Why did you stop smoking cigarettes?

[TAC]

Just asking, you don't have to answer. :huh:

[Trish]

Because I didn't believe that I enjoyed it anymore.

[El Bandito]

I wanted to control what I did with my time, my health...my life.

[Evelyn]

Because I got asthma attacks and watnted to be free

[Still winning]

Lots of run ups and thoughts of quitting but the "trigger" this time was a nasty virus. It left me gasping for breath through a cough for two days (not all day but often) and I continued to smoke, scary as hell. It finally gave me the connection between losing a nan with emphysema, an uncle with lung cancer and now watching a mum with copd. So my reason was a wake up call!

[Still winning]

Why for you TAC?

[TAC]

It was my cats, I  was worried about what whould happen to them if I got sick. :mellow:

[Gemzee]

Mainly because I realised that smoking controlled me...I did not like this at all. I no longer wanted to leave a meal because I 'had to have' my fix of nicotine, I didn't want to smell, I didn't want to keep leaving my fiance alone when we were out together so I could get my fix, I definately didn't want to be a smoking bride and soooo many more reasons!

[action]

I wanted to quit for a long time! First and foremost I wanted to quit because it might help us get pregnant.

 

Then I got the Flu and I was too sick to smoke for about 2 weeks. The rest is history ;)

[rww]

For I realized I wasn't invincible.

[leahcaR]

Running :)

[Scottishgal]

Had my first baby 16 months ago.  I am 33.  COPD runs in my family.

 

I had a terrible cough in the mornings, back pain and gum issues.

 

It just hit me like a brick that if I didn't stop now at 33, that I would probably be dead by 53.

 

There's no way I can put smoking before my son, it's that simple.  I need to be here to bring him up and watch him grow.  I am not going to do it gasping for breath!

 

xx

[Soozie]

I wanted to quit for a long time! First and foremost I wanted to quit because it might help us get pregnant.

 

 Hey action, you are so lovely .. the sort of guy every Mum would like her daughter to bring home  :)

[Soozie]

for me I've been quitting since I was 16 ... I've always hated it ... I can't remember there ever being a year without at least one quit ... smoking has truly controlled my whole adult life ... but not anymore !

[MarylandQuitter]

I knew that I didn't want to be a smoker for the rest of my life, but knew it was possible if I didn't quit.  Since I knew that my plans for the future didn't include smoking, I figured the sooner the better.  I felt so much guilt knowing what I was doing to my body every time I looked at my kids.  I quit for me and my kids.  No more guilt!!!  Total freedom. 

[ArmedNAruba]

To see my children grow up. That and the fact I had chest pains, dizziness, fatigue, teeth problems. ALL subsided immediately when I quit smoking.

 

The best feeling....My babies will never even know I smoked.

[babs609]

i did not want to die a smoker

 

I wanted to be free

[Soberjulie]

If Im completely honest, arriving at this point has been an 11yr process for me.

My first quit attempt was about 11yrs ago. Im not really sure why I wanted to quit back then.......I think I was feeling pressure from family, so I reluctantly jumped on the quit train. 

While that turned out not to be my sticky quit.......you cannot undo awareness.  I learned some very important things during that 8 month quit that I would need in the future.

 

Fast forward 8yrs.....thousands and thousands of cigarettes smoked. 

One of my best friends, an integral part of a threesome of 'besties' was diagnosed with cancer. (All 3 of us smoked) 

First, it was esophageal cancer.....then stomach....soft palate, jaw, tongue.....:(

All 3 in the group were scheduled to become first time grandma's within a month of each other!!! 

But Christie wasnt here for the birth of her wee grand baby. :( 

She didnt even really get to delight in the pregnancy, in her daughters growing belly......share in the joy of the anticipation of the grandma things we would do.

Why?

Because she was paliative.

She was dying. She could not eat, she was tube fed because she had no stomach and no throat. Her conversation was a mere whisper. In the end, her gorgeous face colapsed in on itself. Im sorry if this is too graphic......this is the truth of what smoking can do to a body. 

I had matching grandma bracelets made for Christie, Denise and I.........Christie wasnt even aware of hers because she was pretty much unconscious when I placed it on her wrist. :( 

She was buried with her grandma bracelet....without ever having held her first grandchild.

 

It took 8 more months.

8 months of wondering "Whats my bottom? What has to happen to me before I say ENOUGH?"

With booze and drugs, my bottoms were things like loss of money, loss of self-respect, loss of my car because I didn't know where I had parked it last. Lots of other bottoms that I wont share today.....but all of those bottoms were fixable. I could repair those bottoms.

Nicotine was doing hidden damage to my body. 

And by the time the damage was evident, it might be too late.

I might be like Christie.

I might be unable to say...."Wait!! Ok...ok...I quit...I give up.....Take back the cancer, I will never smoke again"

Thats not how cancer works. 

Thats not how nicotine addiction works. 

 

My grandbaby was born on Jan 9........

shortly therafter, I saw my Dr and filled a prescription for Champix. And I found support......through the internet, through my family and through my friends. 

Today, Im 2 months and some-odd-days free.

And I intend to stay that way......

NOPE

[sharonsiff]

For me it was a nagging husband, a never ever smoker.

 

His reasons, in order, were my health and me wasting family disposable income.

 

Nagging folk winds me up to be honest, but I am so glad I stopped fighting him and listened.

[Donna10]

For me it was fear of dying young from lung cancer like my Mom did. Unfortunately for me, I really enjoyed smoking which makes it so hard for me to be a nonsmoker. Oh, another thing - besides the health issue - they are 9.00 a pack where I live. I was definitely sick of spending that money every day!

[JackiMac]

A whole host of reasons, and ones that changed on a daily basis, health, family, money, dying young, dying painfully, every day I "quit" and everyday I started again this went on for years, but it justified smoking in my head, over the last few years my quit attempts became longer, my son would tell me every day mum I don't want you to die, my partner would tell me every day, your son needs you, I finally listened to them and realised they cared about me more than the addict inside me did and it finally clicked that my life is worth more , its not easy, and sometimes the big dip is scary but its doable and thanks to the support of everyone here I can do it......

[Ladybug]

I saw this thread earlier and I had to think about it. I was a happy smoker and didn't feel guilty at all. I started smoking at a time when smoking was considered "chick" and it made me feel grown up over night. Oh I was so sophisticated , as so many around me, because we all smoked. I was a smoker and people around me knew it and accepted it. They didn't like it, but they knew that it was a part of me. Either you like me or you don't....and please don't tell me what to do :-)

 

I think I started to question my habit when they talked about fire safe cigarettes (I always thought that was an oxymoron in the first place). So there weren't enough chemicals in cigarettes already, now I inhaled another one that's a fire retardant? Oh I got upset about that. I didn't like it and noticed that I started to cough more. In the mornings, at night when I turned from one side to the other. That pretty much happened around the same time. The taste of cigarettes wasn't so enjoyable anymore; it might have all been in my mind, but they tasted different. I didn't like it anymore. 

 

I started to say "I am going to quit smoking" and got the "yeah right look" from friends. I made the same statement months later again, but didn't have a plan. I just knew I would stop smoking. One day out of the blue without any warning I will put them out for good....and I did.

[Doreensfree]

I saw what smoking was doing to me and my hubby....

He has severe c.o.p.d..it has crippled him....

Plus I was warned carry on smoking and run the risk of amputation of both feet......

That scared the hell out of me......

[Nicole Diver]

Many many reasons.  I believed until the very end that I 'loved' smoking.  Allen Carr opened my eyes and saved my life.

 

I was a secret smoker, and they started an initiative at my company that if you smoked you had to fill out a form and pay like $30 more a month.  I reallllly did not want to 'come out of the closet.'  I had to be at least 6 months quit by Dec 2013.  When I decided to quit, I knew if I waited too long, I would not do it.  So I quit before the deadline of June, I quit the end of April.

 

When I used to smoke, every time I'd try to go to sleep I'd stress stress stress about how I was killing myself, but smoking was priority #1.  I'd be so stressed about the whole situation that it'd make me want to smoke.

 

Looking back on all that, wowee.  I can't imagine still being that girl, a hot mess.  So much stress goes away when the smoking goes away.

[TAC]

I didn't like the taste of cigarettes.