We were introduced when I was a young child. It was my fathers freshly match lit Camel filter cigarette that sticks in my mind, now. When we traveled 20 miles east to my cousins' house the neighbor girl was always ready to sneak away and pass out her mother's Marlboro Reds. When your nine years old, the liberation of a lit "smoke" in your hand was intense, even if you couldn't inhale it like the old pro I would soon become. Around the same time I was acquainted with leaf tobacco in the form of Red Man Plug but it wouldn't be until eleven years of age that I would become a full fledged habitual user. I would like to blame my friends involved in school sports for that but I know that my weakness and insecurities played a larger role in my fascination with St. Nicotine. Now in "middle school" we were smoking and drinking on the weekends, chewing Skoal or Kodiak smokeless snuff during the season. Yes the Kodiak was quite a find. A small pinch was so powerful that our head would spin and you'd feel a cold chill start at the top of your skull and turn warmer as it ran down your spine and finally settled in the bowel, now moving and churning with stimulation. That feeling became my heroin for the next 20 years. Though I quit cigarettes at 21, I had another decade of slavery to endure by the name of Grizzly Wintergreen. There was always a rumor that the high powered wintergreen brands used fiberglass in the recipe in order to "rough up" the area therefore allowing even more nicotine to flow into the blood stream. The 30th of this month will mark nine months that I've been nicotine free. No chew, no smokes, not even any of those sweet smelling cherry and cream cigars at the check out counter. I'm very proud and since I have no friends in real life, I'm sharing it with you. If anyone out there wants to quit nicotine, I'm telling you that you can do it. IMO, it would also help to pray to whatever god you may have because the withdrawal is a serious bitch without a little help from beyond.
It's not too hard. I started at 19 and quit at 25, but I still like a cigar now and then, but there are much better things to smoke :m:.
IMO, chewing snuff is a lot worse than cigarettes except the fact that you're not harming anyone else in the area. It's highly concentrated and you can keep it in your mouth for hours for a continuous flow into the system.
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=66902 Leopold99 and I have quit cold turkey, too. Apparently it's been 1 year, 2 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes, and 50 seconds.
Way to go! :bravo: Just stick to it and never let your guard down for a moment because it is easy to slip back into a bad habbit. :itold: Thank you for passing along the information about quitting perhaps someone else reading this will do the same and quit as you have done now they know that others have done so.:thumbsup:
Thanks, Cosmosis. I've a few vices left to smack down (0k,hundreds), but that was a biggie for me. I'ts highly addictive and more so the longer you've done it. My mother-in- law has had a lung transplant due to smoking. It's right up there with the "hard drugs" for a lot of folks. many would die before quitting.
Congrats Cluster. The 28th of this month will be 6 months for me. I started smoking at 10 years old! But it didn't really turn into a daily habit until I was about 14 or 15. It took me 30 tries to be able to do it. Not that I am "cured" now, I could start again tomorrow! Now I just take it one day at a time. Look into 12 step programs [http://www.nicotine-anonymous.org/pubs_content.php?pub_id=18] for some serious help. 12 steps work great, if you work them...
I remember smelling the smoke coming out of my mother's rough old white trash friend when I was about 6 or 7 and I just loved it. I genuinely thought it smelled great. I started smoking when I was about 14 and smoked heavily for 7 years, when I'd go without for a day or even just a few hours I'd nearly panic and felt like shit, but then I cut back dramatically 3 years ago. Simply because I had to smoke outside and it was a hassle, then about 1 and a half years ago I just stopped altogether, and it really wasn't hard at all. I almost couldn't keep smoking, I actually didn't want to quit because I'd been an adamant pro-smoking anti-anti-smoking person, I'd never ever tried to quit or even said "I should probably quit" and I hated non-smokers, but my new found obsession with sports and athletic performance just outcompeted my love for tobacco and I couldn't bring myself to make my airways congested because it inhibitted performance. It really was that simple in the end. It was no struggle for me to quit, I struggled to keep smoking but lost the battle.
When you start wheezing and coughing up blood perhaps then you will quit, but I doubt it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I don't know how anyone manages to get addicted to smoking. I can't handle fag smoke. It makes me feel sick and cough like mad.
Nicotine is a "Gateway drug". It's more likely that any addict has likely smoked cigarettes first, it's possible that their "Addicted nature" is a by product of having smoked cigarettes. (For years they tried to imply that the Gateway Drug was Cannabis, but the reality is that most Cannabis smokers would never have tried their drug of choice if they hadn't smoked cigarettes to begin with).
That "gateway drug" shit in general is bullshit. It's just that the kind of person who is going to smoke crack or jack heroin isn't going to turn down cigarettes and bongs. If cigarettes and bongs didn't exist they still would have done whatever else, probably just sooner if anything.
It's not "general" bullshit. Just look any time someone tries something, it's not just down to "they want to try it" it's down to some form of peer pressure. Cigarettes is a good example in the Teenage years (along with Alcohol). The fact remains that usually the peers that smoke eventually start punting Dope to their friends and these particular drug trades eventually escalate as people start looking to make more and more money while of course getting high with their peers. Eventually this then leads in some cases to addictions which some weak willed people can not escape. This is why they term it "Gateway", admittedly it's not something that alone means you'll turn into a heroine addict, however it implies that starting it will eventually spiral you into social circles that in all essence it's best to stay clear of.
