Friends

06 September 2018

GIVING UP THE WEED


I was once a smoker and forgive me if I brag about ceasing that awful habit. Yes, I gave up and was proud of it. That was in 1988, 27 November to be exact, although I didn't make a note of the actual time!! 

Actually, I was a heavy smoker, much to Joe’s disgust and eventually mine. Although he smoked an occasional cigar he was dead against cigarette smoking, even though he once had a liking for cigarettes. He thought that switching to cigars meant he smoked less… that was his argument and he stuck to it. But this isn’t about him, it’s about me.

I smoked for years, ignoring all arguments about the cessation of same. I would argue that it was my lungs that suffered. Cocky? Oh yes, definitely. The dispute continued for a very long time.

Joe worked away a lot so he missed some of the smoke! One time he was away for a few days and during that time I started to suffer pains in the head. This was when I began to take notice of the smoking because every time I coughed I got the pain in the head. Joe was away about a week so he didn’t know about the cough. In defiance I decided not to tell him. But the pain got worse. There was nothing else I could do but avoid smoking. It was such a relief to be pain-free that I vowed to go a full week without a ciggy.

When Joe returned I decided to avoid mentioning the head pain, and at the same time to keep on avoiding cigarettes. After about eight days he suddenly realised the rooms were smoke free. Naturally, he queried it, but all I said was that I had given up the awful weed.

I never did find out what caused the pain in the head but oh the pleasure I got when each day was pain free as well as smoke free. That was 1988 and I never smoked again.

Wasn’t I a good girl?

I hear reports on TV and radio about the perils of smoking and wonder why people don’t just give up. It can be done, it just takes determination, but as long as people say “I can’t” they have no chance of giving up. 

20 comments:

  1. I used to smoke as well, Valerie. I was a strange smoker though, I would go long periods of time and never pick up a cigarette because I never had a desire for them. I would never smoke during the day, only at night. I started smoking when I was in 20's, but then went decades without ever touching one. It was only in my late 50's that I began to smoke heavier and started to notice the toll it was taking on my body - shortness of breath, low energy, and coughing. At that time, I was up to a pack of cigarettes a day. And then suddenly, I decided to stop smoking. I just completely stopped without any hesitation or withdraw. I simple knew it was time to stop and did.

    I think about cigarettes every once in awhile, but not enough to ever want to smoke again because I remember how my body used to feel when I did.

    I always said though, that I would never become a reformed smoker and start preaching to smokers the dangers of smoking and to stop because I always hated that when reformed smokers used to do that to me. Besides, it doesn't bother me that other people smoke if they wish.

    Smoking is one of those things you have to decided on your own that you wish to stop. You simply have to be ready and just do it. It has to be your choice.

    Have a FAB day, my friend!
    X

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    1. Ron. you are sooo right in that giving up has to be personal choice. I watched a programme the other day that brought this to mind. Various smoking fanatics said that although they wanted to stop they couldn't. That is what made me write this. To my mind if you want something badly enough you go all out to obtain it.

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  2. It might make quitting a little easier if every cough hurt your head, but don't belittle the accomplishment. It is a very powerful addiction. Not a habit, it is an addiction and the withdrawal symptoms can be as powerful as the withdrawal to any drug, I know, I have quit three times the last being 7 years ago. I found it takes a full week to get over the urge to light up and at least a year to not think about it occasionally.

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    1. Joeh, I guess the saying 'where there's a will there's a way' is a good one. I know a lot of people who said they had tried and failed to stop. Sad!

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  3. Like all addictions, once begun, they can be hard to quit.

    You are very lucky, that you did so!

    Of course, you got a pain! Which was related to smoking! That helped! :-)

    People with no pain, and just the *possibility* of cancer in the future, are probably able to put the *vague possibility* out of their heads, and go on. -sigh-

    A bit like my living Gluten Free and allllll that entails. Alllll, which I can not eat. Some say, "How can you do that?"

    I say, because when I gave up Gluten, and alllll the foods that entails, all my horrible gut pain and discomfort, went away.

    When doing something, causes pain. It's a lot easier, to give it up. :-)))

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    1. You are right. There are a lot of folk who can't give up even though they say they can.

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  4. I quit in 1983, never a heavy smoker, but decided to quit cold turkey. Unfortunately that smoking caught up with me anyway.

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    1. Sorry to hear the smoking caught up with you, Janet. I curse the one who invented the damn things, and apparently what people are smoking now is just as bad as the old style cigarette - if not worse.

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  5. I haven't smoked for twenty five years?
    I use to get talking to strangers when they asked me for a light. In a way the cigarettes introduced me to people. I

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    1. You're right, Dave, cigarettes do encourage chat. I do think we're better off health-wise though I do still miss the camaraderie

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  6. You are one determined lady. Giving up smoking was hell for my father. We kids called it "the year from hell" as he was unstable at the onset and got worse. My mom tried to quit, but didn't. She smoked in private, altho we all knew that she was smoking.

    Mom died in 2011 of COPD.

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    1. I don't remember my mother smoking. My father did but gave up because of heart trouble. In their time medical knowledge wasn't as prolific as it is now, but many still don't know or refuse to take notice of the harm smoking causes.

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  7. Good for you, Val. I had an addiction with nicotine (smokeless tobacco) and it's a hard one to quit but it can be done like you mentioned. Take care.

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    1. Matt, I hope you feel as proud of yourself as I was when I gave up.

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  8. Good for you! My Mom is about your age and smoked for 40 years. She is now on oxygen 24/7 and has COPD/emphysema/asthma. You saved yourself a lot of grief.

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    1. Sorry to hear about your Mom, kden. Reading about her made me doubly proud that I gave up when I did. If only we could teach youngsters without appearing to nag.

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  9. Good for you Valerie, interesting about the pain in the head, must have been scary. I was a smoker too but quit when I had been married for a year. That would be almost 43 years ago. My mother-in-law and I were the only smokers in other half's family and we bonded over a cigarette. Hubby didn't smoke but was never one to nag. What got me to quit was that I saw my mother getting sicker, she eventually passed away from heart disease and my father quit after that but it took ten years off his life. Everyone I knew smoked, parents, uncles and aunts, friends, so I suppose you could say I jumped off the proverbial cliff with everyone else. I'm glad I quit but it was very hard. I see young ones smoking and want to tell them you'll regret but they can't see that far down the road, and I certainly can't be pious as I was where they were in my youth. I don't really see too many people smoke around here any more and even those kids are rare sights, and no one in my family now do. Hopefully the trend of non-smoking is heading in the right direction. We can live in hope.

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    1. Hi Denise. Come to think about it I don't see many people smoking now... I guess the serious smokers have moved to the new version of smoking - can't think what it's called now but it looks weird to me.

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  10. Good for you, Valerie, on kicking the smoking habit and also for feeling better afterwards. I tried cigarettes in my teenage years and thank goodness my mother found them and tossed them out. My late father was a smoker and although he had stopped before his death, I'm sure it robbed him of a few years as he was 68. Thankfully, I never tried smoking after being found out and have saved my health and $$ as well.

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    1. I wish there could be a total ban on smoking, in whatever form it's in. We all know it's bad for us.

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