 1960's seeing him in the hospital in Houston and he was smoking in the hospital bed. He died very soon thereafter.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I smoked for 40+ years, up to 2 packs per day.

I quit about 15 years ago using Chantix.

I still miss it and if my PCP tells me the end of the road is in sight I’ll probably start smoking again. 😉
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We can flame up together, Aunt Bea! I quit 32 years ago and if I ever get that terminal diagnosis a part of me will be saying, "Good, now I can smoke again!"

Nicotine is just super addictive to some brains. I'm glad most young people today never start.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
I never smoked cigarettes but I smoked tobacco , each time u rolled up hash I added tobacco. It was my favourite thing to smoke.
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I never tried that, but it became popular with the younger gen. to buy slim cigars, empty out the tabacoo mostly and fill them with pot...a blunt. I use to take hits from them. It was a little too harsh for me.

I smoked for 20 years, quit, and started vaping about 15 years ago. I still vape, but am down to 3mg.% nicotine ejuice. They have 18-12-8-6-3-0.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I never tried that, but it became popular with the younger gen. to buy slim cigars, empty out the tabacoo mostly and fill them with pot...a blunt. I use to take hits from them. It was a little too harsh for me.

I smoked for 20 years, quit, and started vaping about 15 years ago. I still vape, but am down to 3mg.% nicotine ejuice. They have 18-12-8-6-3-0.
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I never wanted the filter. I added a little piece of cardboard for the filter. I’m good at rolling stuff up though but quit using months ago.
 
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Pepper said:
Too ashamed to talk about it. I have had lung cancer & about 30% of my right lung removed. I am obsessed with cigarettes while I'm off Chantix. Going back on, my pulmonary doc very helpful to me in this ghastly struggle.
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Oh my. I think you’ve told me this before. Hopefully you’ll start favouring edibles.
We don’t want to lose you.
 
Pepper said:
No, no, I don't smoke anymore, use edible capsules. Thanks!
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I used to make my own edible capsules using canna coconut oil. Unfortunately I’d get sinus infections so quitting was fairly easy.

I’m glad to learn that you are using canna caps. This is good news since vaping is still dangerous.
 
Michael Z said:
Smoked cheap cigars for about 3 years some 40 years back. I never cared for cigarettes - compared to Muriel’s and Swisher Sweets, they lacked. Those cigars were hard on my lungs as I inhaled them - when I started to get a smokers cough I quit. I did an awful lot of dumb things way back then!
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You're not supposed to inhale cigar smoke :eek:
 
I started smoking at age 13 and kept smoking til the age of 60! Let me tell you how i did it, I was in the grocrey store and all of a sudden i got a coughing jag and could not stop ! i felt a hand on my shoulder and a man said to me,,"are you ok?" i told him no and the ran out the door to my car and drove home coughting most of the way home, got home and i sat down and said to myself , I have to quit smoking, !! Well let me tell you how i did it,!!
I went to the store and bought a bag of those little rapped candies, and any time i had the urge to smoke ,, i would pop one those wrapped candies in my mouth and suck on them and my urge for a cigarette stopped, it took me only one month to stop the urge to smoke and even gain some weight ! Also my sense of smell came back too!! You do not realize the damage smoking can do if your a long term smoker,,.. Im now 81 years old and i thank God for everyday he gives me,,
 
In 1969 we moved and I went to a new school, my neighbor was a boy my age and his parents watched him like a hawk. The first day I went to the bus stop with him, there were only girls and woosies there all the cool kids went to a different bus stop. I wanted to be a cool kid so the next day I met my new friends and went to the cool bus stop, to catch the bus there you had to smoke cigarettes.

So, for the next 23 years, I was a slave to nicotine an absolutely totally possessed by and under control slave, I was as bad as any junkie in pursuit of a fix, I lied, cheated, stole to get more cigarettes, picked up butts when I was broke, bummed and begged more, A total junkie.

In 1993 I'd had enough, through meditation, tapering off, and hard candy I finally quit and haven't touched them since.
 
GoneFishin said:
I smoked for over 40+ yrs. I quit cold turkey 16 yrs ago. Now I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke
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Same for me. Quit 15 years ago. Now I have to cross the street, to avoid the old Italian guys who stand on the side walk in front of the social club smoking.

My method to quit...I was driving as a cross border courier into the States at least once a week and some of my trips were up to 2000 miles long from Toronto, so lots of hours behind the wheel.

I would write the time on the cigarette package when I had the first one of the day, then wait for 3 hours to have the next one. Did that for 3 days, then increased the time between smokes to 4 hours, then 3 days later to 6 hours and so on, until I was going 14 hours without a smoke. Then I quit outright.

I sold my cargo van because it stunk of tobacco . I got rid of all the ashtrays in my house. I bought an air purifier for the living room, and had all the furniture steam cleaned. I didn't have carpets so that was a bonus. Even my closet smelled of smoke so I repainted it.

Today my lung function is above 97 percent, in terms of my ability to move air in and out of my lungs, and my resting oxygen level is equal to a 40 year old. I just turned 78 this past Friday. I jokingly say that in Canada, if you want to stop smoking, get sent to a Federal Prison, because there is absolutely no smoking in the joint. GRIN. JIM.
 
Pepper said:
Too ashamed to talk about it. I have had lung cancer & about 30% of my right lung removed. I am obsessed with cigarettes while I'm off Chantix. Going back on, my pulmonary doc very helpful to me in this ghastly struggle.
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I'm so sorry to hear that, Pepper. I know how bad the cravings can be I once walked through a parking lot, looked down and saw a whole Marlboro lying on the pavement and got dizzy and almost fainted, I wanted it so much.

There's certainly nothing to be ashamed of with this, we had no idea how addictive nicotine was when we started. I saw Ray Charles on a talk show once after he had quit heroin, cocaine and a few other drugs. He said giving up cigarettes was the hardest.

Time is your best friend with this. It really will get easier.
 
Della said:
I'm so sorry to hear that, Pepper. I know how bad the cravings can be I once walked through a parking lot, looked down and saw a whole Marlboro lying on the pavement and got dizzy and almost fainted, I wanted it so much.

There's certainly nothing to be ashamed of with this, we had no idea how addictive nicotine was when we started. I saw Ray Charles on a talk show once after he had quit heroin, cocaine and a few other drugs. He said giving up cigarettes was the hardest.

Time is your best friend with this. It really will get easier.
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A short true story about Ray Charles. He had a small amount of sight, and he could make out the shape of things. As a JOKE, he sometimes drove a vehicle, with a sighted person sitting beside him in the front seat. He even had some business cards made up with the name The Ray Charles School of Safe Driving, that he would give out as a joke. He did have a huge addictive personality that he freely admitted to. JIM.
 

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