Wow there’s been a lot of smoking threads lately (one of them by me). That time of year I guess.
Anyway, we’ve established who’s a smoker and who’s not (from the above linked poll I see we have quite a lot of quitters), and there are lots of threads by people trying to quit, let’s have one on why.
So, former smokers, why did you quit?
When I started smoking, I got a physical rush from smoking. Later, it was more subdued, more of a relaxation and contentment. But finally, nothing at all that I could discern. Just that it would make the craving go away for awhile. That made it humiliating to be addicted. If the pleasure had remained, I’d probably have continued to smoke.
Associated humiliations were the times when I ran out and could not find a place I could buy a pack and was reduced to going up to people I didn’t know or people I knew but did not LIKE to bum a smoke, or crumbling fragments of tobacco from ashtray butts and rolling one of those tastes-like-ass raunchy emergency smokes, to get my fix.
Enough already. So I determined to quit.
It wasn’t so much that it was too expensive but that I felt angry that I was wasting money at all on something that did nothing for me but feed a habit.
Yeah $8/pack was the breaking point for me. I could afford it, but why?
Health reasons, expensive, outgrew it. And it smells nasty.
I quit a little over a year ago, and, damn, does that shit smell bad now!
Which time? 
I quit twice 'cause I was pregnant, and smoking and pregnancy don’t mix well.
I quit once under pressure from my (now ex) husband.
I quit last September because my SO was scheduled for his second major abdominal surgery in 2 years. The first one, it took them nearly a week to get him off the ventilator. Before the second one, I convinced him to try quitting with me so he could, maybe, get off the vent sooner - no long term promises, just for the surgery. We did, and he was off the vent in 12 hours. I was, frankly, amazed. I didn’t think 2 weeks of no smoking would make *that *much of a difference!
I enjoyed the health benefits - the cough that went away, the being able to climb the stairs without wanting to die, the blood pressure that lowered to better levels, and the heart palpitations with chest pains that disappeared. I also enjoyed the social/professional benefits - not having to hide from my mother like a 16 year old, not worrying about sneaking a smoke between patients, or going into a patient’s home smelling of smoke. I liked not feeling guilty for bringing smoke soaked clothing around my little girl, who has a preemie’s “delicate lungs”. Finally, I grew rather fond of saving money! At the same time, I really missed smoking, and sort of knew that I might not be forever-quit.
This past May, I went camping, and bummed two cigarettes off my SO (who started smoking again around January or February). My chest felt like it was on fire. My lungs threatened to leap out my trachea and run away. It HURT. It hurt a lot, from just two cigarettes in one evening. The next morning, I went into town and got an e-cigarette, and have been happily enjoying it ever since.
As long as e-cigs remain legal and accessible, I don’t see ever smoking tobacco again in my future. (I also have no desire to quit the e-cig…it gives me all the things I loved about smoking without any of the things I didn’t like.)
Couldn’t breathe in the morning anymore. I smoked 2-3 packs a day…possibly more if I went out or was drinking.
Had to have a smoke in the morning to loosen the phlegm up enough that I could purge it and breathe clearly.
Fun times! And sexy as hell, too!
Way back in 1983 I had been smoking for a couple years, and it was midweek and I ran out of smokes, and was short on money so I just pegged it as something to get after I got paid. 3 months later I noticed that I had forgotten to get any cigarettes so I figured I had defacto quit smoking. I think I have had 2 cigarettes in 30 years, one for sociability [seriously nervous person I was trying to calm down and one just to try a different countries version of a cigarette.] I have never tried an e-cig, but I might just for the hell of it, if someone offered a try to me.
One of the biggest things for me was that doctors don’t like you being on The Pill and over 35 and a smoker (or overweight). I’m not ready to stop being on The Pill, and didn’t want to give myself a stroke or whatever, so I quit smoking. The goal was to do it by 35 but I did it by 31.
I’m glad I did it when I did because now I’d be further in debt than I already am, having since fallen on hard times.
I do totally miss it and could become a smoker again in 2 seconds. But I am enjoying the financial freedom and not being smelly.
I just wasn’t enjoying smoking as much.
I said I quit for someone else (no pressure) and I was just finished with it.
I cut down gradually all through my pregnancy and then I quit shortly after my son was born. I figured I’d give him a couple of months without me smoking around him and then I’d go back to it but I never really got started again. Getting pregnant again less than a year later certainly helped with that.
I think in the 20 + years since I quit I’ve smoked 10 or 20 cigarettes. For the first 10 years or so I’d crave one every time I picked up a drink. Luckily I don’t drink much 
I quit for my boyfriend (now husband) and for health reasons. I didn’t have issues yet, but knew what it would do to my health long term. Plus I started to get more active, and I knew I’d never go far if I was still smoking.
I checked both Health reasons (an actual health problem) and I outgrew it/I was just finished with it.
When I separated from my then-wife in 2007, I took up smoking purely as a chemical stress relief. The combination of nicotine and oxygen deprivation were a great way to just get outside my head for a few minutes when I got anxious about my new life on my own (I had been married for almost 17 years at that point, and though I asked for the divorce, change is still scary).
By late fall, I was starting to date a little and enjoying life a lot more, so I was already thinking the pack I was working on was my last when I developed a wicked little case of pneumonia. I lit one up, took a drag that was like inhaling razor blades, and was done. Just like that.
I just got to the point where I finally wanted to. Of course, the little green gobs of lung I had the habit of horking up into the sink every morning contributed to my decision.
My lungs hurt. I was ready for them to stop hurting. Stopping smoking seemed like a logical next step.
For future health reasons and for my baby (at the time) daughters. I was starting to smoke more and I was feeling like crap in the morning until I could have my first smoke. And my daughters were 6 months and 2 years old at the time and I wanted to do it for them.
I knew it would be a pre-condition to dating my (now) wife but she didn’t pressure me to do it. I also had a young son who was getting old enough to pay attention to what I was doing, even when I kept it to evenings.
I quit about a year after becoming paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury. Up until that point, I had been a regular smoker for about 5 years or so, averaging about a pack/day. I didn’t quit immediately upon being injured; rather it was something that I gradually realized was REALLY not compatible with a spinal cord-injured life. I’d always known smoking was bad but once I became a paraplegic, I FELT the cigarettes hurting me so much more. I knew, being hurt as I now was, that I needed to be that much more vigilant and aware of my health and well-being.
I’d been smoking for ten years, since I was 15 (thanks for nothing, Dianne) and just came to the conclusion that it was disgusting. I was up to 60 a day when I quit and I do believe I was rather difficult to live with for a time.
I quit that day, 47 years ago, that I had a heart attack. 'Nuff said?