my reason for quiting was really simple i found something that helped me kick the habit which in turn gave me my social life back! let me

Hi Jules56, So glad you found the help you needed. Like you say there are a lot of patronising people out there. I know I used to get so annoyed it made me want to smoke. Like you say we need support not victimisation .

Well done you non smoker.

Well done to you Jules56 and that's a great way to see the gains of stopping smoking.

Although you would think health would be the number one reason for wanting to quit, this isn't always the case. Quite often it is for financial gains - as we know smoking costs a considerable amount of pennies these days. However, after reading your post, it really does bring to light the effect of how smoking really does have an impact on people's social lives. It sounds like you have got yours back though so well done

It is sad to hear stories about some health professionals attitudes towards their clients, members, patients etc as they can influence the smokers outlook, motivation and determination to want to continue on their stopping smoking journey. Especially if they work for public services such as the NHS too - it doesn't leave the person with much confidence in such services.

Fortunately, there are some people in this world who do work for such services who really do value the efforts of the smokers that they are their to help.

Totally agree with Jules56, one of my reasons to stop was the fact that at my work they were going to ban smoking altogether, not even allowed to smoke in our cars in carpark, if we had wanted one we would have had to get changed out of uniform and go out with the grounds, well, that wasn't even going to give you time for a cuppa in your breaks, there way no way I was going to survive a 13hr shift without a fag, hence the decision, 2 month before the ban came into force, to quit, and I'm ever so glad I managed, I knew, with me, it was going to be all or nothing, and this time it had to be nothing to work, All us smokers felt very hard done-by at the time we were told but for me its worked wonders, thankfully it was the boot up the bum I needed to stop