Thank you, cardinal_mark!

[Sgeir]

I have a feeling that cardinal_mark has not been active here since the forum was targetted by nutters last summer, but I owe Mark a very big "thank you".

It is now just over 5 years since his That's it... post, where he announced that he'd stopped smoking. Just like that.

Mark's post must have had a subliminal effect, because about two weeks later, over Easter 2005, I ran out of baccy and haven't touched another cigarette since then. I hadn't planned to do it then, so didn't bother with chewing gum and stuff. Like Mark, just stopped.

I was pretty crabbit for the first few weeks, but I'm told that I became marginally more bearable after a month or so. I had the "longing" for perhaps two years or so, but even that went eventually.

It took me 40 years to do it, but, looking back it was really quite easy this time. For me, it was a total and sudden end - none of this cutting down, or, "I'll be OK with an occasional fag...".

So, if any of you are thinking of giving up, just do it. Take it a day at a time. You can do it.

 

[highandry]

It's strange how decisions come about. I was a teenager sitting in an almost empty cinema one wet afternoon, about 5 people in the auditorium all puffing away. When the lights went down I looked up and the projector beams were swirling with thick smoke, just from 5 people. In a way it shocked me, and this was long before the health risk warnings started..When I left the cinema I left half a pack of cigarettes on the seat. They were called "Guards", I remember.. never smoked since..Cardinal Mark did you a favour..

 

[Lady Campanula]

I'm really pleased to accord you a 'well done'. Your carbon footprint is much, much smaller than it otherwise might be, and that would please even Webby! What's more important, you haven't inflicted your carbon-tar on others since 2005....

Wot a nice guy!

 

[monkfish24]

I, like you, decided to give up on a whim and haven't looked back since. My breath is fresher (which is nice when you catch a whiff going upwind!!!) Food tastes better and i generally feel a lot fitter and healthier. I've only been giving up since Lent started (pure coincidence).

 

[KREW2]

I think it was Keith Waterhouse, who, having not smoked for about 30 years still classed himself as a smoker. He used to say I just haven't had one today but, I might tomorrow.

 

[rich]

I stopped at 4pm on the 2/1/09, started at about 12 years old,46 yrs ago.

 

[aslabend]

I think it was Keith Waterhouse, who, having not smoked for about 30 years still classed himself as a smoker. He used to say I just haven't had one today but, I might tomorrow.

Gave up 8 weeks ago..... every day is a battle but I just keep thinking I'll have one tomorrow but not today. Hopefully tomorrow will never come.

 

[Billjratt]

Isn't it odd? I gave up one Sunday evening when I was 30. On the Monday I was working in a clean air computer room with another engineer who was becoming quite agitated. He asked me when we were going for a smoke break and I replied that he could go whenever he wanted, as I didn't smoke any more.
I genuinely didn't think about it (but in retrospect, SWMBO said I was a grunt)
The no-smoking period lasted for a year, until I smugly thought it was so easy I could have a 'social' fag with a beer and not wake up next morning needing one.
FAILURE! That set me back, and I ended up smoking horrible smelly small cigars before working a bit harder to really give up a year or so later - this time for ever as I am now really pi$$ed off with the smell of smoke in doorways etc.
I stand as an example of the ex-who-hates-the current smoker!.

 

[Aja]

Sgier

Exactly the same for me. I just didn't want to be fifty and a smoker so after 30+ years as a smoker just stopped on 1st March 2007.

It didn't hurt then and doesn't hurt now.

Regards
Donald

 

[Sgeir]

Monkfish24 and aslabend - well done!

Monkfish24 and aslabend - you've taken the first steps, so well done! By making a public announcement, you've set a standard that you will endeavour to achieve, ie total abstinence. That's pretty damned good! I think it was Cardinal Mark's public post that did it for me, so stick at it, and good luck.

Billjrat and myself had previously conned ourselves with the "social fag" malarkey. Perhaps some people can do it, but for most of us it is a trap - for lifelong smokers who've given up for a while, that first "social" cigarette tweaks a little switch in your brain, and you're back on them again. Just forget them, and never take that one little "social fag".

BTW, if anyone knows Cardinal Mark personally, please pass on my sincere thanks.

 

[Richard10002]

I gave up at 9.15pm 13/12/07and, after about a year, I thought I was a non-smoker, (big mistake!!).

I fell off the wagon around April 2009, (16 months), when I felt the pressure of sorting out the boat after an attempted major rip off. One became a packet, which built up to 20 a day over the year.

Anyway - I am trying again, and havent had one for just over 30 days. My NHS calculator, (which sits on my desktop), says I have saved about £175 so far. The thought of having to zero the calculator is quite a motivator, as well as the help from a couple of full strength patches, and the knowledge that it's a dirty smelly habit, (which didnt stop me in the past )

Fingers crossed that this time it's for good - we'll see.

 

[Whiskey Bravo]

''Anyway - I am trying again, and havent had one for just over 30 days. My NHS calculator, (which sits on my desktop), says I have saved about £175 so far. The thought of having to zero the calculator is quite a motivator,''

Money is a great motivator!! Sometime in the mid seventies 20 cigs went up in a Budget to 50p. That was it, I said ''I'm not paying 10 bob for 20 fags'' and haven't bought any since. I wish I'd had a calculator then, the figure would be off the end by now!! I did use to 'borrow' the occasional fag but haven't had one now for years.

 

[Searush]

SWMBO & I gave up July 1969 - a month before our wedding (she had Bronchitis). I said I would last longer than her without a fag, she said I wouldn't. 41 years on we still don't know who won!

But basically, we both won & our kids have grown up not smoking too, which is an even bigger bonus. I hope the grandkids have as much sense.

Well done Sgeir, et al. It IS worth it.

 

[Fox Morgan]

I salut you quitters.

I grew up in a smoky household. I used to crawl under a sofa to get below the smoke level. It gave/agravated my asthma, I was a sickly child, always pale and underweight. all down to the smoke.

If you want a small motivating factor to help you along, what I (and others may say the same) smell on people's breath after they have smoked is almost the same as if they have eaten a raw dog poo. it is that disgusting. Imagine, waking up next to someone who has been smoking the night before, they say good morning and all you can smell is dog poo.
total passion killer!

smokers also sweat the smell out, a bit like garlic sweats out. gives a general odour of death to me.

am I helping at all? giving a good mental image? it's all true.

keep up the good work, the benefits far outweight the so called pleasure.

 

[Sandgrounder]

Quitting

Congratulations to all those who have or are trying to stop. I gave up, at the unpteenth attempt, in May 1993 after about 19 years on the weed. The most effective motivator, for me, was realising that: while I was a smoker I had no choice but to be a smoker; if I gave up I could always choose to start again. Never had another fag since that particular penny dropped.

 

[nonitoo]

SWMBO & I gave up July 1969 - a month before our wedding (she had Bronchitis). I said I would last longer than her without a fag, she said I wouldn't. 41 years on we still don't know who won!

But basically, we both won & our kids have grown up not smoking too, which is an even bigger bonus. I hope the grandkids have as much sense.

Well done Sgeir, et al. It IS worth it.

Congrats to all, I gave up in 1970 when I had to stop half way up a hill to catch my breath - 60 a day to zero, cold turkey. I got such a fright at the age of 24. The cost was not a factor as king size were 8/-(£0.40)/200 - (duty free).

As Searush says, our boys have never smoked either.

Never looked back.

Tom

 

[Richard10002]

what I (and others may say the same) smell on people's breath after they have smoked is almost the same as if they have eaten a raw dog poo.

I have to wonder how you, (and the others), discovered this

 

[lenseman]

Well done to those who have quit and best of luck to those who are tying to quit. It can be done.

I gave up in 1974 after a long time smoking "Blue-Liners" (Royal Navy Duty Free's or DF's) and Senior Service and Peter Stuyvesant King Size!

In late 1974, I had been doing some copper welding on a burst hot water tank above a shop in Hatfield and had been inhaling the fumes to the extent that I was 'drowning' in my own adema, my lungs were filling with fluid! As long as I took very quick breaths and did not move I was OK but as soon as I moved, the lung linings became saturated with the fluid and it was very painful indeed. Like being cut by a thousand knives!

I thought that if this is what dying of Cancer feels like, I don't want to know and stopped that Christmas about 20th December 1974.

There were no 'patches' in my day and these are three things I did to help myself:

1) Whenever I wanted a cigarette, I took a very, very deep breath, in through the mouth, and held it for 5 or 6 seconds and then very slowly breathed out (this is what you do every time you first inhale on a fresh cigarette). It seems to take the craving away for 5 or so minutes meanwhile I 'got busy' doing something where I could not handle a cigarette, like took a shower or washed the car, or cut the lawn.

2) Think that your breath smells of a filthy dirty ashtray to any non-smoker. Quite a sobering thought to know you smell nasty. If you don't believe me, try lifting an ashtray and give it a good old sniff!

3) Think of the money you save. Nowadays, 20 a day will set you back a cool £2,000 (TWO GRAND!!) and that is AFTER tax. You can buy some decent sailing kit for that sort of QRK.

I have lit a cigarette for others on a couple of occasions whilst at a party in 2005 but I will never go back to smoking.

PS: Mind you, to stop completely, you only have to give up the FIRST cigarette of the day. It's as easy as that - no messing!

 

[Heckler]

I have a feeling that cardinal_mark has not been active here since the forum was targetted by nutters last summer, but I owe Mark a very big "thank you".

It is now just over 5 years since his That's it... post, where he announced that he'd stopped smoking. Just like that.

Mark's post must have had a subliminal effect, because about two weeks later, over Easter 2005, I ran out of baccy and haven't touched another cigarette since then. I hadn't planned to do it then, so didn't bother with chewing gum and stuff. Like Mark, just stopped.

I was pretty crabbit for the first few weeks, but I'm told that I became marginally more bearable after a month or so. I had the "longing" for perhaps two years or so, but even that went eventually.

It took me 40 years to do it, but, looking back it was really quite easy this time. For me, it was a total and sudden end - none of this cutting down, or, "I'll be OK with an occasional fag...".

So, if any of you are thinking of giving up, just do it. Take it a day at a time. You can do it.

Thats what I did, 26 years ago, boy am I glad I did! My medical conditions would, if I had carried on smoking, have put me in a box years ago!
Stu

 

[Danny Jo]

Goaded, somewhat, by SWMBO's "must you smoke in my living room, I just stopped, 33 years ago, and went running instead. But as others have remarked, I remained a smoker, initially at least.

My definitive cure hasn't had a mention in this thread, but was an unintended application of "aversion therapy". About six weeks into my abstinence, SWMBO went to visit her mum, and I had a difficult job application to complete. I felt that a puff or two at Old Holborn might help concentration, went out and bought an ounce or three, and rolled myself the fattest fag that can be fitted into a single cigarette paper. Oh, that lovely feel of the paper rolling between the fingers - that sweet smell of tobacco, fresh out of the packet!

Then I smoked my fat fag*, felt a little odd, so rolled another and started smoking that too. Halfway through the second, the penny dropped. I had lost my nicotine tolerance - the rising tide of nausea was caused by acute nicotine poisoning. For months afterwards the smell of cigarettes, or even the thought of smoking, made me feel sick.

I don't think there is the remotest danger that I'll ever want to smoke again, but, curiously, I quite often relapse in my dreams.

* Note for American readers: Brits use the term "fag" to mean cigarette; the question "Can I bum a fag off you, mate?" should not be interpretted as an invitation to a gay frolic.