Ooh! wish.truly that this was my blog....my success story....✨
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Smoking: the end of an affair
On Valentine's Day last year, Susan Bradley started a difficult journey and finally cut ties with her worst habit. She recently celebrated a whole year smoke-free.
One week ahead of No Smoking Day, Susan's resolution is standing fast. Let us know your tips and experiences below.
Kicking the habit
The first anniversary of me giving up smoking has just passed. I chose a date I would remember, 14 February. I had tried before - but this time I chose lozenges to help me stop.
The other times I gave up I used patches or nothing, which obviously didn't help and, if memory serves me well, I lasted no more than two weeks without a cigarette. I was always afraid I would not be able to cope. I thought I would get angry and irritable with people, which worried me. There was a period of trying and failing in the past. All very valuable experience.
I decided I didn't want to be trapped anymore. I wanted to be free from having to buy cigarettes and having to have to smoke. I wanted my tongue to stop furring up and to be able to taste, to smell things and stop being the thing that smelt. I wanted my family to be able to visit. I wanted to see my grandchildren more. They hated the smell of smoke. It must have been awful, I notice the smell on smokers and in the rooms they work in. Yuck.
As well as all those very important things for me, I wanted my husband to have a chance of living a little longer. John and I gave up at the same time. We went to the stop smoking session clinic together quite a while before the actual day of giving up. They give you the lozenges on prescription. When we were interviewed we got onto the subject of why John wanted to give up; he had recently been diagnosed with leukaemia. The interviewer had told us that her husband had suffered with it and died four years previously with pneumonia. That sad news made us more determined: we collected the lozenges and patches and waited.
I decided I didn't want to be trapped any more. I wanted to be free from having to buy cigarettes and having to have to smoke. I wanted my tongue to stop furring up and to be able to taste, to smell things and stop being the thing that smelt.
I remember feeling I was in charge of when I needed a lozenge. It suited me best to have this small chalky tablet in my mouth slowly dissolving away. It helped me focus or stop focusing. I had a gnawing feeling in my stomach so it felt and burning sensations in all my limbs.
Sometimes I found myself breathing in slowly and deeply, and out more quickly; something that still happens. Which was withdrawal and which menopause I'm not completely sure. It was horrible, I will not lie to you. I laughed crying. A colleague said that she too could quite easily smoke a cigarette even though she had given up a year ahead of me. Knowing it is not easy is good.
Giving up together was better this time. On the occasions before we found it very easy to confuse emotions and collapse under the strain. Our emotions and ability to cope was not improved by smoking. This fact took a while to dawn on me. So many people I knew had given up, as we were not allowed to smoke at work on site. When I first started work lots of people went for a cigarette in the staff room. Now I no longer go for a fag, have to leave my office to take a short walk and smoke, in all weathers.
As the year is now completed, I will celebrate by taking up the challenge to address the other issues; like the extra two stone I carry around.
Doing it together is not always a great help as both of you are suffering and there is not too much support to share at critical times. I just took on the attitude that it didn't matter if John wanted to try again another time and I wasn't going to stop him. It took away the pressure and voilà, here we are. Nearly every day from the start I said, "I am really glad I don't smoke". I wonder if that helped?
By Susan Bradley
Twitter: @Gransnet
Well done Ceesnan 
Not heard much from you lately?
Well done to you Ceesnan.
<Applaud>
It is just over a year since I decided that this was the day that I Chose not to have a cigarette. The same decision the following day, and every day since. I found that taking it day by day, and feeling that I was in control worked for me, but, strangely, I was never hit by desperate cravings for a nicotine "hit". Because of this I sometimes wonder if I smoked because I was bored more than addicted, and if so, then it was an expensive way of relieving boredom as I could get through 20 - 30 a day! Yes, I've gained some weight, but I'm working on that with a little success
I smoked my last cigarette on Sunday 3rd April 2011, when I was 60. I used to smoke 20-30 a day for over 40 years. I'd tried to stop a few times using patches, hypnotherapy or just cold turkey, but nothing worked for long and it seemed too difficult to resist the urge to smoke. I pretty well gave up giving up because I was worried that, although I might be able to stop for a while, I'd always miss it. That was what everyone told me and what I believed.
But smoking was an expensive inconvenience I was resenting more and more. I'd idly Google ' giving up smoking' every so often and eventually I decided to give Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book a try. I truly had no expectation that it would work. I firmly believed that I would never be able to stop smoking. But I have to admit I was curious. How come so many people wrote a review to say it worked for them?
I read it on my Kindle and didn't tell anyone (mainly because I didn't expect it to work!). When everyone realised I no longer smoked, and said how well I was doing, I felt a bit of a fraud because I no longer wanted to smoke anyway. And, touch wood, that's how it's continued.
Janeainsworth, thanks!
There was no help in those days, no patches, no virtual cigarettes, just Polo mints and true grit!
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