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The thing with e-cigarettes is .... you are getting the nicotene but not the tar and carcinigens that would harm your lungs. Also, their are electronic cigs that have half the nicotine and some that are just all vapor to help you ease off smoking altogether.
The thing with e-cigarettes is .... you are getting the nicotene but not the tar and carcinigens that would harm your lungs. Also, their are electronic cigs that have half the nicotine and some that are just all vapor to help you ease off smoking altogether.
But if you're addicted to nicotine, then e-cigarettes will not help you at all, and will give you another excuse to intentionally inhale an addictive drug (nicotine is classified as a drug).
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow
......It hit me just how hard of a time I was having, breathing. This was not normal, "I hate running!!!!!!!" lack of breathing, this was bad and it was causing me to be unable to move correctly. My limbs did not wish to cooperate, I started to get dizzy, the pain was overwhelming and I was gulping for air.
I really had no idea how I was going to make it and I was angry because really? I'm going to lose this job on a half mile run? REALLY?! I can run a stinking half mile, come on!
I got to the last 30 meters and I thought I was going to pass out. I had to stop running and start walking. Yah, 30 meters to go...but see, I had ALREADY been pushing it with everything I had. A person at the place gave me a bit of motivation, I rested for about 10 seconds and then decided, if I die across that finish line, at least I will have passed.
Well I did make it to the finish line in time. I was able to talk at the end of it, as they wanted us to do. But I was gasping. Literally gasping for breath. My lungs...I can't even tell you what they felt like because I had overall pain. Every single thing on me hurt. Granted, some of that is simply because of running...as stated, running and I have NEVER been friends but this was multiplied. This was amplified. This was horrible. A freakin' half mile. Unbelievable.
I was still gasping for breath when we got back in to the class room where they told us of the next physical test. They went over what we would be doing, what would DQ us and then we got up to go out there. As I stood up I realized, I was going to hurl. I even mentioned I was going to hurl.
Someone got me the trash can, I heard someone else say, "get out of the room" to everyone else, and next thing I knew, I was on my knees, hurling all the water I drank.
From a half mile run!? This is ludicrous!
I recovered from that and pulled myself together as much as possible and met everyone in the hallway where we were doing our next test.
It came to my turn, I was still not recovered from the run, still trying to get breath but we don't have all day, and I need to do this, I need this job. So I got myself mentally motivated, got started and did what I had to do to pass this test. (I'm being vague about this test on purpose as it may give away what I may be doing for work.)
Got done, and as I took one step to my water bottle, one of the other potentials who was trying for this job said my lips were blue. In fact, it wasn't them just saying it, like some people who exaggerate things, they actually started walking towards me because my mouth was, apparently, that blue. Another saw and he also started walking towards me so sure I was going to drop, right there on the spot. I waved them off, "I'm fine", and we walked back to the classroom.
Oh, I was spent. I couldn't breathe right, I couldn't get enough air. I was shaking. It wasn't because a half mile run and this other test was that damn difficult. It was because I smoke and could not get any fricken air in my lungs or throughout the rest of my body.
My face was purple, my lips were blue, I had already hurled....and then I realized the rattling. I have never "rattled" before. Ever. Every breath I was taking, I heard the rattling in my lungs.
......
I haven't read all the posts, but this sounds more serious than the average cigarette problem. It really sounds like you went into congestive heart failure - that is to say that your heart wasn't able to keep up with your body's needs for quite some time. It's not a temporary condition, but can get better and worse at times. You should tell your doctor all about this.
I have conditions that brought me into CHF, such as a crappy valve and obesity. In your case, quitting smoking should help quite a lot.
Maybe there are some former smokers who quit permanently by tapering down..but personally, I don't know any..and it never worked for me. As long as cigarettes are in one's life and the capability to smoke is only a pack away, it's very, very difficult, and maybe impossible, to cut out the smoking.
To quit means breaking the habit to smoke, not reducing the habit.
Cold turkey is briefly painful, but once it's over, it's over. Cigarettes are out of your life and the habit is broken and you can move on to a smoke-free life.
You see, the problem is that little cigarette, when you try to quit by tapering down, is constantly calling your name and inviting you to light up. It's still controlling you. You've got to banish it from your life. Out of sight, out of mind.
"Smoking", was what we did way back when, I think I started at about 15 I guess, I could lie and say about a pack a day BUT when one throws in a few beer's at night somewhere ---- the Cigarette packs add up and you don't talk about it. Being stupid and the fact that we'll never get old was the norm.
"Bottom Line" is;
In the middle of the night (many yrs later sleeping) it hit me, I awoke due to NO breath and sit straight up in the bed gasping for air, I tried to inhale as much as I could my closing my nose with my fingers and panting for air and when I tried to blow out what-ever small bit of air I sucked in I heard/felt a pop and I think it was my lungs opening up ---- then it was back to (what was then) normal.
THAT Was My Last Cigarette !!!
I have to say it was a hard 2-3 weeks but the thought in the back of my mind was "QUIT"!!!
I also have to say, I sure miss it every day but I don't smoke, and now don't even like the smell.
Good for you for quitting and listening to your body's cry for air...what a frightening feeling that mus have been. You still miss them? How long ago did you stop? During my quitting phase, I could not imagine a moment when I would not long for them, but how quickly that passed. Years later, it's as though I never smoked..
My cig habit mind party (to quit was 2-3 weeks) but went on to some degree about 2-3 years, I quit about 10 yrs ago. I would have written the date in stone if I really thought I would have quit, because I wanted/tried to quit thousands of times.
I still think about it (from time to time) but also know it's not going to happen. I realize that I'd be dead by now Soooo I'm a happy camper.
Good for you for quitting and listening to your body's cry for air...what a frightening feeling that mus have been. You still miss them? How long ago did you stop? During my quitting phase, I could not imagine a moment when I would not long for them, but how quickly that passed. Years later, it's as though I never smoked..
I remember feeling kind of desperate when I was quitting. I could get through the individual nicotine fits just fine. But it was the thought of getting through the night, or what I'd feel like in the morning if I didn't have a cigarette that scared the heck out of me (that was the addiction talking). Finally, I realized that if I could do without a cigarette NOW, then I could do without one later. So no need to keep a cigarette around "just in case", because I knew that I could manage without one. And day after day - I did manage.
I quit one year ago the week before Easter . I sometimes think having one would be nice but not nice enough to start back,,,no way Its just not worth it .
I smoked for 55 years. In 2004, I got the news that a leaking aortic valve had been getting progressively leaky and would require attention (read: surgery) before I started having symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure. Over those 55 years, I had developed the Smoker's Cough that caused me to spend 20 minutes or so every morning trying to clear out my lungs. (And spending the rest of the day filling them up again!)
I told myself that an incision in my chest was going to be painful enough without a strangling cough added in, so I knew the time had come. On November 2, 2004 at 6:30 AM I smoked my final smoke.
Not the easiest thing I ever did, but I was determined. I kept fruit on hand. I washed my hands a lot. And dishes, and the floor and anything involving wet hands. I pulled the innards out of a white BIC pen and used it as a crutch. Who inhales deeper than a cigarette smoker? When it got really bad, I pulled out the pen and took a big drag. Only now, it was clean air going in. (Also helped to clear out the crap that was in my lungs). The urges came, fast and furious during the first week or so, and gradually diminishing in frequency and intensity. I just viewed them as waves breaking on the shore and then receding. I walked when the weather was amenable and crocheted when it wasn't. I have a cupboard full of afghans.
As far as "cutting down", it rarely works. Notice, please, that I didn't say "never." Your brain loves the pleasurable feeling and if you feed it a little nicotine, it gets used to it. Then it demands more, and more. How do you think you got to be a two-pack-a-day smoker?
On January 20, '05, I had open-heart surgery to replace my valve. My heart now goes "oink, oink,oink" By the time of my surgery, I was no longer hacking up a lung every day.
In 2007, I was acting in a play that required me to smoke on stage. Just one cigarette but every performance - 12. It was a little daunting when I lit that first one, but the taste was so god-awful that it never occurred to me to start all over again. MOF, I kept a toothbrush backstage and as soon as the smoking scene ended and I left the stage, I brushed the taste away.
It isn't easy. It's pretty damned hard. But the truly motivated person will work through the hard part for the greater good. As for medication, it works for some. Patches, gum, pills, whatever. But the only thing that will make you a successful quitter is the determination to kick the habit. Without that, nothing will work. You cannot quit because someone else wants you to. Not parent, spouse, SO, child. This far, I've made it without backsliding. Not saying I'll never smoke again. Just saying that I'm not smoking this week.
Back in '04, I promised myself that if I made it to 75 y.o., I'd buy a carton of smokes, sit on my front porch and puff away. Well, 75 came and went and I didn't do it. I'm 77 and my most recent goal was 80 y.o. but the closer I get to it, the less sure I am that I want to spend all that money on something I'm setting on fire! Of course, having colon cancer in 2009 makes one re-think a lot of plans.
Only one person in my immediate family - 22 people - still smokes. While I would like to see him quit, I can't make him. I don't proselytize. But I figured out why non-smokers love smokers. It's because when they go outside to smoke, the nons- can talk smack about them!
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