Smoker / Non-Smoker

[luckyphil (Phillip)]

WHAT A HERO. A BIG MAN WITH A BIG HEAD AND BIG MOUTH. I am a non smoker but feel for those addicted. I bet your ex friends are happier than you that they lost you as a friend. Real men show compassion for less fortunate people , however they got there. 51. I thought you would have seen enough of life to realise it is probably more difficult to stop smoking than to stop heroin. It has been proven to be more addictive. More comes out of your mouth than smoke.

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

Tried one puff once when I was about 14 and absolutely hated it and decided straight away that only idiots smoke.
I let my mates know that in no uncertain terms and lost some firiends who "liked" smoking .... can't have been very good mates afterall so no loss.

I still hold this view , I am 51 now .

I refuse to allow anyone to smoke in my wife's or my presence and do get very cranky and outspoken about people who insist on smoking near me , and am not shy about demanding they put their cancer stick out or bugger off , even when fishing.

My father-in-law smokes and I refuse to let him inside my home or to light up on my premises - no loss - I've never liked him and the feeling is mutual.

All my sisters smoked and , all but one of them have since given this ugly , filfy and toxic hablit up , the same rule applies to my smoking sister (she accepts that and goes down the backyard when she visits to have her fix. Her husband is a different story - wont take the hint and so I have to tell him to go outside if he looks like he wants to light up .

[Ric]

Have to agree with you Phillip, I accept people for who they are and not for their vices.

I also love the name of your location, it has a great ring to it, very Australian.

cheers

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I started taking Champix tablets a week ago.
It works by blocking the effects of nicotine on the body.
In other words you get no pleasure from your ciggies. No "ahhh, I needed that" when you light up and take a drag.
In fact I've cut down to maybe 5 smokes a day and I don't finish them off, I put them out half smoked because they taste like ****e.
You are expected to not smoke at all after 2 weeks.
So far so good.

[Craig.a.c (Craig)]

I haven't had a smoke for almost 4 weeks now. Tried patches, gum and going cold turkey in the past, didn't work for me though. I went to the doctors a few weeks ago to get a scrpt for "Champix", haven't thought twice about having a smoke since. I am starting to feel alot better and starting to exercise a bit now.

[Craig.a.c (Craig)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

I started taking Champix tablets a week ago.
It works by blocking the effects of nicotine on the body.
In other words you get no pleasure from your ciggies. No "ahhh, I needed that" when you light up and take a drag.
In fact I've cut down to maybe 5 smokes a day and I don't finish them off, I put them out half smoked because they taste like ****e.
You are expected to not smoke at all after 2 weeks.
So far so good.

It was the same for me. I would get half way through a smoke and not feel the nicotine hit so I wouldn't finish it.
Are the tablets making you feel sick after you take them? I feel like throwing up for about 30 mins after taking them.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by luckyphil

WHAT A HERO. A BIG MAN WITH A BIG HEAD AND BIG MOUTH. I am a non smoker but feel for those addicted. I bet your ex friends are happier than you that they lost you as a friend. Real men show compassion for less fortunate people , however they got there. 51. I thought you would have seen enough of life to realise it is probably more difficult to stop smoking than to stop heroin. It has been proven to be more addictive. More comes out of your mouth than smoke.

Another vote for Phil - what a really dumb post from this self-styled know-it-all. I'm an ex-smoker - I've been off them for 5 years. I don't think of myself as stupid nor unintelligent, yet I too was sucked in to the smoking habit when I was 19. I know that I've irreversibly damaged myself over that time, and fully expect the consequences of such folly to catch up with me some day - maybe even soon. I certainly don't need people like this lording themselves over me. I feel bad enough already. I thank my lucky stars that I DID eventually manage to stop "cold turkey" - for the sake of the people around me if no-one else.

[PCH (Paul)]

Some inspirational posts being made here.

All the best to Craig and Jeanette with their stop campaigns - you'll be so glad you made the effort a few years from now guys - well done

My wife never nagged me to stop at all, but I secretly new that for my family's sake and my own it just didn't make sense to carry on doing this really silly thing. I found those Nicabate plastic cigarettes a real help as they gave me the same mouth action as well as hand action. But when I realised the cost of them (and how on the back of the packet they encouraged you to drag this process out over a six month period - by which time you'd be well and truly scint !) - I decided to go cold turkey.

I have to say in all honesty that it was a little easier than I expected and I haven't touched one since - a matter of about 13 years. Although I will say this, - I chose my time to quit carefully. My young son at the time was a real handful and I was a nervous wreck. My folks had kindly offered to take him away for a long weekend, - so that was my cue to do the honours. And I've always been thankful that I did take the opportunity, because I really do think that people who smoke do sometimes get a feeling that the moment has come when they could give it a serious go - whereas at other times they just feel the moment is wrong.

But my poor old Mum who gave up smoking almost 30 years ago and never really was what you'd call a heavy smoker, went on to develop emphysema. And boy is that a debilitating disease If young smokers could see how they may end up, they may try to stop before the damage is done. For me, as a close family member, it's heartbreaking to see your relative go down the gurglar in this awful way.

Just my 2c - hope it helps someone

Cheers,

[Ric]

I've never heard of "Champix" I'll have to talk to my doctor about them, they sound very effective.

Good to see you broke the cycle Chris, it not as easy as they say going "cold turkey", I know I've tried many times.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by Craig.a.c

Are the tablets making you feel sick after you take them? I feel like throwing up for about 30 mins after taking them.

Yep, I hear you.
Today the dosage was upped to 1mg twice a day.
And I felt as sick as a dog for an hour of so after taking this mornings tablet.
My doctor said to only take one a day if the side effects were too bad.

[kljucd1 (Daniel)]

Hey

Jeanette and Craig - My Mum is currently taking these tablets, after smoking for about 30+ years and seems to have found it much, much easier to quit - she hasn't had a smoke for about 6 weeks now!! This is after having tried cold turkey/patches/gum/etc to no avail. She was also feeling sick after taking them but that seem to have eased as well.

I myself gave up cold turkey after having tried many, many times using patches/Zyban and cold turkey.

Good luck with your attempts to quit and if you stumble, then just keep trying.

Regards

Daniel...

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Interesting, from the poll it appears that the number of smokers on IIS is about the same as the National Australian average (around 18%). This is surprising because education level and being a smoker corelates very well so I would have thought our membership would have had a lower number of smokers? The percentage of smokers amongst University educated people is about half that of the those with only yr 10. Smoking rates are still highest among the less educated. As more educated groups, and those in higher socioeconomic groups, have quit smoking or more importantly, never taken it up, smoking has become increasingly concentrated among the less educated.

Of course many non Aussies are on this group so perhaps they have skewed our results?

Mike

[Davros (Lauren)]

I became asthmatic because of a smoking habit many years ago. I tried to quit a few times with no success. I ended up going out and getting the strongest i could find (Marlboro) and chain smoked the whole packet doing double drawbacks.
I was subsequently violently ill and i have never touched one since (10+ years) For years even the smell of cigarettes was enough to make me nauseous. Best of luck to those on the quitting path. Wish i had never taken up the dreaded smokes to start with.

[madtuna (Steve)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Interesting, from the poll it appears that the number of smokers on IIS is about the same as the National Australian average (around 18%). This is surprising because education level and being a smoker corelates very well so I would have thought our membership would have had a lower number of smokers? The percentage of smokers amongst University educated people is about half that of the those with only yr 10. Smoking rates are still highest among the less educated. As more educated groups, and those in higher socioeconomic groups, have quit smoking or more importantly, never taken it up, smoking has become increasingly concentrated among the less educated.

Of course many non Aussies are on this group so perhaps they have skewed our results?

Mike

Actually.... I'm a smoker -18.27% I've given up on giving up -0.96% I want to give up -9.13% equals 28.63% on this site are smokers.
Just a tad over 18%. Even a 5th grade educated kid could work that out, maybe even Ian Robinson could with a bit of help
If you added in the 31.73% of forum members who at one time did smoke it blows the national average right out of the water.

It's probably astronomers have to do something to fill in time while waiting for the damn clouds to pass or thier camera to beep. and that's a coffee in one hand and a ciggie in the other

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Whichever way you read it, it's too many people blowing their hard earned cash on a legal drug that kills and maims more people than any illegal drug.
Did you know that if you injected the amount of nicotine contained in one cigarette, it would kill you?
So we smoke it instead, that way it can kill us slowly.

I wish I'd never ever got hooked on this filthy addiction.

[GrahamL]

True jjj when I first did a farm chemical handling course many years back
they did give a farly good example of the relative toxicity of many
phased out poisons.. and there were some plain nasty ones which many
would be familiar with useing there common names.. and alarmed by ..if they were still in use today..guess which plant the worst one was extracted from ..thankfully it was phased out long ago .. but I believe you can still
buy it packaged and ready for ingestion from your corner store

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by luckyphil

WHAT A HERO. A BIG MAN WITH A BIG HEAD AND BIG MOUTH. I am a non smoker but feel for those addicted. I bet your ex friends are happier than you that they lost you as a friend. Real men show compassion for less fortunate people , however they got there. 51. I thought you would have seen enough of life to realise it is probably more difficult to stop smoking than to stop heroin. It has been proven to be more addictive. More comes out of your mouth than smoke.

You are of cause allowed to have your opinion.

Umm.... did I hit a bit too close to home mate.... ??

Time people stopped making excuses for idiots and being appologetic for those who choose to abuse drugs (I include nicotine and alcohol in that) and are too weak willed to kick their habit, and called a spade a spade & an idiot an idiot.

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by nightstalker

True jjj when I first did a farm chemical handling course many years back
they did give a farly good example of the relative toxicity of many
phased out poisons.. and there were some plain nasty ones which many
would be familiar with useing there common names.. and alarmed by ..if they were still in use today..guess which plant the worst one was extracted from ..thankfully it was phased out long ago .. but I believe you can still
buy it packaged and ready for ingestion from your corner store

Drop a cigarette butt in a livebait tank and see how long before every single fish in there is belly up....

[luckyphil (Phillip)]

Didn't hit close to home at all. If you read my post you would have seen I am a non smoker. My objection is the complete lack of compassion you show. People like yourself are definitly an excuse for retrospective abortion. The world would be a better place without you. You must lead a very sheltered life as you cannot go out anywhere in case you run into a not so perfect like yourself. You are showing signs of becoming a self centered egotist. Enjoy your private life.

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

You are of cause allowed to have your opinion.

Umm.... did I hit a bit too close to home mate.... ??

Time people stopped making excuses for idiots and being appologetic for those who choose to abuse drugs (I include nicotine and alcohol in that) and are too weak willed to kick their habit, and called a spade a spade & an idiot an idiot.

[CoombellKid]

What amazes me is government after government allows the sale of
ciggerettes. Purly for the amount of tax they get from it, but on the
other hand spend millions on advertising against it. We all know it's
harmful, the government keeps telling us, perhaps smokers should
take a class action against the government, regardless whether you
think it's your choice to smoke or not. It's also the government
choice to allow the sale of it. Just imagine James Hardy standing
in every corner shop handing out asbestos. The government is
playing on the addiction of people who cant or wont control it
by themselves, kinda makes the government part dealer in dangerous
drugs.

regards,CS

[madtuna (Steve)]

Phil!

It's not just the lack of compassion, it's the labelling 28.36% of this forums users idiots, weak willed, drug abusers etc...
Due to the rules of this forum and the fact that I like it here and don't wish to be banned, I'll refrain from labelling him something appropriate