Giving up smoking is it really that important

[billy27]

Okay I know it is, I've done it before then I started again stupidly it's been 5 years now. I've smoked since I was 17 I'm now 26 I can't afford to smoke, it stinks disgustingly and I hate being judged for smoking out and about.
I am scared of giving up and the low mood that comes, I'm scared that I might get depression as I read that's a symptom to expect when giving up? Please tell me stories of how you gave up and the benefits you've felt since. I do suffer with anxiety sometimes so I think I'm worried incase it gets worse and I can't cope etc.

So if you live to 80, you will save over £160,000 by not smoking. That’s a house!

My mother died a slow, very prolonged and extremely painful death from lung cancer, caused by smoking. It was hideous.

Give up, please.

It's one of those things where, after you've stopped, you'll look back on it and wonder why you ever did it. It's SO worth it. That's why ex smokers are so evangelical

Write a list of all the reasons why you want to stop. Over the next 3 weeks stop, then look at the list when you want a cig, wait 10 or 15 mins, see how you feel then. After 3 weeks you'll stop craving them.

Maybe take up a hobby like yoga or running to help in the process.
Good luck OP!

I think you are right about trying to do it avoiding vaping. Even if it was totally harmless you are still an addict. And I speak as a vaper.

I teach public health at university - yes it's important!

My Mum is dying of lung cancer. She had been smoking "only" 4 or 5 cigarettes a day for a couple of decades (she used to smoke more when I was a child). The cancer has spread to her brain. She is incontinent and can barely walk a few steps.

Please give up.

Try and change your old routine where you’d have a cigarette if you can.

my Nan gave up B&H gold after 50 years and went on those e cig things and she's more reliant on that and now spends the same on what she did before she quit real fags

She must have been a very, very occasional smoker then.

I vaped for about 2 years after quitting smoking. Dh still vapes. He doesn’t spend a fifth on vaping of what he spent when smoking...the cost isn’t anywhere near comparable IME and dh is VERY addicted caper.

*vaper

My mother smoked for 50 years. She died 3 years ago after a horrendous 3 month illness when her lungs gave up. She had a stroke. She was intubated and then had a tracheostomy. There was nothing left of her lungs. She then got an infection in her lungs and died in agony after a month. Sorry to be gruesome but I had been begging her for years and years to stop smoking. And she would simply roll her eyes at me. We miss her. Please stop smoking.

Sorry if this is grim.....

My father was a smoker all of his life. He died of lung cancer and it was a slow painful death.

Stick with it. Smoking is a disgusting habit which affects those around you.

I gave up 14 years ago just before I turned 50 after 30 plus years of heavy smoking. You have to really want to quit - I had had many half hearted efforts, but the last time I was determined. I found Alan Carr's book really helpful.
There are no benefits to smoking whatsoever.
I have not smoked a single fag since. I missed them for a while, but the pleasure of not smoking (and stinking and coughing) outweighed the desire to smoke.
Be careful with nicotine replacement. It does work but it doesn't cure your nicotine addiction. I had trouble getting off the nicotine gum which had become my crutch.
You can do it, and I tell you, you will feel so proud of yourself. You feel like 'wow, if I can give up smoking, I can do ANYTHING!'. It's very empowering.

I gave up for nearly 5 years, then started again. That was about 5 years ago, and I hate that I went back to it.

My way of giving up was to put money in a piggy bank for every day I didn't smoke (equivalent to what I would have spent on fags) and take every day at a time. I will be trying again in the next couple of weeks, hopefully.

We went from struggling with money to having money left at the end of every month once DP quit. He did it with the tablets you can get from the doctors and it didn't seem to bother him too much.

My mother started smoking at 17, gave up when expecting me, smoked a bit when expecting my brother, no idea about my sister (they were both big babies, 10lbs and 9lbs).
Tried to give up a number of times, but clearly her heart wasn't in it. Used to get extremely grumpy, to the point where Dad, who didn't smoke, would offer to go off and buy her some cigarettes.
Died this year aged 89 of "natural causes" i.e. nothing smoking related.
I think you need to analyse why you are smoking. In a lot of cases it is the habit, rather than an "addiction" that needs to be overcome.
Good luck!

@JadeDragon23 no she smoked around 18 a day for 50 years the e cig thing she uses is around £7 for a cartridge? Screw in thing I don't know what it is it goes in the bottom of her fake cig and she has one daily. She's also in recovery from lung cancer it'll be 5 years next year she will get the all clear. Still won't quit though. This is why I want to quit also it scares me because she had no symptoms at all

I used an ecig for 2 weeks to quit. I smoked from around 15 to 25yo and about 20 a day.
It was hard but worth it.

My dad has terminal lung cancer and they think it's spread to his bones. Horrible drawn out death. He'll be leaving behind 2 adult children and 3 grandchildren that love him. He's only 62.

Oh and he didn't even have a cough when he was told he was terminal.

My DH smoked from the age of 9 to 59, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He gave up with the help of Champix, and said he had wished it had been available when he had been trying to give up before. He found it really easy and didn't really have many cravings. I guess he had a good incentive (they wouldn't operate unless he quit) but he never went back to them. Sadly it was too little too late, but the actual experience of giving up was ok for him.

I have watched and aunt and my mother die of lung cancer that was 100% due to smoking (it’s a type of cancer that only effects smokers). I was cheated out of a good 20+ years of having my mum around because of the fact she smoked. If you are able to find ways to manage to quit then you should do everything in your power to do so, especially if you have children who will have to pick up the pieces if you dont

@billy27 let's just do it. Right now. I actually haven't had one since I read your post. Just craving one but I'd have to go to the shop! I'm not going.

Surely I'm tougher than that. As are you

I'm from a family of smokers I'm one of the few that haven't taken it on. I hate it it stinks, it's expensive, it makes you ill and I just don't understand why people take it up when they know all this now.

I've lost close family members to COPD, my dad is now the next one diagnosed with it. So have to watch someone with it all over again it's an awful disease.

If you can stop please do for the sake of your loved ones and your health. Plus think of what you can spend that lovely cash on!

However, please don’t pick up vaping as a replacement. There aren’t enough testing done on it. Some people are getting horrifically ill from it.

There has been some terrible misreporting around the illnesses and deaths happening in the US. These are linked to black market THC (cannabis) products containing oil.

UK nicotine eliquids are completely different products which are heavily regulated and extensively tested for contaminants. There have been no cases of this 'vape related illness' in the UK and public health guidance remains unchanged - vaping is around 95% safer than smoking.

Royal College of Physicians has a good briefing:

www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/rcp-advice-vaping-following-reported-cases-deaths-and-lung-disease-us

OP, you can self-refer to your local stop smoking services.

www.nhs.uk/smokefree/help-and-advice/local-support-services-helplines

They can talk you through the pros and cons of the various methods and can support you through the early weeks.

Good luck!

I’m 27 had been smoking since I was 13. Last year I bought a vape, used it for a couple of days then went cold turkey. Honestly the only bad part was day 2/3 I just couldn’t sleep apparently that can be a side effect but it soon passes. Been a year fag free now although I now spend that money on take aways my cupboards are always much fuller and I’m less stressy as I’m not worried about when the next fag will be or having enough money for fags or smelling of fags.

Should be fine after day 3 Billie by the sounds of it.

I'm a bit gutted that I didn't actually sit and have a "last one" because I read your post after I'd had the last one.

Not buying 20 just to have one single fag