smokers and former smokers (serious smokers) of CFC.

[Heretic_Cata]

I started smoking last new years' eve. My best friend corrupted me. I was drunk as **** so i couldn't refuse him. 6 months later i was buying my first pack. I got hooked on the esoteric taste of Parliament ciggs (every other smoker that didn't start out with Parliament really REALLY hate their taste/smell/smoke). I ocasionaly smoke Benson&Hedges Gold when i feel the need to smoke something stronger(&cheaper).
A pack usualy lasts me 2-3 days. But on stressfull days i smoke 1-2 packs a day.

They're certainly the friendliest. They get together to smoke all the time.

Yea, i should've started smoking a lot earlier. It would've helped being more sociable.

 

[Mise]

I average 2 cigarrettes a day now, so it's really stupid that I haven't quit properly. But it's like Neomega said, I just can't bear the thought of going the rest of my life without a puff. I really want one now, actually... ffs.

I've even got the gum in my bag, all the time, and one right next to my chair in the livingroom, so if I'm ever tempted I can grab the gum and have one instead of a fag, but I just don't have the will power and end up buying a pack from the shop across the road instead... ffs.

I don't want to quit -- I want to want to quit.

 

[Dr.Mindbender]

I smoke a pack and a half a day. Menthol is my choice.

If I smoke reefer, which is rare, it usually jump up to about 2 packs and a half a day or more depend on how many blunts I can smoke.

 

[Death_Machine]

I don't see how anyone can be so monstrously stupid as to start smoking in this day and age.

It's almost as stupid as calling somebody out as a liar, but when given photographic proof just ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist.

I started smoking when I was 18. That was 22 3/4 years ago. I smoke about a pack a day of Camel filters. Used to smoke the wides from about 93 to just awhile back when I switch back to regular filters.

I've successfully quit 0 times. Unsuccessfully quite a whole crapload of times.

On the occasions I do smoke I have always preferred a Camel. I used to be a pack a day smoker, but I traded that bad habit in for dipping Copenhagen. I figured I could live without some teeth, but my lungs are more valuable.

Anyway, the best thing to help quit smoking is to start running or biking. When you sound like Darth Vader after 15 minutes of exercise it is a wonderful motivator to quit.

 

[classical_hero]

Well since I am an asthmatic, it is absolutely foolish of me if I tried to smoke. But since the second had smoke makes me sick, well not straight away but a few hours after, which is why I generally do not go out, since most smokers are outside of the popular places and the smoke always drifts in, in spite of the laws making sure that no smoking happens indoor, when it is even smoked a long distance away. I do consider it to be a self habit due to the fact that when someone smokes it affect others and it only really can "benefit" the one who smokes, but it harms more.

 

[BSmith1068]

See, I quit the opposite way. I said, "you can have one if it ever gets too bad." It was the only way I could let myself do it, I had to let go slowly. But I went a few months cold turkey, then had a crazy night and downed about half a pack in an hour. After that, though, I only smoked when I was drunk, and over the years the frequency of that dropped off and finally I quit for good.

And I don't really get cravings anymore unless I'm walking behind someone smoking. It's been years since I had a cigarette, but I was walking past someone just today that was smoking... I couldn't help but enjoy the smell for a few brief seconds. You forget how much that smell, that feeling, that addiction, can become central in your day. It's like a connection with the world that is fairly missed once it's gone.

This sounds close to my experience. I started smoking in my later years of college, mainly socially. Right around 9/11 I went up to a pack a day (I used to work for American Airlines and life was a little, shall we say, stressful&#8230.

I went cold turkey for about a month, but then started up again, but not at the same level. After meeting my wife, I pretty much stopped altogether, but I still had one every once in a while. It has been a couple of years now since I have smoked, and quite frankly I do not have the urges any more.

I miss the idea of smoking – lighting up after a meal, hanging out with friends at a bar, etc – but if I do break down and have one, I do not enjoy it any more.

 

[Bill3000]

It's almost as stupid as calling somebody out as a liar, but when given photographic proof just ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist.

No, not really. You are given knowledge that smoking is completely without any real benefit outside of being a mild relaxant that you could do through any other method, and will inevitably torture you and kill you. Not including the fact that it makes you smell bad and look ugly. It's completely irresponsible to start smoking when there is so much information that tells you that a rational person should not smoke.

Calling out someone a liar over the internet, on the other hand, doesn't harm yourself.

 

[Death_Machine]

Calling out someone a liar over the internet, on the other hand, doesn't harm yourself.

I would rather have harm befall my body rather than my integrity, just one of the many differences between us.

 

[Bill3000]

I would rather have harm befall my body rather than my integrity, just one of the many differences between us.

There is no such thing as integrity over the internet. There is such a thing as lung cancer.

 

[Death_Machine]

There is no such thing as integrity over the internet.

Nice, real nice.

 

[Masquerouge]

I started smoking a bit when I was 16 because it was cool! Oh yeah. Mostly I needed something to occupy my hands in parties, and girls were not always available

Then once I left home I started actually buying cigarettes, and smoking on a daily basis. Gradually increased for four years when I realized I was buying one pack a day and it was costing me way too much.
I stopped buying cigarettes then, and only smoked the occasional one in bars or other places where a lot of people smoked.

Then I moved to California where NOBODY smokes, and I've never smoked again

 

[Heretic_Cata]

No, not really. You are given knowledge that smoking is completely without any real benefit outside of being a mild relaxant that you could do through any other method, and will inevitably torture you and kill you... It's completely irresponsible to start smoking when there is so much information that tells you that a rational person should not smoke.

I find it completley irresponsible to eat at McDonalds/KFC/whatever where there is so much information that tells you that a rational person should not eat that crap.

 

[Bill3000]

I find it completley irresponsible to eat at McDonalds/KFC/whatever where there is so much information that tells you that a rational person should not eat that crap.

You can't get addicted from fast food, and it's very easy to properly moderate food. You can't do the same with smoking.

 

[Riffraff]

You can't get addicted from fast food, and it's very easy to properly moderate food. You can't do the same with smoking.

Eat at McD for 3 days in a row.

Enter a McD on the forth day - you will retract your statement...

 

[emzie]

Well, it's as high as you can legally get driving your car, etc. And I've certainly had (very fleeting) highs on cigarettes. Go a couple days without one, get cravings like mad, then put a Turkish Gold in your mouth, taking the time to hold it up to your nose and smell its sweet, sweet flavor beforehand. Then take out your zippo and light it up, watching it slowly catch and burn, but don't hit it just yet... wait a few seconds, take in the moment, and then take a long, deep breath right through that filter, hold it a few seconds, let it out nice and slow... oh my God, you're in f-ing heaven for the next few minutes.

Yeah. And in that moment, you should not be driving heh.

You can't get addicted from fast food, and it's very easy to properly moderate food. You can't do the same with smoking.

Not like a crack addiction, no. You can develop a very strong psychological dependence on fast food though. Watch Supersize Me. Towards the end, he feels like crap all day except when he's eating a BigMac.

 

[Stapel]

I started smoking cigarettes when I was 17. I quit last year at age 34. I do still smoke cigars in the weekends.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

You can't get addicted from fast food, and it's very easy to properly moderate food. You can't do the same with smoking.

I dunno about the addiction part; i saw several people ... they may not be physicaly addicted to McDonalds, but still, eating there twice a day makes you wonder how addictive it is.
But yea, they're not the same thing. I was merely saying that people disregard large amounts of negative information about their daily habits everyday.

 

[Echse]

I´ve smoked pretty intensive for 15 years. I am now on day 96 without smoke of any kind.
But I think I would have never quitted if there wasn´t a serious health issue. My doctor gave my a last warning...

 

[stuge]

I've got a pouch of flavored pipe tobacco. When I've got a bad headache, I'll take a deep sniff of it. The wonderful smell is enough to make me feel better.

And to think that some peopke ruin it by setting it on fire.

 

[RLesink]

Mise- From what I've read, cutting down on tobacco is the hardest way to quit. When you stop cold turkey, you go through withdrawal once, but when you just cut back, you're in an almost constant state of withdrawal.


I stopped smoking just over 3 weeks ago. I had smoked since I was 18 (8 years) starting at a pack a week, up to almost a pack a day. It got to the point where my lungs would hurt every morning when I woke up. I was tired of that and having to plan my life around getting my next fix. After about a week, I could take in a deep breath again without getting sore lungs or coughing.

It's strange how other changes happen to you. I used to have Subway pile the jalapenos on my subs, but after a couple weeks, they started tasting so spicy, I could barely eat them. I have more energy than before. I have $72 in my bank account that didn't go toward a couple cartons of smokes. I don't seem to sweat as much. (The weather is getting colder, but I used to sweat a little bit inside sometimes, and now I don't nearly as much). Just a general feeling of well-being that wasn't there before. Everyday stressful situations are actually much more manageable without needing to smoke. I read something about how stress causes nicotine to metabolize rapidly, putting you into withdrawal, compounding the problem from the stressful event in the first place.

I had quit before when I went to basic training, but started again right afterward. Then I tried to cut down once I got out of the Air Force, but that didn't last long. Then I read Allen Carr's book, and quit for two days, but I didn't really want to quit, so I started again the first excuse I could find. Then I decided enough was enough and stopped buying cigarettes, and now here I am. After the first couple days, the cravings were not very bad at all. It was more like thinking how a steak would be tasty right about now, instead of the crack fiend must dash outside and smoke two cigarettes in a row right now cravings.

@ anyone who thinks they don't want to quit: Yes, you do. Of course you do. You want to quit right now. What you don't want is to go through the rest of your life wanting a cigarette. Well, it's only been a few weeks for me, but I only have passing thoughts about smoking a couple times a day and it is getting less and less as time goes on. Don't think of it as taking something away from yourself, think of it as a gift to yourself to make your life better.



OK, well hopefully someone reads this and finds it helpful or interesting or something.

Cliffs notes: Smoking is bad.