I know how you feel. I smoke too. I sure wish I didn't, but at the same time it brings me comfort. Terrible isn't it?
I know how bad it is for me. It's not just bad for our lungs, it effects our whole bodies. Yes it aggravates our pain, it causes inflammation not just in the lungs but throughout the body.
I cut down and think I have a handle on it and then I go right back up again errrrr!
I surely hope the day comes that both of us can find the willpower to put these things down for good and never miss them again.

Best wishes,
Toni

Me too, I am getting sick of it and really want to quit but it seems harder then I thought it would.

smoking is your best friend . Sometimes the 3 min. it takes you to smoke a cigarette, is the only relief you get from pa[n. I know that makes no sense, it's all in my head.smoking damages the body, and my case, it increases the damage to my connective tissue. It

Smoking is not just hurting you, it hurts anyone who is around you. I'm very against smoking because it killed my mother, father and brother much too early in their lives.

I could tell you the gory truth about the cancer but I won't.

What I will tell you is that I care about you and want to see you healthy as can be. You can quit, I've seen many do it but you need to find another better habit to replace the smoking activity. Give it a try, keep trying because you will feel better once your lungs are clear of all that gunk.

I'm sure I'd feel better if I quit and I keep telling myself I will...soon. Since I've been living alone it's gotten worse because there's no one to be affected by it other than me.

I've had a very short sighted attitude about my life because of depression and pain. I often think that I wouldn't really leave a void in anyone's life.

Don't ever think that, Cherry. To whom would your mother cook the chicken for?
I don't know what it is like being addicted to something. I don't smoke, but every now and then I light up a cigarette and smoke it just to forget about the pain a little. However most of the times I just eat something I absolutely love when the pain hits the hardest. Why don't you try that?

Big hug for you.

Cherry I know from the experience with one very good friend of mine that more we (her DH, kids and I) tried to get her to quit - but it never worked, in fact had the opposite effect. All our talking was counter-productive.

One day she just decided to stop, didn't tell any of us and did it (with the help of nicorettes). She has stayed off them for some years now.

Like you I was coughing and wheezing and had the stained fingers (hate to think what my lungs were like) but I made myself a promise to give them up when they cost $2 (they are now $15) a pack. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do as my SO at the time still smoked. But I was stubborn enough to make it work.

You will give up when YOU are ready to do so.

Toni even 25+ years on there are times when I miss them.
I will never light up again (I hope) as I know that first one will make me sick to my stomach and then I will want a second one and I will be addicted to them again.
Have read that they are more addictive and harder to get off than drugs like heroin. Having done that I can believe it!

Good luck to both of you I hope that one day you can find the strength to get off them.

Don't feel bad. I'm in the same boat. I smoke too, and I'm tired of people telling me how badly I need to quit. I KNOW I should quit, but darn it, I don't WANT to. You have to WANT to before you CAN.

It's just like addiction to booze or drugs -- if you don't WANT to quit, you won't. I know - I'm a recovering drunk. lol

I hope someday I'll get the desire to quit. But right now, I'd go CRAZY if I had to quit. Absolutely NUTS. Hugs, Lee

That would work for a person who has a healthy relationship with food, but I was raised to associate eating with guilt.

I was a small child when my Mother started monitoring my appearance for fear of an extra ounce on my body. I was a tiny, little thing when she planted the seed that would plague me for the rest of my life. I've struggled with bouts of anorexia forever and I'm just pulling out of a spell, now.

When I'm particularly stressed or down, I stop eating. Now, with all these meds chewing my stomach apart, I have to eat. I never feel good about it, though.

I understand all about the feeling that a cigarette is the friend who is always there for you... and who you can't bear to think of life without. I used to be like that, but I have been free for over 3 years now... and that freedom is something that I have celebrated every day since. It is an enormous relief to find myself no longer enslaved by my addiction to nicotine.

While in one sense I agree with Hathani's comment that you won't quit until you are ready (I believe you have to want to quit in order to succeed) it is very possible to start preparing yourself to have a successful quit long before you feel ready to try. I also believe you are not very likely to have a successful quit unless you do prepare yourself for some time before you attempt it.

I combined several strategies that made my quit very easy. I used the wonderful support and knowledge of the DS Smoking Addiction and Recovery group. I had some sessions with an Addiction Counsellor to help me identify my smoking triggers and addiction beliefs... and to seperate the habit component of my smoking from the addiction component of my smoking. I bought a quit smoking hypnosis cd... and listened to it several times a day as well as any time I felt like wavering from my goal. I used the medication Champix (Chantix in the US) which for me miraculously took away nearly all desires and cravings about smoking. If you want to think about the possibility of quitting for yourself I strongly suggest going to the smoking addiction group and doing some reading.

Regarding a cigarette being your friend, I will post under this "My cigarette, my friend" which someone wrote about that topic. Yes it's long and I know my comment here is already very long, but it helps a lot of people look at their cigarettes differently.

My cigarette, my friend.
How do you feel about a friend who has to go everywhere with you? Not only does he tag along all the time, but since he is so offensive and vulgar, you become unwelcome when with him. He has a peculiar odour that sticks to you wherever you go. Others think both of you stink.

He controls you totally. When he says jump, you jump. Sometimes in the middle of a blizzard or storm, he wants you to come to the store and pick him up. You would give your spouse hell if he or she did that to you all the time, but you can't argue with your friend. Sometimes, when you are out at a movie or play, he says he wants you to go stand in the lobby with him and miss important scenes. Since he calls all the shots in your life, you go. Your friend doesn't like your choice of clothing either. Instead of politely telling you that you have lousy taste, he burns little holes in these items so you will want to throw them out. Sometimes, he tires of the furniture and gets rid of it too. Occasionally, he gets really nasty and decides the whole house must go.

He gets pretty expensive to support. Not only is his knack of property destruction costly, but you must pay to keep him with you. In fact, he will cost you many, many thousands of dollars over your lifetime. And you can count on one thing - he will never pay you a penny in return.

Often at picnics you watch others playing vigorous activities and having lots of fun doing them. But your friend won't let you. He doesn't believe in physical activity. In his opinion, you are too old to have that kind of fun, so he kind of sits on your chest and makes it difficult for you to breath. Now you don't want to go off and play with other people when you can't breathe, do you?

Your friend does not believe in being healthy. He is really repulsed by the thought of you living a long and productive life. So every chance he gets he makes you sick. He helps you catch colds and flu, not just by running out in the middle of the lousy weather to pick him up at the store. He is more than creative than that. He carries thousands of poisons with him which he constantly blows in your face. When you inhale some of them, they wipe out cilia in your lungs which would have helped you prevent these diseases.

But colds and flu are just his form of child's play. He especially likes diseases that slowly cripple you - like emphysema. He considers this disease great. Once he gets you to have this, you will give up all your friends, family, career goals, activities -EVERYTHING. You will sit home and caress him, telling him what a great friend he is while you desperately gasp for air.

But eventually your friend tires of you. He decides he no longer wishes to have your company. Instead of letting you go your separate ways, he decides to kill you. He has a wonderful arsenal of weapons behind him. In fact, he has been plotting your death since the day you met him. He picked all the top killers in society and did everything in his power to ensure you would get one of them. He overworked your heart and lungs. He clogged up the arteries to your heart, brain, and every other part of your body. In case you were too strong to succumb to this, he constantly exposed you to cancer causing agents. He knew he would get you sooner or later.

Well, this is a story of your "FRIEND" your cigarette. No real friend would do all this to you. Cigarettes are the worst possible enemies you ever had. They are expensive, addictive, socially unacceptable, and DEADLY. Consider all this and then decide if you really want to take another puff.
- Author Unknown

I will never regret my decision to give my "friend" the boot. I am only sorry I hadn't known much earlier that it would be so easy to do. Best of all I've saved $6,500 in the 3 years since I quit... and that despite the fact I was using roll your own tobacco which was a fraction the cost of buying tailor-made cigarettes.

I wish all the smokers here the best... and hope that you will all find it in yourself, at some point in the future, to set yourself free from the slavery to nicotine.
Take care... xxx

Thanks for your story and the letter...I read every word! I was hesitant to bring this up in the chronic pain forum, but these are the people I'm connecting to right now.

I appreciate hearing from all of you who struggle with this, too. It's a real...pisser, for sure.

There are no medically redemptive benefits of smoking. Breaking the addiction is most successfully accomplished via an abrupt cessation (cold turkey) with a low success rare per attempt, however repeated vigilant efforts will eventually succeed.

A rare peripheral vascular autoimmune condition associated with smoking can threaten limbs/digits which is brought to mind with the description of "raynaud's" that you mentioned. It is called thromboangitis obliterans/Buerger's disease.

You have friends here who care.

David.

Thanks, David. I have come to realize that in the short time I've been here. I just joined the smoking addiction group...we'll see what happens next.

I am right there with you! they are my friend yet i hate them! I have been thinking about going to the smoking site for awhile, I will go today thanks to your stories. I'm afraid!
Thank you!
schlene