dontread,

I find your approach here very disconcerting. I'm 71 and I have another illness that will probably take me out of the game a bit earlier than otherwise whether I smoke or not (I do).

I've been living with this condition for 17 years and it still amazes me how even we geezers who've made our peace with our mortality still have an obligation to validate other people's fear of death by walking on eggshells around the subject.

In your profile you talk about managing your anxiety. So to you, my esteemed whippersnapper, I suggest this. By all means possible, do confront your own impending death in all its dark, fearsome and ambivalent guises. But in the process, please keep in mind that this is strictly an inside job that many of us have nearly completed, and while we wish you bon voyage in this adventure, we're not about to jump back to square one and surrender the turf we've already won so you can feel better about your own procrastination.

As a matter of fact, I've started a small support group to discuss this very issue and I invite you to join us:

http://www.dailystrength.org/groups/dying-well

Jersey, I smoked briefly twenty some years ago and quit with ease. I don't believe I became addicted to cigarettes.

Drinking on the other hand, I found very tough to quit!

There will always be something.

I'd like to quit, but I am having a hard time because it sends my anxiety through the roof. I don't think I am stable enough yet in sobriety to risk where that anxiety might take me. That said, I plan to try again to quit this weekend and will try to keep my anxiety down with exercise and meditation. I know I just need to get through the first week and will be fine.

What I don't get is society's fixation with smokers when the food industry is so poorly regulated. Obesity and other food related health problems is a bigger issue imo. I can't believe how many children are obese with diabetes these days. And what about over-medication by the Medical profession? Big Pharmacy is becoming a force like Big Tobacco.

Smoking and drinking are my only vices anymore. Not saying I SHOULD have a vice, but I think I can cut myself a little slack to fall short of perfection. I exercise regularly. I eat healthy and take vitamins. My weight is ideal for my height. I feel pretty good all around. I know the smoking will go - just a matter of time and effort.

I do believe I am highly addicted to it. Go figure, but I never even slowed down on the wonder drug, Chantix. My 2 bros succeeded with it for a short time, but caved again when under the influence of booze.

I agree with you totally but for some reason have no desire to put them down. I have quit all my nasty habits but that one.I roll my own which is so much cheaper 13.00 a carton but doing it that way im really not sure how much I smoke in a day. I would have to say about 2 packs. I know thats its nasty, discusting and bad for my health but that just doesnt sink in enough to make me stop.I have never tryed to stop and really never see myself trying.Yep, for sure a major addiction. I would have to say the worst one I have ever had and I have had alot.

I have been very addicted to nicotine for a long time now. A couple of brief attempts to give up have failed completely.

I know all about the dangers of smoking and what it can do to me. Two of my grandparents died of lung disease. Warnings are everywhere but somehow I am not ready to quit yet. When I am ready I will do whatever it takes but in the meantime all the warnings in the world dont make a difference. Just like with drinking where I knew what it was doing to me and could do in the future but it made no difference.

Nicotine addiction is different for me than my alcoholism. It manifests itself as a addiction to the substance nicotine. Nicotine is a hugely addictive substance - it is an entirely normal reaction to get addicted to it. Alcohol was a different story - my reaction to it is entirely abnormal. There is much more to my alcoholism that has nothing to do with alcohol whereas my addiction to cigarettes is entirely driven by the addictive nature of the substance nicotine.

Agreed, smoking is bad for us and we should stop. Some of us will, some of us won't. I can only say that by my experience and that of many others I know, smoking is a problem that needs to be addressed but it is a very different problem than alcoholism.

Yea I think smoking is something that can harm you.

Kinda get that!

My dad smoked. I love the smell-is that not so weird?

I know, I should be on a ciggarette comercial-"I just love the smell of tar burning boys..."

lol

Amen

Anyone who wants to quit and is in New England might want to look up "The Mad Russian" in Brookline MA. Harvard has studied his success rate -- it is about 80% (at one year point after treatment.)

I think the treatments last an hour or two and cost $65. And that's it.

I also know a couple of folks who quit using the book "The Easyway to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr.

My friend leant me Allen carr's book and I threw it out of the window!!! i had to go an retrieve it when I had calmed down LOL

I quit smoking by using drug replacement. (patches) And by apllying my program. (don't smoke no matter what). Been since June 1 smoke free.

Nicky, when you retrieved Carr's book from the garden, did you roll some cigs using the book's pages?

;-)

No but that is an inspired idea!!! :-)

I had managed to quit for 2yrs, but kept drinkink. My brain mades and said that I could only afford 1 vice....I picked booze.

Then I got moved by my kids and had a mini-breakdown....back with the cigs.

My sponsor up here, in this new place I was scared of...was 72 and smoked. No Copd nuthin...probably coughed but I didn't hear it. She encouraged me to work only on my alcoholism.

Anyway...I am sober, but roll my own like Sherry.....I smoke much much less...so quitting is apriority. All the bad thing said here about tobacco....I totally believe as true. I also believe in Tobacco Lobbyists being......hmm
They also tweak tobacco to make our bodies want more

Go figure

Nicky -- don't go see the Mad Russian. You might strain your back trying to shove him out the window.

A friend of mine went to see him for smoking and ended up quitting drinking instead. (Part of it is visualization -- she visualized smoking while drinking.)

i was a weird one who wouldn't smoke when drinking. this is how those close to me knew i was back hitting the sauce. i only smoked when sober. go figure..... i hope i'm done with both of 'em.