I don’t want to stop either. When I turned 40 I stopped for 4 years. Every day without tobacco was a struggle. I’ve not tried to stop since but I’ve got it down to 6 per day. Interested to learn about IQOS. Might be just the thing to reduce the harm.
Yeah,
Like self harming is better than suicide.
All linking vaping to positive health messages does is convince kids that it is a cool harmless thing to do.
Not surprisingly a brilliant marketing ploy by the tobacco companies who have moved into vaping as it is more profitable than tobacco.
Smokers know it is less harmful than tobacco, non smokers should get the message that it is just drug addiction in a pretty package.
3 Likes
I used to love Marlboro soft packs and a few beers. Absolutely loved it when you used to be able to light up in the cinema on the upstairs balcony. Bang through a pack at a gig.
But things change, I grew to hate and resent buying these things, being addicted and felt screwed by the tobacco company and the taxman.
I gave up about 20 years ago, went cold turkey but that’s not a prescription. Apart from a cigar when I go camping, that’s it, never looked back. I’m lucky I guess, I don’t have pangs and am never tempted. Hel smokes and it never crosses my mind to light up.
Whatever works for you - best of luck. Don’t worry or get disheartened by set backs, just keep going 
Cold turkey, 4 weeks this Friday. Pretty easy really if you’re a stubborn twat like me.
4 Likes
In the stylee of DaveWhit (anyone know if he’s still alive?)
Quitting is for wimps
I was smoking 40 Marlboro a day, and my asthma was getting worse. I’d had a nasty cold which led to a bout of pleurisy, and much as tried to smoke, my lungs wouldn’t let me, but I found it very difficult to give up - NRT saved me but that took two years; 6 months on each of 4mg, 3mg, 2mg and 1mg NRT. I have now been nicotine free for a year. Oh what a struggle it was. I don’t miss smoking at all and the only time I’ve needed my asthma inhaler these days is when I’ve had a heavy cold that’s ended up on my chest.
After disappearing for some years he briefly reappeared on the Wam, but that must have been 3 years ago now.
I remember he posted a list of the pills he was taking. So long it nearly broke the web.
As with any addiction, find a really good motivation and know your weaknesses. Dig in and keep trying.
I gave up smoking 10 years ago and the idea now of inhaling cigarette smoke is absurd to me.
Good luck Chris - chuck the cancer sticks in the bin.
1 Like
Bit harsh, Dave was fairly ill.
He was, and I wasn’t being nasty. I liked Dave.
I remember that, but as you say a long time ago. He seemed to have been living on borrowed time for years.
I used to enjoy a lot of his posts in a perverted sort of way. He could wind up a quartz watch 
Yea I got that.
He could, but he was helpful sometimes as well (unlike Clothy, say). I remember when I was trying to get my Lowthers from Devon to London, be phoned me up at work with some ideas and quotes. He must have found out who I worked for and just dialled the switchboard, but it was initially a bit creepy and then hilarious chatting with him!
he was so helpful to us when we did our first tour of Scotland, when we based ourselves in Aberdeen for few days, he left carefully worked and hand written itineraries in our hotel.
1 Like
Oh yeah I do remember that
I kind of played a trick on myself with smoking, I have never given up but I don’t smoke.
I was struggling to shake the habit and at the time I was trying to sort myself out with just about everything else. Giving up smoking just seemed like a massive extra pressure that I didn’t need at the time.
I started asking myself with most of the fags I was smoking whether I really wanted it or not and very quickly I was only smoking, post meals and just before bed. I would still allow myself to smoke if I went out for a drink but after a while I found that I might only smoke one cigarette and I wouldn’t really enjoy it. These days I may still have a fag if out at the pub but actually it is very rare because it usually makes me feel ill!
I do think it can seem like an enormous pressure to give up smoking but if you are honest with yourself, without beating yourself to a pulp if you want one; it is possible to control it, rather than letting the habit control you.
4 Likes
I managed to quit cold turkey for good nine years ago after Anne went in for her first hip operation and have never been tempted since despite Anne being a smoker.
I did like the odd cigar but have decided to give them a body swerve so as not to tempt fate. I had given up previously for three years but succumbed to temptation again but I think being preoccupied looking after Anne it kept my mind off the fags.
I don’t want to appear blase as it was the right time for me but it is a very hard habit to break so fingers crossed you can find something that works for you. The IQOS looks like it might be a good compromise
Fancy mentioning that fucking idiot in the same sentence as DW 
2 Likes
It came to mind as DW started the “ask Dave” thread, which Clothy then copied after Dave went dark
1 Like
first time I gave up I lasted about 10 months, I smoked the odd cigar to convince myself I still wasn’t smoking. Then when I was working in Hong Kong someone offered me a cigarette and before I knew it, I’d bought a packet. This time around I gave my stash of Cohiba’s away. I’d love a cigar but I know I mustn’t