I need your help to stop smoking. Tell me the horror stories!

[Rhony]

I've stopped smoking. As of right now. I know it will be hard, but I have to do this for my son, and for myself.

I am hoping to have a bank of aversions to help me when I have a craving. Can you help me? What are your horror stories?

My GF died before claiming pension too, and gfil died in 50s due to lung cancer.

I agree with the poster too about DNA damage of smoking in pregnancy. I feel it can affect the childrens fertility. And interestingly thyroid too. Both dsis and i are hypo now.

Good luck to you.

We lost my mum earlier this year to horrific lung cancer after years of being a heavy smoker. I've never smoked anyway but seeing her die made sure I'll never touch one in my life.

OH mum has waited her whole like for grandchildren.

4 years in and she’s been diagnosed with cancer, and liver failure.

Not terminal yet but very, very low survival rate.

OH and SIL are devastated. Her grandchildren won’t remember her if she dies.

I have up as soon as I found out I was pregnant with ds2. I went back to work and started again within a few days.

This thread is heart breaking, and I'm in tears. I know all the problem it cause, I know it can kill you etc, but something about reading these stories today has hit me somewhere I haven't been hit before.

Today will be my last day, and I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it so my dc will have a mum, and in the future children a grandmother.......

@Rhony I quit using Alan Carrs book, Easiway to Quit. Virtually no willpower or cravings. Its £3 on Amazon.

Both my father and father in law died of smoking related cancers and my mother in law died of asthma ( she smoked ).... None of them have seen our son and only my dad met my daughter... so our children have no grandparents at all....

Read The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Alan Carr. You are not giving up something nice. I quit and restarted dozens of times until I read it, and I've now done ten years without wanting a cigarette.

You don't need a horror story. My husband used to smoke about 50 a day.
He went to see a hypnotherapist in Bristol and he paid £50 pounds and after an hour he was a non smoker.
That was 20 years ago.
It was at the Clifton Practice in Bristol.
Give it a go. Best of luck.

DD's friend stayed over one night. She's from a smoking household. We're non-smokers.

You could smell that nasty stale smoke smell throughout the whole house while she was here and for days after.
I had to strip the bed, wash the curtains and dettol every hard surface in DDs room from her bed frame to the flooring to get the smell to go. It was rank. I even had to wash all our coats and jackets because the child had hung hers up and the smell actually transferred to everyone else's. I've never smelled smoke that bad and I grew up in a smoking house and smoked heavily myself for over a decade.
I put it down to the heavy snows at the time making her parents stay indoors to smoke and not open windows or doors. Yuck.

I live with an ex smoker. He smelled so bad I had to move to another part of the living room, his breath reeked, stained fingers that stank even when he scrubbed them with a brush. Clothes stank so much they had to be hung in the shower room with the window open, the car smelled foul even though he didn't smoke in it. It permeated the furniture and he didn't smoke indoors. It ruined days out, had to go outside to smoke while I was left alone indoors.

I had a lovely lady working for me who struggled to stop smoking even when she was ill. She died in a hospice of lung cancer. She kind of adopted me as the daughter she never had. She also made my furniture smell of cigarettes. I wish I could have helped her but she couldn't give up until it was too late.

My dad died from complications of bone cancer secondary to throat cancer caused by smoking at age 48, my grandad, his father, died from smoking related oesophageal cancer 11 months later. Losing them both so unnecessarily broke my heart 💔 they didn't see me get married or meet either of my beautiful sons. I have few photos of either of them and no video. I miss them every day. Don't do this to your family.

Thing is even if you live long enough to be a GP, with your dc/dil allow the kids to visit a smoky house. Or let a smoky GP hold a new baby or stay there. I wouldnt be letting young dc stay over especially where the person smoked inside.

We lost my beautiful MIL 7 years ago to lung cancer. She smoked her whole life from approx 14 years old. The cough that failed to clear up was terminal lung cancer - she was dead within 5 months. She left 4 children and 9 grandchildren. If only she had had the resources to give up as a younger woman. Good luck op - you can do it xxx

Aside from all these terrible sad stories about horrible health conditions - which obviously are more important - I'm going to point out the shallower end of the scale. Your looks/attractiveness/scent

Skin like an old wrinkled bag
Yellow teeth
Thin/disappearing top lip from the dragging
Bad breath
Stained fingers
Smelly hair and clothes

None of this is nice! I'm an ex-smoker so not judging I know how hard it it to quit but I was in the shop earlier today and a man walked in and stood next to me. I had to move along, he absolutely reeked of fresh smoke and it was disgusting. I hate that I used to smell like that!

You will feel so much better, be healthier, look/smell better and have more money. Plus it's so nice not to need to pop out to smoke all the time. Quitting is literally a win win all round.

You can do it!

Horror stories? If you keep smoking you are at risk of getting lung cancer or mouth cancer. If you get cancer you will likely need radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy to get rid of the cancer.

You've seen the adverts, loss of hair etc, the unseen side effects of chemo and radiotherapy are terrible. You may likely die from the agonising side effects.

I want to weep at those who actively risk getting cancer when I have watched my son die from cancer when he was only 18 and never smoked.

As a nurse for almost 30 years the one thing I most hope my DC don't do is smoke. Not only the cancers (not just lung) and breathing problems it causes, but the less obvious examples with the whole clogging up of the circulatory system. A stroke for example, is particularly devastating, leaving people incontinent, paralysed unable to speak or swallow, or rotting swollen legs with arterial leg ulcers that will never heal, or even increasing dementia risk.
It is the single best thing you can do for your health.

OP - I've posted earlier on the thread about Allan Carr. The one thing that stands out for me about when I finally successfully stopped smoking is the positive mindset. I wasn't 'giving up' smoking. I was gaining better health, lung capacity, sweeter smelling breath, freedom from cleaning ash trays, the normality of relaxing with friends and family rather than the anxiety of when I could grab the next fag, extra money in my pocket etc etc.
I knew the horror stories, I saw the warnings and public health ads, I was totally aware of the downsides. But I never had mentally framed 'giving up' as a massive positive. I was always focused on how difficult it was, and nicotine withdrawal. But the Allen Carr method helped me to counter balance that with the huge positive gains I would get. And they were certainties, in the immediate present rather than possible future scenarios. And it worked. From a confirmed 30 a day smoker, I've not looked back in 16 years.

I'm posting this for the OP because as real and utterly heartbreaking these posts are, it's also very powerful motivation to focus on the immediate positives you will get from stopping.
to everyone who has suffered loss. The tobacco industry is evil.
Good luck OP and to anyone else trying to quit.

If there was a building containing old foam furniture, tyres etc on fire and giving off toxic smoke, would you go and breathe in that smoke time and time again? No? That's essentially what smokers do with every cigarette.

Both parents were heavy smokers, mum died at 53 from horrendous lung cancer, she was in so much pain with it, it was a relief when she passed that she was no longer suffering, dad still smokes has advanced COPD can't really walk any distance without gasping for breath, I quit after mum died, I can't stand the smell anymore, smokers stink!

I'm a nurse in coronary care and probably about 85% of people who have heart attacks have or are still smoking.
We're seeing a lot more people in their 50s and 60s with heart attacks caused by smoking and alcohol.

I am in danger of losing my teeth because smoking is stopping my gums from healing from gum disease.

Coleslaw - yes, a good friend of mine recently had a heart attack after years of too much booze, rich food, cocaine and smoking. He was clinically dead for several minutes.

His consultant has said it's all bad for him, but the smoking as actually the worst of all those vices!!

Ex-DH (50) has no teeth. Not a single tooth in his head.

I've only read the title...I don't really want to read horror stories and there is no going back for me.

It really can be done. I never really wanted to give up but wanted to be a mum so knew I had to. I really don't miss it, have a lot more cash day to day (which I can spend on my son) and feel much healthier. Chest doesn't hurt as much. The biggest thing is not always smelling of stale smoke. There are no drawbacks at all. You just have to ride out the physical withdrawl process but that wasn't too bad and didn't take very long at all for me.

You absolutely stink. All smokers do.

That in itself is a horror story.