So do you ever still think about the unment... - No Smoking Day

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So do you ever still think about the unmentionables?

nsd_user663_4964 profile image
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Do you (lucky) guys ever think about them now or crave them? Do you feel like a Non-Smoker or an ex smoker?

I just ask becasuse my dad gave up about twenty plus years ago. I remember it well even though i was only a kid- him constantly moody and my mother buying him bags of Mintoes. I remeber him yelling that he didn't want another effing mintoe....:D

He said it took ten or fifteen years to stop thinking about them altogether- not sure i can cope with another ten years of this....:(

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nsd_user663_4964
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20 Replies
nsd_user663_4121 profile image
nsd_user663_4121

It's different for you Jude.... there is so much information out there about this addiction that you can access..... knowledge will make a quit so much easier... that is why so many on this forum are successful..... your dad didn't have that..... so please don't feed into his story. I was a crazy smoker..... loved to smoke, dreaded quitting..... not sure how I finally managed to do it but 7 months down and I don't think of them anymore.... that WILL be you as well..... so don't you worry about years okay!!! XXXXX

nsd_user663_3728 profile image
nsd_user663_3728

Hi Jude :)

I can't remember the last time I thought about them to be honest

That doesn't mean that I've let my guard down though

I agree with Bella you can't compare the time 20+ years ago when you're Dad quit with now with all the stuff there is to help nowadays

Love

Marg xxx

nsd_user663_3633 profile image
nsd_user663_3633

I do still think about them now and then, but not often - every few weeks maybe.... the last time was a few days ago when I got a face full of someone elses smoke (yuk!) and can't remember the time I thought about them before that.

As Bella says, the education due to all of the information available is what makes the difference and makes people here so successful relative to those who don't take the time and effort to sort their mindset out.

Honestly, get your head in the right place and it's a whole lot easier.

I do still think about them from time to time, but it honestly doesn't bother me in any way.

Seriously, it gets a whole lot better very quickly - just stick with it and keep reading :D

Oh, and "you lucky guys" you said.

It's not luck.

Repeated choice.

We wanted freedom, so we took it.

I hope you continue to do the same.

All the best, Stu.

Maverick_uk profile image
Maverick_uk

I have to be honest yes I do still think about them quite a lot. I think its just me being aware that i dont and keeping my guard againt them. I know it would be so easy to slip back. Dont miss or crave though, I just being mindful

nsd_user663_5258 profile image
nsd_user663_5258

I have to say (from right in the thick of it) it seems to me that quitting can be as difficult or as easy as you want it to be. I came in here last week after quitting on a whim and I was climbing the walls for 46 hours until I eventually gave in. I took a few days to collect my thoughts, and realised how much I want this quit to work, and now Im 37 hrs in without a SINGLE craving.

I hope that you keep your quit attempt going, dont worry about those who have gone before you, you cant think that the next ten years will be terrible, that is just going to lead you back to that path, you want to leave behind.

nsd_user663_1655 profile image
nsd_user663_1655

We are all lucky as we all have the choice.

Smoke, or don't smoke, it was that simple when it came down to it.

Personally, I have many thoughts of my smoking days. I remember things very well, and can vividly think of many of the supposedly enjoyable smokes I thought I had. I look forward to these thoughts, as it is fun to turn them inside out, and step outside, take a breath of real air, feel my lungs fill up, and plot a running course for the day. I don't look back at the smoking fondly at all, but I still look back quite a lot. I'm now halfway to my weight goal after gaining 35 lbs since being quit a year and a half ago, (i turned to eating)... and believe that I will be fit, breathing easy, and looking super by christmas. With that, comes feeling great also. I never truthfully felt great when I smoked. So, in summary, I agree with previous posts, that education makes the thoughts null and void. Longing for the past is replaced by a sort of anger, as I was tricked by nic for so long :P Hope everyone is breathing easy,

Vike.

nsd_user663_4990 profile image
nsd_user663_4990

Jude, i'm much much earlier in my quit.. in my 10 week, and i hardly think about them at all at this point in time, the last instances where i was aware of folk smoking around me were memorable only in that

a) i hated the smell of the spent smoke

b) the smokey atmosphere was giving me a headache.

Now actually thinking about cigarettes i've not done in weeks now quite a number of weeks in fact.. so I would say, don't look so far into the future and compare your quit to your dads.. if it took him 10, 15 or even 20 years to be truly over it, if he was honest .. totally honest, he would probably admit that the pangs he got in later months or years were nothing compared to what you are going through right now.

Look after your own quit, just because another person or group of people experience their quit a certain way it don't mean you will get the same.. there are other factors in life that can affect how good a quit goes and the duration before you stop thinking about them, but i do find totally limiting the occasions where you are near someone smoking helps tons. (for me at least)

Keep going, its not as tough as you are fearing.

nsd_user663_4964 profile image
nsd_user663_4964

Interesting thoughts

I think probably my dad didn't really want to give up, and he did ffind it very hard. I'm sure he also meant he still thought of it as in a kind of "i used to enjoy that -i used to do that a lot" sort of way, rather than a craving way. I know cravings get better with time and then its the mental association part. I do know this cos i'v got there myself and stupidly lapsed back again just without thinking or even really wanting one.

jackieinv profile image
jackieinv

:mad: I find I only think about them when I see someone smoking, like on TV, which really annoys me because they should not be doing it, another way to advertise without saying so.

:) Odly enough I do not think about smoking when I am on this site, this is a healing place for me.

Jackie

nsd_user663_3554 profile image
nsd_user663_3554

Yes I think of them every day.......

nsd_user663_4216 profile image
nsd_user663_4216

1 year and 4 months later and I too think of them, daily. However its not as depressing as it sounds!!! Ultimatley I am so glad that I no longer smoke. Can anyone on here 1 year + imagine spending £6.00 a DAY to feed the habit of nicotine? How did we do it for so long? Everyone's quit is so different, and not necessarily to be admired!

nsd_user663_1733 profile image
nsd_user663_1733

I too think of them every day and long for the day i dont. But I dont crave a smoke ever and dont want to smoke. Your dad my have thought of them but Im sure It was not that bad or Im sure he would not have lasted 20 years. The thoughts are diffrent now than at the start. Some time when I see my work mates having there sneaky ones and the smell OMG Im so very pleased Im now a very proud nonsmoker. Time is a great healer.xx

nsd_user663_3282 profile image
nsd_user663_3282

I too think of them every day and long for the day i dont. But I dont crave a smoke ever and dont want to smoke. Your dad my have thought of them but Im sure It was not that bad or Im sure he would not have lasted 20 years. The thoughts are diffrent now than at the start. Some time when I see my work mates having there sneaky ones and the smell OMG Im so very pleased Im now a very proud nonsmoker. Time is a great healer.xx

Linda,

After everything you've gone through....well, some of us have the highest respect for your tenacity.

On being asked recently how many I smoked per day...I struggled...did I actually smoke? Fek, and that was only 20 months ago!!

Regards,

Cav

nsd_user663_1733 profile image
nsd_user663_1733

Yes I agree I smoked 40 a day plus. Some times cant get my head around that I must of stunk.LOL

nsd_user663_3282 profile image
nsd_user663_3282

I don't think I mentioned anything about the smell ;)

My sister...best friend...she still smokes and the other weekend we were visiting with each other. She came in from a smoke and....yeuch....bloody awful.

nsd_user663_1658 profile image
nsd_user663_1658

yeah me too chrissie, used fag packets are my worse....depends wot mood im in sometimes i laugh, sometimes go into a tantrum!!! lol x

nsd_user663_1658 profile image
nsd_user663_1658

ps yes i think about them all the time, every day- but it is mainly just thoughts, triggers & memorys at the moment - which i suppose is quite enough to deal with:)

but i dont want one - the thought is more

nsd_user663_4216 profile image
nsd_user663_4216

Its great to see that we are not alone in our insanity! haha - Butts staring at you from the pavement... empty fag packets - ME TOO!!! I would count the butts, and if I got to my age, then I would tell myself well its fate, I must go an get some cigs! haha, thankfully I have got over this little obsession.

nsd_user663_2485 profile image
nsd_user663_2485

Rarely Think About Them

I rarely think about cigs anymore.

When I do think of them I come here (and I don't know what triggered it in me today) and check things out.

I'm coming up to my two-year point--I quit cold turkey on 17 October 2007.

Right now cigs have become completely irrelevant in my life. Whenever I see someone smoking all I feel is pity for them because (a) someday they will have to quit and that's a real pain; or (b) they won't quit and it will probably kill them; or (c) it will only kill them slowly and they will wheeze and gasp and otherwise feel horrible; or (d) they stink. Literally, they stink.

Come to think of it, maybe I do feel bad, if only because I feel pity for people who smoke--as if they were mutants or something.....I probably need to work on that character flaw....

robW

nsd_user663_3712 profile image
nsd_user663_3712

I sometimes think about it and sometimes I wish I could have one but never in my mind would it occur to me to have one.

In the same way I used to love having fried bread with a cooked breakfast but I don't do it anymore because I would probably gag on all that grease now having subscibed to healthy eating. I hope thats a good ****agy :p

Someone at work today was commenting on how much he was really trying to cut his home drinking down and last night had no wine. When his partner said "so you're not having any of this bottle?" He said all he could think about was the wine. He asked if thats how I felt when I gave up smoking and I said yes I suppose it was but it all seams so very long ago.

I am ambivalent about smoking and smokers, my husband still smokes I don't hate the smell or anything. I don't want to do it though.

To me this is a good relationship with tobacco after all these years.

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