since tweety, marla, silverdragon102, thecommuter, and arwen_u, my co-staff, bared their hearts...i can do no less. my first smoke, or taste, was when i was in the first grade...by my alcoholic stepfather. i began smoking as a habit since my sixth grade...allowed to smoke openly in the house during my 8th grade. everyone in my family smoked. in my family, being of appalachian descent, smoking never batted an eye. folks who did not smoke were more of the exception to the rule. it was a way of life...if not a rite of passage...like getting one's driver's license. i have quit many a times and started back up many a times during my life. my biggest run of sobriety was for 6 years, but i ended up falling off the wagon, er...cigarette truck due to stress...it's in my bio story (bio link). personally, i love to smoke...but i know as a nurse that it is not good for me. i hate the way my clothes and apartment smells when i do. i hate the amount of monies wasted on it. cancer in our family is unheard of, on either side...so the fear of cancer never ever came to me as a concern....and they all smoked like chimneys, living to their elder days. good genes, i guess. i don't deny the risk of cancer...but, it doesn't seem real to me growing up in the family i did. cold turkey was the best way for me many times. i even tried chantix once....which was very helpful then. something that i may again try real soon....for the withdrawals (very real) were nonexistant for me. i look forward to reading others' successes, as well as their struggles, with smoking and other addictions. it gives hope. unless one has been hooked on a substance, it makes it hard to be empathetic to one who is...i know this...so i try to be patient and understanding to those who do not know/have experienced it for themselves.
yes...i will think about the chantix once again. maybe it is time once more.
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
A massive MI, CVA or end stage COPD are my only hopes of retireing earily. If I quit smoking now I'll just have to work longer to draw my pension. If I can keep up at 2PPD I'm thinking I'll be off the job by 55.
Trust me dear, you will regret that. I am in endstage COPD. have had a PE, and 2 minor CVAs, the second one being worse than the first. If you wait until this happens, you will regret ever saying it. I quit smoking 42 years ago, and although it took me 18 years of staying smoke free one day at a time, I was always happy I got through another day. The COPD popped up in 2002.
Hi, I'm Karen and I am a grateful recovering smoker! I never really wanted to quit but I felt really pressured to do it and was embarrassed for anyone to see me smoking. I started on Chantix and cut my smoking by half during the first twelve weeks. I was then truly a smoking addict, smoking only at home where no one could see me. During the start my second twelve weeks of Chantix I got a cold and had a non smoking visitor for a week. After that was under my belt it was relatively easy to stay quit. I did take advantage of the Get Quit website through daily emails. Now at 100 days quit I have graduated to twice weekly e-mails from them. I am wll aware that I can never smoke even one cigarette again or I will be right back to smoking. So I take it one day at a time. Another helpful website for me is Hazeldon who also send daily e-mails. Smoking is just another addiction perhaps one of the worst. Keep at it, Thunderwolf! I can't begin to tell you how much better I feel, look and smell!!!!:w00t::balloons:
i have been smoking since i was in 7th grade. i did it because someone told me it would help me stay skinny. now i can't stop. i am also a recovering anorexic/bulimic, and i am scared to death if i quit smoking i will gain alot of weight. i know how stupid that sounds, i really do. i am ashamed.
i don't enjoy smoking. i don't think i ever did. i hate the taste and i hate the smell. i hate how my nails are yellow and i hate how my teeth are stained.
but i hate the person i am when i am not smoking, because that person is anxious, crabby and hungry. my relationship with cigarettes is very ambivalent.
i have tried patches, gums, lozenges, hypnosis, laser treatment, etc. my last resort is chantix. i am waiting until graduation though so i have the extra cash becasue it is sooo expensive.
thank you to thunderwolf for starting this thread, and keep up the good work!! i hope we can all help each other stomp out our smoking habit.
since tweety, marla, silverdragon102, thecommuter, and arwen_u, my co-staff, bared their hearts...i can do no less. my first smoke, or taste, was when i was in the first grade...by my alcoholic stepfather. i began smoking as a habit since my sixth grade...allowed to smoke openly in the house during my 8th grade. everyone in my family smoked. in my family, being of appalachian descent, smoking never batted an eye. folks who did not smoke were more of the exception to the rule. it was a way of life...if not a rite of passage...like getting one's driver's license. i have quit many a times and started back up many a times during my life. my biggest run of sobriety was for 6 years, but i ended up falling off the wagon, er...cigarette truck due to stress...it's in my bio story (bio link). personally, i love to smoke...but i know as a nurse that it is not good for me. i hate the way my clothes and apartment smells when i do. i hate the amount of monies wasted on it. cancer in our family is unheard of, on either side...so the fear of cancer never ever came to me as a concern....and they all smoked like chimneys, living to their elder days. good genes, i guess. i don't deny the risk of cancer...but, it doesn't seem real to me growing up in the family i did. cold turkey was the best way for me many times. i even tried chantix once....which was very helpful then. something that i may again try real soon....for the withdrawals (very real) were nonexistant for me. i look forward to reading others' successes, as well as their struggles, with smoking and other addictions. it gives hope. unless one has been hooked on a substance, it makes it hard to be empathetic to one who is...i know this...so i try to be patient and understanding to those who do not know/have experienced it for themselves.
yes...i will think about the chantix once again. maybe it is time once more.
peace
thanks for sharing. wow, it really must be difficult when you start so young. that carries a whole other level of psychology with it. i didn't start until i married a smoker.
i quit smoking so many times... although i did not bring it up in na/aa meetings, i started to incorporate smoking into my 12 step routines. still could not quit. i'm not sure what finally took--probably the kids, one way or another. gum helped me, but i know it doesn't help everyone.
like mr. tweetie said in another post, you only fail when you stop trying. :smiley_ab
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
Thanks for sharing. Wow, it really must be difficult when you start so young. That carries a whole other level of psychology with it. I didn't start until I married a smoker.
I quit smoking so many times... Although I did not bring it up in NA/AA meetings, I started to incorporate smoking into my 12 step routines. STILL could not quit. I'm not sure what finally took--probably the kids, one way or another. Gum helped me, but I know it doesn't help everyone.
So true. I began smoking when I was 8, and it took me 18 years of withdrawl, feelings doing one day at a time before I no longer had the craving. I tried cutting down, but it didn't work, so I went cold turkey. My brother was 7, and he is still smoking.
Wolfie, and everyone else who's struggling, I can relate. I had started smoking at 17, eventually went cold turkey and I've been smoke free for 25 years. But it wasn't easy and I wasn't successful the first time around. Or the second or third. Heck, I'd be driving by someone on the sidewalk and wanted to mug them for their cigarettes. But it can be done, and you will. Don't give up.
I'm MB37, 28, and I've smoked since I was 16. I've tried the patch, the gum, and most recently Chantix. None of them worked. I've mostly gotten myself to the point where I don't smoke in the daytime (although I want to every minute), but as soon as I walk into a bar (even if I'm not drinking) I can't help but light up. I tended bar for 10 years before NS, so that's pretty much my entire social life. If I quit going out I will never see anyone I know, and I have few enough friends anyways living in a new state.
I went to the ER in August, at 2 in the morning when I had class at 8, with a case of hemoptysis. I coughed up maybe 500cc of frank red blood, my BP spiked to like 160/110 (and I already have HTN), and my HR was throught the roof. They just told me it was "acute bronchitis," and as long as I quit smoking I should be fine. I got the scrip for Chantix, paid my $120 a month for two months, and tried like hell to quit. Didn't happen. I probably smoked a pack yesterday. Chantix gave me crazy dreams and I didn't feel rested for one day during those two months. I'm a nursing student, and I just can't survive without sleeping - I get little enough as it is. The patch and gum never made much of a difference, since I think my addiction is more psychological than chemical. Not really sure what to try next...Wellbutrin maybe? I figure too that since my husband and I are going to try for kids when I graduate, I can just quit then maybe? At least I won't be drinking for 9 months when that happens, so it might be a little easier to control...DH doesn't smoke but he dips Copenhagen, and if he's getting his nicotine in I want mine too. I hate it, but I just don't seem to have the willpower to quit.
i really want to bring this thread back. i'm a 20yr smoker and i don't want to quit. i like smoking. but as many of you have stated, it's a bad, disgusting habit. i've been trucking along with my pre-req's for a little over a year now and took a break to become a cna. i plan to work at the hospital as a tech while i go to ns.
i got my first taste of shame during cna clinicals at a ltcf, where i was "called out" by my preceptor and then asked to not smoke while driving to clinicals or during break, which had to be off property as well.
i just know that the further along i go through school and work, the more i will be ashamed of my addiction. i think i can survive a 12 hr shift w/o a smoke just as long as i get to smoke 1/2 a pack on my way in. 1mg of nicotine per cigarette.
does anyone else get flack for being a smoker from the people you work with or your classmates?
I'm a smoker too. Well, .. I quit for two years, and honestly, during those two years, I really didn't want to smoke. I used the patch to quit, and even put up with my husband smoking... made him start going outside. The house started smelling better. You could actually smell those glade plug ins that were stuck into the outlet.
I had a minor traffic accident and my friend with me was smoking. That's all it took, and I've been smoking ever since then. That was 6 years ago.
I need to quit, but I don't have that feeling that I had before when I quit. I am just not ready. I know that I should be ready, and I should want to quit, but I don't. And I don't know why I'm not ready to quit.
Well, .. I quit for two years, and honestly, during those two years, I really didn't want to smoke. I used the patch to quit, and even put up with my husband smoking... made him start going outside. The house started smelling better. You could actually smell those glade plug ins that were stuck into the outlet.
FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I
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