V-1 Nemo von Waldhimmel, SchH 3, KKL 1 LBZ - Page 5

Here's my story about how I quit after thirty years of slowly killing myself puffing away on a pack and a half a day of Winstons, Camel Filters and Marlboro Reds (none of that wussy Light stuff for me!):

I got a cold in March 2008 that just wouldn't go away. It got worse and worse, to the point where my SO - a registered nurse - told me I probably had pneumonia and should be on antibiotics, and that I should call the doctor. Naturally, being from the idiot gender of the species I ignored her and kept coughing my brains out - while still puffing away on my pack-and-a-half a day.

One night I literally did not not sleep a wink from coughing, to the point where it felt like my ribs had been beaten with a bat. The next morning I came downstairs, looked in the Marlboro pack, and saw that I had only two cigarettes left.  I immediately thought to myself "Oh no, I feel too lousy to go out and buy another pack and I only have two butts left - what shall I do?"

At that point, after thirty years of tobacco addiction and spending the last decade watching my mother develop COPD, emphysema and multiple varieties of heart trouble from her own 40 year tobacco habit (she died last year after surgery for lung cancer that she was too weak to withstand, 17 years after she quit smoking), the light FINALLY went off in my head, and I said to myself "You bleeping idiot - do you realize how ridiculous this is?"

So I decided that I was NOT going out that day for cigarettes, no matter what. This of course did not stop me from smoking the last two in the pack - I smoked them and enjoyed them normally with my coffee, with no sense that they were the last two I would ever smoke or any other dramatic thoughts like that. No, I simply resolved then and there that I was not going out to buy more that day, end of story.

And shockingly enough, I didn't go out that day or any other day since for more butts. Despite all the terrible scenarios I had created in my mind over the years about how quitting smoking would be this brutal Stalingrad-like battle of my addiction versus any desire to quit that I could never win, what I discovered was quite simple: I craved a cigarette every 20 to 30 minutes, the cravings would last 3 to 5 minutes, and then they would go away. So I didn't have to quit for life, quit for a year or even quit for a day - I only had to quit for a few minutes at a time. Pretty simple stuff, really - just hang on for a few minutes and don't reach for the car keys during that time.

That's not to say that there weren't times during the first 3-4 days while the nicotine in my system drained away and my brain was going "GIMME GIMME GIMME more of that stuff NOW!" that I wasn't desperate for a smoke. I most certainly was. But once I learned the craving would soon go away, I knew I could get through it and any others that followed. I actually knew by the end of that very first day that my smoking habit was over - and it was. I haven't had a cigarette since and have zero desire to resume smoking even when I am around smokers.

I'm not saying that everyone will or should find quitting cigarettes quite that easy to do, but bear in mind that my addiction was so strong that some mornings when I woke up I would bypass the bathroom and go straight outside for a smoke, THEN come back in to take a leak. Now that's a pretty strong drug habit no matter how you look at it. And if I could break the habit, so can you.

Uh, excuse me, Mr./Ms. Moderator, but:

"Please stay within the topic area..."

Nothing wrong with a little OT here and there, Tess, although I will confess to becoming one of those evangelical former smokers I used to so detest in former times.  :) 

LOL

Although I would be proud, too, and wanting to share the quitting experience to encourage Oskar/Uli.

The other stuff will have no problem resurfacing...IMHO

hahaha, I know, I could tell - your post has the enthusiasm of the convert.  Good for you for quitting.  My sister-in-law was the most obnoxious smoker for decades; would blow smoke right in the face of anyone who frowned at her, and when she stopped smoking she became equally as obnoxious in the opposite way - taking cigarettes out of other people's mouths because the smoke now bothers HER.

NOT saying you're like that, I'm just teasing you, glad you quit, and besides, I'm hoping by bumping the thread up top we find out if the OP got Nemo back or how the situation ended.

Howdy again,
thanks for the Happy New Year wishes - They go right back at you, may all your dreams come true.

I started smoking when I was 8 years - so that's 38 years ago !! ( In the end I smoked between 60 - 80 a day) Quitting smoking is not hard at all - I did it 100 times ! I went to a homöophatic (? spelling) doc, he gave me around 9 shots into each ear, and low & behold, never touch a fag again !!  Best is, it does not bother me a bit if someone smokes around me, actually I like the smell. Anyhow, if someone else stopped too, I wish you the best luck.

But you guys are certainly right, it really would be interesting if the OP got her dog back. IT seems these redicules claims become more & more recently. Nothing in our lifes around our dogs is a one way street  - at what point will that be understood ??

Regards

Ulli