Smoking IS a pretty disgusting habit….

After the recent smokey thread on here predictably brought out some nasty-chops and idiots, and I’ve thought about some things that were said a bit more, I’ve actually realised that I was the biggest idiot of all.

It’s staggering to think what I’ve been doing to myself for the last 20 years, how previous attempts have ‘beaten me’ and I’ve succumbed back to….what exactly? Setting fire to something and breathing it in?

How can I think myself half intelligent, yet have allowed over 20 years to quaff probably 100,000 cigarettes? (that’s just using a figure of 13 average a day)

Yes it’s ‘addictive’ but so what? Nobody’s held a gun to our head, etc etc.

So that’s it. I’m done. Ooot. Thanks for nothing. I’ve tried and failed plenty of times before, but something has finally switched in my brain that actually makes me NOT want one – plus something that another poster helpfully said in response to a fairly stupid comment I made, is still ringing in my head.

..anyhow, this wasn’t meant to be a post about me, it was to maybe encourage others to chip in and pack it in, because let’s face it, smokers generally don’t like being smokers.

It IS a disgusting habit, that’s the truth of it.

Good for you and best of luck.

Hope to see you in a smoke free beer garden soon.

Good luck. Here’s a little Allen Carr piece I recalled when quitting some years back now…

Carr teaches that, contrary to their perception, smokers do not receive a boost from smoking a cigarette: smoking only relieves the withdrawal symptoms from the previous cigarette, which in turn creates more withdrawal symptoms once it is finished. In this way the drug addiction perpetuates itself. He asserted that the “relief” smokers feel on lighting a cigarette, the feeling of being “back to normal”, is the feeling experienced by non-smokers all the time. So that smokers, when they light a cigarette are really trying to achieve a state that non-smokers enjoy their whole lives. He further asserted that withdrawal symptoms are actually created by doubt and fear in the mind of the ex-smoker, and therefore that stopping smoking is not as traumatic as is commonly assumed, if that doubt and fear can be removed.

Apologies if you’ve already been fed this in the afore mentioned thread, which I haven’t read.

Do you want to buy a second hand eCig? 😀

Good decision and good luck.

Quitting after 18 or so years was the best thing that I ever did, so I’m glad that you have decided to stop too.

If you start feeling like you’re going to give in, be strong. You can do this and it does get easier.

Well done.

Best of luck to you Bear !

Go for it and good luck.

My old man is nearly 70 now, and a life long addiction has ruined him. He has emphysema, he wheezes constantly and walking half a mile can be a challenge for him. He is now reliant on inhalers due to his reduced lung function, and will wake up in the night to use them.

The last time I saw him, he was trying to stop for the I don’t know how many time. He was struggling with a chest infection. My mum was trying to get him to see the doctor, his muttered reply was, “a cigarette would kill the bugs”.

It is tragic. I am so glad my childhood ‘smoking to look cool’ didn’t grasp me.

good man, its easy once you realise cigarettes themselves aren’t even addictive, we just like to think they are 😉

I stopped years ago, Same as yourself, something just clicked. I remember it vividly, was a tuesday night, in the pub playing pool with a mate.

Was 19 years ago, but it doesn’t seem like it….

Ms Notaspoon is an ‘ex’ smoker, but I’m never quite sure how often you’re allowed to have a cigarette and call yourself an ex smoker, it’s a constant stream of “I just got a pack to get me through moving house”, “I just got a pack to get me through doing redundancy meetings”, etc etc.

I don’t doubt it’s stress relieving properties (when used in moderation and not to combat the stress caused by the withdrawal) but you’re admitting that you’re incapable of dealing with everyday life.

I quit going on for 3 years ago after a 17 year habit. Had tried and failed before quite a few times.

What finally got me was the cost and realising what I could buy with the extra money. I traded in my banger for a new car which was pretty much paid for by stopping smoking.

The health benefits were obviously great and I’d had in the back of my head that I couldn’t go on smoking forever for a while.

To be honest it was not as hard as I thought. Used a E-Cig for a month or two then packed up all together. I think it all comes down to it being the right time for you to stop. If it is, you will.

Good luck!

Good luck fella

I’m working my way up to yet another attempt to pack in

The only thing stopping me is the fact that it will make me slightly less irritating and annoying to exactly the type of people I really like irritating and annoying.

If anyone can come up with another habit, or type of behaviour, that the average middle class bed-wetter will piddle their pants in self-righteous indignation at, then the e-cig is going on charge and this is my last packet

GO!…

@binners

Excessive swearing, looking scruffy and having a low tollerence for bull shit seems to upset a fair few people IME.

Bookmarks
And congratulates

I’m coming up to 3 years clean after 12 years of about a pack a day.

I tried so many times to stop and, like you, one day, quitting was easy not such a chore.

I listened to Carr’s audiobook. Nothing other than that.

For the first 6 months I was like a Bisto twin walking past a smoker. Now, the idea of a cigarette makes me feel a little queasy.

A friend of mine who gave up a couple of years ago got a bottle of Tequila and 60 Marlboro reds. He smoked them all, drank it all and was carried to bed; now the thought of a fag makes him go a little green. Just a suggestion!
One last blow out…

Good luck.

When quitting (for the umpteenth time) I found reading the bumpf from the Nicorette stuff was quite inspiring – stuff about the process of your lungs regaining their ability to absorb properly etc. That and going for a ride the day I quit and going for a ride a week later and making it to the top of a climb I hadn’t ever made in one slog. Probably more psychological than anything else but that’s the rub, ultimately…

I watched smoking destroy 5 members of my family on both sides, all supposedly intelligent people who just couldn’t resist the addiction, seeing that happen was enough to make me stop (not that I was ever a serious smoker).
I appreciate that it’s very addictive but nobody sane should think that paying £7 to breathe in measured doses of burning chemical smoke is a good thing.

Anyway you didn’t want this to turn into the smoking part II thread, well done on giving up.

Splitters!!!

My old man is nearly 70 now, and a life long addiction has ruined him. He has emphysema, he wheezes constantly and walking half a mile can be a challenge for him.

That’s a terrible shame. It seems to be when you get old that this stuff really catches up with you – 70 is not that old to be that old, if you see what I mean.

Although I’ve never had to give up fags I like reading these threads. They are still inspirational and fascinating. Oh and, forgot to add – good luck!

I’m ten weeks clean after 25 odd years of it and I feel flipping fantastic.

I went cold turkey and was sweaty and shouty for a bit but that soon passes. The first week or so is a bit crap but I took the view it was like having the flu for a fortnight and to just push through it.

I cannot envisage a time when I smoke fags again. I’ve thrown myself into riding, swimming, weights and eating really, really well and lost nearly 10 kg since I quit. I look totally different, particularly my skin, and I’m sleeping much, much better.

my top tip is to go totally cold turkey, avoid alcohol, eat really healthily and buy a carbon hardtail 🙂 its worked for me so far!

Thanks molgrips, it is a shame, and exactly my point. He shouldn’t be like this in his late 60s.

It’s hard to quit, and you need to really want to is what I think I am getting at.

Although I do struggle to keep certain food cravings under control.. there’s talk that food can be just as addictive as fags. As I say though, I’ve no idea if this is true or not.

If anyone can come up with another habit, or type of behaviour, that the average middle class bed-wetter will piddle their pants in self-righteous indignation at, then the e-cig is going on charge and this is my last packet

join ukip

Waheyy!

May I join the choir? I too had similar thoughts after that thread, it was another reminder. Late last night I proclaimed my intentions first to Mrs MR and then also a friend (smoker) , huddled in the studio, two part-time bikers who are full time smokers 😕

I’m a ‘fell off the wagon’ smoker brand of smoker ie quit 3 or 4 years ago, locked myself in a room for a day with Neil Casey’s ‘The Nicotine Trick’ book and didn’t touch a smoke again for a few years. Felt great. Until a life-changing challenge came along and sure enough those occasional ‘just the one’ rollies crept up, and I forgot to pinch myself..

They actually *were* occasional, until a more recent crisis, and they’ve now become more like a regular puffing-billy train service.

To ‘explain’ – I recently, (progressively) became a full-time carer to my better half, which tbh wasn’t something we’d ever planned happening (who really does) in our middle-age, we were both in the process of hopefully re-igniting our careers after yrs of disability and impoverishment as after yrs of therapy my mobility was taking an upswing – but then, right after it did, hers took a big hit and subsequent decline. So you may wonder why am I saying this, well – someone in the thread mentioned something about smoking being ‘selfish’. I got on my high horse and thought ‘how cam I be selfish?’ no-one has ever called me that. But I thought again, quite opposite . But of course it is selfish, like many things (even mtbing or cycling on the roads) – and although it doesn’t amount to suicide I know deep down it’s increasing the risks of bringing about my death sooner rather than later. BIL ended his life a few yrs ago, largely because of unemployability caused by similar limitations/pain that his sister suffers. I thought him selfish, he just put a gun to his head and ended it. This put his mother and sister through unspeakable hell on top of their existing pains. Made me mad. But I smoke, so ….

I can’t excuse it either. I expect to be stressed. Feeling I’m having a slow-motion, so-far unspoken, keep-it-inside-meltdown watching the person I love slowly fall apart. She has lost 90% of the use of her left arm and 80% of her right. i have to do most things for her. We’ve lost our life’s savings and now incur debt. Yet I smoke. I budget for this shit off our £47 a week fuel/grocery budget. And she doesn’t complain, says I ‘need it’. She is too understanding. I keep my composure and cheerfulness around her, but back in my man cave I have a 15 min break/ browse on this forum when going ‘for a fag’. This is generally the only respite I take, I tell myself this its ok to have a fag, but know deep down it’s a shitty way to get respite.

Begun to chew my nails down and grind my teeth too. Both also horrible habits, but I’m not usually aware I’m doing them. Neither of these are going to kill me but the smoking could – and then what? It’d bring total destruction down on her. There really is no excuse, so I have no excuse even in tough times. Especially in tough times. Having to move home in three weeks time to temporary accommodation ffs – I feel like smoking something better than baccy, but again, why the weakness?

Worse still – she quit smoking just after we met, 14 years ago. Just like that. Quit by stubbing one out and never buying another since. She later quit drinking too. Same way. Stopped. She is an epic, unbelievably strong character, yet I go running to my study for the baccy pouch like an antsy little freak. This brings me shame, and my being selfish re spending some of our budget money on risking own health brings me more. So because of that, and because she needs me to be alive and kicking, ah’m oot.

PS If any poncy motorist complains or so much sneers about my poncy e-fag from across a beer garden – I may well punch them. Unless they have an electric car

*sorryfor barely-coherent whine/rant but suppose it’s really just me kicking my arse in ‘public’ so it sticks, no real sleep last night but need to focus – dont know if this this is of help to someone not just me.

Onwards and upwards … STWFTW

Smoking IS a pretty disgusting habit

……..still waiting for an ISIS pun

Thanks molgrips, it is a shame, and exactly my point. He shouldn’t be like this in his late 60s.

Very sorry to hear about you Dad. COPD is awful, showing end stage COPD patients having a bad attack in schools I reckon would be a good deterrent. It’s scary stuff watching them trying to breath, their eye begging you to help as they can’t talk, their hands and arms clasping out for you to help, the only work they may get out is an angry hurry up or the occasionally they ask you to “let them go”.

I’ve once had to help set up an end of life on the spot for someone because that’s what they wanted refusing hospital and only basic treatment to make them comfortable as well as able to communicate to get their wish, District Nurses came and MacMillian nurses too, their GP gave me permission to give Morphine to make them comfortable while he set up the paperwork and was travelling to give the guy his final wish. I doubt they’d have lasted to the end of my shift, one of the most trying shifts I’ve done.

I gave up 5 years ago at the age of 35. I’d probably smoked on and off for approximately 20 years. Although I was never really a big smoker, more so when alcohol was involved.

So I might not smoke at all in the day then perhaps have 5 or 6 in the evening with wine or a few bottles of beer. Again, more again if I was out in town on the lash.

I met my now wife 5 years ago and although I was riding loads and in great shape I was still having a ciggy now and then but I didn’t want her to know.

I was ashamed to be a smoker when I was perceived as being a cyclist. A couple of months in and we went on holiday for a week. It was the break I needed from smoking as well as the association with alcohol. I’ve not smoked since.

To be honest, I should have stopped perhaps 5 years previous as a pack of 10 would maybe last me 2 or 3 days but old habits die hard, as they say.

Good luck with your quest to stop bear. It’s the right thing to do and your health and wallet will benefit.

Good work fella. It’s a scary but exciting time giving up smoking. I love looking to the future now though and realising that it’s just got that little bit brighter! 🙂

Also don’t be afraid to spend your fag money on little treats for yourself. Or, considering how much they cost these days, wait a week and get quite a big treat! 🙂

Thanks and good luck to anyone else, be 10 weeks in or about to start.

Humbling words Mr Malvern – good luck with whatever you decide.

I’ll throw my hat into the anecdotal incentives.

My dad smoked all his life. After his retirement he started getting a sore foot, and being a stubborn old goat who last visited a doctor when he was six, refused to get it looked at. Reckoned it was because he’d walked a lot in his job, and got argumentative if you pressed the issue.

His foot got worse; his toe went black. I’d no idea of the extent of it at the time, and my mum was of the attitude ‘don’t make a fuss’.

One teatime, she rang me. They were watching TV (Eggheads, he was sitting there answering questions), and he’d suddenly gone doolally. Very confused, “plucking” at the chair arm. Apparently, he’d soiled himself a day or two back as well. But, don’t make a fuss.

Soon as I got off the phone, I dialled 999 and called for an ambulance. Grabbed my shoes and walked the block up the road to my folks. The ambulance got there before me.

Long story short, he was hosptialised for months. They eventually diagnosed vascular dementia; years of smoking had clogged up his arteries so badly that eventually one of them closed completely and killed a bit of his brain. He was hallucinating, seeing dogs on the bed and people who weren’t there and all manner of things. In different circumstances it would probably have been funny.

The same damage affected circulation elsewhere, hence his ‘bad foot’. His big toe necrotised to the point where they amputated it, and big gangrenous patches developed on his leg and round his heel. He had so many bandages on his leg that it looked more like a cast, and the wounds still weeped through it.

Dealing with the hospital was frustrating to say the least. A unit equipped to deal with his mental state couldn’t address his wounds and a wounds unit couldn’t cope with his mental issues. He’d tell them tall tales and the staff would just believe him. We’d go up, explain that he had dementia, they’d go “oh, right, we’d no idea!” and then the following day we’d have the same conversations all over again with new staff. This went on for weeks if not months.

We’d go up every night wondering what we’d find; one time he had cuts all over his nose and face because he’d told them he could walk to the toilet, they’d gone “off you go then” and he’d fallen flat on his face. When questioned, the staff attitude was basically “what do you want us to do about it, we can’t tie him to the bed.” We predicted a broken hip if this carried on and, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. The weight fell off him too; I think he was down to seven stones at one point.

Talking to him when we visited, and he broadly just talked nonsense. You could see him trying to make sense of his world, grasping for common words (a bit like Fitz in Agents of SHIELD) and piecing together remembered chunks of his past with flights of fantasy and snippets of actual truth. It was heartbreaking. There was really little point to our visits to see him, we ended up going broadly to make sure the hospital didn’t finish him off.

Eventually, they discharged him and we found him a care home. There was no way he was fit to come home, all other things aside my mum was recovering from a stroke and double kidney failure a few years earlier and it was taking all her energy just to look after herself.

Visits became once a week. I stopped going once I was happy he’d settled and was being looked after; our relationship wasn’t the best when he was well and he’d neither care nor arguably even know whether I’d visited or not. Mum kept going, but I think keeping up appearances played a big part in that. He was perpetually miserable, grumpy, argumentative and contrary, though he was that way out to an lesser extent before all this kicked off. I can’t imagine he was one of the more popular residents.

The care home wasn’t without incident. They got him walking again after a fashion, with a Zimmer frame. In a case of “be careful what you wish for” he promptly escaped and was missing for hours. I went looking for him and found him not far from home (on the other side of town to the care home), hobbling up the road in the pouring rain. I scraped him up and took him back, and the attitude of the home was as though I’d dropped off a pizza. I could go on, but anyway.

He was in the home for, I don’t know, two or three years maybe, before nature caught up with him. His health declined rapidly and he died at the back end of last year, respiratory failure and heart failure directly caused by smoking. His body basically went “bored now” and shut down. He was… 74 I think. I can’t even begin to calculate how much money he’d spent over the years for the privilege of checking out like that. My dad and I never really saw eye to eye, but I wouldn’t have wished that on anyone.

Take the money and run ride, guys. Do it whilst you still can.

No experience of quitting but kudos to those going for it!

Good luck Rich with ridding yourself of the smokey sticks, to take your mind off it do you still require the concrete mixer we talked about Ooooo some months back…….apologies I forgot all about it.

That’s the most bizarre replacement therapy technique I’ve ever heard of. Most people use chocolate or chewing gum or something.

😀 Hey fella, it’s still an offer I’ll be taking you up on thank you – just a few more ducks to get in a row first. I’ll be in touch soon 🙂

(I know, concreting ducks – I’m a monster)

They’ll be stucks.

Or mallhards.

*polite applause*

Interesting thread this, especially the idea of ‘something just clicked’.

I’d never have considered myself as having been a smoker, but I guess I can relate to this, having once smoked weed a fair bit.

I can recall the moment and the place. It was the weekend I headed off to the funeral of my best mate’s mother-in-law – who’d died of cancer. We stayed that weekend in the house that had been her home for the last few months of her life. It was the first funeral I’d ever been to of someone I known properly for a number of years – and the whole thing was a bit surreal.

Anyway, so just after I arrived, my best mate started rolling up a spliff and everyone else began to partake – and I just thought to myself – ‘this is utter madness’.

I gave up there and then.