This is a different kind of smoking thread, EX-smokers please tell

[Sapere aude]

us some of the things that use to get to you you about your habit and made you decide to quit.

Some of my things were:

searching through the trash cans for a pretty good size butt to re-smoke
Having to go to the 7-11 at two in the morning because I ran out of smokes and the guy at the store always was moping the floor and I had to walk around the yellow slippery floor thing-ie.
Going through all my pants pockets in the closet trying to come up with enough money for a pack of cigarettes.
Trowing a butt out the car window and having it blow back in and burn a hole through my rear seat.
Dropping a lit cigarette down by my crotch while driving in heavy traffic that took all my attention.
Being out of smokes and trying to find the right person to bum them from
Smoking in my apartment bathroom with the ceiling fan on and my roommate with perfect smell yells out, Are you smoking in there!!!!!????? after I promised not to do it again.
My ex mother-in-law made this big announcement that she had quit smoking and then we found her standing in the shower stall smoking her husband's pipe.

[ThomWV]

1. Because I knew They Were Going To Kill Me If I Didn't Quit

That's really all there was to it. I knew they were going to kill me, I had known it for a long time. I finally got around to saying to myself that it was time.

When that time came I went to the local teaching hospital and asked them if they had any quit smoking programs going. They did. I signed up, took some unidentified pill, got paid $500 to quit.

35 years, 1~2 packs of Camels a day. It wasn't all that hard to quit.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Reformed? I didn't know smoking was a crime.

[Sapere aude]

4. There I changed the title for you

[LostinVA]

14. Just a drug addiction

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. It is a crime what you do to yourself by sucking on those cancer sticks

Been there, done that, never again.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Woke up one morning

and it felt like there was a steel band wrapped around my chest. It scared the hell out of me, particularly because I was only 28 years old at the time. But I have had some respiratory problems in the past and also had been smoking from age 13 on. Other things which convinced me. The smell, the unpleasantness inside of a small space such as a car, the expense, the blow back which the original poster described, etc. etc. So now I am happily smoke free and will remain that way forever.

[Sal Minella]

19. Yeah, chest pains. Chest pains in the middle of the night are more

difficult to ignore than a lot of the other nastynasties about smoking.

Don't know if I could have done it without the patch -- tremendous help. After about 30 years of three packs a day, now 15 years off the filthy things.

I have NO patience with people who try to tell me about "smoker's rights." Smokers do not have the right to pollute my grandsons' lungs.

[helderheid]

5. I quit when I found out I was pregnant. I just knew I had to. My husband

still smokes (outside and out of sight of the kids).

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. A collapsed lung

when I was in my mid 20's.

[nam78_two]

7. My dad quit smoking inside the house when I was kid

Because I have rather severe asthma.
I don't go around coughing at people etc. but I do avoid bars because I tend to get very stuffed up and develop some bronchial troubles the next day.
Its also made having pets a problem. I have cats but I cannot let them get up on my bed etc.

I am not a "self-righteous" non-smoker but its just not true-as some posts seem to indicate-that all of us who are allergic to indoor smoking (I have no problem outdoors) are faking it or whatever :shrug:

I have never made a push for smoking bans etc.-I just avoid such places.I certainly don't feel victimized as a non-smoker and I am fairly certain I wouldn't feel victimized if I were a smoker either.

There are a lot of people with very real problems in the world, completely unrelated to being either a non-smoker or a smoker :shrug:...

This kinda stuff always helps me keep my perspective:
http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
:shrug:

[C_U_L8R]

8. I couldn't stand the Nicorette madness anymore

After 15 years of smoking I cycled back and forth between
smoking and the evil gum for at least three more years.
And all along my addiction to nicotine became more obscene.... more chemical.
And then one day.. i just couldn't take it anymore... I was ready to scream
if I chewed one more piece of that noxious shit.. so I quit... cold turkey.
Was in pain for a few weeks.... and now two years later and am MUCH happier.
PHEW !!

[LiberalArkie]

9. I had a hard time breathing and no energy. I had tried all sorts

of ways to quit. Nothing worked easily. I just decided one day to just take it a day at a time.
"I am not going to smoke today". Before I knew it I had made it 2 weeks without a smoke. Was pretty easy.. I went through withdrawal, but the pain only lasted a couple of minutes at most. When ever it got really bad, I went for a walk. I still wake up at night and reach for the pack (It has been 7 years).

[liberalmuse]

10. I missed breathing...

I had scarred lungs from bouts of bronchitus as a child and smoking made them much worse. I was out of breath just crossing the room. If I was down to 10 cigarettes (I sometimes smoked up to 3 packs a day), I'd start to panic and all I could think about was getting to the store to buy another pack. I used to view myself as a tar and nicotine filtration machine. I don't view other smokers like that, but I smoked all the time, and felt that was my main purpose in life. Granted, smoking is a great form of meditation, especially if you have a designated smoking area - I always smoked outside, so I would stand there and think about all kinds of stuff for several minutes as I puffed, and it was usually a two-cigarette break. Finally I decided I might want to think of quitting. I'd quit for a bit when I was pregnant, and a couple of times since, but it never lasted. A friend of mine gave me her Zyban prescription and I've never smoked since. That was 8 years ago, and I don't regret it! The first year was awful. I gained 10-15 pounds, but lost it all in the 2nd year.

[focusfan]

11. I smoked 18 years

I started smoking when I was 9 and smoked until I was 27.our
elecricity kept going out so we had a kerosene heater to make
a long story short my husband thought he had turned down Flint
in the heater so it would die down and go out well we were all
in bed and the Kerosene heater blowed up and set our trailer
on Fire and we barley got out with our lives as we were
jumping out the window the trailer caved in behind us so when
i would light up a cigarette i would want to throw up because
I had smoke inhalation in my lungs so I decided to quit with a
little help of Nicotine patches I haven't regretted the day I
quit and that has been 8 years ago but I wish I could of quit
a better way rather than me and my husband stepson from almost
dying.

[A Simple Game]

12. No special reason for my quiting,

I just spent 10 days in the hospital.

While there I had my chest split open and had my heart re-plumbed.

It has been almost a year and a half, and sometimes I would still kill for a smoke! The urge only lasts for about 5 minutes though.

[LostinVA]

13. I knew they would kill me, but what caused me to quit:

1.) Frantically smoking nasty butts when I ran out,
2.) leaving a date inside the theater so I could outside and smoke
3.) Being 30-years-old and hawking up nasty-colored phlegm every morning,
4.) Not being able to run any more
5.) Eating Ramen every meal for three days so I could buy a carton of cigarettes
6.) Having my 4-year-old nephew pick up a cigarette and make believe he was smoking.

I quit cold turkey, 11 years ago this past April 1. I haven't smoked one since.

On edit: I smoked two pack+ daily for 11 years.

[valerief]

15. I moved out of Cigaretteville years ago and never looked back.

Stopped stinking and am still loving it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. My kids, and rising prices. Quit cold (two times) and damn glad of it

I didn't want my kids to grow up without a Dad, plus prices were getting too high. I couldn't even play catch with my 10 year old son without gasping for breath.

Three packs of non-filters a day for 25 years.

Just put the damn stinking things down for good. You can do it.

[populistdriven]

18. at 19 I hated big corporations and hated giving them all my spare money

so I quit