I did not say it was the only way. merely the statisticly most successful method to quit smoking. most people who try nicotine patches and gums usually fail because they either miss the oral/hand fixation, the patches and gums are more expensive then the cigarettes, or that having the nicotine still in their system makes them fall back to smoking since even tho they technically stopped smoking they are still getting dosed with the addictive part.

other methods work for other people, but that doesn't mean cold turkey would not have worked for them. but yes its true, some people just dont have the will power and self control to simply stop, and need a product or replacement vice to hold their hand through the process.

If anything, this thread made me want a cigarette, and I just had one! I mean, smoking is bad, very bad. :nono:

Really though, it isn't fun or cool, and within the X amount of years I have been a smoker I can easily say I've lost at least 20% of my lung capacity, if not more. I can still climb mountains though.

Edit: Fun fact, one of my best friends is going this whole month without smoking due to a bet made with another friend, and if he makes it to the end of the month the guy is going to buy him Mortal Kombat. He's been chewing A LOT of gum lately (just the normal kind, not the kind with nicotine).

My dad quit by deciding he wanted to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Now he has two Harleys and smokes cigars. I'm not sure what happened here.

My grandmother was a smoker and had pneumonia and was on an oxygen tank and I caught her smoking.

No. This won't help.

People underestimate long term risks. It's why so few people eat healthily as well.

I say if people want to smoke, let them. You only live once after all.

I can't help feeling that's rather pejorative: even if it doesn't simply alienate the person in question, it would tend to affect their self-confidence by undermining what can be a very difficult thing to overcome by dismissing it as a lack of willpower. I'm not saying some people don't use it as an excuse, but it can be a real problem for others.

Your dad's a bad ass.

Where I live, they already have those. Doesn't stop me my friends who smoke. :whistling:

News flash: I know that smoking is bad for me. That isnt the problem. I love to smoke.

You could make cigarettes called Cancer Nails, with coffin and skull and crossbones on the front, and Id still buy them.

You know, when I was younger, I never thought so. But now? Yes. Yes he is. I am glad he quit with the cigarettes though. And he's cut way back on the cigars. All of it by will power.

That's right. Bad ass to the end. Bad ass to the cold, dark, bitter, wheezing, bronchitis-induced end. :mohawk:









:P

I just smoke occasionally but the labels don't help at all. In Canada we've had them for around ten years, and we're getting more graphic ones too. It's kinda funny because a lot of the smokers I know are just happy that they are going back to the old style of pack rather than the stupid flat one.

I stopped when I realized that I would smoke one cigarette about once an hour, so I then decided that I would try an experiment; Instead of once every hour, I would wait an extra 15 minutes between each smoke break (once every 1:15 hrs), after about a week I went to once every 1:30 between smoke breaks. After about a month of that I realized that I had a pack of smokes lasting a week or more as opposed to a pack a day, I finally took the plunge after that and have been smoke free for almost twelve years now.

IMO, the key (for me at least) was to find a way of breaking what I call the hand to mouth thing; example: grab a smoke out of your pack and light it. take hand to mouth then take a puff. Rinse and repeat all day every day for 5, 10 20 years and people don't know what to do with their hands anymore because they are so used to the hand to mouth thing. This habit must be broken.

I agree with this. However, this has not been the case. I have just seen a decline in tobacco prices as of late. Actually they have almost come down a whole dollar. It doesn't seem like much, but for a smoker, it is a big deal. I'm only really a stress smoker, and can usually make a pack last a month and a half, and I have seen the labels "Smoking causes cancer" on the boxes and have really paid no attention to them at all. I do believe the only way to get people to stop smoking is making the price go up.

But then that will lead to more illegal growth of tobacco and people selling cheap smokes on the streets and making a very good profit. So that actually may not be a good idea.....

I only smoked for a brief period (still a social smoker though). To stop I basically just took a minimal amount of cash with me when I went out so I couldn't afford to buy any and it was around the same time I started trying to lose weight so the need for extra stamina and lung capacity probably helped too.

However one habit that still carries over to this day is that I usually keep something like a pencil or straw or something cigarette shaped hanging out of my mouth. It's more of an unconscious thing, and sure it doesn't look very refined, but it's healthier than smoking!

That was the argument used in the netherlands, holland, to legalize all forms of drugs.. meh.

but its pretty much true that for most people who can't overcome their addiction on their own is because they lack the self determination to do so. this is not the case with true addiction, which is when the body becomes physically ill without the substance rather than getting aggitated or headaches from minor withdrawl.

my mother has tried to quit many times, what it comes down to is that its easier for her to start smoking again than it is for her to overcome the irritations and withdrawls. thats called having a weak will, she'd take the easiest option knowing it was a bad decision rather than sticking to her determination for a few weeks.

with the exception of things like meth and real addiction where the person could very well die of shock from major withdrawl, addiction in the light and missused definition is much like the lays potato chip challenge: can you take just one? its a matter of will power. or deciding to believe that you have no control over your destiny and you have to accept that you are forever a smoker, or a drinker as this last sentence is what AA preaches.

a gum, patch or any other replacement will not decide for you whethor or not you will never smoke again. thats why they often fail, because people expect the problem to be solved for them.

And look how well that turned out.

That's not sarcasm. Why isn't every country following their example?

/off topic borderline mini rant

Edit: also, not all drugs are legalised in the Netherlands. They employ a tolerance policy, especially towards "soft" drugs.

Luckily that hasn't happened in America !!!!!!!!!:nuke: YET :nuke:!!!!!!!!

At this point nothing is going to stop me, smoking is a family business. In Mexico the cigarettes I bought had a dead baby on them and that didn't stop me.

Polls in Europe and Australia (where they have such labels) say that it has.

Well... all I have to say to that is, go watch what Dennis Learry (or Bill Hicks ,I honestly don't care) has to say about that.

"WOO BILL, THESE THINGS ARE BAD FOR YOU!"

I'll tell you what I told the tobacco-selling lady : "Gimme a pack with the open heart surgery, I don't have it yet".

Gotta catch 'em all? Deathemon.