Hi RBers,
The title gives you a clue as to the content. I have decided to stop smoking again and hope it will work this time.
I have been smoking since i was about 14 or 15 and i am now 45. I have stopped three times before and this time it needs to work.
The background - My smoking started at school/outside school with the odd one or two. Both my parents smoked at the time so there was never any chance that they would notice the aroma. I then went out with a girl who smoked and that was where my career started. At 17 i smoked 20 a day (JPS - cool packets), almost all (if not all) my friends smoked then but maybe not to the extent that i did. We smoked before school, at school, after school and in the evening. I was young and fit and it never affected me in any way.
I started work when i was 18 and a majority of my colleagues smoked, so i continued - probably working up to 40 a day. As i got older and into my 30's it became an annoying habit although i never really considered stopping. I think i smoked 60 a day (B+H) at my peak and now i wonder where i actually got the time to do that!
I got married and my wife smoked but only socially, but we were very social and it continued. Then my wife told me to stop and i tried. I used an inhalator and went to the health centre weekly to speak to a nurse who organised the anti smoking stuff. It worked and after 3 months i had stopped. About a month later we went on holiday and i had a cigar - you can see where this is going ... 20 cigars a day and i went back on the cigs.
My wife became pregnant and she stated that i MUST stop as we had a baby coming, again, i tried and sorta succeeded until my wife went into hospital with pregnancy complications and she was there for 3 months before the birth. I was on my own at home and stressed - back to the cigs. I promised i would stop once our baby was born and when my daughter was one, i went to the doctor and he prescribed drugs for me.
The tablets Champix worked - apparently they were developed for people with mental problems (schizophrenics) and the doctors discovered that the patients did not recover from their mental illness but they did stop smoking (whether this is true or not i do not know). I had one bad day - the first day where i had a bad reaction to the first tablet - i felt ill for a day - i sat with my head over a bucket all day although i was not sick. After the course of tablets (13 weeks) i was a non-smoker. The tablets make smoking an awful experience with the taste which is very, very peculiar. I remember lighting a cigarette and taking one puff and thinking "jesus, that is bad" I put it out and went about my business - it was a very peculiar sensation and hard to explain. Anyway, i completed the course and was happy. About a month later we went on holiday....
Can you see a pattern? I went back to my doctor after about 6 months and we discussed what to do. After i explained what was happening at home - family illness and a lot of it, he said i should keep smoking until things quietened down and stress levels were reduced.
Here we are 3 years later and things have got to a point where i can think about it again. In the interim period my father died - he had respiratory illnesses and cancer which were put down to his smoking. I remember thinking how bad it looked that i was smoking on the day of his funeral but i couldn't help it. My daughter, who is 7, has been asking me to stop for a while, my wife mentions it as does my mother so, in light of all that, i am going to try - and hopefully succeed - forever this time.
It is after 2am and i plan to take my first tablet at 0800, i then plan to stop on Sunday, 6th October, 2013 - or before, dependant on the tablets (i think they worked earlier than my fixed date the last time.
Smoking is a nightmare hobby but i have to say that over the years i really enjoyed it, it will be hard to stop but i need to do it and forget about all the wasted money etc and concentrate on my life in the future - i hope not to follow my father in his later years - that scares me a lot.
On a final point, those of you who read this (and my doctor) are the only people who know i am stopping - i have told no one as i do not want the additional pressure from my family - encouragement is good but it also increases the stress to prefrom. (am i still talking about smoking? LOLOLOL
Wish me luck,
Richard
The title gives you a clue as to the content. I have decided to stop smoking again and hope it will work this time.
I have been smoking since i was about 14 or 15 and i am now 45. I have stopped three times before and this time it needs to work.
The background - My smoking started at school/outside school with the odd one or two. Both my parents smoked at the time so there was never any chance that they would notice the aroma. I then went out with a girl who smoked and that was where my career started. At 17 i smoked 20 a day (JPS - cool packets), almost all (if not all) my friends smoked then but maybe not to the extent that i did. We smoked before school, at school, after school and in the evening. I was young and fit and it never affected me in any way.
I started work when i was 18 and a majority of my colleagues smoked, so i continued - probably working up to 40 a day. As i got older and into my 30's it became an annoying habit although i never really considered stopping. I think i smoked 60 a day (B+H) at my peak and now i wonder where i actually got the time to do that!
I got married and my wife smoked but only socially, but we were very social and it continued. Then my wife told me to stop and i tried. I used an inhalator and went to the health centre weekly to speak to a nurse who organised the anti smoking stuff. It worked and after 3 months i had stopped. About a month later we went on holiday and i had a cigar - you can see where this is going ... 20 cigars a day and i went back on the cigs.
My wife became pregnant and she stated that i MUST stop as we had a baby coming, again, i tried and sorta succeeded until my wife went into hospital with pregnancy complications and she was there for 3 months before the birth. I was on my own at home and stressed - back to the cigs. I promised i would stop once our baby was born and when my daughter was one, i went to the doctor and he prescribed drugs for me.
The tablets Champix worked - apparently they were developed for people with mental problems (schizophrenics) and the doctors discovered that the patients did not recover from their mental illness but they did stop smoking (whether this is true or not i do not know). I had one bad day - the first day where i had a bad reaction to the first tablet - i felt ill for a day - i sat with my head over a bucket all day although i was not sick. After the course of tablets (13 weeks) i was a non-smoker. The tablets make smoking an awful experience with the taste which is very, very peculiar. I remember lighting a cigarette and taking one puff and thinking "jesus, that is bad" I put it out and went about my business - it was a very peculiar sensation and hard to explain. Anyway, i completed the course and was happy. About a month later we went on holiday....
Can you see a pattern? I went back to my doctor after about 6 months and we discussed what to do. After i explained what was happening at home - family illness and a lot of it, he said i should keep smoking until things quietened down and stress levels were reduced.
Here we are 3 years later and things have got to a point where i can think about it again. In the interim period my father died - he had respiratory illnesses and cancer which were put down to his smoking. I remember thinking how bad it looked that i was smoking on the day of his funeral but i couldn't help it. My daughter, who is 7, has been asking me to stop for a while, my wife mentions it as does my mother so, in light of all that, i am going to try - and hopefully succeed - forever this time.
It is after 2am and i plan to take my first tablet at 0800, i then plan to stop on Sunday, 6th October, 2013 - or before, dependant on the tablets (i think they worked earlier than my fixed date the last time.
Smoking is a nightmare hobby but i have to say that over the years i really enjoyed it, it will be hard to stop but i need to do it and forget about all the wasted money etc and concentrate on my life in the future - i hope not to follow my father in his later years - that scares me a lot.
On a final point, those of you who read this (and my doctor) are the only people who know i am stopping - i have told no one as i do not want the additional pressure from my family - encouragement is good but it also increases the stress to prefrom. (am i still talking about smoking? LOLOLOL
Wish me luck,
Richard
