I need some moral support here. I need to quit smoking and I need to do it now. But, anyone who has been there and done that knows it ain’t easy. I tried earlier this year and made it a few weeks before I got hit with some major stress and started smoking again. :smack: Bad move.
But the thing which is a bit scary at the moment is that I was getting an eye exam yesterday and they took my blood pressure and said it was 165 over 102. :eek:
On top of this, I am supposed to get a medical check on Thursday to get clearance for arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder which I badly need and I don’t want there to be any problems on this.
So I need you good ex-smokers to convince me that it is time to stop smoking once and for all and that I need to throw away the pack of cigarettes in my pocket. Tell me the good things, coping strategies, how it is better to not be smoking, etc. I really need to do this!
One of the wisest choices I ever made in life was to quit smoking at a young age: early 20s. I am now seeing some of my smoking friends health deteriorate before my eyes.
Smoking is not glamorous, nor is it cool or relaxing. It’s a terrible affliction that limits your social life, affects your work life, reduces your life span, makes you smell horribly, and eats into your ability to perform even the simplest tasks later on in life, like climbing stairs or mowing the lawn.
I can climb up a flight of stairs now and not feel like I am about to die. (I smoked for 25 years and quit about 20 years ago.) I think the best way to quit is just to quit. I didn’t use any aids or anything. I just told myself I don’t think I will smoke today. Told myself that every morning for about 10 weeks and then realized I had quit. Please do it. I miss some things about it but mostly I enjoy not having a nasty taste in my mouth and being able to breathe. Good luck. PM me if you want moral support at any time.
Surgeons and anesthesiologists HATE smokers. They also don’t like high blood pressure. They will probably be blunt about how you are a super high risk and they really hate you for being a smoker, and are a bad person.
If your shoulder really hurts, think of quitting smoking as a trade-off for not having shoulder pain anymore.
Plus think of the money you’ll save. Think of how nice you’ll smell. Think of how warm you’ll be inside this winter. Think of how much squash you’re going to play with your new shoulder and healthy lungs.
As for the method, do what works for you. If you can do it cold turkey, do it. Gum. Patches. Hypnotherapy. Whatever works FOR YOU. You’re not less of a person for needing an aid.
I’m still a smoker and I hate myself for it. Quit for me!
A drag on a cigarette will paralyze the cilia in your lungs for 24 hours. Are you familiar with the cilia in your lungs? They’re the helpful little guys who keep things moving in there in good ways - paralyzing them is very unhelpful when you’re putting toxic particles into your lungs - you need the cilia to move that crap back out again. You also kill alveoli in your lungs with each puff that don’t grow back. Are you familiar with alveoli? They’re the tiny little sacs that transfer oxygen from the air into your body - you need them.
There are many known human carcinogens in cigarette smoke. There are no safe levels for exposure to these carcinogens.
Thank you guys! I just threw the pack of cigarettes in the garbage. Step 1. Now I have to survive through the next few days. Keep it coming at me. I know I’m making the right decision – I just need to keep the willpower when things get tough and I feel like I *have *to have that cigarette.
So, my last cigarette was at 9:30 am on 29 Nov 2010 – now I need to keep it that way!
It’s going to be rough for about 3 days, but then it gets easier. You can do it. Keep yourself distracted for the next couple of days and you will be fine.
Welcome to the world of being a non smoker.
ETA: don’t beat yourself up too much if you backslide a bit either. A lot of people have one cigarette and then the whole thing falls apart, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Just keep reminding yourself how much more you want to not smoke than you want to smoke.
Cigarettes are flippin’ expensive, and it’s a pain in the butt huddling outside on the bar patio during winter because you just had to have a smoke. <Checks OP’s location> Well, they’re still expensive.
I do have plenty of work to do now that the long weekend is over, so I better concentrate on getting it done. That and chew a lot of gum and remind myself how much I don’t want to kill myself with cigarettes.
I quit on May 4, 2008. I used the pill welbutrin (not chantix, which my doctor said wasn’t a good choice for me), and even though I didn’t really think it would work, it did.
Two and a half years later, I have COPD (chronic obstructive pulminary disorder), a fancy term for emphasema; my oxygen levels are very low and I have a ton of health problems - I should have quit earlier! But at least I have been done with smoking for a long time now, and I’ve never considered going back to it.
One thing: the smell of cigarette smoke doesn’t bother me but boy I sure can tell a smoker! Hard to believe that I used to smell like that - the heavier the smoker, the more they just reek of cigarettes. It’s not a pleasant smell, believe me. Lastly (one other thing!), the cost of cigarettes is ultra high and will only go higher - states are adding taxes to them to help pay for additional health care costs,
Good luck, Doctor - I’ll be sending good thoughts your way to keep you from smoking!
Well, to be fair, the bar is a really good place to smoke… I think I’ll be avoiding the bar. A beer and a cigarette sounds like too good a combination.
I think I should try some extra water and vitamin supplements – probably a better idea. And things to chew on.
Yes. I mean, wherever you are, it’s still a pain. I went downstairs just now to make a not-work-friendly phone call, and as I remained in the heated indoors, there were all these people standing outside in the cold rain taking a smoke break. I suspect the cold and rain aren’t much of a problem for Doc, but having to take a break to go outside to light up seems annoying. Also, a lot of folks don’t wanna kiss a guy who smokes.
Thanks. These are all very good points. I did notice the smell last time I quit and how shocking it was to me that it was so obvious. And damn are they expensive – a good price on a pack out here is $6!!
I’ve never smoked, but my father did, a lot, and quitting was just about the most difficult and painful process he’d ever endured. Seeing what he went through when I was a kid convinced me smoking addiction is just as all-consuming as any other addiction.
My father smoked since he was 14, but when my mother became pregnant with my younger brother, they both agreed that he would cut back from 3 packs a day to 1; I remember this lasting less than a week. My mother, somehow, convinced him that it would be easier if he were to go completely cold-turkey, so that’s what he did. No programs, no gums, no counseling, nothing. Every single day was like starting from day one again, and he was so unhappy, and miserable to be around. My mother was so stressed out that she actually told him to go and buy a pack at one point. I don’t think he did. One day, my sister and I had a ?? moment as it occurred to us that dad hadn’t smoked in a couple of months. Years later, when asked, he said he didn’t think he’d be able to go through that again, that he still thought about cigarettes, and that it would be very easy for him to pick up the habit again, but the impulse no longer controlled him. I’m just happy he was able to quit.
Good luck quitting, and I mean that. I know it is really difficult, but please try to stick with whatever plan you come up with. People who love you would be devastated if you were to become ill, or worse, because of cigarettes. If that’s not an incentive, I don’t know what is.
Good plan. Change your other habits too - if there are situations you’re in on a daily basis where you automatically reach for a cigarette without even thinking about it - for example, sitting at the kitchen table in the morning, reading the paper and having a cup of coffee and a smoke - do them differently; sit in another room, skip the paper and browse the internet instead, something like that. If all your other little patterns change too, it’s harder to notice and miss the one habit that’s hurting you.
Missed the edit window. There is, I guess, one down side to quitting, at least in my father’s case, which was that he became an anti smoking Nazi. It was quite embarrassing to see him berate others for smoking in his vicinity. It got better as the years went by, but hoo-boy, he was bad there for a while.
[ul]
[li]Your house becomes more difficult to clean. When cleaning my father’s apartment, some windowframes that I had always thought were gold-tone turned out to be plain silver-coloured aluminum.[/li][li]Fewer people will want to buy your car if you decide to sell it.[/li][li]Tarry residue gets into your electronics and gums it up. I lent my VCR to my father, a smoker, and the glittering world of moving parts inside was made sticky. The VCR was ruined.[/li][li]Lamps are dimmer because of the crud on them.[/li][li]Your carpets, clothing, and furniture are dirtier. When I went to visit my father, everything I wore reeked when I came home. Imagine what this was doing to the couch![/li][/ul]
That’s another downside for sure. When I travel, some places have really outrageous prices. I think NY is around 8 or 9 bucks. I had no idea Ontario was so high. If I recall a lot of EU and Australia are pretty expensive as well. Damn. I have better things to do with my money!
