Who Smokes ?

[Grambo]

I've tried Nicorette nicotine relacement chewing gum and lasted 28 hours - i'll try again soon - 30 year habit.

[Tonja_Renee]

I quit on October 24, 1992... I used Nicoderm patch... It worked.. I have been pretty much smoke free since then. I smoked for about 7 years. But I have seen people who quit with 30 years under their belt. My mom did it. Although cancer took her anyways...

Smoking has done a number on my health. I suffer from Asthma, so cigarette smoke obviously is not good for that. lol Although that was not the reason I quit, it certainly helped.

Quitting is not an easy task...You have to want to do it. I mean really want to do it. I cut back to my three favorite cigarettes per day... and I did that for two months before I quit. If you really want to quit, you will find something that will work for you... just keep at it.

[Dr_simon]

I smoked 2-3 packs of Marlboro red a day for 15 years and just quit. No patches, no gum just balls out misery !

I had such a crap time I never smoked again !

That was Christmas 2000 !

Don't try to stop unless you are going to do it. If you are going to do it, then just do it. You can if you want to, you just have to want to enough !!

[Kevin Taylor]

Yeah, I used to smoke about a pack a day and quit about 18 years ago.
I got a persistant cough so bad I couldn't sleep one night, so I got up and squished my whole pack of smokes into a ball and tossed em in the garbage.

[acapella]

Smokers are jokers! Smokers are jokers! Down with dope, up with hope!

I never smoked, so I don't know what quitting is like, but no matter how hard it is I think it's worth it. So, do so now.

[Grambo]

I don't think there's a lot of dope in the country due to current airport restrictions ( anti-terrorism ) X rays

[Mark Pav]

Yeah, I used to smoke about a pack a day and quit about 18 years ago.
I got a persistant cough so bad I couldn't sleep one night, so I got up and squished my whole pack of smokes into a ball and tossed em in the garbage.

My dad went through the same thing. Kept telling himself that he could have one "later" and made sure that later never came.

I never smoked, but I've quit other things and counselled people who have been in various stages of quitting various things. The first four days are the hardest. Also, the first two weeks seem to be a real obstacle; if you can get over that hump you're in the clear. Most people are successful when they do it cold turkey rather than by easing off gradually. And remember to replace it with something else rather than just dropping it altogether. Oh, and avoid areas of temptation if you can, where you'd find it hard to not smoke.

[pure]

I smoked a day. a whole cigarette. i quit right after and i've never put one near my mouth since.. well except my nose.

[jeffhx]

meh ive only been smoking for 4 years...started off due to curiosity...my dad smokes so ive always wondered how its like...ever since it gradually became a habit like when i have nth to do or when i feel 'crappy' or just for kicks...now its an addiction i wud say...ive thought abt quitting but that was it..until something serious happens to me then id really quit i think...not that im saying i need that...well maybe i do...not that i want to...or...maybe yea...i only smoke arnd ten or under that if im sober...drinking makes me trip on ciggies...so id be chaining..ah well...it is hard to just even think abt not smoking...for me that is...

[Akira]

One time my mum had some friends round, I was 4 at the time. They were all smokers so when my mum offered them all a ciggy, I insisted on handing them all out and lighting them. I decided to keep one to myself and smoked it behind my mums chair in under a minute. I came from behind the chair and put the cig butt in the ash tray and told my mum that I didn't like it and that it made me feel sick.

I've never touched one since and I don't plan on in the future.

Smoking makes your clothes smell, it's expensive, and it damages your health. Doing it because it's "cool" is a lame excuse.

[magicninja]

I smoke, hate the fact that I do, regret I ever started, feel like I may drop dead at any second from it. I WILL quit. Im trying to ween myself. I was up to pack and a half a day and couldn't handle coughing up Insane amounts of dark brown flegm every morning. So now I'm down to about 8 cigs a day. I'll get down to none before the years out.

[jimmy_kwtx]

Smoker myself.

There is a saying--"you can quit a thousand times but stop only once" I fall in the category of quitting many times but haven't stopped yet. :(

It is a nasty habit and one I do not recomend to anyone, especially to my boys( reminds me of the line in the Beastie Boys song "Fight for your Right").

But it is on my list of things to do/acomplish before I turn 35.

[Kathmandu]

my dad just recently quit smoking cigarettes, but right now he smokes a tabacco pipe. It's not really quiting but it's better, I guess. :o

[earthman buck]

The sole reason I don't smoke is the smell. I've never been one to care for my health too much, and I don't care what anyone says, smoking DOES make you look cool.

[pure]

The sole reason I don't smoke is the smell. I've never been one to care for my health too much, and I don't care what anyone says, smoking DOES make you look cool.
so if they made cigarettes that smell good... would you do them?

[R. Shackleferd]

I've smoked for a lil over 10 years now, but earlier this year was the first time I ever tried to quit. I chewed the gum for about a month and didn't have any cigarettes. I thought I was doing pretty good. But in retrospect, I should've weened myself off the gum quicker. I had noticed an improved sense of smell including the renewed unpleasantness of second hand smoke, but was still pretty much addicted to nicotine. So then I tried these little cigars telling myself that 1 or 2 a day instead of gum is ok...but yeah, it eventually just led right back to buying a pack of cigs. I'll try again soon though, once and for all hopefully.

[Hammurabi]

so if they made cigarettes that smell good... would you do them?
Cigar and pipe smoke is supposed to smell good. You're also not supposed to suck it through your lungs.

[PonyOne]

Is nicotine withdrawl pretty bad? I don't smoke cigs, never have, but I've been through withdrawl before... not pleasant :(

[magicninja]

so if they made cigarettes that smell good... would you do them?
Whoa phillip morris! Stop trying to get earthman to smoke. :p

[R. Shackleferd]

Yeah, when I was younger I didn't understand the struggle of those trying to quit. It just seemed that they weren't trying hard enough, or didn't have enough will. I guess that's why I wasn't scared enough from trying it (as in I can quit anytime, no big deal). I guess overall those assumptions are true anyways, but I didn't grasp the gravity of the addiction. More than physical, it's psychological too. And it's clear (to myself anyways) that the mind will itself kick in the craving when otherwise there might not be any physical trigger. Obviously like hanging in a bar drinking, or even just what has become routine ritual times/places through habit.

[earthman buck]

Do you guys ever get cravings for things you know nothing of? I only ask because that's how I am with smoking. I've never smoked before, but every now and then, I get these weird cravings that I somehow know only a lungful of cigarette smoke will cure. Is that weird?

Even weirder, sometimes the inside part of my elbow itches and I think "You know what'd get rid of that itch? A big ol' shot o' heroin." But then I find that scratching also works.

[jeffhx]

Do you guys ever get cravings for things you know nothing of? I only ask because that's how I am with smoking. I've never smoked before, but every now and then, I get these weird cravings that I somehow know only a lungful of cigarette smoke will cure. Is that weird?

Even weirder, sometimes the inside part of my elbow itches and I think "You know what'd get rid of that itch? A big ol' shot o' heroin." But then I find that scratching also works.

i guess thats curiousity...that lead me to try eventually..trying is fine...unlike popular myth, u dont get instantly hooked once u try ONE cigarette or maybe two...in fact ud hate it...the taste and smell sucks big time..i guess its those things like coffee or beer...when i tried them at first they just tasted bad...but now they taste the best to me...well not coffee for me as of yet...but every once in a while it does help me stay awake during the day when i feel bummed...

[Lordathestrings]

I quit briefly many times, and once held out for a stretch of 2 years, but I always thought of myself as being a smoker, until:

I was at a relative-of-a-friend's wedding reception in a small hall filled with chain-smokers. I only had 3 cigartettes all night. Saturday night.

My chest hurt until Tuesday. I was coughing and trying not to scream.

Wednesday, I lit one of the remaining cigs in my pack. It tasted wrong. I put it out. I decided to try quitting again. That was about 10 years ago.

It's different this time. I had to avoid all of the usual smoking cues, which meant that I stayed out of bars for 3 weeks (no bad thing in itself), and it helped that I worked in a place with a no-smoking policy. I was down to less than half a pack a day when I stopped.

The main thing now is knowing just how disgusting smokers smell! I'm amazed that my parents didn't kick me out of the house back when I started smoking at age 15. Calgary is one of the last bastions of public smoking. I don't go out much, because I get nauseated by the stench in the bars, and I have to scrub myself raw when I get home, to get the dirty-ashtray reek out of my skin and hair. And I have to seal my clothes in a plastic bag so they don't stink up the house, until I can get them into the washer.

I don't plan on gigging in this town until it goes smoke-free. :p

[Grambo]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys - i'm on the Nicorette again..

[Lordathestrings]

Do what ya gotta do ta get free.