Given up smoking....

[Joe_Cole]

It's nearly 20years since I gave up. I had smoked 40 to 60 a day for years. I had also given up many times. I can't stand the smell of smoke now, but I also know that I could very easily end up smoking again.

As others have said. Once a smoker always a smoker. You may have stopped, you may no longer be smoking, but you are a long way from being an ex-smoker yet. Congratulations on what you have done so far but in my experience the hardest part is the second 6 months. It's at that stage that the temptation to have "just one" is at it's greatest.

Stick with it!

[snowleopard]

i'll endorse joe's comments 100%. i gave up 20 years ago after smoking 40+ a day. it was a good 5 years before i considered myself a non-smoker rather than an ex-smoker. the first time i gave up i reckoned i'd cracked it after 6 months and thought i'd be ok having the odd one in the pub etc. big mistake- in a fortnight i was back up to 40 a day.

next time around i ran out on my way home from work and didn't stop to buy any more but just stopped.

i haven't wanted one for a good 10 years but strangely i still occasionally dream that i've started again!

[paul_lomax]

Very familiar tales...

I believe it was Mark Twain who said "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times."

[charon]

Well done! Watch the craving doesn't sneak up on you in stressfull times.
I stopped in 1982 (60 a day and a pipe) and bought a house with what I saved. Mind you, it took me about 3 months to stop screaming. Stick with it.

Godfrey

[doca]

Congratulations. Plan your next cruise to Ireland, a smoke free heaven.

[Ohdrat]

Congratulations.. but as said above you can be "hi-jacked" by the Nicotine at any point in the future.. personally am looking forward to our total ban in public places..

Was at a Tsunami benefit after Hogmanay which was most of the day and evening.. got very smokey in there, next day I was hacking like a chain smoker.. worst of it was I found the best thing to tame the hacking was a rollie.. but I've stopped again.

[daveking]

Well done, be proud. I gave up 4 years ago and can't stand the smell anymore
regards
Dave

[paul_lomax]

That's the problem - whenever you get a bit of a cough, you know in the back of your mind that a fag will 'fix it'... (ie keep it down)

Oh, and after about 3 months of non-smoking, you start coughing up the **** in your lungs. And you really want to smoke to make it 'better'.

[muminator]

..and watch the booze, Stella. I gave up over 20 years ago, but if I have "one over the eight", I can still be tempted. Big mistake...wake up next morning with a mouth like an old ashtray. Not worth it, believe me.


Sue

[snowleopard]

[ QUOTE ]
can't stand the smell anymore

[/ QUOTE ]

leaves you thinking "yuk, did i used to smell like that?"