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Smoked age 14-29, 30 cents a pack in the machine in late '50s, early '60s.; 27-28 cents across the counter. And they were glamourized big time in movies, on TV, magazines.... No wonder so many of us were hooked. My biggest enjoyment was smoking while enjoying alcoholic drinks. A deadly combo. But I quit cold turkey 1/1/73.
But during the 2nd gas crisis, 1979, we were rural by then, living 30 miles from work; no public transportation out-in-the sticks. This induced extreme anxiety and, you got it, I resumed smoking, age 35. The gas crisis eased but smoking continued until age 41, 1985, again cold turkey.
But you're right, it was a mean addiction.
My sil picked up his first cig at 10 and quit when his first child was born so he smoked about 30 yrs and didn't live long enough to see her graduate high school and now see her in college....very sad. Such a tragic loss.
The children are fanatic about NOT smoking/drinking as they saw their dad's death. So I guess some lessons.
I have not long ago fallen off the wagon after the best quit attempt I'd managed in a long while. I got a cheap vape pen, did not want to be one of these people who make vaping into this big hobby, nor did I want to replace one habit with another that way. I just wanted SOMETHING that I could reach for anytime I felt the panicky feeling, to prevent me from relapsing.
I got by from August of last year, until May of this year, doing that, and had even gotten to the point where I had stopped vaping...maybe I still needed to taper off the nic, but I was having sinus trouble that seemed to get worse when I vaped, so I stopped. Then predictably, sometime last May, life tossed a couple curve-balls of stressful crap at me from a few different directions. I played that little game, bummed one here, bummed one there..."I'm not a smoker again, if I don't buy them." Then eventually was bumming them frequently enough to feel guilty for it, and just bought a pack. All downhill from there.
I am so angry, I'm going to have to do all the work again to quit, and I was doing so well before. *sigh*
I remember when I was younger, I started when I was 15, and I always thought, "I can quit anytime, easy, I just don't want to." And now it's the opposite. "I want to quit, anytime now, but it's not easy and I feel like I can't."
Get to taking grape seed extract and your sinus issues can be so reduced or even history..Grapes are 1000's times better than the nasty tobacco/vaping stuff.
I'm sorry if the MIND is willing so is everything else. We can break all negative habits. The cig is NOT your friend, friends like that who needs enemies.
Why do you bold your comments?
Please. There isn't a person alive that doesn't know "cigarettes are not your friend".
Please. There isn't a person alive that doesn't know "cigarettes are not your friend".
And clearly, you never smoked.
Grape seed extract. Ugh.
Why does it matter to you if I bold or don't?
How do you know grape seed extract is Ugh? Sure can remedy a lot
of health issues, I know that is not important in life. Go run to the doctors.
I've often thought IF my sil had started on grape seed yrs back and he knew
about this antioxidant from me, maybe his lungs would have lived on and he
would be alive. Don't sell something short that you have no knowledge.
How do you know grape seed extract is Ugh? Sure can remedy a lot
of health issues, I know that is not important in life. Go run to the doctors.
I've often thought IF my sil had started on grape seed yrs back and he knew
about this antioxidant from me, maybe his lungs would have lived on and he
would be alive. Don't sell something short that you have no knowledge.
The way you phrased it sounded like... saying that grape seed extract is better for my sinuses than vaping or smoking. Well of course, anything, or nothing at all, would be better for my sinuses than vaping or smoking. I never implied that either was good for my sinuses. I said that I tried to vape, only when the panicky feelings of nic withdrawal hit me, as an aid to quit smoking and with the intent of also quitting vaping. And when vaping began to bother my sinuses, I stopped that too, and was clear for a while. But fell off the wagon as it were, and wound up back on the horrible cigs.
As for grape seed extract, hey maybe it works. I do have seasonal allergy/sinus issues. Some natural remedies work quite well, some are quackery. Never know till ya try, I say. I have this salve that a friend made for me, it's got beeswax, coconut oil, lavender, tea tree, aloe, maybe one or two other things I cannot recall...that stuff is like miracle goo. It smells nice, and it has healed fast and clean, any surface level burn, cut, scrape, etc that I have suffered since. I'm very impressed with it.
The way you phrased it sounded like... saying that grape seed extract is better for my sinuses than vaping or smoking. Well of course, anything, or nothing at all, would be better for my sinuses than vaping or smoking. I never implied that either was good for my sinuses. I said that I tried to vape, only when the panicky feelings of nic withdrawal hit me, as an aid to quit smoking and with the intent of also quitting vaping. And when vaping began to bother my sinuses, I stopped that too, and was clear for a while. But fell off the wagon as it were, and wound up back on the horrible cigs.
As for grape seed extract, hey maybe it works. I do have seasonal allergy/sinus issues. Some natural remedies work quite well, some are quackery. Never know till ya try, I say. I have this salve that a friend made for me, it's got beeswax, coconut oil, lavender, tea tree, aloe, maybe one or two other things I cannot recall...that stuff is like miracle goo. It smells nice, and it has healed fast and clean, any surface level burn, cut, scrape, etc that I have suffered since. I'm very impressed with it.
Keeping an OPEN MIND to info that comes our way, no matter how, can be some salvations. I've been taking grape seed ex for over 22 yrs and threw away drugs and allergist back in 1995. I talk about it so much and I KNOW some here get sick of hearing it and go Ugh...what do they know? I don't know where allergy drugs come into the list of what americans take, but read years ago laxatives were right up on top of the list.
I quit five years ago after smoking for more than 40 years. (Jesus, what took me so long?)
I'll be brutally honest by listing some reason why I'm glad I quit.
I don't stink anymore. My breath doesn't stink. Even after bathing and washing their hair and clothes, smokers stink. Their homes stink, as do their cars... and their kids. I can always tell a smoker's kid by the way they smell.
I leave my home without first checking to make sure I have enough cigs and a lighter.
I answer the phone without first grabbing for my smokes.
I'm not hacking my lungs out.
I'm not worried about getting cancer in my throat or mouth.
Yeah, there is some nostalgia, but it's all a nasty dream. It's the drug calling to us..... whispering sweet nothings in our ears. There is absolutely nothing about smoking that is good or pleasant. Don't fall for the tempter's deadly lies.
Stop the thoughts immediately before you light up "just one" for old times sake. Please.
For many, cigarettes are a companion, something that has been with you every hour of the day, more so than any person has been. They've accompanied you through good times and bad and there when you're bored or alone.
That is ignoring the fact of the sheer physical addiction part of it which is very strong, but, as most smokers know, doesn't account for all those times you light up when you know you really don't even want one.
Anything that you "always" do "when"...is hard to break. Some do it with soda or gum.
So there are three difficult components to make it difficult.
The auricular therapy took away the physical craving, but the psychological craving took a little longer. He gave us a mantra to say every day, and told us to change our way of thinking when we see others smoking. Instead of envying them, think, "oh those poor bastards".
I DID feel as though I lost my best friend the first week or two. It was a real sadness. People sit there with their fingers up their asses asking why kids smoke when they know it's bad for them. Being accepted, being part of a group, that desire is stronger then worrying about something killing you in the far-off future. I was a too-tall, homely girl who was shy and socially awkward, and I wasn't acceptable to the regular kids, but that group that smoked in the woods behind the school let me in, and if it took learning how to inhale a cigarette and not choke, I was going to do it. Kids want friends and acceptance. Smoking brings friends and acceptance, or at least it did in the 1970s. It's not rocket science to know why kids start smoking.
I've probably tried to quit dozens of times and am currently on day two of my latest. What gets me every time is the nostalgia that is associated with smoking. All of the best memories of my life have smoking associated with them in one way or another. What always happens when I quit is I will get nostalgic about the "good ole' days." I'll remember how exciting life was around the time I started smoking and I will buy a pack in attempt to relive those days. When I do that though, I quickly remember that cigarettes no longer do for me what they once did when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays, if I smoke I simply need one to ease withdrawal symptoms. They once gave me a buzz or head rush but these past few years, even my trusty morning cigarette no longer gives me that. If I am not at least getting that morning nicotine rush, why am I smoking again?
What I need to do is accept that smoking did in fact play a role in some of the best times of my life, but like many other things that have come and gone, it's time is passed. Continuing to smoke at this point brings no benefit, only the guarantee of an early death.
Abe Lincoln said "a man without vices is just as lacking in virtues".
Its not how you die, its how you lived.
Every single human walking the earth has a vice. The ones who claim none, their vice is deception.
I've probably tried to quit dozens of times and am currently on day two of my latest. What gets me every time is the nostalgia that is associated with smoking. All of the best memories of my life have smoking associated with them in one way or another. What always happens when I quit is I will get nostalgic about the "good ole' days." I'll remember how exciting life was around the time I started smoking and I will buy a pack in attempt to relive those days. When I do that though, I quickly remember that cigarettes no longer do for me what they once did when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays, if I smoke I simply need one to ease withdrawal symptoms. They once gave me a buzz or head rush but these past few years, even my trusty morning cigarette no longer gives me that. If I am not at least getting that morning nicotine rush, why am I smoking again?
What I need to do is accept that smoking did in fact play a role in some of the best times of my life, but like many other things that have come and gone, it's time is passed. Continuing to smoke at this point brings no benefit, only the guarantee of an early death.
Every time you cheat and have a smoke, focus on what you have just told us. Catch a whiff of that chemical butane as you flick your Bic. Let that smoke get in your nostrils and face and hair as you light the end of the cigarette. Savor that harsh, dry smoke as it poisons you from within. Don't hold in any coughs, but let them out in full fury; feel the phlegm dislodged from the innermost passageways of your lungs. Smell your fingers and bug out on that smokey odor. Smell your shirt. Think about how your hair smells. Now take another drag...
In other words, don't intellectualize it. Make it visceral. Feel it.
Then, after smoke break, look at the mess in the ashtray and how ugly it is. And mull over how cancer cells form and how emphysema is like a slow strangulation until you can no longer breathe at all... Don't forget to add up the cost too, not only of those tax machines called cartons and packs, but also the cost of lighters, loss of productivity (6 10-minute ciggy breaks at work cost the company a whole hour of wasted time), missed work due to lingering colds...
Then, when you are not smoking, take a moment to fill your lungs with good clean air. Feel that freshness, and think about how that's really what you were trying to get from those cigarettes in the first place. Take a little walk, and enjoy feeling unencumbered by a cigarette. Look at all the happy people not smoking, and feel at one with them. Enjoy the sunshine and soak up some vitamin D.
If you fall off the wagon again, go back to the beginning and repeat.
You know how unhealthy it is, but you need your body to feel it. Now that you are starting to feel it, keep on feelin'.
Good luck!
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