When did you stop smoking?

J

Josiah

Senior Member
Location
50 miles east of Cincinnati, OH
I quit in 1962. Back then there wasn't nearly the social pressure there is today and I can't recall a whole lot of motivation on my part. What happened was that my office mate and I sort of on a whim made a pack to quit together and we both succeeded without much difficulty. As I look back I'm of course pleased that I quit so early in life, but I can't really take a whole lot of credit for the accomplishment. It was sort of a case of being in the right place at the right time.
 

After nearly 22 years without I still occasionally think how nice it would be to have a couple of cigarettes with a beer. But I can't. No way. I would have died of emphysema if I hadn't quit when I did. Breathing was too much work. I quit just before my 41st birthday.
 
1993. I smoked twenty a day for fifty years, and lacked the willpower to give up, but I was lucky. I picked up an infection that laid me out for six weeks and I didn't start again.

I missed it for years though.
 
I quit in1995. Whenever I got the urge to smoke I would go to the vending machine and get a candy bar. After the first week I realized I was no longer craving cigarettes; I was craving candy bars. I gained weight for about two years and it took another two years to lose it again. I never had any craving for a cigarette after that first week.
 
June 8 2009, 10pm, right before the ambulance came for the heart attack. Seriously. Daughter came & cleared all the cigs & ashtrays out of the apt, & I never went through any withdrawls or temptations. What I did miss was the companionship of other smokers when it was time to take a smoke break from work or meetings. But when I think of all the $ I LITERALLY BURNT UP, disgusting. And that smoker smell on clothes, yuk. Feel bad that I smelled like that all those years, in spite of clean clothes & all, every day.
 
I never smoked, but my dad did. He quit when they started putting surgeon general warning labels on the packages. Back in the 1960's. Fortunately he never had any health problems related to smoking.
 
There are times I miss it.. and just a short while back I was sitting at a stoplight next to a car with a smoker. We had our windows open and I found myself trying to breath in the smell... and it smelled good to me.. SO I know I cannot pick up even one cigarette..or I would be right back smoking. I enjoyed it.
 
I totally stopped smoking in March 2000, before meeting my wife. I started smoking in the Navy in 1968. Hot cup of coffee and a cigarette can keep a sailor awake at sea during a late Watch! Anyway, in 1988, I switched from cigarettes to "dipping" (Copenhagen and then Skoal), but would still sometimes have a cigarette. I started using Cope and later switched to Skoal, when I started riding a horse, roping and getting involved with rodeo. Using Skoal didn't bother my wife. In summer of 2005, I started noticing some "tingling" inside my lower lip when I put the Skoal there. In Oct 2005, I was getting ready for a hip replacement and wife and I agreed that it was time to stop using the Skoal. The following Spring, when getting ready to do some lake fishing in our boat, I bought a can of Skoal. I really missed using it. Put a "dip" in my mouth while fishing and less than 30 seconds later, took it out and thru away the can. That was the end of that. I did put on a little weight and my nails don't look as good as they use to. BUT, am sure glad I stopped!

Stopping smoking and "dipping" really wasn't that hard for me b/c I didn't do enough of it to make it hard to stop. While smoking it was about a pack and a half a week. In using "dip".......after two weeks, I 'd still have half a can left.
 
I can thank God that of all the bad habits I've picked up in my life, smoking wasn't one of them. The closest thing to smoking I ever did was sitting on the front steps of the college dorm holding a lit cigarette in my fingers because it was "cool" and showed how "sophisticated" I was....lol. I can't remember ever inhaling, just holding it.

My late husband was a heavy smoker and he tried and tried to quit without success. We were in our late 20's and I had severe chronic bronchitis that was close to becoming emphysema and the pulmonologist said if I lived with a smoker, I might just as well have been smoking myself. I came home, told him that, and he threw his pack of cigarettes in the trash and never smoked another cigarette in his life. He knew it was bad for HIM, but he couldn't stop until he realized that he was harming me and our daughter, too.

I have a sister who is smoking herself to death and it just kills me to see it.
 
My wife was extremely happy to find out that I didn't smoke anymore AND that I wasn't a heavy drinker. Her previous husband was both a heavy smoker and drinker. She had to use an inhaler around him, but doesn't have to use one anymore. She was attracted to him b/c of his good looks and that he like outdoor stuff. She has some small bouts with asthma when getting around cats or some Spring stuff. We don't associate with smokers, so she is ok there.
 
November 17,1988,I quit my 5 pack a day habit cold turkey. Haven`t touched one since,but yes,sometimes I`ll catch a whiff and it smells soooo good. Other times it smells yucky.

We had this discussion last night. We got a call yesterday morning that my brother`s wife is hospitalized and not expected to survive. I called the rest of my siblings and we all headed to the hospital-a three hour drive for all of us but all coming from different directions. We spent the whole day in the ICU waiting room/lounge,supporting my brother and just waiting for updates. (As to what happened to her,I`ll try to make a long story shorter-she left for work on Wed. as usual but hadn`t been feeling well for a couple of days.

She is a hairdresser and works two hours from home but stayes with a friend. Apparently,on Thursday,the friend said she overslept and missed work. We were having the storm of the century here,so my brother told her to stay with her friend and he would come get her when the storm died down. She chose to drive home anyway. She crashed her car into a rain swollen ditch. Cars just kept driving by and no one stopped for a long time.

Finally a couple stopped and helped her back up the roadside-her car had filled with water and she was completely soaked. They called my brother from her cell phone and he went and picked her up. He wanted to take her straight to the hospital to get checked out-especially because her speech was garbled-but she insisted on going home for dry clothes first. When he took her in,they admitted her immediately as they thought she had had a stroke. She became sicker almost immediately and they determined she had sepsis. Her kidneys had shut down and they said they could not save her. That was when my brother finally called someone (his daughter).

When we walked in the doctor was there saying they had determined that she had E.coli-that was what started everything and resulted in sepsis. Last night they tried a blood transfusion and it apopears to have helped-this morning she had finally produced urine and responded to the doctor`s request to wiggle her toe. So we are hopeful) ANYWAY,my BIL,who is 77 and has smoked his whole life,had to keep going outside to have a cig. At dinner my sister said she had made an appointment for him with a pulmonologist and went with him so he couldn`t lie to her about what the doc said. The doc actually told him "You are obviously someone who isn`t affected by cigarette smoking. You have a clean bill of health." My sister was furious. She never expected a doctor to say that. So he continues to smoke. But not around my sister,as she has COPD from her years of smoking.
 
Started smoking 1964. Quit, cold turkey, 1985. At 40 years old, started to have some circulatory issues. Family doctor sent me to a vascular doctor to have some testing done. Doctor did some testing and told me I was free to leave his office. I was surprised and asked him what he thought my problems were. The "crusty old doctor" said, "Son, nothing I can do for you. You're dieing." Hit me like a ton of bricks. I asked what he meant by that. "You've got children you will never see graduate from high school. You've got a wife who will bury her husband at an early age." By that time, I know I was shaking. "You are a smoker. Your body is already rebelling, but you won't listen. You have two choices. Smoke and die early or quit and have a much better chance of living a long life. Son, nobody can make you quit smoking. The only one who can do that is you. Now, go on out of here and get on with your life... what you have left!"

I had never been spoken to like that by a professional. On one hand, I was ready to punch the old doctor. I was so shaken by what he had just said, I know I looked like a zombie leaving his office. Walked out to my truck. Drove home. Took my cigarettes and tossed them in the trash. Have never smoked one since.

In the 35 years since, I have never lost the taste for them. I'm one of the worst critics about second-hand smoke. Yet, have told my wife that when given six months to live, the first thing I'll do is go buy a pack of unfiltered Pall Mall's. She has made it plain that, should that be my plan, I'll spend the last six months of my life... alone!!!! ;)
 
I smoked my first cigarette at 13 and by 16 I was a moderate smoker. I continued until I was smoking 2 packs a day. I quit cold turkey at age 54. I tried several times to quit using gum and pills but I finally quit by using a method of my own making and was able to do so cold turkey. The years I smoked took a toll on my health.
 
I smoked around a pack to a pack and a half a day of Marlboro red for 15 years, and quit cold turkey in '83. I always liked to smoke, but I was feeling the effects, getting out of breath, etc. and I didn't want my health to deteriorate. Now that I see the prices people pay, and the hoops they have to jump through just to have a smoke on their work break, I'm glad I quit when I did. Smart move, never regretted it or desire them anymore. I did gain around ten pounds, but it was worth it.
 
I was able to wean myself off of cigarettes by switching to cigars and a pipes which were never as satisfying, and giving these up many years ago. BTW, does anyone smoke a pipe anymore?
 
Ralphy1 said:
I was able to wean myself off of cigarettes by switching to cigars and a pipes which were never as satisfying, and giving these up many years ago. BTW, does anyone smoke a pipe anymore?
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That's an interesting observation and the answer seems to be no. My father smoked a pipe and I have an antique humidor he used to use to store his pipe tobacco. BTW that humidor still has a pronounced smell of pope tobacco. I once asked my grandson if he knew what it was and he was totally baffled. I used to smoke a pipe in college (mid 50s) but it was mostly to try to look more sophisticated than I was.
 

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