OK I ##$%^^$ Quit cigarettes

a reply to: LightningStrikesHere

My rant is about the price being too high as a pack a day smoker thats $20 x 365 days or $7300 a year heck I've only ever owned 2 cars in my 49 years worth more than that; and I can get the same damn cigarettes in Thailand for $3.00 a packet so thats $17 x 365 or $6205 tax in one year off one smoker so ya think they are going to ban them with all that revenue no way,I am for real no way am I forking out that sort of money when I know most of it is their filthy taxes.

a reply to: boncho

Our sneaky politicians have that covered with the new Health(drug and poisons)laws the first person to be prosecuted under these laws was charged in Cairns 3 days ago a $2500.00 fine for the possession and selling of nicotine-a controlled substance i.e only to be sold if they control it get their cut,also items that resemble cigarettes are also banned.

a reply to: Unity_99
See my response to Boncho,they are illegal in Queensland Australia where I live with recently introduced laws no doubt to protect their preciious revenues.

a reply to: KnowledgeSeeker81

I agree with the big pharma thing those damn patches cost more than cigarettes themselves and all you are doing is replacing one habit with another no i'll take the hit its only 5 days or so of grief.

good luck with the quitting i find it heaps easier mentally to not quit just have one at the end of my tether everytime its the never again panic that gets me! quitting with option to smoke never having one with coffee or after dinner etc break that habitual connection then just keep having a stab at quitting no stress, no failure .its a marathon not a sprint .not advising it just reporting my way

As of today, I am ONE WEEK into not smoking, I quit last Sunday, and what helps me is to vape. I use the American tobacco flavored juice with 24 ml of nicotine. I will step down gradually and soon be at ZERO nicotine.
I actually took a drag on someone's cig yesterday, and to me it tasted disgusting. I don't see me falling back to it again.
I love my vape tho

a reply to: HomerinNC

I love my vape tho

Good luck with quitting , I've been tobacco free for 12 months now thanks to my e-cig , I'll never smoke again

When my wife and I decided on not smoking in the car, it led to not smoking in the house, which let to smoking outside - sometimes in rain or snow. In the end it cut down so that we smoked perhaps three or four cigarettes a day.

We usually got a packet of 20 when we went to the billard club. One day when we went to the club, my wife asked if we should get a packet. I answered no, and that was it. We didn't smoke anymore.

That's 10 years ago. Or something like that.

The whole proces from not smoking in the car to not smoking took about two years.

Whatever anyone decides on how to quit smoking, we wish them luck. We do, however, not think that exchanging one habit for another is any good. Keeping a habit - like vaping - only lines somebodys pocket for no real personal benefit.

a reply to: khnum

What you say is what they all say. My dad said he stop smoking when they reached 3 (Three) $$$ a pack years ago.

He did not. He died of Lung Cancer, in terrible pain and couldn't breathe.

a reply to: Psynic

Dear one, the Canadian government put out this platform that FROWNS upon esmokes with nicotine. But they're not illegal. I thought so and smoked for years longer, but then did some research and discovered, it was not a law, but a recommendation. That the only way they can sell them online, is if you use your bank account because paypal didn't want to deal with it. But it had nothing to do with actual law, had everything to do with of campaign. Bullying without it being illegal.

Esmokes and the nicotine vapes are perfectly legal in Canada. And, emphasis added, the dopamine drop that accompanies major anxiety that can destroy your life, and requires meds from the pschiatric departments, happens to HALF of all who quit smoking. So kudo's, pat yourself on the back good buddy, but don't dump on other people. Its not an equal opportunity out there but everyone has the right to go at the rate they can.

Furthermore, as a natural anti depressant and native medicine, my two oldest sons are status, have to say, that most of the health risk is due to the 2000 chemicals added and to the radiation in the fertilizers. Organic tobacco, isn't available unless you grow your own, but its not that bad either. GMO worse, far far worse. The fish oil fertilizer they're feeding chickens and livestock to ensure you get your good old fashioned dose of BP's carbon destroying chemicals and Fukushima, far far worse. There is still other things like blood pressure circulation and stroke, but esmokes eliminates that.

If you wanted to be on them for life, no biggie!

a reply to: HomerinNC

Conratulations on giving upI looked into the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on taxation revenues to see how they were declining with all these people giving up ,guess what they aren't declining in fact they are pretty stable the indexation matches or exceeds the rate people give up,well surprise,surprise,surprise now I can do the math if a pack is 20 bucks now and in the next four years half give up presto we arrive at a price of 40 dollars per pack- O yeah the government is really concerned about my health.

I used to smoke, and then I got an electronic cigarette. After using it for a few days, I completely lost all desire to smoke normal cigarettes. I stopped using the e-cig too... No cravings whatsoever.
I don't know how that happened, but now I'm smoke/vape-free after using an e-cig for just a few days.

I must be lucky because I completely stopped smoking cigarrets without patches, gum, pills, psychosis, self help books, self help mp3s, or electronic cigarettes.

I stopped myself using a mind #. I simply kept smoking cigarettes until I couldn't breath.

Since then I have never even wanted to light up a single cigarette.

a reply to: khnum

Ok, it's been seven years, how did it go? Were you able to stop?

My cigarette-story is a bit different. Many times I tried to quit, some times I sort of 'succeeded', but after months, after even a year, if something 'dramatic' happened, or I drank alcohol or something, I started slipping back. I couldn't have coffee without getting 'the urge' - I had connected cigarettes to so many things that if I started doing any of those, I always slipped back to cigs as well.

Then I quit. No, not cigarettes. I quit 'quitting smoking'.

I didn't care anymore, I didn't try to quit anymore. Never have I quit since.

However, one morning, just before smoking my first cigarette of the day, I wanted to savor the smell of the morning air and nature (I think it was later spring or early summer), and just postpone that cigarette a bit, as I knew it would bring my physical feeling 'down', hurt my lungs, and make it impossible to smell anything.

I wanted to enjoy the 'light' feeling before the cig makes me feel 'heavy' again. So I had fun enjoying the nature, smelling, breathing freely and feeling less heavy than after the first cigarette. I wanted to enjoy and savor that feeling a bit more, so I ignored the urge to smoke and sort of replaced it with the need to postpone the 'heavy feeling' just a little bit more.

One minute lead to another, and soon I had postponed the whole morning, and I still wasn't -quite- ready to smoke that cigarette. I didn't want that 'heavy feeling' JUST yet, no matter what my body was urging me to do. My lungs usually hurt a bit, too, after the first cigarette, so I wanted to postpone that as well.

Somehow I ended up 'enjoying the lighter (no pun intended) feeling' the whole day, and was able to go to sleep without smoking (yet).

Next morning, I thought, I will smoke again - just enjoying this moment first.

And that's how it went.. the next day was pretty much the same story - I had 100% intention of smoking, I was just postponing it JUST a little bit more, then I will smoke. Just a few more 'better breaths', before succumbing to the urge.

I never quit, I am still technically 'a smoker', I am still 'smoking', but I have just postponed the first cigarette of the morning for around nine years now. I might smoke today, I might smoke in 5 minutes or sooner, who knows. I am just not smoking right now, because I want this breath to feel better before succumbing to the cigarette.

Some people say that it's easier to stay away from alcohol if they keep alcohol in the house, so it's right there, ready to be picked up immediately. It's like a psychological safety mechanism - you don't have to panic and rush to get it, since it's already right there, you can do it any time you want, and this gives you the freedom of choice to also postpone it a bit.

I don't know if this works for anyone else, and I didn't do it consciously, this was not a 'trick', I didn't try to do anything. It just organically happened this way because of 'heavy feeling', 'lung pain' and 'wanting to enjoy some better-tasting breaths first'.

To me, switching from cigarettes to vaping, nicotine cum or nicotine patches is kind of weird and weak. It's like switching from coffee to tea. You're still doing the same thing.

It's like Charlie Harper in 'Two and a Half Men' quitting drinking - he still keeps drinking beer and wine, thinking that's what 'quitting drinking alcohol' means.. "But he said he quit. - He actually thinks he did."

You CAN fight it and quit by gnashing your teeth and going through 'withdrawals' like an enraged mental patient, but in the end, this kind of struggle/fight only enforces the desire we seemingly conquered, and at a weak moment, it can come back like uncontrollable lust.

I remember many a night (long time ago, when I was still trying to 'quit') running vast distances just to get some gas station that's open all night, just so I could inhale my lungs full of poisonous chemical fumes and feel some kind of artificial, temporary fulfillment and satisfaction. It can be a devastating urge.

It's not so bad when you don't quit, and you plan to smoke and keep smoking for the rest of your life - you can always postpone 5 seconds, and THEN smoke. But after 5 seconds, you might change your mind and postpone it just a bit further to enjoy the lighter feel, etc..

The thing about smoking and cigarettes, is that... is it useful? What do you REALLY get out of it? You pay and pay, what's the end result, what have you got to show for all that investment?

Poisoned body? Badly functioning, painful, coughing, ineffective, sick lungs? Yellowed and smelly fingers? Horribly smelly clothes? Bad teeth that will never heal if you have a bacteria destroying your gums?

I don't know, for spending so much money regularly, I'd expect something a bit more useful or constructive.. something to show for it. Even an internet connection is more useful, you can use it for so many things, from social life to business and purchases and even creativity.

What can you use 'smoking' for? How does it enhance your life? What do you _really_ get out of it, except a temporary fix that bothers everyone around you in a very aggressively hostile and insulting way? (Taking away their breathable air that they need to live, and poisoning them as well is pretty hostile, if you ask me)

There can't be arguments for smoking besides finding an argument about 'people dying faster' or some such thing that's good for the planet and economy, keeping up health services and such (if everyone was healthy, we wouldn't need many health services, except for accidents and injuries and such).. smoking is, logically thinking, utterly and completely useless, no one benefits it (except evil people financially, and the planet because people die quicker).