WARNING: This Post May Be Hazardous to Your Health
March 26, 2007 by pistolpete
I smoked for 6 years. It doesn’t sound like much. But if you add the smoke I ingested in the womb, around the house growing up, in cars with the windows rolled up and other places, I had a good 23 years under my belt.
In college, smoking was cool - even though smokers were a definite minority in the early 80s (in fact, this made us all the more cool - a unique sub-culture). The thought of quitting entered my mind once in a while, but quickly passed away. Ingesting smoke was like breathing in the angst that felt so necessary to have as a privileged youth. We knew we were special and that life had it in for us, so we rebelled by smoking. Or, as one of my friends put it, “Killing ourselves in a way deemed acceptable by human society.”
After college, though, I gave my life to Christ, and didn’t feel so good about desecrating the Lord’s temple, as they say. One night I was playing basketball in a very close game and had to take myself out, wheezing on the sidelines while my team lost at the last second. Given my faith in Christ and my commitment to basketball, it was time to do something drastic.
I decided that night to quit. November 11, 1988. I haven’t smoked since - except in my dreams. Some mornings I still wake up feeling the warm, pleasant burning sensation that cigarettes leave behind.
You can’t underestimate the power of nicotine addiction. I am very grateful to God for my recovery and have tremendous respect for everyone battling the addiction as well.
One of these is my father. He smoked for well over 50 years (they start them young in Kentucky). At some point, he became tired of his health struggles and prospect for an early (and excruciating) death. He went “cold turkey.” Yet, to this day, he says, “If they told me I only had a month to live, I’d back my pick-up truck into a distributor’s, fill it up with carton after carton and smoke to my heart’s content.”
I’d love to hear from some ex-smokers out there how you “kicked the habit” as well as some smokers thinking about it. What did it take? What is it going to take?
I’ve never smoked, but your post made me think of a very emotionally charged commercial I’ve seen a few times on television. A woman is upstairs in her room, looking out the window at night, and a man is on the sidewalk or the street below her. He throws away his cigarette butt and walks away without stepping on it…and the woman breaks through the glass and falls to the ground where she hurries to snatch up the dying cigarette. Then you see the woman at her window again, and it turns out she didn’t actually do it, but that was what had gone through her mind. Then the screen says something like, “We know it’s hard.” I forget if it’s a PSA or if it’s an ad for a patch or what, but that ad really cemented in my mind how hard it must be for people to quit smoking. I send my sympathy to anyone battling that.
After smoking for 10 years (2 packs a day at the end) I quit cold turkey because I had developed bronchitis that would not go away. It was a miserable time. I could no longer enjoy the chess and bridge that formed my social circle. It took about 6 months before I felt I was enjoying life again.
I have not smoked for 25 years. Despite that I have a spot on my lung that has to be watched …so far so good…I have been lucky. Don’t smoke.
Well, my story is a bit unusual…I started smoking at age 15 after losing my father to a long, painful bout with - you guessed it - lung cancer caused by smoking. Pretty dumb. I think it was my way of dealing with his death. I smoked for 15 years trying to quit many, many times. I could never do it, I was addicted.
Luckily I was never a heavy smoker - I had maybe 3 a day (unless I was drinking…you know how that is). When I heard smoking caused wrinkles I cut down to only weekends (cancer? who cares - wrinkles! now that’s serious!)
How did I quit? I got pregnant. I smoked my last cigarette as I stood crying at the news I was pregnant (it was unplanned obviously, I was alone and I was scared). Even though I didn’t WANT a baby, I knew that I needed to start being a good mom at that moment so I quit.
A few years ago I picked the habit up again smoking “natural tobacco only” a few nights a week. I don’t know how bad it is for me.
quit 15 years ago via help from “the patch.” it gave me strange nightmares at the time (think giant gun-toting tomato chasing me over a footbridge) and still, up until late december of last year, thought about smoking a cig.
it took my mom being placed on a ventilator after 50+ years of smoking to kill the urge. mom is better (thank you, God), but has COPD and emphysema because of her addiction. all i can say is we are all still at risk, we who once smoked. i can’t even add up the years of second-hand crap i would inhale because smoking in the house and the car wasn’t even thought of as a danger “back in the day.”
Thanks for the encouraging words you left on http://journeytoquit.blogspot.com Pete. It is appreciated. Today is day 23 of quitting after 26 years of smoking. I lost a parent to lung cancer many moons ago — and yet, I still smoked. Somewhere DEEP in my mind are the rhymes and reasons for why I ever picked up the habit to begin with (especially after such a horrible experience and first hand knowledge of the after effects), and why I decided to finally quit. I wish it were as easy to put down as it was to pick up, but this habit WILL be kicked.
I smoked briefly (and I wasn’t very good at it) for about six months during a very stressful time. How did I quit? Cold turkey. At the same time I stepped on a plane to the other side of the world (Australia) to start a new life, I smoked that last cigarette. Giving up was never was a problem for me. I never liked it that much and settling into life here was a big enough distraction. If only chocolate was as easy…
I quit cold turkey from the first day of the new year and managed 2 months clean before last week.Its nuts and terribly difficult since both my brother and father smoked while I was quitting.And being an Indian that means two smokers in the same house as one trying to quit. All the two months I got withdrawals and nicotine urges every single day.Its maddening.Like a on going struggle.
Thank You
The Pistol fires back: You are very welcome. Thanks for visiting.
My respect to all of you for quiting and telling your stories.
I am 19… smoke for around a year… In college.. everyone is like your killing your self slowly… I responded to “everyone dies someday.”
What really gets me is that this young already started to develop health problems..
Others hate to see it.. try your mother, father, family and friends… they don’t want to see a relative die….
My girlfriend had a loot of hurt in her eyes when ever I lit up… I knew this was not good… Her mom has some sort of exsmoker inhaler system she has to use all the time (she was a chronic smoker)
What did I do…..
I Quit… God gave us will, it is up to us whether or not we want to execute it.
~A little input
The Pistol fires back: Praise God you had the motivation to quit. Now continue to pray for strength.