stopping smoking

I was never a heavy smoker, but I used to smoke say 5 to 10 fags a day (and a LOT more when I was drinking)

Since I moved to my new flat in November, I have not smoked ONE cigarette.

There is a still full pack of Superkings Menthol sitting on my bedside cabinet I havent opened for this whole time. Every now and again I get a small urge to light up, but its easy to resist. I dont keep the pack for any special reason just that they cost £7 a go and I keep thinking I might give them to someone rather than just chuck them.

And yet in other ways I am compulsive and have an addictive type personality. I dont drink anything like I used to either and I think thats a part of it...

The weird thing was I didnt have any real tactic for quitting, I just decided I wouldnt smoke in my new flat and after that there didnt seem any reason to smoke at all (I never used to smoke at work anyway.)

I guess maybe I never smoked enough to have a PHYSICAL addiction so it was just a habit that I did without thinking, and that was why it was easy to kick.

 

Good for you, congrats. Having done so, I know how hard it is.

Good job.

 

I stopped too.

And very well done

 

The habit breaking part is harder I think. Of course the physical symptoms, and the mental/emotional inward spirals while choking back the urge to go light one up are no picnic. If your habits have resettled without stress and you can avoid carrying/picking up a pack while drinking you'll be fine.

 

driving in the car was the hardest part for me. i was so used to smoking and driving i was always catching myself reaching around for it. i kept a full pack around forever after i gave it up, i think having one around was some kind of psychological "i-could-if-i-wanted-to" thing but when i eventually did cave and grab one, they were so nasty and old that i took one drag and chucked the pack anyway. i have a real clockwork-orange way that i actually quit, i'll tell ya about it sometime

 

I think if I hadn't had to spend a month in the hospital after I graduated high school, I'd still be smoking today.
I liked everything about smoking, the whole process. (well, except for coughing up dark phlegm)
Once I got out of the hospital, I realized I better not pick it up again if I wanted to keep taking the kind of deep breath I took when I checked out.
It was like getting out of a prison, I'd imagine.

After almost thirty years of not smoking, I still have dreams where I'm still smoking.
I wake up in a sweat, relieved.

 

congrats. you are better than me. my problem is the physical addiction with something in my hands. i can go out of town with my wife (she dosent smoke, she is allergic to it) and never have one and after the first day im ok. but when i get back to work and have that first cup of coffee, its on... i smoke more at woek and in my truck than anywhere. i dont smoke much at home cause my wife is allergic to it so i smoke outside and i have never smoked around my daughter. i need to quit but it seems that i have no desire to.

 

I haven't had a single cigarette in over two years.

I had sort of planned to quit, but one day on the way home from work I got hit by a car while riding my pushy and came out of that without a bruise, I took that as some sort of weird sign that I'm supposed to do something before I die and I'd probably be able to do it better if I wasn't a smoker. So I just stopped smoking, just like that.

I won't lie though, there are times that I'm really tempted, mainly if I'm a bit high.

But otherwise I've never looked back, and ever since I quite I rarely ever seem to get sick from colds or flu.

 

Nice work SF.

 

Either way... killing a physical addiction is no cakewalk. Congrats to you and all others in the thread who made the choice and have been able to stick with it!

 

Hi
I'm SuburbanZombie and I am a smoker.
Its been 18 years since I last lit up.

Good going for all the others who quit.

 

Ya know, the last time I quit was somewhere around 10 years ago. It was the easiest time I've ever had. I quit doing things that I associated w/ smoking for a while, that helped.

 

Well done, Strange Famous.

I smoke, but hardly ever more than one per day (except when I have a couple of drinks once every 1-2 months), usually 2-3 per week. I consider the amount I smoke small enough to not bother stopping it, to be honest.

 

Me too....

It's the physical thing for me as well as the company. The majority of my friends here in Oregon do not smoke (cigarettes), so I am not tempted. I smoked when my friend S was in town last week because she's a big smoker and we drank a lot that week, which is another trigger for me. I am a weird smoker because I don't tend to smoke in the summer. I would always smoke more in the winter, but wouldn't smoke in my car or apartment, so I would have to go outside. Something about smoking in the cold with the snow covered ground was so peaceful to me. That was when I lived in Ohio. It doesn't exactly snow in my part of Oregon. I guess I have sort of quit since I haven't bought a pack myself since December...I have bummed now and again, but only when I was drinking. I don't do my nightly cigarette on the porch anymore, and feel if I did buy a pack, I would go back to smoking at least one every night. I should try and find a new nightly ritual.

 

Hah, ZombieSquirrel. Completely hear you.

Winter in Kabul, snow everywhere. Most peaceful time I had in the past 11 months of Afghanistan has been those times during winter when I'd go outside in the backyard and smoke 1-2 cigarettes.