Share your experience so far. Did you notice a decrease in socializing? Did something disappeared? Do you miss anything? I want some motivation before my decision. Thanks!
Based on how long you have been smoking, i bet you even forgot how your lungs used to function before you started smoking. Soon it will come back to normal and you will start enjoying the healthy lungs. Personally i used to have grade 1 hypertension and it dropped back to normal without any medication. Im 4 months into my quit. but even today i miss smoking. It might be something that only disappear over time.
No decrease in socializing. I only have 2 friends left who still smoke. One is not very social anyway, and the other I still see frequently. Even in my early quit, I was never tempted to smoke with him. In fact, I kind of enjoy second-hand smoke occasionally. You would think it would be a trigger and cause cravings, but for some reason it never has. He is also very supportive of my quit. I’ve seen so many people on this site talk about their smoking friends who now shun them, or don’t include them as much. I feel so bad for them, and so glad I never experienced that.
There is nothing I miss about smoking. About half way through No Man’s Land I had a couple of weeks where I romanticized my smoking past, and was tempted a few times to have “just one”. I came here and blogged about it, wrote about it in response to other member blogs, talked to anyone and everyone near me about it, until I felt that everyone was sufficiently feeling as sorry for me as I was for myself . I did have strong craves for months. They have only recently subsided. But I don't think of craves as "missing" something.
There are a lot of things I don’t miss. I don’t miss coughing and wheezing. I don’t miss snoring so loud, I wake myself up. I don’t miss being out of breath from exercise. I don’t miss smelly breath, smelly clothes, a smelly car, a smelly garage (where I did my smoking at home). By far, the number one thing I don’t miss is spending half my day planning and worrying about when I can have my next cigarette.
Happier. healthier, more confident, more energetic, much higher socialization, more focused, what's not to like?
I don't chew gum to cover up bad breath, I don't stand back so they can't smell the stench on me and my clothes. I don't have yellowish fingertips and sallow circles under my eyes. I don't have embarrassing Smokers' cough or choke on my food when eating in public. I feel whole - not empty that a sickerette will never fully relieve.I proved too myself that I am important to me! That's the first step toward getting others to treat you with honor and respect.
There is NOTHING I miss about smoking and I smoked for 40 years! None of my friends smoked - so I was always the outcast - don't miss THAT! I don't miss smelling like an ashtray, worrying about my next fix. I flew to Europe last Fall, and sitting in the airport, flying many, many hours and then getting out of the airport was no big deal.....my stress level was significantly REDUCED! I have extra money, and don't have to worry about getting out to buy them in bad weather.
Have you read Allen Carr? He explains that all the things we thought smoking did for us are LIES. They don't relieve our stress; they only alleviate that caused by the last cigarette smoked. That hit of dopamine you get can be obtained in all kinds of OTHER, healthy ways.
Honestly, there is absolutely nothing I miss after quitting the sickarettes! In fact, I have MORE time to spend with family and friends. I am not constantly going outside or away from others to smoke. Nothing disappeared really. I gained a lot though. I didn't panic about an airline flight delay because that would mean I couldn't smoke for even longer. I just rode with it and was HAPPY I didn't need to worry about that next cigarette. I realized I spent more time thinking about that next cigarette than anything. Once I quit, I had more time to do the things I liked to do!
Honestly...the only bad thing about quitting was that my sense of smell came back and some things just smelled down right gross!!! Those things used to be masked when I smoked since my sense of smell and taste were very much muted. To be honest...I'll take the gross smells over the smelling gross (caused by smoking). I never knew how bad I must have stunk!
There is nothing good about smoking and really, nothing to miss!
I don't miss anything about smoking, I sure don't miss the dishonesty of it...the sneaking around so that people wouldn't see me smoking. I didn't want them to think I was unintelligent and seriously, after all of the information that has come out, I felt as though smoking demonstrated that I was not really a very smart person. I do have friends who smoke but I don't spend any less time with them now than I used to, I just make sure that if they are smoking, we are outside and I am not downwind of the smoke. I am not afraid it will tempt me to smoke, I know better, I don't want THEIR waste products in MY space. I am more motivated to take care of myself and to pay attention to my diet, my health...the person I damaged for so many years. I SO wish I could turn the clock back and never smoke...I would be so much more EVOLVED emotionally, I would have learned to deal with things without "drugging" myself with nicotine. I have much better self esteem because I have proven to MYSELF that I can do this, I AM doing this. I am no longer willfully injuring myself because of addiction. I am HAPPIER.
Honestly dim, wish there was some sort of magic wand or nicotine free sparkle dust that I could use on you!!...but the truth as we proclaimed it to be is, your social life does not change, you may have to challenge yourself as to what your strengths and weaknesses are, and go from there.
WE'VE ALL had the same apprehension...it's all up to you!
I learned to cope with what I'd been doing a piss poor job of coping with before I quit cigs. I got better--mentally, once I accepted that I had to change, not life. I'm healthier, happier, closer to those I love and I'm cigarette free...12,000 dollars richer, 40,000 more or less cigs not smoked. What is not to like about this picture? So what is in your future picture, lots of smoking and lots of socializing? Or a new adventure, not based in fear and running?
Yes, you can. But quitting cannot be made so conditional.
I guess because of my age, my socializing days aren't so important. One thing I do know is I had to give up drinking completely if I wanted to quit for the very last time. I was a 2-pack a day smoker, but you get me in a bar, I'm up to 3 to 4 packs, one after the other. I did notice that my smoking friends avoided me. But really I think it was they didn't want to hear the preaching, having me get up on that soap box and save the world from smoking. I just simply told them, hey I quit, I need to revamp my life. if you want to know more about it, fine, just ask. After about 6 months I could be around smokers and it didn't bother me in the least. I know now I can spot them a mile away. Just passing people at the store, I can tell who smokes and who doesn't. it's a nasty smell. My attraction to smoking just went away. I didn't need it to feel accepted, be one of the crowd. I'm 58 years old. I'm of the thought, if you like me fine, if you don't that's okay too. If you go to bars, I'm sure it's not hard to find one that's smoke free. If you're friends go out to smoke, so be it. You know they'll be back in ten minutes or so. You need to stop romancing IT. You need to let go of the power that you think IT has. Trust me, IT did absolutely nothing for you. didn't make you younger, cooler, smarter, gave you clout, prestige, status. All IT ever did was give you a cough, wheeze when you lay down and shoot your blood pressure to heights unknown. You really need to break up with IT. It's just not part of who you are anymore
Ok, I had what appeared as a heart attach back in March 2017, but was only a tumor in the heart which possibly broke off and clogged a vessel causing the effect. I then smoked 1 - 2 packs per day and BP was very good at 120/60. Since the event, I quit smoking and now BP is is 180/110+!! Doc's have tried 3 different meds only to cause other problems such as hyper raynaud's disease, dizziness, and brain fog. It has been 9 months and BP is still increasing even after open heart surgery to remove the tumor. The only thing that has changed since before the event is that I quit smoking! Is there actually any clinical evidence that smoking causes heart problems? From what I can tell from my experience, all the data out there is pure baloney (other than smoking can cause cancer), but has no effect on BP!
We are all different. Pre-quitting my BP was considered pre-hypertensive and ran around 138/90. Within a month of quitting my BP was consistently around 120/<80. Then I began to exercise more and my BP is dropping a bit more to where I run 115/70.
It took several years, but my BP dropped to normal after being high when I smoked. Everybody is different, though. My advice? Please don't use this anecdotal information to return to smoking! Something else is going on and hopefully the docs will figure it out.
PLEASE listen to YoungAtHeart, smoking damages our arteries and that, in turn, makes it harder for our heart to do its job. Sometimes, high blood pressure is linked to pulmonary issues...not sure if you have been screened for COPD but you might want to check that out. If your breathing is a struggle...you could have pulmonary hypertension. In any event, smoking is not going to HELP ANYTHING. You really need to accept that.
I'd search around for a different GP or cardiologist. Your jump in BP has nothing to do with smoking or not smoking. You definitely have something else going on. Have they ever done a cardiac cath to rule out a blockage? there's so much garbage out there over the internet. there seems to be some reliable info here: Understanding Blood Pressure Readings
Cath was done last March to remove that bit of tumor that supposedly flaked off, also had that radioactive scan done and nothing found. The cath people said arteries were in awesome shape and cholesteral is supposedly better than average bear. Can not get into cardiologist until 1/8/18 and have many questions for them as to WTF is going on and why. I hate doctors, especially when they say they are practicing!! Go practice on someone else and come to me when you get it right!!! Doctors and hospitals are all bad!!!
Pre-quitting my BP was like 120/60. Then the heart tumor thing. After hospital stay of 1 week BP was up like 180/110 after not smoking and has been that way for 9+ months!! Some days are good like 130/78 others are bad like 202/128. Plus heart rate has increased from 60 to sometimes 120+. Used to be able to control heart rate through meditation and just thinking about it (which really ticked the wife off because she was then a practicing nurse and kept telling me to stop that because I could get rate down to 20 bpm). Since they have placed plastic parts in my valve (to which they supposedly nicked during surgery), I can no longer control the rate and is often around 120 bpm!
