5th annual plea to stop smoking

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Five years ago Dec 3rd I lost my father to a smoking related disease. It was a slow, unpleasant death. Please, if you smoke, spare yourself from this death, give it up now.

When he was young he said “Its my body, I’ll do what I want”
In the early part of his disease he said “I know men who smoked until they were 80, smoking doesn’t cause this.”
As his disease progressed and he was gasping, struggling for breath he said “This isn’t life, its not living. I’m just waiting to die.”

It was horrible to watch.

One of the worst moments of my life was when he lay in his hospital bed gasping for breath and he looked me in the eyes and said: “I’m scared.”

Someone else close to me, a good friend, died more than 12 years ago of lung cancer. In the end, he was begging God to take him, it hurt so much.

If you smoke, please consider quiting - for you.

2

I lost my mom at the end of September to lung cancer. It was not a long battle, as she was not diagnosed at an early stage, and she suffered more than she should have because of it. Throughout all of it, she was convinced that this was something she could get over-- or, if she wasn’t, she put on a “strong face” for us, even in the last week when she was slipping away. She suffered quietly throughout all this to the point where most of her friends and family outside of us kids were shocked to find out that she was dying of cancer.

Even if you’re not considering quitting, take care of yourself and get regular doctor’s check-ups; make sure that you’re getting the medical care you need, and don’t take “I don’t know” for an answer if something is bothering you. My mom’s initial cancer diagnosis should have happened when she was having leg pains, not four months later as an accidental discovery resulting from an abnormal mammogram.

3

I’m proud to say that I quit on November 23! This is day 11 and so far I’m doing great.

4

Woohoo! Congratulations and a wish of strength to carry on!

5

I quit five years ago. It’s not as hard as you (the collective you) fear!

6

Yeah, well…

It’s my body, and I’ll do what I want.

I want to quit. Now.

Hold on a sec…

…OK, I just ran my cigs (nearly a full pack) under the sink, then threw them out, along with my lighter. I have a smoking cessation class at 5:15 tonight. I’m going to give them good news.

7

I also lost my dad this year from a smoking disease (lung cancer). He had quit smoking 8-9 years ago, after a stroke, but the effects of smoking for 50+ years eventually caught up to him. To be honest, I’m afraid for myself. I smoked for 25 years before quitting 3.5 years ago. But - I haven’t regretted quitting; I feel it was the very best thing I could ever do for myself. If I can quit, anyone can. I smoked 2+ packs a day the last few years I smoked.

One thing to keep in mind - all those stories about how hard it is to quit? Total BS. I think people have greatly exaggerated the difficulty to justify to themselves why they can’t quit. And if you keep telling yourself it is “too hard” and 'harder to kick than heroin" etc., it will be that hard. It really isn’t. Once I wrapped my mind around it (being a non-smoker) it wasn’t that bad. Honest. Allan Carr’s book “The Easyway to Stop Smoking” was my lifesaver, and opened my mind to allow me to quit easily.

8

I lost my sister to cancer, and my stepmother to emphysema. I loathe and despise smoking.

Congratulations to those who quit.

9

Whew, those accounts are pretty rough. My sympathies to those who’ve had to endure watching a loved one go through such an ordeal.

17 year smoker here that quit. While it wasn’t easy, neither was it in any way impossible. Just takes a lot of resolve. Been clean for 11 years now and it feels sooooo much better.

10

I lost my mother to cancer at 42; my father, his sister and their mother to heart disease. Two of my cousins had quadruple bypasses before they were 50. All were lifelong smokers. My sister started smoking at 13 but the alcohol got her first.

To all who have quit and who are quitting: May you have many days to enjoy the pure satisfaction of breathing.

11

My grandmother died this fall. She was a tough lady - she lived to be nearly 81 years old and had smoked like a chimney since she was 15. In July she fell - and it was discovered that she had lung cancer. In September, she had a pulmonary embolism - and my father and uncles chose to let her die since that would be a more pleasant death than the one waiting for her (at the advice of the doctors - who did not want to do surgery on an 81 year old woman who had six months at most to live).

She was in denial on the smoking until the end. I sat in the hospital with her after her fall and heard her lie like a rug to the ER doctor.

12

Well, I have tried many times. Last January I quit for almost 6 months and started back. I am out right now and I am too broke to go get any. That right there should tell me something, I can’t afford to smoke, physically or financially.
It is tough, have been smoking on and off for 11 years now. The saddest part of that is that I am only 24.

I want to stop, I really do. My father stopped after 35 years, cold turkey. I know that I can do it. The important factor here is that I WANT to. It isn’t going to be easy, or fun. But I want to, I need to.
I am going to put a quit meter on my myspace page. Maybe that will help.

13

I’ve lost my father, grandfather, and several uncles to this horrible habbit…and I still smoke. I told myself I’d quit for my birthday, but it’s not going as well as I had planned. But for Khadaji (my birthday buddy) I’ll quit today. No more excuses, no more setbacks. I know I need to, but for some reason, I just can’t. I might need some support with this, so if anyone wants to offer to be a sympathetic ear through this, I’d appreciate it deeply.

crosses fingers and toes that it takes this time

14

I quit 10 months ago and it was absolutely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. You’re lucky! I still want to smoke every day and would do so if my husband and I hadn’t quit together. You’re literally the only person I’ve ever heard say that. Good job, though. I envy you!

15

Dammit, I slipped up already. I made it for a full three hours. :rolleyes:

Quitting (or cutting down) can be quite easy under the right circumstances. The problem can be constructing the right circumstances. I smoke little or not at all at my GF’s house, and what few cravings I get are really minor. It’s easy to be a non-smoker there. Dump me back in my apartment, though, and I’ll puff away like a madman.

16

Here’s a link to my OP I posted the day after.

17

True this. I used the patch 3.5 years ago after 30+ years and could not believe how much easier it was than I feared.

Believe me, it’s a lot harder to live life with that monkey always on your back telling you whether or not you can make it through a meal or a movie, that you are gonna run out before you go to sleep so you better go to the store NOW, that you can’t take that transatlantic trip because you will have a nicotine fit before the plane even gets off the ground. Bah! Good riddance!

18

That was the problem I had. I could quit on the weekend or on vacation, but the moment it was time to go back to work, I’d freak out and start up again. This time around I’m using a nicotine replacement and it’s much easier. I’m already past wanting to light up every time I get in the car or freaking out right before I have to go to work, and I’m finding myself wanting the nicotine replacement less and less. I think by the new year I should be able to stop taking it.

One thing I’d like to bring up for the non-smokers who want the smokers in their lives to quit. Nagging doesn’t help. People giving me crap about smoking just made me want to do it more. So did those “The Truth” anti-smoking ads and people pretending to cough when they walked by me when I was smoking in a designated area. It just made me want to say, “Screw you! I’ll do it if I want to.” As was noted in Delores Reborn’s linked thread, many of us see smoking as an old friend who gives us comfort. That was exactly how I felt and hearing others say bad things about it made me want to protect it, just like I would if you said something bad about one of my close friends.

19

I would add that it is absolutely worth talking to your doctor about Chantix. While I had a lot of other factors that helped to make me ready, I found that for me Chantix was pretty much the magic bullet that made it possible for me to break the addiction cycle. Have been smoke free since February 9th of this year and am going strong.

20

I always chime in on these threads with a rah-rah and a me-too.

I never thought I’d be able to quit; tried numerous times… “If I can just go long enough without one, the urge to smoke will go and I’ll be free…” At that point you never stop thinking about it, about when you can have your next cig; it’s constant frustration.

The very thought of being a non-smoker was inconceivable; it was such a basic part of me that quitting would have fundamentally altered who I was as a person. Plus, I am a TOTAL wimp when it comes to self-discipline – I am always the first to cave on self-sacrifice.

Allen Carr’s book saved me. Recommended heartily by Dopers, I finally ordered a copy – I remember it was like $7 used on Amazon. Read it, loved it. Quit, then backslid (having a spouse that smoked was too much temptation).

But I knew there was something to that damn book… it made the quitting experience much, much different. I avoided reading the book again, because I knew it would have an effect – and I just wasn’t ready. I finally geared up and started reading it again. (Note for those in fear: you get to smoke as much as you want while you’re reading it! Heck, you can even keep smoking when you’re done!)

After that I escaped and never looked back.

My husband read it and liked it, but it didn’t take. He used Chantix, and after about two weeks on it, said “you know, Chantix is a lot like the book… the two go hand in hand – both just take away all desire, effortlessly”. The Chantix helped him escape, but he gives a lot of credit to the book for instilling in him that he doesn’t want to go back.

This, from the beginning of my post: “If I can just go long enough without one, the urge to smoke will go and I’ll be free…” — this is all wrong. If this is the way you’re looking at it, you truly will never be free.

While the book is simplistic, it completely reversed my thinking and my fear about smoking and quitting-- for me the scales fell away. I think every type of smoker can benefit from it, if not to 100% quit, then on some level.

I’m kind of a nazi about the book.