Smoking and smokers, let's talk about it. (off topic)

[michaelowen]

Gave up 3 years ago now. 02.03.15. Was stuck in bed with back injury, smoking at least 40 a day. Had been injured for several months and money was running out. Used patches to help ease pain of addiction and I'm so glad I did it.

[ghostrider]

Gave up 3 years ago now. 02.03.15. Was stuck in bed with back injury, smoking at least 40 a day. Had been injured for several months and money was running out. Used patches to help ease pain of addiction and I'm so glad I did it.

What was the defining point which made you quit?
Was is just being in the house and not wanting to stink it out or was there another motive for you to quit?

[toptoon]

I worked fot a tobacco company for 8 years - one of those years I was a blender and so required to smoke as part of the job. On top of that I’d get 600 free ciggies every month.
I tried to stop dozens of times and now have the addiction where I want it. If among smokers I will sometimes smoke on a night out but will then have none for weeks or even months. I never thought this would be possible and I would not recommend trying to do this - it’s best and easier to stop 100%. Sorry to say that you are likely to have an urge to smoke for the rest of your life when quiiting but the frequency of the urge reduces drastically over time.

[ghostrider]

I worked fot a tobacco company for 8 years - one of those years I was a blender and so required to smoke as part of the job. On top of that I’d get 600 free ciggies every month.
I tried to stop dozens of times and now have the addiction where I want it. If among smokers I will sometimes smoke on a night out but will then have none for weeks or even months. I never thought this would be possible and I would not recommend trying to do this - it’s best and easier to stop 100%. Sorry to say that you are likely to have an urge to smoke for the rest of your life when quiiting but the frequency of the urge reduces drastically over time.

By blending do you mean mixing different tobacco plants into specific brands of cigarettes and also adding in the required additional extras, like chemicals to enhance them or strengthen/weaken them?

Did you work for this company in Brazil?

As for the way you handle your addiction. I know a lad that never smokes at work or at home but smokes like a chimney when he's having a drink. Usually when out drinking.

I used to con myself years ago by saying I was going to stop but doing it by reducing the amount I smoked.
What I found with that was, I would feel like I was robbing myself. (Silly but true).

I'd get down from 25 a day (roll ups) and over the next few weeks be down to 10 a day.
Once I got to 10 I did feel a bit better for it by a little bit which I sort of turned into something really massive.

All was ok until I hit 5 a day. I'd be counting hours until my next cigarette. It was torture but on the flip side it was a massive luxury to enjoy one when it was time, until it was smoked and the next few hour wait was ticking.

It lasted another week and then I went hell for leather back into smoking them, ham Sam.
It's one of the worst things to do because all I was doing was conning myself without any real set out purpose as to why only a few and not more to satisfy my addiction.

The feeling of not wanting to be robbed is a key issue with refusal or excuses made to keep smoking.
I'd say all the wrong things in order to make smoking appear the thing to do and a right to do because the belief my smoking wasn't really affecting others was my own selfishness that I genuinely didn't see as being selfish at all...but I'll come to that later.