Maybe we should remind ourselves of why we Quit !!!!

[Doreensfree]

Thought it would be a good idea...to remind ourselves of why quitting and staying quit is priority....

Me....A major health scare...Facing life with both feet amputated...

Watching hubby on a oxygen machine 16 hrs of every day....pumping him precious oxygen ,because his lungs are so much damaged...

Better have a little discomfort for a small while ...than spending years,/ decades. With smoke related illnesses....

Who,s next ????

[jillar]

I quit because I couldn't breath. My Dr told me if I kept smoking I'd be dead in 10-12 years and on oxygen. And I was only 52 at the time. 

[Sazerac]

I was in complete denial about health issues

(yes, I had a cough....la la la la la)

and ignorant about addiction

(I like to smoke...la la la la la).

 

The issue of freedom was niggling at me.

Constantly checking if I had enough smokes and fire, where they were and negotiating when/where I could smoke 'em...

the slavery of it all was beginning to rear it's ugly truth.

 

I quit on a whim to see if I had the moxie.  I did.

 

 

Anyone reading this should know that they have the moxie too.

Education and Intent will set you free.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Sazerac

[Whispers]

My grandfather and mother both had oxygen tanks. Both were chain smokers told me to quit and look at what it did to them, my mother had a difficult time breathing when it was windy out and couldn't enjoy life anymore. She ignored my grandfather words and continued smoking until she developed emphysema and by that time it was too late. If i didn't quit my life would've ended bad. When you watch people you love struggle for a breath it hurts and you feel helpless. The images are still stuck in my head every time i see someone smoking on TV or in real life. Coming on here and sharing my experience and reading the experiences of the other members are a reminder for me 

[Martian5]

I just take a look at my ticker below -- It not only shows me how much I spent on smoking and how many cigarettes I smoked and that number of cigarettes over just a 7 month period had to have damaged my body (especially if you look at 44 years of smoking).    NOPE Ain't going to happen no more!!!!!!!

Edited August 17, 2018 by Martian5

[Stewie]

I quit so i dont die a horrible death. I loved smoking and wouldnt mind the smell or having to go outside and stuff like that but the health issues...man tobacco completly destroys you, it had to go while i was young. And so i smoked for 8 years from ages 18 to 26. I regret nothing and i think...well i think thats enough tobacco for a lifetime.

[Doreensfree]

18 minutes ago, Naughtius Maximus said:

I quit so i dont die a horrible death. I loved smoking and wouldnt mind the smell or having to go outside and stuff like that but the health issues...man tobacco completly destroys you, it had to go while i was young. And so i smoked for 8 years from ages 18 to 26. I regret nothing and i think...well i think thats enough tobacco for a lifetime.

 

Good on you Stewpot....quitting before all the crappy stuff started..I wish I had been that sensible...I'm proud of you !!!

[Boo]

I knew of the health risks associated with smoking.  I didn't know as much then as I thought I did.  I also buried my head in the sand concerning those health risks.  In spite of the fact that both of my grandfathers were smokers and both died with cancer, that was never going to happen to me.  Addiction breeds a special kind of stupidity.

 

The thing that finally pushed me to quit was the level of control cigarettes had over my life.  From that first one of the day to the last one before I went to bed, cigarettes were ruling my every waking hour.  I all but quit going to concerts, baseball and football games, movies, etc., as more and more places became smokefree environments.  The cigarette was the alpha and omega of my life.  I was just along for the ride.

 

Got tired of being a slave to the cigarette.  I said: screw this, I quit!  And the rest is history.

[johnny5]

I smoked for roughly 20 years.  

 

At first (in college), I felt it was cool but as the years since then passed, I slowly began to realize that I had grown miserable as a smoker and wanted to quit.

 

What was once a social habit had become an anti-social one as I ducked out on so many social situations just to smoke and calm my nicotine addiction.  I realized I was missing out so much in life by disappearing to light up.

 

Weirdly enough, the cost (both health-wise and financially) were factors  in me wanting to quit but not the main ones.  I just felt I was becoming increasing isolated as a smoker in an increasingly non-smoking world.

 

I simply grew to believe that I was wasting my life away by having my life centered around those stupid cancer-sticks.  Once I finally quit for good, it really changed my life in an incredible way.

[c9jane29]

Yes! I still keep my quit list on the fridge...I quit because:

1) I WANT TO!

2) I DO NOT want the kids to grow up to be smokers.

3) Our family health

4) Expensive waste

5) I do not want to die a young cancer ridden death that my kids have to watch.

6) I LOVE MY FAMILY!

 

I stay quit because of one little broken heart...a precious baby girl, knocked out, strapped down, tubes to machines I don't even know what they are for...crying and driving and praying...then one day, my prayers were answered, tears wiped, the car parked and I know that my quit is Divine.

I will never smoke again.

Just NOPE.

 

[c9jane29]

2 hours ago, johnny5 said:

Once I finally quit for good, it really changed my life in an incredible way.

Amen!! High five johnny5, you are alive!!

[Rozuki]

I finally quit for health reasons... Cardio-vascular and Pulmonary!

 

Feb 2017  -  I was in the middle of having a stroke while at work, a co-worker saw I wasn't myself and got me to the ER where it was made official, "you had a stroke." I made the hospital staff aware that I was a smoker of over 40+ yrs and would need the patch. They complied and although it was a tough week of dealing with the craves and the triggers, I got through it. My left carotid artery was 70% stenosis (clogged!) so I received a stent. This was 1st time ever in a hospital for me!

 

Sep 2017, I saw a pulmonologist. It was determined that I had early stage COPD/Emphysema. Luckily, I had asked my primary Dr. for chest x-rays the previous 2 years so there was something for pulmonologist to compare against. Was told if you quit smoking now, you should be fine...just have a yearly low-dose ct scan for next 10 yrs.

 

Apr 2018, I was having a cardiac cath procedure on the advice of my cardiologist after an abnormal ecg. It was determined that I would need a bypass operation,  at least a triple maybe even a quadruple ! It wound up being a triple (CABGx3). This was due to 3 of my coronary arteries being clogged up...part family history and part due to smoking!!  I was so thankful that I had quit smoking the year before.....I think it made all the difference in getting through the surgery and in my recovery. I am now a member of the zipper club....Let me tell you there is nothing like being told you are going to have your sternum sawed through and that you will be on a pump for awhile....while your heart is being man-handled (in my case, woman-handled because the head of cardio-thoracic surgery at the hospital is a woman and she did my op)! Note: She and her team were fantastic! Drs. gave me nickname "RockStar"!

 

I was always relatively "healthy", active and in-shape...never had to use a sick day in aImost 30 years at my last job!! Don't know how i managed that by smoking at least a pack a day for over 40 years and it wasn't until late 2016 that I developed that "cough". It just wouldn't go away, I was in denial and then disaster struck in early 2017 and things started snowballing....ugh!!

 

So far, I have been very lucky and I hope my luck holds as there are a lot more things I would like to accomplish in my life. If my experience helps even just one person to hold onto their quit so they don't have to go through what I have been through, I would consider it the best accomplishment ever!!! 

 

[notsmokinjo]

I had been resenting smoking for a while, maybe a year or so... really resenting it but there was 'no way' I could quit, last time I quit it nearly killed me and quitting was just too dangerous for me, it was something other people could do but I couldn't because my body couldn't take it (TOTAL LIES & BULLSHIT) but I had an issue when I had tried to quit 8/9 years ago that resulted in a lengthy hospital stay.... and in my twisted mind it was giving up smoking that had caused it... NOPE, not true... but the mind is a weird thing, well mine is... anyway I was almost phobic of quitting and I think that contributed to me resenting the smokes... that and because you have to be away from the softball diamonds to smoke when the kids play and I couldn't last the whole 110mins of my daughters games without a smoke and not only did I miss her first catch, I missed her first K2 (strike out of a batter when you pitch) and her first safe base hit (she is a shitful batter)... I missed all these things because I was off ,away from the diamonds having a smoke...and I "had to smoke because I would die if I quit" ....so I hated that I was trapped smoking.. and the only other time I had quit i had missed and craved the frickin things every day... all day... and I didn't want that feeling either.

 

I quit because... well I spose you could say I just couldn't afford it anymore... Its odd... i didn´t really make a decision to quit I just sort of fell into it... the kid got sick, I spent the money I had budgeted for smokes on her medicine because I´m not a completely selfish moron, which left me with enough money to buy a pack that wouldn´t last me until my next pay (6 days away) or I could buy a pack of NRT gum and prey to god that would tide me over until pay day and then I could buy a pack and be fine.. it was meant to last 6 days that was all I had to get through... so pay day rolled around, I popped into the chemist (for a Bricanyl inhaler... which can I add I am still using the same one after nearly 9 months and I was using 1 every 2-3 months) and the NRT gum was on a ridiculous sale... $20 for 200.... now I had managed to last 6 days... nearly 7... with using 4mg nrt gum and I had not even used the full pack of 30... so this little voice in my head says "Hmmm... $20 is nothing... lets get those 2mg ones and see how far this quit thing goes, its nearly 5 days, I reackon those chewies could last 6 months if I need cos I'm only having 4 a day or less...hmmm, go on I dare you (yep I dared myself) give it a go... not having a smoke hasn't killed you yet" .... and here I am, still quit... most days I don't even think about smoking.. some days I have a passing thought and occasionally I get smacked in the face with a crave and do stupid shit... but hey I am the poster girl for doing stupid shit, I thought quitting smoking would kill me (and I was still worrying about this up until about the 6th month, I stopped having nightmares about it about a week after I stopped the nrt gum but up until about the 6mth mark every morning I would be thinking, well quitting didn't kill me yesterday) and used that as excuse not to try for years, I have meltdowns and don't ask for help or sos until after the fact because I am an idiot, I deliberately put myself into situations that are going to tempt my quit which is both stupid and reckless.... but I LOVE BEING SMOKE FREE!!!! I really love it and I am never going to smoke again.

 

I still don't really have a reason for quitting... I just did it... someone asked me the other day IRL and I said, "dunno just felt right at the time".... now why have I stayed quit, here is the list for that...

 

Because my kid loves that I don't smoke

Because my friends kids tell me they are proud of me

I feel like I am in control of me

My dad is proud of me

I have enough health issues to deal with as is

I am proud of me, something I haven't felt in a very long time, probably since school.

 

 

 

 

 

[JOD]

Simply, after 35 years of smoking, I came to the place where I decided that I would no longer be a participating slave to the addiction.  I looked at it as a battle that I had to win.  And with help from a great bunch of warriors (some of whom are now here) and Joel's writings, I fought the demon and beat the SOB    Freedom is so worth it!!!!

 

Jim

[JB 883]

I guess the main one -

I thought  I should quit while I was ahead instead of developing some horrid illness. I didn't have any real health scares but I was tired of hearing my lungs rattle at night when falling asleep.

A lot of times when I would laugh, I would start coughing. "Morning mouth" was super disgusting instead of just normal gross like a non smoker.

 

Others were -

Inconvenience. What if I were in a situation, like staying in the hospital, and couldn't smoke? Plus things like having to roll the smokes. Just a PITA.

It was just getting gross. Everything stank, was turning yellow, cigarette ash and butts.

 

Cost was not really a problem. RYO cigarettes costs maybe $10 a week which is nothing really. But then that is $10 more that I am now able to spend on other crap I don't need.

 

[Giveintowin]

This is a fantastic thread. I enjoyed reading through it. I quit because of health reasons. Things would be better than f I’d done it sooner. Although quitting now will likely stave off something like COPD. These terrible diseases are real and some poor people have to live with them. 

[brand.new.ela]

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 1:49 AM, johnny5 said:

I smoked for roughly 20 years.  

 

At first (in college), I felt it was cool but as the years since then passed, I slowly began to realize that I had grown miserable as a smoker and wanted to quit.

 

What was once a social habit had become an anti-social one as I ducked out on so many social situations just to smoke and calm my nicotine addiction.  I realized I was missing out so much in life by disappearing to light up.

 

Weirdly enough, the cost (both health-wise and financially) were factors  in me wanting to quit but not the main ones.  I just felt I was becoming increasing isolated as a smoker in an increasingly non-smoking world.

 

I simply grew to believe that I was wasting my life away by having my life centered around those stupid cancer-sticks.  Once I finally quit for good, it really changed my life in an incredible way.

I could write all that myself, word for word. The trigger that made me stop was completely trivial but the bigger reasons were those Johnny is giving