I Quit Smoking 13 Years Ago Tomorrow

[Tom Horn]

I did my heavy smoking when I drank beer....every other night but I was always a runner so the smoke didn't stay in my lungs gumming things up for long....that's how it gets ya. So how did I do it after 43 years? I did a Zen thing on myself. I decided the nicotine crave was a better buzz than satisfying it. That's right; I ENJOYED my brain trying to trick my body into harming itself.....damn brain.

I'd discovered during my smoking years that if I ate an apple or a peach or a plum, I didn't want a Marlboro. Don't know why. So I stocked up on fruit and ran twice a day instead of once. After a couple days, much to my disappointment, the cravings subsided down to only a couple a day and then in about 10 days stopped completely. I wasn't as hooked as I thought I was. No patch. No Nicorette gum. No suicide hotline. I just stopped. My doc says my heart is made out of railroad steel and my lungs are still clear and clean. Hopefully I beat the Reaper out of snatching me before my time.

 

[miketx]

Congrats! I quit 26 years ago.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I quit 27 years ago.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Speaking of which...just how in the HELL do poor people afford cigarettes???
$5-$6 a pack and they puff away.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

Congrats!

 

[tigerred59]

I wish I could stop, 60 years old and I can't.......I know its gonna kill me, but I have to deal with stupid white bitches all day....I need my cigs!!

 

[WheelieAddict]

I did my heavy smoking when I drank beer....every other night but I was always a runner so the smoke didn't stay in my lungs gumming things up for long....that's how it gets ya. So how did I do it after 43 years? I did a Zen thing on myself. I decided the nicotine crave was a better buzz than satisfying it. That's right; I ENJOYED my brain trying to trick my body into harming itself.....damn brain.

I'd discovered during my smoking years that if I ate an apple or a peach or a plum, I didn't want a Marlboro. Don't know why. So I stocked up on fruit and ran twice a day instead of once. After a couple days, much to my disappointment, the cravings subsided down to only a couple a day and then in about 10 days stopped completely. I wasn't as hooked as I thought I was. No patch. No Nicorette gum. No suicide hotline. I just stopped. My doc says my heart is made out of railroad steel and my lungs are still clear and clean. Hopefully I beat the Reaper out of snatching me before my time.

Congrats, be proud!

I was an athlete so it was snuff for me, Kodiak. I know disgusting, tobacco is extremely addictive. I fall off the wagon once in a while even years after quitting and use Snus. Yes I still have all my teeth, I'm lucky I quit before my gumline receded into oblivion. Nicotine is terrible stuff.

 

[Ringel05]

Which reminds me, pick up a carton of cigarettes. Thanks!!

 

[Likkmee]

9/13/2012. Oddly I can have ONE every several months with no craving. Goofy. I guess because I smoke a lil weed. I suppose I do it expecting something and don't get it........... from the filtered shit( much like my dating).
My uncle craved them thirty years after he quit but never touched one. He had to leave the area after dinner when people would light up.

 

[Tom Horn]

Marlboro cut the tar and upped the nicotine....so a single cig didn't do the trick anymore....rotten bastards. I quit on May Day...another trick on myself so I could celebrate the lst of each new month I'd quit...a random day won't do that for ya. What else? I had to cut off the beer too...that was my trigger....and nightclubbing but I was getting a little long in the tooth for that anyway. Now a cigarette smells like a tire fire to me. Blow smoke in a dog's face and they grimace and run away...dogs are smarter than us.

 

[Tom Horn]

I wish I could stop, 60 years old and I can't.......I know its gonna kill me, but I have to deal with stupid white bitches all day....I need my cigs!!

Stupid white bitches haunt us all...don't let them murder you by your own hand.

 

[Ridgerunner]

6 years ago this month I stopped smoking Camels... I really didn't think I could do it... I stopped because I refused to pay the sin tax on a carton of cigarettes... I don't think about them very much anymore, but occasionally I have an urge... I don't know what would happen if I was to get liquored up... Haven't copped a buzz on alcohol for so long, I don't remember when it was...

Congrats Tom...

 

[Leo123]

Congratulations!! I'll bet food tastes better to you now.

 

[Likkmee]

MORE. It's a fucking shit habit that killed a lot of friends and family, mostly those in denial/lying to ourselves, back in the day.
I quit after about 6"packs"of those eMarlboro---whatever with the USB charger.

I'll tell you what actually saved me. I never smoked in a car or inside the house. I smoked a couple packs outside while physically working.I got home, I went outside. Once I switched to "quit mode" and tried the electric I realized I had been going outside(or piss break) for YEARS, taking 2-3-4 drags and tossing it. That amazed me.
THIS IS STUPID, hit me and I never bought more the last filter charge thingie off the eCig pack.

 

[Tom Horn]

Old joke....A guy asks a hooker if she smokes after sex.....

She says "I don't know, I never looked".

 

[miketx]

6 years ago this month I stopped smoking Camels... I really didn't think I could do it... I stopped because I refused to pay the sin tax on a carton of cigarettes... I don't think about them very much anymore, but occasionally I have an urge... I don't know what would happen if I was to get liquored up... Haven't copped a buzz on alcohol for so long, I don't remember when it was...

Congrats Tom...

There's a joke in there somewhere!

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

I wish I could stop, 60 years old and I can't.......I know its gonna kill me, but I have to deal with stupid white bitches all day....I need my cigs!!

Kools?

 

[Ridgerunner]

There's a joke in there somewhere!

When I am liquored up I am a joke...

 

[Esmeralda]

Speaking of which...just how in the HELL do poor people afford cigarettes???
$5-$6 a pack and they puff away.

It's a drug addiction; people always find a way.

 

[MikeK]

I started with cigarettes in 1951, when smoking was very common, the associated harms were largely unknown. Cigarette ads were signed by medical doctors who said smoking was good for you, and celebrities like Ronald Reagan agreed:

I smoked for 35 years and quit in 1985 when my wife died (she made me promise to quit for our girls' sake). It wasn't easy but I managed. Back then Nicorette was new and a prescription was required but that gum was very helpful. As I recall, the cigarette craving was most intense for about a month or six weeks but I managed to resist it. The craving gradually subsided but remained active for more than a year -- especially after meals. It was so compelling after coffee that I had to give up coffee, too.

The compulsive craving gradually diminished but lasted for more than a year. For about twenty years after the intensely compulsive stage ended there were occasional moments when a surprising and wholly unexpected urge to smoke would occur but those residual urges would last only a few minutes and were relatively easy to resist.

I should mention that my first year of cigarette withdrawal was aided by sucking on Tootsie-Roll lollipops and by keeping my fingers occupied with a pen or pencil. These are necessary diversions for the hands and mouth components of the smoking compulsion.

Based on everything I've ever read, heard or experienced I must fully agree with casual or educated opinions that nicotine is far more tenaciously addictive than any recreational narcotic.