Do you use tobacco products?

[Nitro]

Quit many years ago, and here and there have indulged on occasion since. Everyone in my biological family smokes, holidays and family celebrations were much like being in the perpetual smoke-filled room of a bar. Unpleasant, and always sick during the holidays.

It was my bar room antics that made me smoke the most

Grab a cold one,light a new one
A heavy night of drinking often found me smoking two packs that day

 

[Nitro]

I Quit™ years ago* and now I'm on "replacement therapy" which consists of a vape kit with a dual battery mod (note: it's not considered official replacement therapy or "safe" by the FDA here in the US, to which I'd like to give a fat middle...)

Good stuff, kept me off the pack a day now, and whatever stigma and jokes are left about vaping I could care less about. Not that it wasn't bound to be a joke eventually like anything else popular...

*I sorta lied there...had a real cigarette 2 days ago...it was an emergency

My neighbor keeps threatening to quit,then follows it up by saying he isn't a quitter

 

[vangelis]

Never have. Never will.

This sums up my approach too - not particularly for health reasons, it's just something I am not interested in.

 

[InPrincipio]

Can't understand it at all, except maybe it was a social thing for me, but I smoked from the time I was 17 to 27, then I quit cold turkey, because my new boyfriend at the time (now husband) had quit just before he met me and I didn't want him to start again. Plus I was getting such horrible migraines. You'd think that would have helped me clue in before.

However, my mom smoked since my dad left her, so I grew up with the smell in the house and didn't ever notice it (oh, I noticed lots of smells usually, but I must have been conditioned to cigarette smoke from everyone I knew almost). After I moved out of the house for good, and then quit smoking, when I came back for visits to my mom, I couldn't handle the smell. And when I told her that it kept me away or made me sick, she actually quit too (it took her a while, and she didn't even tell me). Gradually, it just got easier on me to be at her apartment, as the smell cleared, but the nicotine still coated everything in her apartment.

I also have to hold me breath to get by cigarette smoke. And if someone sits near me with a smelly jacket or clothes, I have to get up and leave quickly. I'm extremely sensitive, and it makes me so sick it will ruin my whole day.

 

[Jorg]

I do, I don't think I have a problem with it, after 3 years I never smoke more than 7cigarretes a day, around march I quit because I didn't need it but with all the crap I've been in the last month I started to smoke again, maybe 3-5 cigs a day.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

I'm never using any tabbaco products. Schools have taught us the risks and i'm not taking any chances.

 

[Manuheleku]

I do, I don't think I have a problem with it, after 3 years I never smoke more than 7cigarretes a day, around march I quit because I didn't need it but with all the crap I've been in the last month I started to smoke again, maybe 3-5 cigs a day.

That's really good, a few cigarettes a day is more than likely not going to effect your health too much. I had a friend from Sweden who was able to do that, problem I had was like most Americans I used to smoke a pack a day. That was back in the 90s, now I have an occasional cigar. I haven't even had a cigar in over a year.

 

[Joel's Hear]

I've smoked since day one in some way or another and I think it's high time to give it up or cut back to a pipe a day like the hobbit, but life is too stressful.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I've smoked since day one in some way or another and I think it's high time to give it up or cut back to a pipe a day like the hobbit, but life is too stressful.

Easier for the hobbit, I guess.

Fictional lungs.

You think he would've smoked more knowing that

 

[clg114]

I started smoking when I was in my twenties and did not quit until I was 56. I quit cold turkey, it is not hard if you have the right incentive. I had a heart attack when I was 56. The cardiologist at the hospital told me that it was caused from smoking and that if I did not quit immediately I would be dead within 6 months. Needless to say, I quit immediately. That was 15 years ago and I am still here.

Eight years ago I developed bladder cancer. I asked the urologist what caused that and he said most likely it was smoking. After 2 surgeries and months of VERY unpleasant treatments, I am cancer free.

I whole heartedly agree with those who quit and/or trying to quit. Smoking has done me great harm and in all likelihood has shorted my life. How much, remains to be seen.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Lets hope you make 114 cig

 

[clg114]

Lets hope you make 114 cig

Let me see, that would make me middle aged. I like that!

 

[lizbeth]

I started smoking at 25 (yes, should have known better) to deal with stress. It was also a bit of a social crutch - I felt a tiny bit less awkward when holding one?! But I never properly took it up thank god and was smoking about 8-10 a day at my absolute worst. And that was only on and off for about 2 months! Now it's maybe about 4 or 5 a month at most -- if I get offered one! Was incredibly luckily not to get addicted.

 

[Gracey]

I’ve recently been trying the mints and sprays.

I did have a go of the patches but was having some two-patch kind of days.
Quite certain that isn’t the way to go.

The mints I’ve got used to. They’re uncomfortable and burn (not literally-no blisters)

The mouth spray again, burns. I have to keep it in my mouth and mix it with water or the crazy amounts of saliva produced after spraying, before swallowing.

Both mints and mouth spray give me a bit of stomach ache too
(Guessing due to products being swallowed and moving through digestive system?

What ever you do, don’t use the nicotine nasal spray !!

It brought me to my knees. I thought my eyeballs and frontal lobes had melted.
It’s the quickest delivery method/shortest route to brain receptors but don’t do it. Not even for a bet when you’re drunk !

Special forces should use one when interrogating captives.
Got to be more effective than water boarding.

 

[LucyPurrs]

I smoked from age 17-64? Quit I think 7-8 years ago. I swear I was hooked from the first cigarette. I tried to quit many times with no success. Then I was hospitalized with what I thought was the flu but the doc said it was COPD flare and I had to quit.

I did and a really interesting thing happened- as soon as my mind thought about smoking it changed the subject without me even trying and within a split second. So actually quitting was fairly easy. I did use the gum for a couple of days then the initial dose of Chantix for about a week then thought why am I bothering I don't need this stuff so stopped. I did feel the Chantix helped but actually my mind switching focus was what helped the most. And I didn't even have to consciously refocus much to my surprise and amazement.

And I have had almost no cravings since quitting. If I get a craving it is maybe once a year for about 1 second and that's it. And I was a die hard smoker- 2.5 packs a day for much of the time I smoked. I was absolutely convinced that I'd go crazy if I quit and now I figure if I could quit anyone could quit, but have to be ready- I think that's the key. I have never drank or drugged. Don't like the way those things make me feel.

So I really encourage those of you trying to quit not to be so anxious about it- it was actually way easier than I had ever imagined.

 

[pax]

No it's a filthy habit and costs a fortune.

 

[Blue]

No, thank goodness. I never got into smoking, drinking or drugs. It makes it harder to socialize. Many groups seem to revolve around one or more of the three.

 

[Mr Allen]

I'm VERY anti-smoking, always have been as I've lost relatives on both sides of the family from smoke related illness, my Dad's youngest sister, died in 2005 from smoke related illness, she'd smoked all her life. And then in August 1997 we lost Mum's Dad, my Granddad, to Cancer, he smoked a Pipe most of his adult life.

 

[Juliettaa]

I used to smoke; went cold turkey and haven't had one single cigarette in 30 years. I don't miss it at all.

Even as a smoker I always had a problem with the smell and still do. But I have olfactory issues not just related to smoking.

 

[Progster]

No way. Never. Smoking is just one of the things that makes no sense whatsoever, and that really bothers me, on many levels:
1. People say that they start smoking to look cool, but when I look at someone smoking, I think "that's stupid" and not "that's cool".
2. Why do people start? I can't understand. People say that they want to fit in, but I've never felt that way. Just because other people are doing something stupid, I'm not going to go and do the same stupid thing just because they are - WHY????
3. Inhaling burning plant matter into your lungs - just WHY????? That's not what your lungs are for. They are for breathing, providing oxygen for your body, and disrupting this is asking for trouble.
4. It's expensive. I can think of much better ways of spending my money, if I have that much spare money, I want to spend it on things that are going to improve my quality of life or the life of others, rather than on something that is going to make me sick and shorten my life.
5. Sensory issues. The smell, I feel nauseous or as if I'm choking and can't breathe around smoking people, it burns my eyes.
6. Why give your financial support to tobacco companies who basically thrive off other people's weakness and misery? These companies are crooks - they bribe politicials and officials, cover things up and try to suppress evidence concerning the damage that their products cause. If tobacco had come onto the market now instead of the 1600s, there is no doubt that it would be banned or otherwise strictly controlled, but because the tobacco companies are so powerful, there's no chance of that now.
7. Smoking is not a habit, it is an addiction. Habit is a misnomer and people should stop using this. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to man. Nicotine addiction is a medical condition in many people, just as herione or alcohol addiction is, and should be classified and treated as such.
8. Did I mention cancer, heart problems, premature death?

@LucyPurrs I want to thank you for bring up Chantix on the forum - thanks to that, my partner has now stopped smoking. Winner.