I quit smoking

I've been a smoker since I was 7 years old, bad I know but there are really scary reasons behind that which I don't want to get into. I recently have found myself getting really short of breath just walking up the stairs to my gaff, I am even having trouble just walking short distances, my calves lock up and I get out of breath really quickly. I figure my diet was the problem so i cut out extra salt, I cut out caffeine and i have cut out superfluous fats, didn't make any difference. I spoke to my Doctor and she suggested I try to cut down smoking in readiness to quit smoking. I don't like doing things the easy way so I just quit right there and then, I made a conscious decision to stop smoking and I haven't touch a cigarette since.

It was four days ago that I made this decision and by GOD is it proving really hard, I had no idea giving up smoking could be so hard. It even has me waking up in the middle of the night with maddening cravings for a smoke, all the habit points of smoking are seriously 'raw', after a meal is the worst, I can't figure out what to do with myself half the time. I know quitting smoking is a smart life choice but it is so hard! :(

Congratulations! I applaud you on your decision to quit. Stick with it, and in 15-20 years you'll be as healthy as someone who has never smoked.

Not only will you live longer, and hopefully avoid cancer, but you'll also smell much nicer. Smokers don't often realise that they stink of smoke 24/7. They don't realise this because firstly, they get used to the smell, and secondly because smoking actually reduces a person's sense of smell and taste.

Congratulations on a job well done so far . I just had a hard time giving up caffeine and switching to wearing glasses, but this must be much harder. I will be displeased if you don't continue .

Congratulations and definitely stick with it. My parent's were both long-time smokers and both said that quitting was the hardest thing they ever did. And both now say that it was they greatest gift that they have ever given themselves.

You seem to accomplish anything you put your mind to so I am confident that you will conquer this too.

Bob

I was a smoker from my 14e to mine 56. I stopped on one day and never smoke again. Yes it can be hard, but think at your healness then It will be easier.

I applaud your decision and courage to go "cold turkey" on this. It is not easy.

I also stopped smoking 6 years ago after contracting the dengue fever (a virus-caused disease that is spread by mosquitoes). After living many years in Africa, I found myself lucky to have escaped the ravages of malaria to be struck by something I've never heard off before. Anyway, if not for that I may still be smoking, for I never wanted to quit. I found that chewing on little plastic coffee stirrers is a passable substitute. I still miss my cigarettes every day, but understand it would have killed me.

It changed my "happy go lucky" outlook on life for one mixed with grumpiness, or is it due to growing older and simply being more mature?  Thank God I still play computer games to remind me that I'm still a kid at heart.

Keeping with this kind of decision is the hardest.  You must find good reasons every day to justify it. You seem to be the kind of person who can pull through this.
Cheers!
Jean

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and the wonderful depth of understanding you have all shown me. I am really struggling to get through this, being alone seems to be making it harder in fact.

The cravings for a cigarette are actually getting stronger, I am finding myself struggling to keep a civil tongue most of the time. I usually speak my mind and take no nonsense from anyone anyway but I am becoming quite vicious at times, it's really scaring me how often I am exploding in uncontrollable rage.

I don't normally swear often but my language can be awful right now, I would never have dreamt myself capable of such foul language. I can feel the most horrible rage boiling up inside of me and it comes in almost suffocating waves.

I am going to force myself through this but to be totally truthful I honestly wish I hadn't quit now, I had no idea what was coming and the cravings are supposed to go on for a horrifying 4 weeks, god give me strength, because I need it.

Your battles may not become less significant, but each day your battles will become easier to win, and your courage will become stronger.

You will gain your courage one day at a time. You have already made it through the most difficult part - you've made the choice to change. Don't worry about yesterday, it's done and over. Don't worry about the battle facing you tomorrow, you can't do anything about it anyway. Focus on today, it is what you can change. Do not be afraid of failing, but be courageous to try again. Think of each battle, won or lost, as a learning opportunity, and use that new knowledge to win the next battle.

Do not worry or stress over things you can not change. For if you can not change them, there is no need to worry about them because it will happen anyway.

Do not worry or stress over things you can change, because if you can change them, there was no need to worry about them in the first place.

I give you permission to swear mercilessly in this topic.

If its to hard for you at some moments, it helps to go out in the nature for a hour of so. Other tip is. If you can survived the first two weeks, then it will be going much easier.  You can do it!!

I am SO HAPPY for you that you have chosen to do this. Let me warn you of something a lot of people don't realize that smoking does to a person.

People have heard of Lung disease and Cancer and Heart disease etc that smoking causes, but it does a lot more and there is one disease which a lot of people haven't heard of caused by smoking (and based on your description could be one you have caught) called Burgers Disease.

Burgers Disease (unfortunately nothing to with McDonalds lol) is from smoking and causes the Capillaries in your limbs to shrink. This can lead to serious complications one of which is a loss of limb.

I know this because this is what happened to me just over 2 years ago. I had the same trouble as you (calves locking up when walking feet incredibly sore) and one day I woke up  and my foot was white (I am Caucasian but I am talking as white as it can get). There was no blood flow in  my foot, I went to hospital and was in Agony for about 3 and a half weeks while they tried everything they could to unblock a clot in my foot (from smoking) including cutting my leg open from about the Knee to the Ankle which I sat for a week able to look inside (when the changed bandages each day) and see my calf muscle bones and veins etc. We are talking a 12 - 14 inch by 4 - 5 inch gap I was looking into. To be honest it was sorta cool although gross too. Anyway They were unsuccessful and the edges of the open wound started to contract Gangrene and I lost my leg from just below the knee. That was Dec 2 years ago. This was because of  smoking.

You sound like you could be on the same path so I hope you take it very seriously and push through these first couple of hard weeks and keep on succeeding!

My Experience has been this. First Week and a half to sometimes 3 is the hardest After that it starts to get easy but then after 6 weeks for about a week or so it gets hard again. This is a dangerous time because you have some confidence that you made it this far and so you might think you can afford to have just one. YOU CAN'T!!! The next time it gets hard might be the 3 month mark but it's not as ugly as earlier and one thing to help you is to remind yourself you can honestly say you've made 3 months and its not worth throwing that away now. From then on its much much easier with  small ten minute deep cravings rearing their ugly head every now and then but they do keep getting easier to get thru if you just stay strong.

You Can Do It and I pray for you to have the Strength! Good Luck.

Thanks for sharing that story, Duck.

I have a strong interested in medicine and I always enjoy learning about such things. I also have many friends who are smokers. I'm going to post this link on Facebook and see if any of them get the message!: Thromboangiitis obliterans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks Robbie,

I thought I may have misspelled it (Beurgers Disease), which I did, but it is pronounced the way I spelled it so that should help people not to confuse it with Bergers (Pronounced Berjers).

 I had never heard of it till it happened to me.

 Somehow I think if I had of it wouldn't have stopped me cause I had heard of Cancer and the other big ones and they didn't scare me. You never think the stories will happen to you. But still I hope the thought that there is more than people realize that can go wrong might help to reinforce that it is a wise decision to quit.

I would like to add that I think the single most important factor in quitting that one should look forward to is to NO LONGER BE A SLAVE to the addiction. To have your freedom. A smoker cannot enjoy life as much because they are always worried about their next fix.  When you start to no longer have it interrupt your enjoyment of something (a meal, a movie, a social gathering etc) you really appreciate being FREE!

BTW I was also told that quitting smoking has an almost immediate effect of stopping the progression of Beurgers. By reading your article I note it can still progress but more slowly so that should still encourage those concerned that quitting is an excellent idea if you could be developing the disease.

Chris Graham said

I give you permission to swear mercilessly in this topic.

So sweet of you Chris, but I shall maintain my dignity and only cuss when someone really gets on my nerves.

Duck said

I am SO HAPPY for you that you have chosen to do this. Let me warn you of something a lot of people don't realize that smoking does to a person.

People have heard of Lung disease and Cancer and Heart disease etc that smoking causes, but it does a lot more and there is one disease which a lot of people haven't heard of caused by smoking (and based on your description could be one you have caught) called Burgers Disease.

Burgers Disease (unfortunately nothing to with McDonalds lol) is from smoking and causes the Capillaries in your limbs to shrink. This can lead to serious complications one of which is a loss of limb.

I know this because this is what happened to me just over 2 years ago. I had the same trouble as you (calves locking up when walking feet incredibly sore) and one day I woke up  and my foot was white (I am Caucasian but I am talking as white as it can get). There was no blood flow in  my foot, I went to hospital and was in Agony for about 3 and a half weeks while they tried everything they could to unblock a clot in my foot (from smoking) including cutting my leg open from about the Knee to the Ankle which I sat for a week able to look inside (when the changed bandages each day) and see my calf muscle bones and veins etc. We are talking a 12 - 14 inch by 4 - 5 inch gap I was looking into. To be honest it was sorta cool although gross too. Anyway They were unsuccessful and the edges of the open wound started to contract Gangrene and I lost my leg from just below the knee. That was Dec 2 years ago. This was because of  smoking.

You sound like you could be on the same path so I hope you take it very seriously and push through these first couple of hard weeks and keep on succeeding!

My Experience has been this. First Week and a half to sometimes 3 is the hardest After that it starts to get easy but then after 6 weeks for about a week or so it gets hard again. This is a dangerous time because you have some confidence that you made it this far and so you might think you can afford to have just one. YOU CAN'T!!! The next time it gets hard might be the 3 month mark but it's not as ugly as earlier and one thing to help you is to remind yourself you can honestly say you've made 3 months and its not worth throwing that away now. From then on its much much easier with  small ten minute deep cravings rearing their ugly head every now and then but they do keep getting easier to get thru if you just stay strong.

You Can Do It and I pray for you to have the Strength! Good Luck.

Good heavens, if your story is not reason enough for anyone to go ahead and quit smoking I don't know what would be.

I wont be smoking again, as hard as i am finding it to go through it all I have made my decision and i will be sticking to it. I have no concerns with smoking again, I am simply finding it much much much much harder than I ever suspected it would be to give up smoking.

I wont let you guys down, you wait and see.

Okay, so I am going to take your offer to vent off steam Chris.








BIG JOBS!!!!!








There, I said it. :)






(refer to Vyvyan in The Young ones, I almost pee'd myself when I first saw that sketch where Vyv' swears, seriously, remember this scene, the guys are doing the "there's someone at the door scene" from BORING:
MIKE: Vyvyan, you ever heard of cloning?
VYVYAN: [thinks] No!
MIKE: Oh, that's good! Would you swear to that?
VYVYAN: Certainly, if that's what you want. [runs over and looks directly at Mike] Big Jobs!
It's as if that's totally foul language to Vyv', I adore Ade, he played Vyvyan brilliantly, absolutely wonderful humour! Ben Elton is such a talented writer, shame he's such a lame git.)