Crap,,,,,,, now I think I am addicted to cigs...

by LyinEyes 59 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  LyinEyes

  I have been smoking off and on for over a year,,,,,,,never smoked before this year in my life.

  It all started just for the hell of it. Then as my hub and I started going out dancing and hitting the town, cig smoke was everywhere. I would comehome with it in my hair and all over my clothes. At first I hated the smell. Then I guess being around so much second hand smoke, it made me crave it too. I used to smoke once a week,,,, when we went out with a drink. Now i find myself smoking more and more........... good lord ,,, I cant believe I am a smoker. I am trying to cut back, but find that I still want a cig. I heard they were addictive and thought I wouldnt get addicted with just a few cig one night a week............. I was wrong. I am just wondering who eles out there are smokers?

  Do you smoke everyday? What is your brand of choice? Did you try to stop? Just curious.

  Oh and for those who want to give a lecture of the dangers to my health for smoking I know, I know.. just wanting to see what everyone favorite brand is really? Just doing a mini poll .

  I smoke Marlboro Menthols myself..........funny my mom loved them too. I have oftened wondered if she is making me smoke because she is in heaven and cant lol............ she always said , when she was a witness, that should could smoke a cig a mile long. I guess she never got over her craving for them.
• 

  Tinkerbell4125

  DeDe, CC started smoking about a year ago and then I started. We're both hooked bad. We have made it our goal to quit this Thanksgiving. We are slowly weening ourselves off them. I hate it and I know it's one to the worst things a person can do to themselves. Let's make a pac to quit, k!
• 

  searcher

  I've been smoking since i was 12, I am 49 now.

  2 years ago I started ' hand rolling ' because they are smaller, and it is not always convenient to make one, it was the only way I could cut down from 40 a day.

  Oh well !

  searcher.
• 

  El Kabong

  Do you want to quit? That is the first question you have to ask yourself, and YOU MUST ANSWER HONESTLY. If you do, then that's half the battle. The other half is getting over the cravings.

  I started out smoking after leaving the borg (in the borg 25+ years) and soon found myself a 1 1/2 to 2 pack a day smoker. Worse thing I've ever done. I've been smoke free for 2 years now. Here are my current stats which I am quite proud of.

  Two years, six days, 10 hours, 57 minutes and 50 seconds. 23566 cigarettes not smoked, saving $4,124.16. Life saved: 11 weeks, 4 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes. (I got one of the cool meters available on the net. This one is called silkquit).

  The biggest encouragement I got the first few weeks after my quit was on the newsgroup alt.support.stop-smoking.

  It's a place much like this place where you can go for support, (not as many "Wars" though), rant if you are having a nic fit, ect. But, I cannot stress enough that YOU MUST WANT TO QUIT. No, "I think I want to quit", or "Maybe's". You can do it if you really want, BUT, you have to really want to. The first couple of weeks really suck, but it does get better. Also, drink lots of grapefruit juice. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but there's something in the grapefruit juice that gets rid of all the nicotine in the body.

  Hang in there.

  Edited by - El Kabong on 31 October 2002 16:9:43
• 

  scootergirl

  I smoke occasionally. I am very lucky that I haven't ever gotten addicted to cigarettes. I like to smoke when I go to a bar, when I am "out on the town"......but I can go weeks, sometimes months, without any problem. Smoking with me is kinda like drinking. I don't do it everyday, but sometimes I just like to have a drink/smoke.

  My husband is almost 50......been smoking since he was a wee teenager. He has the hardest time trying to quit. I feel so sorry for him. In fact, he says that quitting smoking is more difficult that quitting drinking ever was for him.

  You know Dede....one sure way to make you quit is get pregnant! Always worked for me! LOL
• 

  LyinEyes

  Scootergirl,,,,,, bite your tongue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That kind of profanity ( the word pregnant) I am sure will not be tolerated on this site........hehehehe. Actually it may be my kids contributing to my need to run out the door and calm my nerves hehhhe.. just kiddin....

  I can honestly tell you right now ,,,,, I don't want to stop...... just wish I didnt start.....but if I tried to stop right now this day,,,,, i would fail. I know this because I have alot on my mind and that darn merlot taste so much better with a cig... Seriously I do not want to keep smoking forever, just hope that when I get ready to quit I will have the will power.
• 

  Makena1

  Sabine and I started by sharing a cigar or two at a swanky club in Maui a couple of years ago. You know, martini's, shoot a little pool, dance, puff puff. It was our first show of any rebellion against JWdom.

  Now like Scootergirl we smoke mostly when we go out drinking or dancing. Probably average 3-4 cigs a day - ultralights if that makes any difference. Every one gives me a two-martini buzz for a few minutes after. No real craving though, probably because we are in our 40's when we started? We have made a pact not to smoke more than 3-4 a day, and have at least talked about quitting altogether.

  We used to be such anti-smokers - besides the JW taboo. It's kinda funny now being on the other end - having people make faces at us, roll their eyes, finding fewer and fewer places indoors where you can light up.

  Mk
• 

  A Paduan

  If you're free from anxiety and other mental issues, which you seem to be now that you're free - then just stop it - don't have another one - stay free, very free - then if you feel like one in the future, so be it - but establish the fact that you're in control first - and it's bad for your health too - cigarettes contain one of the most (if not the most) carcinogenic substances known to man, and it's not just lung cancer that it causes.

  Edited by - a paduan on 31 October 2002 16:31:36
• 

  4christ

  I smoked for 16 years, started at age 12 and got very hooked. For a long time it was no problem but after some years, it really starts taking a toll on the health (shortness of breath, coughing, chest pains) i quit 6 months ago, it was VERY hard to quit. It is hard when you are around the smell of smoke and stuff..........I still crave cigs. i even dream about smoking sometimes (isnt that terrible?). If i thought i could get away with it and not get sick, i would still be smoking but i knew if i didnt stop they were going to kill me.

  El Kabong is right on the money, you have to really want to quit. you cant be like, "im going to try to quit" you just have to do it... If you really want to quit, more than you want to smoke! I "tried" for years before i made the decision to quit.

  There are people who can smoke "occasionally", but I think for most people it hooks you in pretty good....There are so many chemicals they add to them also, its not just the nicotine...... if anyone tells you its easy to quit, they werent really addicted.

  it isnt easy to quit but it is worth it.

  peace and health be with you- Lauren :)
• 

  obiefernandez

  I had my first smoke very soon after my 14th birthday. I can remember it vividly. A Newport in the basement of Prozy's Army/Navy Surplus store where I had an after-school job. It was one of my first concrete rebellious acts against my JW upbringing. It made me feel very sick and nauseated. Throughout high-school I would very occasionally bum cigarettes from my friends. It was very much a social thing and part of the double-life. Smoking with friends was part of shedding the goody-two-shoes JW image. Part of the reason I got publically reproved at 16 was because several JWs in my school knew that I smoked.

  I managed to never buy a pack of cigarettes until I split up with my wife in July of last year. The girl I started dating soon thereafter was a smoker since age 11.

  A year later I was no longer with the girl and it was really bothering me that I transitioned from a social smoker to a real smoker. I was waking up each morning feeling like crap and coughing like crazy. I tried to quit a couple of times, but it wasn't until I really committed to the idea that I DID NOT want to be a smoker that I was able to fully quit. It also helped to tell all my friends not to bum me cigs under any circumstances.

  Now several months later, I am at the point where I still have an occasional cigarette when I'm out drinking, but I know deep inside that I love myself too much to pick up the habit again. (Side note: Anyone that hangs out in bars and clubs knows that you inhale a LOT of smoke whether you are actually smoking or not.)