| Smokers / Ex-Smokers 15:04 - Nov 6 with 7865 views | MeenoITFC |
I'm 20, been smoking for 4 years now, people always say I should give it up. I would like to, but as the saying goes I 'don't have a reason too'.
Of course the health and money reasons but I actually don't mind smoking. What are your thoughts and how would you advise on stopping without a solid reason. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 17:55 - Nov 6 with 2920 views | factual_blue |
Mrs Factual gave up thirty years ago. She and a friend from work went to an acupuncturist. Mrs Factual was determined and stayed off tobacco.
Her friend soon got back on cigarettes. Within about five years she was dead from lung cancer, leaving two sons. She was a single parent, and in her forties when she died.
I pass no comment on whether acupuncture works. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 19:15 - Nov 6 with 2887 views | Vintage65 |
| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 17:55 - Nov 6 by factual_blue |
Mrs Factual gave up thirty years ago. She and a friend from work went to an acupuncturist. Mrs Factual was determined and stayed off tobacco.
Her friend soon got back on cigarettes. Within about five years she was dead from lung cancer, leaving two sons. She was a single parent, and in her forties when she died.
I pass no comment on whether acupuncture works. |
I smoked loads from when I was 13 to 40 years old.
Stopped smoking using Allen Carrs Easyway book, and quite simply never wanted to smoke again once I'd read that book!
I had tried to stop smoking hundreds of times, and never thought I would, so that book was absolutely brilliant for me and actually made it easy to stop. |  | | |
| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 19:22 - Nov 6 with 2879 views | PJH |
| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 16:23 - Nov 6 by Lord_Lucan |
Smoking makes you look cool. |
The only two part cigarettes that I ever had (as a fourteen year old)just made me cough, not sure if I looked cool at the time.
edit-I suppose that I qualify as an ex smoker. [Post edited 6 Nov 2018 19:23]
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 19:30 - Nov 6 with 2869 views | britbiker |
Had a chap I worked with who sounded just like you and used to say "when your times up its up" as an excuse to carry on smoking.
Twenty years later he died of hypothermia. He struggled to breath so badly that he went outside hoping to be able to breathe easier, and there he froze to death.
Always wondered if he thought that was an acceptable way to die for both himself and his family. [Post edited 6 Nov 2018 19:45]
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 19:51 - Nov 6 with 2855 views | blueconscience |
One solid reason to give up smoking would be to stop stinking!! |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 19:52 - Nov 6 with 2855 views | BondiBlue |
This. I stopped for a girl (one in particular, not so I would do better with them in general). We ended up getting married. It’s a great way to show that you’re mature and ready to get serious if that’s what you’re looking for. | |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 20:24 - Nov 6 with 2835 views | gordon |
Another one that hasn't been mentioned is the direct effect on sexual performance. For most young male smokers, by mid-twenties, erection strength is affected.
At 20, as a smoker, you might only have a couple more years of decent f*cking left in you. |  | | |
| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 22:53 - Nov 6 with 2778 views | Plums |
I smoked for 12 years and was damn good at it. If the health reasons aren’t enough, the return of your sense of smell and taste so you actually know what you’re eating and drinking will be a revelation. The sense of dependence was the thing I really hated but I was hooked.
I tried lots of things to give up but the one that finally worked was literally burying my last packet of fags in my mum’s garden. They’re still there and I haven’t looked back for 18 years. The reason? I’d met my now wife and she was becoming a party smoker and I wasn’t being responsible for her future addiction. If you can’t stop for yourself, do it for those that care about you. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 23:11 - Nov 6 with 2763 views | Ely_Blue |
As someone whose wife has just given up smoking for the goodness knows how manyth time think about this as an example:
Pack of fags is circa £9
20 a day =£63 a week saved
£63 a week is £273 a month
£273 a month is £3276 a year
Anyone who can read that and say they can’t think of a reason to give up obviously has more money than sense, I think most people could have a rather nice holiday for that money, put it towards the deposit for a house/car etc |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 23:17 - Nov 6 with 2761 views | Oldsmoker |
You can tell by my username that I used to smoke.
Strated at 15 and gave up at 63.
I have COPD.
Imagine that you have a lung capicity of a football - mine is the size of an orange. When I exert myself, walk up stairs or carry the shopping from the car, my brain tells the lungs to inhale more air to supply my body with oxygen. There is nowhere for this extra air to go. I get a pain in my chest that might give me a heart-attack. I have to rest for 30 seconds to get my heart rate and breathing back to sync. Talking helps as it expels more air. Am I out of Breath? No, it's the opposite - I've got too much air in me and its carbon-dioxide rich as all the oxygen has been extracted.
I wouldn't wish my condition on anyone. It's life restricting. I have to rule out things before I even start them because I know I might get into difficulties.
I visit the doctors every 2 weeks for a check up. I have a sh*t load of pills to take every day.
All this is because I smoked.
If you do smoke then be active. Run, play football, have sex because anything that gets you panting will expel the harm you're doing by smoking. If your lifestyle is sitting on a sofa then give up.
Sorry, but that's my tuppence worth on a subject I wish I wasn't an expert. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 23:25 - Nov 6 with 2753 views | north_stand77 |
Your only 20 years old. TWENTY YEARS OLD, stop now while it is easier. The longer you smoke, the harder it is to give up.
I smoked (as most did then) in my teens and then on and off for several years. Eventually stopped with nicotine lozenges when I properly realised how much it was affecting my health.Very glad I did. Hate the smell and everything about them now, particularly as I see how it has affected friends who still smoke and who now have COPD and other problems and can do nothing about it.
Do yourself a big favour. |  | | |
| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 23:45 - Nov 6 with 2733 views | Binner |
To casually dismiss health and money as not being 'solid' reasons is, frankly, stupid.
But:
Apart from the devastating effect on your respiratory system, blood flow, brain function etc etc etc you affect the health of others, not just yourself.
Your sexual performance will suffer.
You'll stink.
Your teeth will rot.
If you smoke indoors the rooms where you smoke will smell.
Same with car (if you can afford one after paying for your habit).
At some point you'll accidentally get fag burns in clothes, furniture etc.
You're now 20. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to give up. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 23:52 - Nov 6 with 2723 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
Quit. Because, I know you think it isn’t, but it’s really unattractive to whoever your particular flavour of partner is. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 00:09 - Nov 7 with 2711 views | jeera |
Chap I knew when I was your age had just given up smoking.
I overheard a chat he had with some gypsy type woman* and her husband one day.
He was telling her he'd just stopped and she asked his age. He has just celebrated his 30th. She said, "Well, you may have saved yourself, but I don't think so".
Good looking, healthy bloke, not long married then I think.
Fast forward to the other week and I dropped into a shop, part of a chain I know he was involved in, and asked about him. Turns out he died last year from cancer.
Don't get me wrong, he'd be pushing 60ish I suppose, but that's no age, and by now they would have had kids and would probably be looking forward to watching their young grandchildren grow up. So it's not about now, it's about all the things you can miss out on later. And the hurt it may cause others.
He thought he'd packed up young, (and he had), but the damage was already done.
Now's the time to stop really, if you want to make a real difference long-term health wise.
*I don't believe in any fanciful sh*t, it just stuck in my mind she was gypsy. And I've probably repeated that anecdote each time this comes up. I wonder if Lucan might have known him through similar circles actually, meant to ask before if you see this Lucars... |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 14:08 - Nov 7 with 2574 views | J2BLUE |
I have just been in the Co-op pharmacy on Nacton Road and on the counter they have a jar with the amount of tar in the lungs if you smoke 10 cigarettes a day for a year. It's worth going to have a look at it. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 14:15 - Nov 7 with 2563 views | clive_baker |
You're lucky in that you're 20 and you're asking yourself the question now.
Give up today, and in a few years you're young enough where by your lungs and heart will recover to the point where they're as healthy as anyone who's never smoked. And stay off them. Do it now before it's too late though. |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 14:22 - Nov 7 with 2555 views | giant_stow |
There's rightly alot of warnings on this thread, but for a smoker, that doesn't necessarily work. I know, I'm still at it, despite having many many good reasons to stop.
Non-smokers just don't get it and ex-smokers now hate it.
Another vote here for reading the Alan Carr book - he manages to cut through all that and talk to you in smoker-language.
Personally, I still have work to do - I've cut down (Carr hates that as a strategy though) and need to re-read the book before I'm properly ready to stop*, but I know that there's a path through with his help. I can feel it, but also *so* many people have found it to work. Just give it a read and your mindset could well change.
*that's one of Carr's things: you don't 'give up' smoking as if its something to miss - you 'stop' because you no longer want to. [Post edited 7 Nov 2018 14:22]
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 16:29 - Nov 7 with 2510 views | BryanPlug |
[content removed at owner's request] |  |
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| Smokers / Ex-Smokers on 16:45 - Nov 7 with 2498 views | MannersBlue |
Give the e-cigs a go. I got one one winter purely so I didn't have to keep going outside for fags. Had no intention of giving up. Within a few days fags had started to taste not as nice, and within a month I was off them completely.
The major difference I noticed was I didn't realised how much smoking makes your clothes and breathe stink. | | | |
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