Creatures of habit

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a terrible creature of habit and remember how bad my habit used to be.

I would smoke at certain times of the day, even if I didn't really want one. But would still get annoyed if I didn't get my fix at the right time.

With my coffee in the morning.

When I arrive at work

An hour later with my coffee

Another during my tea break

Halfway between tea break and luchtime.

At beginning of lunch

Just before the end of lunch.

Halfway between lunch and teabreak

At teabreak

Halfway between teabreak and hometime

At hometime

1 every hour before bed.

I also remember if I was subjected to a long period of time without a cigarette, how ready I would be to spark one up at the earliest oppurtunity.

At a cinema after a film.

After a flight or coach trip.

How silly I must of looked to all those non smokers.:rolleyes:

I still firmly believe that "quitting smoking" is a 2 part process.

1. Dealing with nicotine addition.

2. Breaking the habit.

Was anyone else like that?

23 Replies

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  • Yep definatley.

    When i was on the phone. When i got in the car.

    When i gave up a few months ago I was quite shocked at how the habit went quite quickly. After about 3 weeks i remember thinking that the habit was going.

  • Oh yes - I remember it well.

    As soon as I got in the car and just before I turned right out of the road

    When I reached a certain roundabout

    5 mins before getting to work

    Before I ate lunch

    After I ate lunch

    Just before lunch break finished

    Half way through afternoon

    As soon as I got in car to come home

    Repeat mornings fags but in reverse order

    When I got in

    Before tea

    Every hour or so till bed or when a break came on the tele

    If the phone rang, if I made a call, if I had a drink, if I had something to eat, if i breathed for longer than an hour

    My worst memory is the smoking room at Manchester Airport which theyed moved to a temporary place and it was tiny. There was mums and dads with little kids in there. Absolutley packed out with people and filled with stinking smoke. We went in and 'persevered' smoking 2 fags each cos we had a 5 hour flight to get through. God it was awful - had to go via the perfume counter to try and get rid of the smell. Makes me feel sick now just thinking of it.....

  • My worst memory is the smoking room at Manchester Airport which theyed moved to a temporary place and it was tiny. There was mums and dads with little kids in there.

    Even as a smoker, that sickened me. We went to see some relatives at Christmas who smoke and one of them was keeping an eye on my son with her children in the lounge while everyone else was finishing their lunch. When I finished and went in the lounge, I was absolutley shocked to see her puffing away in this closed off room with her children but my son aswell. This is what my parents were like and probably why I smoked!

    We went in and 'persevered' smoking 2 fags each cos we had a 5 hour flight to get through. God it was awful - had to go via the perfume counter to try and get rid of the smell. Makes me feel sick now just thinking of it.....

    Isn't it funny how we used to try to make the time between these cigarettes the shortest time possible by puffing right up to the absolute second before the flight no matter how many fags we smoke. We almost missed our flight to our honeymoon because I insisted on 1 last cigarette before the flight:eek:.

  • Even as a smoker, that sickened me. We went to see some relatives at Christmas who smoke and one of them was keeping an eye on my son with her children in the lounge while everyone else was finishing their lunch. When I finished and went in the lounge, I was absolutley shocked to see her puffing away in this closed off room with her children but my son aswell. This is what my parents were like and probably why I smoked!

    Shocking. I'd have gone mad. You just dont realise how selfish you are sometimes when you smoke.

    And it would be the same getting off the plane at the other end. Finding a pillar or bin or something to hide behind (usually under a no smoking sign!) cos you couldnt wait to get your bags and get out of the terminal building. Id have about 5 one after the other after a flight (even a short flight). I really cant believe that I did that. Smokers must look so stupid to non smokers whove never had to do that.

  • Shocking. I'd have gone mad. You just dont realise how selfish you are sometimes when you smoke.

    And it would be the same getting off the plane at the other end. Finding a pillar or bin or something to hide behind (usually under a no smoking sign!) cos you couldnt wait to get your bags and get out of the terminal building. Id have about 5 one after the other after a flight (even a short flight). I really cant believe that I did that. Smokers must look so stupid to non smokers whove never had to do that.

    We were caught in old nic's trap!:rolleyes:

    I can't believe how selfish I was when it came to smoking!:(

    It's quite embarassing!:o

  • And ive just remembered one of the most stupid smoking things ive ever done.

    I was in australia and Queensland has strict no smoking rules. A Cat 5 cyclone was hitting the coast (Cyclone Larry) and I was hunkered down in a bar in Cairns (like you do). I remember going out for a fag and nearly getting hit by a tree. How stupid - the wind was blowing at about 150 miles an hour and it was pelting with rain.

    Also setting fire to my hair while I was driving, by ash blowing back in. I had to pour a bottle of water over my head and get the hairdresser to cut in layers where it had burned all the hair away about an inch from my scalp.

    How stupid, stupid stupid stupid :(

  • I remember that 'must cram as many in as possible feeling' - mad isn't it?! For the last few years I didn't smoke in the day during the week so I'd light up the second I got home from work, then every 45 mins after that until I went to bed. Weekends I just sat around the garden chain-smoking. I used to make excuses not to go and see my parents because that would have meant trying to get rid of the smell, showering about 20 times and then having time where I couldn't smoke.

    Writing that down I'm shocked by how bad it was. I used to turn down invitations in the evenings from people that didn't know I smoked so that I could sit there on my own and choke myself. :eek:

  • God, all that is so amazingly familiar.

    Used to avoid staying at my parents cos although they vaguely knew I smoked 'one or two now and again' I wouldnt be able to go that long without a cig so I was in and out in a couple of hours.

    Standing outside the cinema power smoking to make sure Id had enough to last before I went in.

    Plane jouneys - too many to mention - all the same as described earlier.

    Being in hospital - and standing outside in my pyjamas smoking

    I am sooooooooosososososososososososososososo glad I dont smoke!

  • I have even - wait for it - turned down holidays, HOLIDAYS, because I didn't want to not smoke for a few weeks!

    I'm really quite ashamed now.

  • Helen, thats shocking. Mind you I would have done absolutley the same..... if Id been offerred a free trip to the moon Id have had to turn it down. :p

  • I just find it so hard to believe that I had the mindset where that made perfect sense just a few months ago. And what I have to remind myself of if I get tempted is that it wouldn't be just one, it would be back to being that mad and having cigarettes control my life.

    As my parents, my work and a lot of my mates didn't know I smoked (although I'm sure they did) it took up so much more time. I couldn't just go for a cig, I had to make sure I had loads of sprays with me, and that there was somewhere to wash my hands, and somewhere to hide where no one would see me. It was like a fullscale military operation all the time. I used to make up complicated stories about why people couldn't come round in the evening, I used to pretend to be out if people knocked on the door and then have to hide my mobile - all so that I could sit there stinking.

    Madness.

  • I hated going to my in-laws for any length of time as we had to hide the fact that we smoked from them. Even if it was just for a few hours for dinner or something, I would be rushing my wife , so I could get home to smoke. I would be getting more annoyed as it got later and later. They must of thought I was a right anti-social sod.:D

  • The really stupid thing is that they probably knew anyway. I was genuinely shocked when I stopped just how much it stank. I mean, obviously I knew i smelt when I was smoking but I really thought that a shower would shift it. I was horrified when after 4 days of not smoking my hands still smelt, and I only smoked about 6 or so a day!

    It amazes me even now just how much it smells, you can even tell when a smoker's been in the room before you. So how on earth I thought my parents didn't notice all that is beyond me!

  • yup!

    i remember!

    when i got up,

    on the way to college,

    as soon as i got to college

    two between every break time,

    walkin home,

    etc etc

    then yeah again after bein sat in the cinema,gettin off a bus/train,any time ive been sat for ages id dive out an light up.

    xxxxx

  • I remember when I was a teenager and living with my parents I'd make up all sorts of excuses to get out of the house for a smoke. I suddenly took an interest in walking the dog every evening. My parents thought I was going on these really long walks with him but in reality I was hidden down a side street nearby puffing away on about five cigarettes, one after the other! The dog used to look at me as if to say "what are you doing and why aren't we walking?". It was so unfair on the dog now I look back on it.

  • This thread has really taken me back! What's amazing is that we were all doing more or less the same idiotic stuff - truly under the thumb of some unseen power and all reacting similarly!

    My habit stuff:

    First thing in the morning and thence throughout the day

    Getting into the car / getting out of the car / in the car

    Stopping the bike for a fag every 45 mins or so

    Sitting down at the computer

    Picking up a guitar

    In any situation of even slight stress

    When my hands were bored

    Ridiculous smoking moments:

    [*]during pneumonia and pleurisy

    [*]in the smoking room (yes they used to have one) of Guildford Hospital suffering from a serious viral paralysis

    [*]in airport disabled toilets (Paris CdG in particular)

    [*]lying on my back in the op theatre of an Italian hospital, surgeons about to slice my right leg - thought I'd been anaesthetised, so shocked that I was awake and cogent that they gave me a kidney bowl for the ash!

    [*]in those little plastic kiosk things they've put up for smokers in some airports where the air is already so dense you can slice it

    :eek:

    We are so right to have quit!:D

  • [*]lying on my back in the op theatre of an Italian hospital, surgeons about to slice my right leg - thought I'd been anaesthetised, so shocked that I was awake and cogent that they gave me a kidney bowl for the ash!

    OMG!:eek: I could just imagine it!:rolleyes:

  • Just found this thread and all your experiences are just OH MY GOD!!

    Setting your hair alight, smoking on the operating table, avoiding holidays!!!!!:eek::eek:

    I am seriously sitting here with my jaw on my lap!

    I totally relate to most of the stories especially the cinema, flight, stuff.

    My "creature of habit" thing was to always smoke:

    in the 5 minute walk between the tube and my office

    with my first coffee of the day

    when completing any task before starting the next one

    whenever something difficult comes along and i am not ready to tackle it

    on the way to lunch

    on the way back from lunch

    afternoon coffee

    on the way to the tube

    on the little walk between the tube and the overground i get

    whenever i was in the car

    when a really good song came on my ipod shuffle!!! (i had to "enhance" the experience further by having a fag :confused:)

  • I have just remember when my son had to go into hospital to have his tongue tie cut. I kept going outside for a smoke. Poor little boy was only about 6 and probably really wanted his mummy there all the time. God i feel terrible now.:mad:

  • someone should collate all this stuff and put it into a book.. some of it's hilarious! Maybe we could make some money for the NSD charity.. Any takers?:)

  • when a really good song came on my ipod shuffle!!! (i had to "enhance" the experience further by having a fag :confused:)

    That's brilliant!!! Sorry but that is just so funny and so familiar!!! :D

  • cor blimey, i can totally relate to some of those things.

    when you really think back to the average or not so average day, it really does appear so irrational some of the things we used to do.

    do you think some of these irrational behaviours, like making excuses, have come about because of the social stigma that is now attached to smoking? i'm talking, the last 25 years when smoking has been known to maim?

    my habitual stuff was normal, like you guys:

    in the car

    on any break

    between finishing one thing and starting another

    before and after lunch

    sneaking outside at home for a crafty one now and then, making lame excuses

    stress

    boredom

    stupid times i smoked:

    right outside front of college once, and got found out by one of the teachers, who promptly reported me to parents, oops.

    on the train between schipol airport and amsterdam (about 2 years ago they had smoking compartments) and remembering the fact we couldn't open any windows, it was absolutely disgusting, but i had to have my fix.

    and all the lame excuses i've made in the past just to go out for 5 minutes to get my fix. thinking back to it, it consumed my life. i just can't imagine going back now!!

    oh yeah, and before and after exercise...what a complete waste of exercise!!!!

  • Does anyone remember when you were allowed to smoke on aeroplanes? I'm not old enough to know about that but just imagining a load of people stuck in an aeroplane smoking away and not being able to open a window is just unbelievable!!! I feel sorry for the non smokers and children who were ever stuck in the aeroplane with them!

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