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mrsandman · 06-21-2003, 10:38 PM

It's cool to smoke!

When I quit smoking in 1988 for the first time, I had been smoking
for 28 years. I lasted for 6 years and then started smoking again in 1994, blaming stress for my relapse. The scary part was that I had succeeded for that long and then went back. Lesson to be learned: The habit NEVER leaves you, at least for me, it doesn’t.

I quit cold turkey, BOTH times. I quit again in 1997 and have not smoked since, so I guess it has been another 6 years this time.

I used money as a motivator to quit. I used to smoke at least 2 packs a day. When I first quit, I figured that I was spending about $100.00 a month on cigs. That was in 1988. Well, I ALWAYS paid myself that amount of money per month. My logic was that a smoker will do without anything but cigs. So, I paid myself $100.00 a month to not smoke, and I stlll do! I really should give myself a raise, as I know if I still smoked 2 packs a day, that it would be well over $100.00 a month now. I set that
money aside and dedicate it to buying extravagant things for myself. After all, it would be up in smoke anyway!

Another motivator was time. I figured that it took about 10 minutes to smoke a cig. If I smoked 6 cigs a day, well, I lost an hour of productivity, and not many serious smokers just smoke 6 cigs a day. Quit smoking, and productivity increases.

The second time I quit was much harder than the first. I think that it was because I had succeeded before and therefore I KNEW I could do it again. So I kept putting off quitting, as I knew I could do it whenever I chose to do so. Another problem with the second time was that it seemed as if the nicotine was so much stronger than before. I was smoking so much that I was literally chain smoking at times. Yes, lighting a new cig with the fire from the old one. My wife told me that she had never seen anyone go from not smoking to smoking as much as I did.

And, yes, when I quite…both times…SHE continued to smoke. Therefore, it was that much harder for me to quit. Having to live with a smoker. There was no: “I’ll go outside, so it doesn’t bother you.” Her perpetual “flick of the Bic” was a constant reminder of my need for a cigarette. It continually triggered a Pavlovian response whenever I heard it.

But what did she know? She had NEVER tried to quit smoking…well, that is, until she went into ICU...then she quit.
That is where a LOT of people will quit; they just don’t know it yet. Whenever someone you love is going to have heart surgery and the Dr. says that they don’t know if their lung capacity is good enough to get off of the heart-lung machine, it makes all
those days of looking “cool” seem a bit naïve. Sitting outside the operating room, weeping, and waiting…I lost my mother to lung cancer, and my wife's mother HAS lung cancer, and she STILL smokes! Yeah...it's cool to smoke.

06-21-2003, 10:38 PM	#10 (permalink)
mrsandman Addict Location: 3rd coast area	It's cool to smoke! When I quit smoking in 1988 for the first time, I had been smoking for 28 years. I lasted for 6 years and then started smoking again in 1994, blaming stress for my relapse. The scary part was that I had succeeded for that long and then went back. Lesson to be learned: The habit NEVER leaves you, at least for me, it doesn’t. I quit cold turkey, BOTH times. I quit again in 1997 and have not smoked since, so I guess it has been another 6 years this time. I used money as a motivator to quit. I used to smoke at least 2 packs a day. When I first quit, I figured that I was spending about $100.00 a month on cigs. That was in 1988. Well, I ALWAYS paid myself that amount of money per month. My logic was that a smoker will do without anything but cigs. So, I paid myself $100.00 a month to not smoke, and I stlll do! I really should give myself a raise, as I know if I still smoked 2 packs a day, that it would be well over $100.00 a month now. I set that money aside and dedicate it to buying extravagant things for myself. After all, it would be up in smoke anyway! Another motivator was time. I figured that it took about 10 minutes to smoke a cig. If I smoked 6 cigs a day, well, I lost an hour of productivity, and not many serious smokers just smoke 6 cigs a day. Quit smoking, and productivity increases. The second time I quit was much harder than the first. I think that it was because I had succeeded before and therefore I KNEW I could do it again. So I kept putting off quitting, as I knew I could do it whenever I chose to do so. Another problem with the second time was that it seemed as if the nicotine was so much stronger than before. I was smoking so much that I was literally chain smoking at times. Yes, lighting a new cig with the fire from the old one. My wife told me that she had never seen anyone go from not smoking to smoking as much as I did. And, yes, when I quite…both times…SHE continued to smoke. Therefore, it was that much harder for me to quit. Having to live with a smoker. There was no: “I’ll go outside, so it doesn’t bother you.” Her perpetual “flick of the Bic” was a constant reminder of my need for a cigarette. It continually triggered a Pavlovian response whenever I heard it. But what did she know? She had NEVER tried to quit smoking…well, that is, until she went into ICU...then she quit. That is where a LOT of people will quit; they just don’t know it yet. Whenever someone you love is going to have heart surgery and the Dr. says that they don’t know if their lung capacity is good enough to get off of the heart-lung machine, it makes all those days of looking “cool” seem a bit naïve. Sitting outside the operating room, weeping, and waiting…I lost my mother to lung cancer, and my wife's mother HAS lung cancer, and she STILL smokes! Yeah...it's cool to smoke. __________________ Hail to ALL the troops and shadow warriors.