Get the Support You Need

Learn from thousands of users who have made their way through our courses. Need help getting started? Watch this short video.

today's top discussions:

logo

Mother's Day is coming in a few weeks!

AABBYGAIL RUTH

2024-05-15 10:52 PM

Depression Community

logo

Addiction

Lynn123

2024-05-15 9:17 PM

Managing Drinking Community

logo

Challenging Worry - Worry Time

Ashley -> Health Educator

2024-05-14 3:33 PM

Depression Community

logo

Fibre

Ashley -> Health Educator

2024-05-06 5:05 PM

Healthy Weight Community

This Month’s Leaders:

Most Supportive

Browse through 411.753 posts in 47.056 threads.

160,622 Members

Please welcome our newest members: SJOLINE GEL, Duncan Brown, BBEA ANGELIC, HMAZO, MLISING

Things to stop doing before I die..........


10 years ago 0 618 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Dear Brent,
 
I always love your amusing posts.  It gave me a much needed laugh this morning!
 
Love Lolly.    
10 years ago 0 639 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
This is a great exercise! The addiction tricked us into all the great benefits we were getting from nicotine.... ...Like the burns in the car floor, seat and door from errant butts and flying cherries... ...Stale smell in ventilation systems... ...Riding places alone....so I could toke at my leisure... Now I am so grateful to be free to do as I please. I miss having full breath control due to lung damage, but glad to be smober! Now off for a fall bike ride. Keep the quit, Dave
  • Quit Meter

    $50,606.78

    Amount Saved

  • Quit Meter

    Days: 1127 Hours: 11

    Minutes: 43 Seconds: 21

    Life Gained

  • Quit Meter

    5595

    Smoke Free Days

  • Quit Meter

    167,850

    Cigarettes Not Smoked

10 years ago 0 96 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
This whole post motivated me to write a list of all the things I hate about smoking. I was expecting it to be difficult but once I really thought about it I couldn't believe how easy it was. These are all things I'm happy to have given up.
 

1. Hiding it

2. Trying to light a cigarette in the wind and chipping my nail polish because the lighter won't stay lit

3. Freaking out because traffic is really bad right outside my apartment and all I want to do is be home so I can smoke

4. Being afraid to talk to my sister on vacation because I knew I smelled like smoke

5. Purposely staying back on my vacation and not doing fun things because I wanted to smoke

6. Feeling nervous and guilty every time I smoke at work because I'm afraid somebody I know will see me

7. Getting cigarette smoke and ash in my eyes

8. Burning my favorite clothes and shoes

9. Feeling like I'm being judged every time I buy cigarettes

10. Feeling guilty about throwing the butts on the ground and leaving them there

11. Feeling completely unable to get any work done for long periods of time because all I can think about is when I'm going to have my next cigarette

12. Being unable to work long shifts in the clean room

13. Feeling guilty every time I cough

14. Coming up with constant rationalizations for why I am out smoking

15. The sinking feeling that I have absolutely no control over my smoking

16. Being completely unable to smell or taste anything

17. Having to go outside to smoke when it's f***ing cold out, or raining

18. Spending almost every waking hour of my day thinking about smoking

19. Freaking out when I only have three cigarettes to get me through the morning when I really need more like five or six 

20. Being unable to sleep without nicotine in my system

21. Feeling like I'm going to die if I don't get a cigarette immediately after waking up

22. Hating a guy, for no reason, who's out walking his dog because I'm afraid he doesn't like my smoking so I feel I have to put out my cigarette and finish it later

23. Forgetting what it's like to be a non-smoker

24. The burning feeling when I smoke the end of the cigarette

25. Being incapable of feeling normal without having a cigarette... or two... or three

26. Getting locked out of my hotel room in Firenze... although that was rather hilarious

27. The cognitive dissonance of doing something that kills me

28. Having only five minutes to smoke a cigarette during the train station stop on the Amtrak, and spending half that time wondering where my lighter is and the other half frantically smoking a cigarette after I find it

29. The realization that my tolerance is quickly increasing and that I need more and more cigarettes to get through a day

30. Having to plan where I'm driving to include a stop somewhere that sells cigarettes

31. Having to get the taste out of my mouth after smoking

10 years ago 0 1140 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hehe. I had almost forgotten about those burning butt/ burning cherry episodes. For some reason, I'm now thinking of those times when I would kind of lose the "grip" on the cigarette that was hanging between my index finger and my middle finger. And then the cigarette would slide down, and I'd scissor those two fingers together just in time to pinch the burning cherry between those two fingers. And then I'd be desperately trying to get the burning part away from my fingers without dropping the whole cigarette. And sometimes I'd still drop it and then pick it up off the ground and smoke it with my burned phalanges. 
 
It was one of those scenes that just looked stupid. Probably should have been it's own reason for quitting, since I clearly couldn't learn how to hold those things correctly, even after 25 years of practice.  
  • Quit Meter

    $22,613.65

    Amount Saved

  • Quit Meter

    Days: 604 Hours: 13

    Minutes: 20 Seconds: 19

    Life Gained

  • Quit Meter

    4391

    Smoke Free Days

  • Quit Meter

    87,820

    Cigarettes Not Smoked

10 years ago 0 96 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Being terrified to talk to my sister or my coworkers for fear that they will smell the smoke that I can no longer smell.... Being nervous every time I sneak a smoke at work in case a coworker finds me.... I don't miss it.
10 years ago 0 711 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
More things to give up before you die.........
 
Not noticing that the dog has rolled in three week old road kill and that the smell could drop a horse............
 
Going red faced, gasping and wheezing half way up a Lake District mountain walk, with all your friends striding off into the mist...........
 
Getting ratty and stressed out because talking to your children about their day is delaying feeding your drug addiction.......
 
Looking in the mirror at your brown stained teeth and receding gum line..............
 
Making excuses not to go on a family walk at weekends because you can run out the back and light up the minute they have left the house...........
 
Panicking and pretending your haven't just lit up when someone comes back after 3 minutes having forgotten the doggy do bags................
 
Lying to your wife about how much you smoke..........
 
Feeling ashamed and having low self esteem as you realise that you place the addiction above those that you love...........
 
Mad Englishman
10 years ago 0 96 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
It is so easy to glamorize smoking, thank you for pointing out the horrible realities of the addiction. I will not miss burning my favorite clothes and shoes and getting smoke and ash in my eyes.
10 years ago 0 711 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Throwing a butt end out of the car window and then subsequently swerving all over the road as it blows back in and disappears between my legs...........
 
Killing flies by simply breathing on them...........
 
Waking in the morning and wondering why it feels like I spent the night with a mouth full of dirty socks..........
 
Searching the house late at night when the shops are shut for cigars, and then lighting a half-smoked and soggy butt found in the hedge..........
 
Having water drip down the back of my neck as I shiver in the cold outside the back door.............
 
Pretending I don't smoke to my family as I stink the place out from 50 yards.............
 
Realising that the milk that I have poured in my tea has gone off when I am half way down the cup and hadn't noticed.........
 
Pretending that I have a cold as my hacking cough that I have had for months wakes the whole house................
 
Constantly going to the cash-point and wondering a day later where all the money has gone.............
 
Finding holes in my clothes where broken matches or bits of burning cigar have dropped...............
 
mad Englishman

Reading this thread: