When I was growing up, my dad always smoked cigarettes, and back then, it was considered a bad habit; but none of the cancer warnings had come out yet. My mom always said it was the only bad habit my dad had, and she was not going to bug him about stopping, and she never did. Getting that carton of Camels every week was just part of the grocery shopping that she did. When my dad was in his early 70’s, he stopped smoking, and did it overnight, with out even planning to stop. He said he just woke up one morning and didn’t want a cigarette, so he didn’t smoke one. He put the pack in his pocket like always because he was sure he was going to want one any minute; but he went all day and didn’t smoke. He said that after he packed the cigarettes around for several days , and never once craved smoking one, he took the pack out of his pocket and left them on his nightstand, and he never smoked another cigarette for the rest of his life, and never missed it.
Hi Richard, Like Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I have done it a thousand times." The only thing that worked for me was an approach based on aversion theory. I needed to find a way that smoking was so repugnant and physically disgusting that I would not smoke anymore. Here is what I did. I went into a small bathroom, closed the door, and began chain smoking one cigarette after another non stop. After three or four cigarettes, I started feeling queasy. But I kept smoking until my mind and body were so disgusted that I had to quit. In the following days, the memory of that chain-smoking was enough that even the thought of smoking was disgusting and repulsive. I haven't smoked since. All desire for smoking was gone from that day on. Good luck, John
I’ve never smoked but I believe it must be one of the hardest things to stop. Some people, who should know better, will just rationalize it to a ridiculous degree. I was visiting with 2 post docs, husband and wife, when I worked at the med school at U.Va. They were heavy smokers and they got defensive quickly when I mentioned something about their occupations and smoking as much as they did. They gave me this B.S. that there are all kinds of different lung cancers and picking on smoking as the single cause is basically stupid. Yeah, that’s true but it avoids facing another very well known fact. There is a sub-category of aggressive lung cancer, “oat cell carcinoma” (also called small cell cancer) that, when you look at patient history, almost 100% of them are, or were, smokers. So yeah, many things can cause lung cancer but one nasty cancer is almost exclusively associated with smokers. Let’s face is, the ONLY thing that should be going into our lungs is plain old air. “Small cell lung cancer is also known as “oat-cell” cancer because the cells look like oats under the microscope. It often starts in the bronchi, then quickly grows and spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes. This type of lung cancer represents fewer than 20 percent of lung cancers and is typically caused by tobacco smoking. It is also the most aggressive form of lung cancer. SCLC often grows and spreads more quickly than NSCLC, but usually responds well to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. SCLC often recurs in many people who develop it.” https://www.cancercenter.com/cancer-types/lung-cancer/types
Two things, Thomas: (1) Of course, they got defensive when you mentioned their smoking to them. Even though you were totally correct, it just makes them defensive and defiant and yes, they'll try to rationalize it. That's why I never bother saying anything to a smoker about their habit. (2) Ideally, yes, the only thing that should be going into our lungs is plain old air. But unless it's pure oxygen, is there such a thing as "plain old air" nowadays that isn't full of pollutants? But I know what you mean. People shouldn't intentionally inhale extra, potentially harmful substances into their lungs.
Plain old air is a rarity, all kinds of garbage in it and too much of it is relatively novel to our bodies, nano-plastics, synthetic chemicals of countless types. Fukushima is still bleeding out into the Pacific. I quit eating pacific sourced seafood years back and that’s about to get worse. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/w...ushima-plant-12-years-after-meltdown-97760403
My point exactly. Plain old air is scarce. Rather scary. Speaking of scary, wow...I think I'll avoid Pacific seafood, too, from now on. Thanks for the link. So sad that human beings have made most of this planet a toxic wasteland, for the sake of progress, invention and industry.
We are all different. I spent many years in AA...attended literally thousands of meetings and witnessed the entire spectrum. Some people (like me) weaned themselves off of it uneventfully and never looked back, while a woman I dated got DTs when she quit and still struggled. Some people can smoke heavily their entire lives and live to see 90+, while others (like my dad & brothers) die from it in their 50s.
My dad was a lifetime smoker. He died twenty years ago at 79, of melanoma. I remember him smoking in his hospital room shortly before he passed away. My brother was also a lifetime smoker; he died of lung cancer that metastasized to his spine in 2020. He was diagnosed in July and died in August.
You Go, Man!!! My dad used to figure out how many cars or whatever he could have bought with what he spent on cigs. Maybe have a jar to put the money you are saving in?
One method of quitting may work for others but not yourself. Try whatever you can. I quit in 1971. I read a few books on the effect smoking has on the body, and I guess you could say I got scared straight, especially the part that described the effect on the lungs in minute detail, plus the change in heart rate etc. That was my body they were talking about and not someone else's. When you finally quit you will be rewarded with the actual taste of the food you are eating, and energy and more alertness to go with it. You could start here: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart/smoking
Readers Digest had a story about a woman who lived in an apartment, and her mailbox was down in the apartment lobby. She kept her cigarettes in the mailbox and whenever she wanted one, she had to go downstairs to the mailbox, get the cigarette and stand in the cold lobby and smoke the cigarette and then go back upstairs. She said it made her think about how bad she really needed that cigarette each time before she went down to have one, and gradually stopped smoking that way , with no problems. She knew that the cigarette was there, and she could have one anytime she wanted; but she had to stop whatever she was doing and go all the way down to the mailboxes to have the cigarette, and stand there while she smoked it; so the comfort part was gone for her, and gradually the addiction part went away as she smoked less and less each day.
I have to ask as I’ve done with my kids …..do they taste any better than they smell.. ?? …..it’s oblivious I’ve never smoked but I have to admit I feel like puking when I pass someone in a shopping centre that reeks of stale smoke from cigarettes. My neighbour is about to have one of his lungs removed due to smoking he gave up over 10 years ago…..he’s “sorta lucky” he’s had extensive tests in-the last two weeks and his cancer has not spread any further than his right lung …so far …