Smoking

I have COPD caused by smoking from age 18 till 73.I finally gave up after my second hospital admission when I struggled to breathe.I came home and never wanted to smoke again.
My father died of COPD at age 72, a heavy smoker from leaving school at 14.Even in his last years he refused to I've up.He was on permanent oxygen or the last 2 years of his life and would turn it off so he could have a smoke.I remember him smoking the cigarette down to the end, then blue in the face and coughing and spluttering he would slam the mask back on.
I had no desire to be like that.
I had a lucky escape st year when I suddenly developed a large pulmonary embolism and was in hospital for 4 days.This had caused the sudden death of one of my sisters and also a relative through marriage.Both of whom were heavy smokers.
I also think of the money I have saved.I do not know how anyone can afford to smoke these days

I was a smoker when I lived in England….as was my mother and my father - on and off! When my mother was diagnosed with emphysema she was told to stop smoking - but she didn’t listen because she couldn’t give it up. She died a year later at 64 and it was a miserable death. As I travelled home for her funeral I told myself .’smoking is not going to take my life’ and from that day on I have never smoked again…….and that decision was made nearly over 48 years ago.

I gave up smoking 2011 I was ill and woke up one February morning and just decided that was it! never smoked again. Banned it from the house even Mr. S had to go outside.
But I really noticed it after going over to mother in laws
I would stink of cigarette smoke hair and clothing.
Plus I couldn't afford it now. And happy to say hubby has also stopped. Honestly wished I'd never started.

Gave up many years ago, suffering chest infection, had a ciggie, hurt so much,threw the rest in the bin. Never smoked since, and can't stand the smell,cl8ngs to your clothes etc. Best thing I ever did. Didnt really have withdrawal symptoms either, just so pleased to be rid of the cost and stress of having a fag.

It’s only when you stop smoking you realise quite how smelly everything and everyone gets.

Quite right silverlining48. My mother was a very heavy smoker. We used to wear old clothes when we visited and had showers and clean clothes when we got home to wash away the lingering smell.
The walls and ceilings of her flat had to be replastered after she died and all switches and sockets changed as the nicotine had penetrated everywhere.

Try vaping, it does work

I think adults who vape encourage more youngsters to start too. Enough do already and they may well progress to cigarettes. Pretty much the same thing re smoking in the 50/60s. What adults do children follow.
You are still putting something into your mouth, breathing whatever is in there into lungs and no one really knows what damage they might do.
Best to use other methods of giving up, at least as a start.
Then as a last resort, maybe.

Keep up the good work Sunny- you're already healthier, richer and more fragrant...

Sunny it will be difficult over Christmas especially if others smoke, it’s just a few days to get through. You will come out the other side and then it’s new year so you can say ‘I gave up smoking last year’.
If you are tempted and you will be wait 10 minutes before you give in. Enough time to think about it.
Stay strong, you CAN do this.

Love your post chocolate.

deedeedum

Try vaping, it does work

Only if you want to risk your long term health:
Serious vaping side effects may include:
Nicotine addiction.
Severe lung injury.
Seizures.
Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), formerly known as idiopathic bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP)
Popcorn lung.
Strokes.
Heart attacks.

Well done! Keep going and remember, you are not giving anything up- you are gaining your freedom from cigarettes.
I gave up 20 years ago and honestly it is the best thing I have ever done for myself.

Genuine question here - why does anyone actually start smoking in the first place? Why would anyone think it's a good idea to stick something in your mouth and light it? And don't say peer pressure - that's the easiest cop-out ever.

Peer pressure isn't the easiest co-out ever MissInterpreted. Wanting to fit in with ones social group, ones peers is well known and probably accounts for the large numbers of youngsters vaping.

My parents went cold turkey. I remember them being very snappy throughout. They chewed gum, which probably helped with the oral cravings, and read piles of trashy novels to take their minds off it. Good for you, Sunny82z!

i can't believe that's a genuine question.

welbeck

i can't believe that's a genuine question.

Why? I'm genuinely curious as to why people started smoking in the first place. To me, it's such a disgusting thing to do that I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it in the first place. Nothing on this earth would have persuaded me to touch a cigarette, never mind put one in my mouth, so I honestly can't understand why people do it. It's not a wind-up, I promise you.

Peer pressure. Were you a teenager in the 60s? I think not.

Germanshepherdsmum

Peer pressure. Were you a teenager in the 60s? I think not.

60s no, but 70s yes - and there was plenty of it around. I've been offered all sorts over the years - been the only person in the room not 'partaking'. Never felt the need to be one of the 'sheep'.

but unlike many of the others, it was perfectly legal, and almost universally accepted as a social norm, and as a marker of adulthood.
so a bit like boys wearing long trousers and putting their hair back, and girls wearing fine long tights or stockings and putting their hair up, it was a rite of passage, of no longer being a child.
all youngster are impatient to be grown up, and to be accorded the status of that.
sharing a cigarette was part of it, for many.

It's still something which is entirely beyond my comprehension.

Everyone smoked in films and on tv in those days. You were, and are, I think, a little unusual. Perhaps if you had tried cigarettes you would understand. Drugs though - no, never. And before you say it, of course I know nicotine is a drug.

Just because 'everyone' is doing something isn't a good reason to do it too though.

I used to smoke with my sister when we went out to the pub. . I started smoking socially because it was something to do with my hands and it eased my anxiety. I would give my cigarettes away at the end of the evening and that would be that. Then I met a man who smoked full time and I gradually started doing the same until I had a 20 a day habit.
Most people don't like the taste of alcohol when they first have some but they persevere for some reason.