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What happened that helped you quit?

sdmsanjose

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What happened that helped you quit?

I smoked for 43 years
I quit a lot of times, one time for 8 months
I have not smoked since 10-17-2005

I wanted to quit for years and then in October 2005 I got sick with lung congestion and flu. I started getting better in November then had a relapse of the same sickness in December. I finally got well in late January. That gave me a great start and I have not smoked since.

Another factor was that I was so disappointed that I had failed to stop smoking so many times and that gave me motivation to try and make it last. I also did what some people call “harm reduction”. I had been cutting down for years and was down to 3-5 cigs a day when I got sick.

I rarely get tempted to smoke and when I do it is a very weak temptation and it is easy to refuse. I have almost no desire to smoke again. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest desire, I am a 1.

What happened that helped you to quit?

 
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rocklife

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those are great encouragements. I also had some sicknesses from smoking, nothing too serious. After having my son, with God's help I was able to quit, I took the 2 days in the hospital when he was born to really keep going with not smoking, break free from the grip of nicotine. I am so thankful, I didn't even notice how much money that pack a day was, it is so much easier to get through the day without having to scrounge the money just for nasty stinky cigarettes. After having my son, I became a Christian, and now have all the reasons in the world never to go back to death sticks. God's gift of our body with good health, saving money for better positive things like good works and supporting our family with more unselfishness, and so much more free time, and not stinking and polluting the environment for those around us, especially the kids.
 
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Atria

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Wow...all your stories are awesome reasons to quit. I honestly wish I could say that my reasons were as selfless. I'm a university student and 5 days ago I stopped smoking (despite the 24, yes I counted 8 times, that are in my book bag) simply because I want to buy more clothes and shoes. I suppose sometimes its the simple reasons that make us change so dramatically. LOL.

Well done everyone! And keep up the non-stinky, awesome effort!!



A.
 
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basment

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Since I'm getting up there in years I wanted to make sure I had adequate life insurance. Well, smokers pay a much higher rate. Also, worring about my health played a part.
I did have a pretty easy time of quitting though, I used the prescription drug chantix. Like most smokers I had quit several times over the years but this was actually the easiest for me. I quit in May 07 and got my wife to quit in Aug 07. I haven't looked back.
 
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Belk

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For me it was the stroke that really did it. Having a stroke at 35 scared the willies out of me. I had quit before and started up again several times. It had always seemed easy the times I quit before so I rationalized my starting again by telling myself "Oh, I'll just quit again at some point." This time because of the stress it was really hard. Even with the patch I still wanted to smoke. I went through the entire patch program (2 1/2 months) And was still having cravings. Ironically it was how hard it was to quit that has helped me not start to smoke again. Remembering how hard I struggled has kept me from giving in when the cravings hit. I'm going on 8 months now without smoking and I think I finally have it beat.
 
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