Are you a non, ex or current smoker?

breakstuff

Never smoked.When I was growing up I was the only one out of a group of twenty who never took it up.Tried it and it made me so ill I still can't believe how anyone could think it's such a pleasurable experience that they'd want to repeat it.

My only real vice is beer and the odd Jim Beam or twelve.

gusman2x

I'm an ex smoker, coming up for 3 years in Nov. The ex as opposed to non is an important distinction for me, but don't worry, it isn't as bad as it sounds.

I smoked from the age of 17 to 30. From about 20 onwards I was a proper smoker, and from 22 onwards I was 12-16 cigs a day. Last 5 years were rollies (which I loved).

I got fed up with smoking I'd say a full 12 months before I gave up. Form my mid 20s I was constantly THINKING that I should give up, but never felt like I wanted to and as such was scare of failing.

When I did give up, I felt that I'd built up to it, and actually smoked more by the end. I didn't enjoy about 75% of the ones I had.

I used champix, and I must say, the results were amazing. The urge was completely removed. It was a very strange sensation. It was very very easy to stop. The urges actually got stronger about 6 months after I'd stopped, but they were pretty easy to ignore.

I say that I'll always be an ex-smoker as opposed to a non smoker as I still get urges to have a fag. The difference is that those urges come and go in an instant. It's not like when you actually smoke, and you have the urge for one, and the urge wont leave you until you have one.

Overall, if you WANT to give up, you should find it quite possible, and you'll feel much better for it. If you FEEL YOU SHOULD give up but don't want to, I think you'll find it a lot harder.

Good luck to you though man.

Hertz32

Non smoker, don't touch drugs including weed either.
I'm a big fan of being alive, and don't even particularly enjoy being drunk either. I'm a right prude!

I haven't/wont touch hookah or shisha either, Shisha is supposed to just be water vapour but thats bollocks seeing as it produces formaldehyde in the vapour too, and I don't fancy pickling my lungs! 

I'm a caffeine addict though and I sleep better after 6 pro plus tablets. I should probably quit that...  

I don't like being around people who smoke, and will discourage people from smoking if they do. I tend to annoy people that way.

ftumch

Ex. I was part of the I've just quit smoking thread on M.r ages ago, then started again. This time I quit new yr just gone. So it's been nearly eleven mnths. Vaping everyday, they are a pain in the hole but actually now I totally prefer them. The other week all my batteries were flat so I made a bad decision and bought some of those wee hamlets, they were dirty and disgusting, couldn't wait to get my tank back out. It was the only time in the last 10 mnths I've smoked and I've no intention of ever doing it again. I do plan to eventually stop vaping too but I'm in no rush really.

FelineGuitars

Non smoker here, but spent a lot of time around people wanting to stop, and listened to them rationalising about the money they waste.

Waste of money- or is there a better way to spend it?

A pack of fags is £8

So if you smoke a pack a day (or maybe go through 10 packs a week if you offer fags to friends when out socialising) you are going through £56-£80 a week on your habit. This adds up to between £3000-£4000 per year.

What could you buy with that ?

A secondhand car?

A fantastic holiday?

Studio or amplification equipment?

A custom built guitar from me?

Ok - if that argument isn't annoying enough - do you like paying tax?

The tax argument

If a packet of cigarettes costs £8.00 the amount of duty and tax you are paying the government is £6.20 on every pack

Based on the 10 packs a week as discussed above, then you are paying an extra £62 a week in tax (that's £3224 extra in tax per year)

Whilst you may feel that you are almost singlehandedly propping up the NHS - it's more likely that your money is going to places you wouldn't choose - including expense accounts for MPs

The poison argument

If tobacco were the only ingredient in cigarettes they wouldn't be half as bad 

Look up all the additives in cigarettes that you wouldn't expect - some of which are only there to keep you hooked 

You may start to look at cigarette manufacturers as unscrupulous as street corner drug dealers (or worse)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1437399/The-tobacco-additives-that-keep-you-hooked.html

gubble

Currently smoke. was a social smoker then due to stress started properly.

Now wanting to quit but finding it very difficult.

I like the idea of putting the money into an object i'd like - that would probably incentivise me.

I've actually given up coffee recently and feel much better for it.

Cirrus

Hertz32 said:

Non smoker, don't touch drugs including weed either.

Me neither. Got no problem in the slightest with them, just not for me.

Chronic masturbator though.

JCA2550

Ex Smoker here. I used to smoke 20ish a day and 30/40 on holidays etc. Stopped using Alan Carr Easyway February 2001 (quite a few of us seem to have stopped in 2001?). not so much as a puff since. Other people smoking doesn't really bother me either.

2 things that I'll offer up which came from the Alan Carr approach;

You have to want to stop, not just think that you should or ought to.

It's an important distinction between "giving up" and stopping. Giving up implies that you're depriving yourself of something vital or necessary.

Oops! nearly came over all soap boxy there.

Gagaryn

I stopped about a year and a half ago after about 30 years of smoking and have been vaping since then.

underdog said:

I smoke, I don't trust the vapor things. I know smoking is deadly but at the moment I think it's better the devil you know rather than e-cigs.

This sounds ridiculous to me. Despite doing it, I think vaping is daft! Better to have never got into the nicotine habit in the first place. I know vaping is still relatively un-researched, but to believe that smoking is safer, after all the research and all we know about smoking's dangers is absolute madness.

ftumch

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m544/kevinstead/FF34DACE-7C04-4F86-9F83-CB172FF28705.jpg

mudslide73

Ex. stopped in 1998 - built up to 20 a day by then. I stopped cold turkey and fell into the waiting arms of Burger King. Very difficult to give up and not put weight on - just getting back down to my pre smoking weight now. I'll never be critical of smokers because a coffee + fag, having one after a meal etc. is a beautiful moment. 

Since you can't smoke in pubs now the link is broken for me - a fag and a pint go together like peaches and cream. Also I saw my father-in-law pass away due to a smoking related disease so I will never go back now. 

Gassage

Loobs said:

Smoke roll ups, about 4-5 a day, give or take. A 40g pack here will last me about 2 weeks. That pack costs 4 euros.

I really wish I could do likewise

Skipped

I smoked for maybe a week when I was about 14.
My Dad quickly realised that the only way to deal with the root cause (peer pressure) was to create utter confusion amongst the peers. So he gave me money to spend on a different vice.

Thanks Dad.
I have never smoked (since).

jonnyburgo

I stopped in 1998 after about 15 yrs of smoking. I was in a relationship at the time that was going tits up. We both decided to stop, my  ill-feelings toward her was enough fuel to stay stopped after she started again. 

IanSavage

Current smoker, although I only even get the urge when I'm having a beer (think it's the old 'pint in one hand, fag in the other' habit) or recently when I go 'round to my mechanic's where EVERYONE seems to smoke so you'd hardly converse if you didn't.

 

I don't think I'd find it too hard to quit if I really wanted to (had periods of days or weeks when I haven't had one through sore throat / gut ache / just not fancying one and haven't had cravings), but I DO enjoy it at the right place and time and it hasn't done me all that much harm (still relatively fit, all me own teeth etc ). 'course, I know it's doing me any GOOD, but neither is breathing the air in Birmingham.

ROOG

FelineGuitars said:

Non smoker here, but spent a lot of time around people wanting to stop, and listened to them rationalising about the money they waste.

Waste of money- or is there a better way to spend it?

A pack of fags is £8

So if you smoke a pack a day (or maybe go through 10 packs a week if you offer fags to friends when out socialising) you are going through £56-£80 a week on your habit. This adds up to between £3000-£4000 per year.

What could you buy with that ?

A secondhand car?

A fantastic holiday?

Studio or amplification equipment?

A custom built guitar from me?

Ok - if that argument isn't annoying enough - do you like paying tax?

The tax argument

If a packet of cigarettes costs £8.00 the amount of duty and tax you are paying the government is £6.20 on every pack

Based on the 10 packs a week as discussed above, then you are paying an extra £62 a week in tax (that's £3224 extra in tax per year)

Whilst you may feel that you are almost singlehandedly propping up the NHS - it's more likely that your money is going to places you wouldn't choose - including expense accounts for MPs

The poison argument

If tobacco were the only ingredient in cigarettes they wouldn't be half as bad 

Look up all the additives in cigarettes that you wouldn't expect - some of which are only there to keep you hooked 

You may start to look at cigarette manufacturers as unscrupulous as street corner drug dealers (or worse)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1437399/The-tobacco-additives-that-keep-you-hooked.html

The tax argument does it for me!

Non smoker btw, despite growing up in a family who smoked and worked for WD Wills &Co., (free fags and cigars)

FelineGuitars

ftumch said:

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m544/kevinstead/FF34DACE-7C04-4F86-9F83-CB172FF28705.jpg

Haven't seen that in a while - very funny.

I have however had a few players put down money (weekly or monthly ) as a result of trying  to kick smoking and ending up with a kick ass guitar over the course of a year.

I never wanted to smoke - always hated the smell and watched my stepfather (who I adored) die of cancer by the time I was 11 leaving a big hole in my family's life. 

Funnily enough I hardly ever went out drinking much as a student, as what little money I used to have I preferred to spend on records and going to gigs, and cameras and stuff.

mike_l

Skipped said:

I smoked for maybe a week when I was about 14.
My Dad quickly realised that the only way to deal with the root cause (peer pressure) was to create utter confusion amongst the peers. So he gave me money to spend on a different vice.

Thanks Dad.
I have never smoked (since).

So your dad paid for Hookers when you were 14?

IanSavage

Skipped said:

I smoked for maybe a week when I was about 14.
My Dad quickly realised that the only way to deal with the root cause (peer pressure) was to create utter confusion amongst the peers. So he gave me money to spend on a different vice.

Thanks Dad.
I have never smoked (since).

So how IS the meth habit going?

Strat_a_tat_tat

mike_l said:

Skipped said:

I smoked for maybe a week when I was about 14.
My Dad quickly realised that the only way to deal with the root cause (peer pressure) was to create utter confusion amongst the peers. So he gave me money to spend on a different vice.

Thanks Dad.
I have never smoked (since).

So your dad paid for Hookers when you were 14?

Is it too late to put myself up for adoption?