Where do you fall in the smoking spectrum?

[cyndilouwhoo]

Color me nosy.

After a week off smokes (and in a quest to find something else to do with my hands ) I am wondering where all the EA folks fall within the smoking spectrum.

And attention ex-smokers. How did you quit? Cold Turkey? The Patch? Gum? Zyban?

Nicotine fiends need to know!

[jgibson2[$]]

And attention ex-smokers. How did you quit? Cold Turkey? The Patch? Gum? Zyban?

I'm in the "not in this lifetime" camp, but I have friends and relatives who are ex smokers

My mom -- cold turkey in 1963, never smoked since

My dad -- cold turkey in 1963, 1975, 1988 -- I think that's all. He hasn't smoked in a long time.

My older sister - gradually tapered down to 2 cigarettes/day, then cold turkey

A younger sister goes cold turkey every year or so. She's currently smoking, but figures that she gains a few extra days of breathing every time she quits. She's tried Zyban, not helpful for her.

Another younger sister used the patch -- and still doesn't smoke, but her motivation was that her feet had very poor circulation and the doctor told her she was likely to end up in a wheelchair sans feet if she didn't give it up.

Neighbor -- patch -- worked, but she started again. Gum - two thumbs down. Some kind of inhaler -- again two thumbs down. Now she's just tapering.

Friend -- pneumonia. Didn't smoke for 2 years after that, but she's smoking again.

I hope that helps -- and congratulations on the smoke-free week!!

[soxfan[$]]

I'm an ex-smoker. I was never a pack-a-day smoker but was definitely addicted for a while.

I quit cold turkey. It took me several tries -- didn't take until I made it a birthday present to someone (didn't matter that she never found out about it).

Ailsa

[rich2003dm]

I've been a pack and a half a day smoker for longer than most of you young'uns have been alive.

And I'm never going to quit.

It's actually quite beneficial for me.

I find I don't need as much oxygen as I used to. Why else would my breathing be so shallow now?

At social gatherings, people give me a lot of personal space.

It's also great for my cardiovascular health since I have to walk quite a long distance to leave the building where I work to have a cigarette. All that walking must be good for me.

I'm also helping society since I purchase my cigarettes via the internet from Native Americans.

It's win/win for everybody!

Gluckenfartenfinglebum

[Grouch]

Ex-smoker.
Cold Turkey.

(I had to start smoking, or at least pretending to smoke, for a role in a play during college. I'll never forget my first cigarette: a Kool. It felt like I was inhaling a package of mints. Crystallized my lungs and took me several days to recover. Then I discovered the "joys" of Marlboro Lights. It was my brand of choice for the next two years. Then I met a beautiful woman--also an ex-smoker--and married said beautiful woman. Three weeks after the wedding, the b.w. told me I had a choice: stop smoking, or sleep outside. This ultimatum was leveled at me during the month of January, I might add. I snapped all my cigs in half, flushed them down the toilet, and have never regretted it since).

[AmyLEnsor]

Both my parents were smokers, so I've never even touched one. I couldn't stand growing up surrounded by it. My father quit at some point in the 80s, about a year before he had surgery for an aortic aneursym. At that point he had been smoking for over 40 years. My mom quit I believe about 10 or 11 years ago. She struggled with quitting for years, and quit short term many times. She became such a cranky bitch during those times. My dad never tried to quit, but he said that one day he would. The day he quit he never smoked another one and I think it was important for him to believe he had this strong willpower. I think he had cravings for it even a year later, though. For the first few years my mom said that if she found out she was going to die, she'd pick up smoking again. Now she is to the point where she can't stand it and doesn't know how she ever did it.

[AmyLEnsor]

Oh, my older sister used to smoke when she was in her early twenties, but she didn't smoke that much and she quit after a few years. Then when she was about 40 years old or so, she found out her 16 year old daughter was smoking. So did she put her foot down? Nope, she ended up buying cigarettes for her daughter because she said it was better that her daughter not steal them, which is what she was afraid would happen. Then my sister started smoking again! I could not believe it. My personal opinion was that she should take a hard line against the smoking -- even if it didn't work to completely curtail it, my thought was that it would at least make it a little more difficult and her daughter might not smoke as much. As it was, they both ended up smoking a lot more than they otherwise would have, in my opinion.

A year or so later, my sister found out her youngest daughter had also started smoking before she even turned 15. So my sister had to buy cigarettes for yet another child. :: By this time her other smoking daughter was living on her own and trying to quit. So I guess my sister needed someone else to smoke with.

[nicholmere]

I've never smoked. Never been interested in trying.

My mum smoked as I was growing up. I hated it. Used to beg her to not smoke, would hide her cigarettes, would write "cancer" on her cigarettes. Just made her angry. She'd send me to the store to buy her more. Gave me money to buy myself candy as a thank-you ... anyone see the beginning of live long battles with candy/food as a reward?

When I was a young teenager she had to go into the hospital for some emergency surgery, was stuck in there for a few weeks. Didn't smoke while she was there, never started again. Militant anti-smoker now.

My grandfather smoked a pipe and cigarettes. Quit the cigarettes around the time he retired, age 55 or so. Quit the pipe about ten years ago (age 65). Couldn't care less if other people smoke, never notices smoking restaurants ... etc. Even though I've never been interested in smoking cigarettes I remember trying out my grandfather's pipe. When he was out of the room I put it, unlit, in my mouth. Almost choked to death from the vile taste. Despite my dislike for smoke of any kind, the smell of fresh (not being smoked) pipe tobacco brings back lots of fond memories of my grandfather.

A friend quite smoking on his 30th birthday - cold turkey. It's been eight years now. Says he thinks about it every now and then, but has yet to ever have another one.

Another friend quit almost four years ago - cold turkey. Say she doesn't even think about them anymore.

[Magick1]

I used to smoke, maybe 1/2 - 1 pack a day, for 13 years. (Started when I was 13, so one of those teenage "statistics".)

But, cold turkey only way to go. Patches, didn't want to waste my money on them, but when I considered the prices cigs were going to, I made a pact with my hubby....he decided to help me stop, cold turkey, by offering me a goregous gold necklace once I stopped smoking, and remained a non-smoker for 1 year, if I remember correctly.

It was the money that I would have technically spent on cigs, had I continued smoking.

Cold turkey, with an incentive plan! You always have to reward yourself for "good" behaviour!

Three or four cigars a year, maybe one or two cigarettes a year.

I am a serious second-hand smoker though. My wife smokes, and it doesn't bother me all that much. Ticks off the cats, though. Even her chunkybucket fat kitty will turn around on the back of her comfy chair and face the other way when she lights one up.

NOTE - NEVER GET DRUNK AND TRY TO LIGHT A CAT'S FART

[lynnzop[$]]

EX

Quit for the last time on the first day of vacation - cold turkey - with Hubby.

Longest stinking vacation we ever had. We had screaming matches in the front yard.

(One in particular, about whether or not I could drive an AUTOMATIC transmission - which I could not - still makes us chuckle to this day.)

But I've never had another puff. I know I'd be right back on the merry-go-round again.

And I HATE the smell of smoke, except occasionally when I catch a whiff on a cold fall day OUTSIDE.

Lynn
(One of those nasty ex-smokers)

[jenninca]

Never touched one. My grandfather and step-grandmother (now ex-step-grandmother--what a lovely family I have) were both heavy smokers for years and years. I hated visiting them while they were smokers because when we left I had to ride home for three hours in the car smelling like smoke.

My grandfather quit a long time ago and hasn't touched one since, as far as I know. Don't know about the step-grandma--she's disappeared.

Cindy

[murasaki]

I checked "Not in my lifetime" because there wasn't a box for: had a couple with my best friend in fifth grade in the irrigation ditch behind her house; made me so sick I never tried it again.

My husband is an ex-smoker. He quit modified cold-turkey, over time, mostly because he knows I can't stand it. His mother still smokes like a chimney.

My friend's husband used to smoke. Now he has the occasional cigar (the really expensive ones) once every few months. He smokes the cigar, writes about the cigar in his smoking journal, writes what he thinks about while he's smoking the cigar in his journal, and pastes the cigar band in when he's done. That's not smoking, in my opinion, that's a hobby!

Oh, and I did have half of a cigar once, just when that craze for women smoking cigars was getting big. I did it in a roomful of military officers, taking drags off my then-friend-now-husband's cigar. A lot of those guys told me how sexy I looked smoking that cigar. God, the taste was too awful.

--naomi

[drmomentum[$]]

Not in my lifetime.

I used to house sit and babysit for a professor of mine who was a heavy smoker and so was his wife. That is, until their cat died of lung cancer. Apparently that is some sort of wake-up call. Maybe they didn't want their daughter's lungs to go the same way.

If a cat can use up all of its 9 lives that way, it's something I can avoid with my measly 1 life.

-JP

[poseidon]

Color me "No way, never." I'm allergic to cigarette smoke.

[amykhar]

Originally posted by poseidon
Color me "No way, never." I'm allergic to cigarette smoke.

Actually, you're not technically allergic. I just read an article about allergies. An allergy can only be triggered by a protein. The cigarrette smoke causes a histamine reaction in you, but you are not allergic to it. Sort of like pepper causes you to sneeze, but you are not allergic to pepper.

Amy

[amykhar]

You forgot "once ever 10 years or so."

I tried it as a kid, and I also tried one a few years ago when I was in college because of some stuff that I had read about the effects of nicotine. Never have been a smoker by habit though.

Amy

[vonboob]

Competition level sport is very demanding so I started smoking relatively late: at the grad school. The few years after, I peaked at about 40 cigarettes a day. Since I moved to the mountains, the need to smoke is not here. Yes, it is a constant battle still, in particular not to smoke then stuck in traffic: that’s another reason why I love my bike…
I smoke a small cigar or a pipe for nightcap with a good drink though and a real stogie for special occasions. Considering it as nicotine fix (pipe or cigar) almost everyday, it is more than "recreational" and I can’t say that I ever did quit smoking.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

I just read this: There may someday be a cure for lung cancer:

Scientists: Genes Found That May Slow Lung Cancer

Now wouldn't that be blissful? Smoking without guilt or fear ...

Yeah, I know, dream on. But it's such a nice dream ...

[jgibson2[$]]

Lung cancer isn't the only thing to fear. Emphysema is at least as bad. It kills you just as dead, just as miserably, and generally more slowly.

Then there are all those other diseases associated with regular smoking:

Coronary artery disease
Stroke
Hypertension
Assorted other cancers
Mouth
Esophagus
Larynx
Bladder
Stomach
Colon
Kidney

The list goes on and on and on.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

spoilsport!!!!

[jsgoddess]

I've never smoked. My husband was a smoker when we met. He had been smoking some since he was THREE. His parents thought it was sooo cute to take pictures of baby Steve with a cigarette in his mouth. Yes, they ARE that stupid.

But I digress. He stopped smoking cold turkey after meeting me. Claimed he had never had a good reason to stop before.

If he isn't the sweetest man, I don't know who is.

Julie