Just had a smoke with a friend. One of hers. Tasted damn good, but I have no desire for another at all. Is this quitting “sort of” or what?
everyone is different. I find I need to go to zero cigs otherwise sooner or later I’ll start smoking again. Or else that nicotine craving will start again. I’m years over the hump and don’t want to play that game again.
I think there are non-smokers, smokers, and recovering smokers. I’m not convinced that people go from category 2 to category 1; I think they pretty much only go from 2 to 3.
You may be one of the about 4% of the population who can take nicotine or leave it.
The rest of the population generally can’t manage that feat too well.
Sounds like it to me, you lucky so and so. I quit seven years ago and I still love the scent of second hand. 
Peanut Butter - Jelly.
Beer - Smokey treat.
I “quit” over five years ago, but I (less and less) occasionally have a smokey treat when blotto. I’m finally reaching the point that even then they taste like shit. But once I took a quitting vacation on a sailing trip to the Virgin Islands, and continued smoking when I got home, so a month of smoking. But when I finally said “enough” it was amazingly easy to quit. Probably because I knew I could. And I knew I could, because of those occasional indiscretions. I think, over time, I will finally have that “last” cigarette. But I can honestly say now that for the foreseeable future, I’ll have three or four a year.
You will always be hooked, and if you were serious about quitting, you would smoke no more at all. If it’s true you don’t crave it, then why smoke it?? I quit one time only after smoking for 17 1/2 years and have now been smoke-free for more than 15 years. Other people smoking does not bother me, but I cannot imagine why I would want to try smoking one. Someone once as a joke tried putting a lit cigarette in my mouth and I slapped it out of her hand.
For most people, one every three days is enough to maintain a genuine nicotine habit. That means going through the pain in the ass of wanting one over again.
Just quit. Smoking is entirely stupid. I should know, I smoked for thirty five years, and even quit a few times. Very very stupid.
Tris
Because it’s nice every once in awhile? I smoke maybe two or three times a month. I don’t crave nicotine, but sometimes it’s just nice to have a smoke. I used to smoke a pack and a half a day. I quit cold turkey for six months. I’ve since discovered I could have a cigarette or two every so often without needing to go out and buy a pack.Sometimes I go a month or two without a smoke. It doesn’t bother me. Why should it be an all-or-nothing proposition?
Well, it is for most people. But see my earlier post. About 4% of the population can take or leave nicotine. The rest tend to get hooked.
If you can smoke once a month and it makes you happy, go for it. I smoked at least two packs a day for eleven years and found it impossible to cut back, so a year ago had to go down to no smokey at all. I would love to be the guy who could have one or two at a party every now and then, but I lack your willpower.
Oh yeah, just after dawn when the fog is moving through the trees…
dammit.
I quit Jan 2003 with the help of a book by a guy called Allen Carr.
His approach was the deconstruct and demolish all the reasons we have for smoking. It only appears to be a fulfilling habit, although that’s not to doubt it’s a powerful and complex addiction. This worked brilliantly for me. I finished the book and felt rather foolish and haven’t smoked since. His central philosophy is important in my opinion; you have to remove the desire to smoke and not just attempt to desist for the rest of one’s life!
I genuinely have no desire to smoke again. I’m not disgusted by the smell or horrified at the cost, I just have no interest in it. It’s a beautiful place to be in comparison to where I was 
Caan’t tell. Check back a year from now and tell us how much you smoke.
This is a steaming load.
If you can have a cigarette every once in a while, enjoy it, and then not have another, then do that. Hell, if you can have one or two cigarettes per day, without smoking more than that, that’s fabulous, and I wouldn’t even consider you “a smoker”. Cigarettes, like nearly everything else, are okay in moderation, and there’s no reason to let the hysterics tell you otherwise.
I drift back and forth from smoking half a pack a day to not smoking for weeks and everything in-betweern. It mostly depends on how much alcohol/coffee I have, since those are the only times I really want to smoke. If I were cut off from both I’d probably quit smoking as well, but I can’t imagine going through a workday without coffee, at least, so for the moment I’m stuck.
Go down to the international terminal at LAX and have a cup of their coffee. I had a cup there in 1960 and haven’t had a cup of coffee since.
I think it’s playing with fire (pun so not intended). Why risk it? Embrace how fabulous being a non-smoker is.
This thread is better suited for IMHO.
(MPSIMS -> IMHO)
Cajun Man
for the SDMB
How did they determine this?