has anyone else quit

[yancey]

I smoked over 35 years and was up to 3 packs of cigarettes a day when i put them down 7 years ago. I stayed on the reloading bench for the first few months to help keep my mind off the cig's.

[samari46]

Quit smoking 35 years ago. But using skoal 1 can a day. And maybe smoke one cigar a month. Hate it when I go to Rouse's and walk by their smoke shop. Smoke it outside, then wash up so the smell doesn't get to me. I buy the little Cohiba cigars in the tin. So can keep track of how many I've smoked. Frank

[sigep1764]

I quit smoking about 10 years ago. Still have one when Im out drinking with friends. Wake up and feel like crap the next day. When I drink and don't smoke, I feel fine. I do chew a can of Grizzly pouches every couple of days. Wife leaves me alone about it, even tho she is 9 months tobacco free.

[legend 550]

20 years and 8 months. 3 packs a day. Don't understand how anybody can afford it at the prices today.

[tomme boy]

Forgot to add. When I quit, within 4 months I almost lost my sight. I turned into a type 2 diabetic. My metabolism went to nothing. I gained no weight. I also ended up with neuropathy in my hands, feet, legs, back. High BP. Dr said it was all from stopping smoking. Told me that when you are smoking your bodies in overdrive trying to repair the things the smoking is doing to you. He said he sees this often when people quit. According to him the smoking is still worse for your body than all the stuff I got after quitting. I almost started again after a year but have not.

[Scrounge]

today is just one of those days. its cold and raining outside and I'm on second cup of Joe and the fires got the house warm.
I quit smoking some time ago. but today I'm just jonesing for some baccer. I know if I go to store and even get a bag of beechnut or a block of chaw it will lead to a pack or bag of tobacco--nope just don't want to go back there.

I quit in 1972. Found out I could get five used paperback books for what my 3 packs a day of Marlboro's cost. $0.35/pack versus 20 cents apiece for the books. Some addictions are stronger than others.

[Thundarstick]

I've quit twice. The first time for just under a year, then picked it back up, kicked myself in the rear for about nine months and quit the second time. That was nearly 20 years ago, NO tobacco products of ANY kind since. I had a coworker tell me once it took about seven years before she didn't crave one, once in a while. I'll agree, it took me about the same seven years, today I absolutely loathe the smell of a cigarette, and wouldn't smoke then if they where wrapped in $20 bills and I got to keep the $20 from each! I actually walk by people who are wearing mask to"protect" from COVID-19 that smell like an old ash tray and just shake my head, as tobacco related illnesses kills 400,000 Americans every year!

[Wayne Smith]

My father in law had COPD, smoked, and before we were married he would get up from his chair, walk about five feet, and lean on a wall gasping for air. I gave LOML all my pipes (I had my own tobacco mix) for a wedding present, telling her I would not remind her of her father every time she saw me smoking. This past June we celebrated our 45th anniversary. I would still love a pipe, in my mind, but know it would taste terrible.

I have a method to get people thinking about why they smoke. There are four good reasons to smoke:

1) anxiety - tobacco does reduce anxiety - it is short term and the long term cost it terrible, but it works.
2) appetite reduction - weight loss - it does work
3) addiction - if your body needs it you won't quit without help
4) habit - I always smoke after a meal, when I get up, etc.

If you will stop and write down one of the above reasons for every cigarette you smoke between now and when you see your doctor next you will have diagnosed your reasons for smoking. Take that list in to your doctor.

We have medicine for anxiety, we have medicine for appetite suppression, we have medicine for addiction, give me the medicine I need and all I have to deal with is habit - that I can do.

Smoking is NOT only about addiction.

[35isit]

I quit the hard way. I had chewed tobacco for 40 years. Started at age 16. At age 56 I fell out of a tree stand and broke my L3 vertebrae, three ribs, collapsed my right lung, fractured my right pelvis, had a concussion and broke several teeth. All the doctors that attended to me convinced me nicotine would hinder the healing process. Haven't used tobacco since. That was seven years ago.

[Shepherd2]

I quit my 2.5-3 pack a day habit about 35 years ago. I tried to quit for years but couldn't do. This time I had a bad cold in my chest and smoking a cigarette was almost agony. I was driving home from work and started to light up another cigarette when I started to think about if I really wanted to go through that. I decided I didn't and threw my Zippo and several packs of cigarettes out the truck window.

I had a rough 3 or 4 weeks until I got the craving under control. I lost my desire for tobacco pretty quick and life was so much better that lighting another smoke was the last thing I wanted to do.

[bedbugbilly]

Like so many, I started smoking when I was 16 - yea, it was "cool". In college, I smoked cigarettes - so many would try to bum one from you that I started smoking Camel straights as most didn't like them . . . I developed a like for them though. I quit a number of times. I enjoyed a cigar once in a while too - usually while on the tractor - Swisher Sweets or
rum Crooks. I also enjoyed smoking a pipe - probably preferred that over the others. I quit cold turkey when I was in my early thirties and haven't touched tobacco since. Now, I can't stand the smell of a cigarette for a cigar - but if I smell somebody smoking a pipe - which is rare these days - the craving comes back for some reason. I always enjoyed a corncob pipe with Cherry Blend, Kentucky Club or Borkum Riff.

[Conditor22]

I quit tobacco and alcohol at the same time after 50 years. (more mad money )

I found it was easiest for me to carry a full/unopened pack in my pocket so I wasn't not smoking because I didn't have any I was no smoking because I choose not to. Don't remember what I ever did with that full pack. I never did like second-hand smoke and didn't smoke in the house. After quitting I detested secondhand smoke even more. Now it doesn't bother me much anymore.

Just look at how much your paying for tobacco and alcohol, add it up, and see how much $$ you'd have after a year to buy guns.

[10-x]

My Dad smoked cigarettes, cigars and lastly a pipe. I started about 1969 , through senior year in high school and when in the Army. Vietnam was about 3 packs of “ Humps” a day as that was about all we could get. When back stateside got on pistol team. NCOIC read the rules, no smoking, no drinking( booze) and no, little sex. We told him 2 out of 3 would be it, lol. Was tough quitting at the drop of a hat. Once out of Army learned my Dad had health issues from smoking. By then I smoked cigars, no inhaling , wife did Not Like cigars, quit them as my Md said not good either. Then my Dad developed cancer from the years of smoking, he passed few years later from lung and brain cancer. Never get over that. My oldest Grandson dips and Im after him to quit. He’s getting my fancy Ruger #1 in .375 H& H with all extras, So going to tell him quit all tobacco, will see.

[dannyd]

I quit April 9, 1985 from 2 to 3 pack a day. Lost 20 lbs never had Navy food without a smoke before. Asked a guy at the mess table " has it always tasted this bad he said yes"

[tankgunner59]

I was at 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and I quit with help in March of 1999. I haven't smoked since, never vaped. I too have had the urges once in a while. Most of the help I got was from God, and every time I get that urge He will send a current smoker past, I smell smokes on them and it shuts down the urge. He also gave me the incentive to quit in the first place, my family, thank you Lord.
Fight the urge, get busy with a hobby, reloading jumps to mind. The urge will pass.

[labradigger1]

I applaud you all! I’ve smoked a pack a day for 22 years now and for the first 10 of those 22 years I also chewed a can of Copenhagen fine cut a day also. I quit the Hagen 12 years ago and still miss it but will never do it again because I would pick it right back up. Always enjoyed Hagen, fishing or hunting always required a lip full.
Smoking is my only vise, rarely drink alcohol, never have done any drugs. I’ve made it 9 days without cigs twice and cheated and had one. Right back to smoking. I detest it and boy does it have ahold of my mind and body.
For the last 5-6 years it’s been American spirit organic cigs, still a pack a day and $8 each.

As the old joke goes, lady told me if I would have never started smoking I could have bought a airplane by now. I ask her if she smoked. Nope she said proudly and sternly. I ask her where her friggin plane was.

Seriously though. For some people it is a very strong addition and I am unfortunately one of them. If I can ever quit I’ll need to go meander around in the mountains for a few weeks or my wife would kill me from withdrawal.

[Lloyd Smale]

3 days now on my newest attempt.

[mike britton]

I'm going to throw myself under the bus here.
I grew up in a house where there were smokers and started smoking at 13. I would steal a smoke out of my dad's pack of unfiltered Camels occasionally when he wasn't looking. Soon that habit turned into stealing a pack out of his carton that sat on top of the fridge.
Now, those of us who smoke/have smoked usually know how many smokes we have left in the carton we have. He had to have known someone was helping him smoke the packs out of his carton, and up to the day he died he never said anything to me, the only other person in the family that would have been smoking his unfiltered Camels.
That habit turned into a pack a day for probably 20 or so years until one day I decided to quit.
And I did so until Camel Filters came along. I was hooked again for maybe 10 years until I finally quit smoking tobacco alltogether.
All through that period of time (it was the late 60's-70's) my late wife and I also smoked enough marijuana to fill the bed of a pickup.
I experimented with almost all of the illicit drugs in the 60's-70's, but never felt any addiction.
When pot got hard to get I quit. My late wife kept on because it really did help alleviate the pain of her cancer.
I never went back to the illegals because, it was illegal and I didn't want my concealed carry jeopardized. How's that for distorted logic?
The reason I'm telling all this is because the only narcotic I've never been able to completely walk away from is nicotine. I still find myself buying a cigar on occasion. Nicotine is the most insidious narcotic I've ever had experience with.
I always tell my friends "Quitting tobacco is the easiest thing to do. I've done it hundreds of times!"

[GhostHawk]

Mike

First point, I do not believe that nicotine is a narcotic. Just as addicting.

Like you my wife smokes a bowl of weed from time to time to help with back pain.

I try to keep it down to a low amount. The half oz we bought 3 years ago is half gone.

As for me I'll take my Nicotine straight with PG/VG (2 types of glycerin) It does not burn but it does vaporize giving a nice puff of smoke.

I had 3 years after I quit smoking where my sinus's would go nutz. I'd get like a hot flash, then a big wad of thick snot would dump. I'd swallow it and it would come back up just about the right time to meet the next slug coming down. My little dog saved my life many times over. He would lick my mouth, suck up that nasty stuff, then lick my nose shutting down the snot storm.

He could always tell when one was about to hit. He'd climb up on my chest and would not take no for an answer.

Nowdays I have maybe 1 or 2 of these a year.

My lungs have cleared up, I taste my food again (Gained some 20 lbs because food tasted so good)

My doctor is amazed at my overall health level.
And I love that little dog with a love that knows no bounds. Half chihuahua half Pomeranian, he is all character.
Yes he is spoiled. I have yet to see him eat a dog food twice. Have tried over 20. He exists on chicken, duck and beef jerkey, a slim jim for a treat now and then. And whatever he can lick off my plate when I'm done. With maybe a few tidbits over the side.

I'll keep sucking my nicotine straight up till they cremate me, and that is ok.

[FergusonTO35]

Like so many, I started smoking when I was 16 - yea, it was "cool". In college, I smoked cigarettes - so many would try to bum one from you that I started smoking Camel straights as most didn't like them . . . I developed a like for them though. I quit a number of times. I enjoyed a cigar once in a while too - usually while on the tractor - Swisher Sweets or
rum Crooks. I also enjoyed smoking a pipe - probably preferred that over the others. I quit cold turkey when I was in my early thirties and haven't touched tobacco since. Now, I can't stand the smell of a cigarette for a cigar - but if I smell somebody smoking a pipe - which is rare these days - the craving comes back for some reason. I always enjoyed a corncob pipe with Cherry Blend, Kentucky Club or Borkum Riff.

A pipe is the only thing I am ever really tempted by. Borkum Riff and Captain Black taste awesome, and I never found that I got much nicotine out of smoking a pipe. I don't inhale, and unlike a cigar you don't have your lips wrapped around a big chunk of tobacco. In fact, I used to always smoke a cigarette or put in a dip after smoking a pipe because I still needed my fix!