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20 to 40 years old

Elise (28 years )
Nationality French
11 December 2016

My story with tobacco finally looks like a success story and the app 'Stop-Tobacco' was really decisive in that success. I started smoking around the age of 15 years old. At first, I never thought I could be addicted to it. I would only smoked sporadically without ever buying my own cigarettes. But by the age of 20 I was smoking every day around 10 cigarettes a day and any attempt to quit was quickly followed by a relapse. I did manage to reduce the number of cigarettes I was smoking at times (especially between 24 and 26 years old) but I never completely gave up smoking altogether. In the last two years, I had become really upset about my smoking habits, for various reasons: my teeth were becoming BROWN, the number of cigarettes I was smoking was increasing (I started chain smoking), but the idea to quit seemed more and more difficult. And all of a sudden things worked out! Here is what I have done. 1. First, I told a few relatives I was quitting NOW, so that it pressured me to keep up with my commitment 2. Second, I downloaded the stop tobacco app and read it every day, several times a day. 3. Third, I used tobacco replacement therapy after a month (the first month I did it without but I gained weight; as soon as I introduced the replacement therapy, I stopped eating compulsively) 4. Fourth, I didn't chose a holiday period to quit, as I would usually do, but a normal work time. I think it's best to stop when it seems most difficult. 5. Fifth, I was not drinking alcohol during this time. Drinking would have favoured a relapse. And to my surprise, it worked out! I can proudly say that it has been 297 days. I have gained 34 days of life and 1888 euros. Now every time I see someone smoking my brain produces some kind of red signal: "Danger! Danger!" What used to be my best friend has become my ultimate enemy. I want to warmly thank the designers of the app. I couldn't be more grateful.
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Dawit (31 years )
Nationality Eritrean
26 February 2017

My name is dawit 31/m.i smoked for 13 years and joints 3 years .i quiet with the help of this apps I really appreciate it.before I can't pass even one day then I downloaded it and with daily advice I am woundering I pass 3 weeks I am so happy.daily that send me advice helped me to quite with out any problems.becouse they told me what will happen to me and I am ready to face the problems really I am woundering this apps daily they send to me advice.i used nicotine patch with this one at 1 week I hate deeply when I smell smoke and I pray also daily now I am free from any problems.the main thing is our brain!no one help us just only they give us advice.we should prpaire our brain.i am wondering how powerfull is our brain totally I am new man that sharp fast my talent and eduction outomatically.for 13 years problems solve with this app than you very much even I had not go to doctor self healing with the help of advice this app.i bilve any man can stop smoke with this app whatever years they smoked it's our brain thank you that give me apportuntinty for this testimony lord bless you all!!!
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Desmond (34 years )
Nationality Motswana
06 September 2019

Its been almost 7 months since i quit smoking but i am still facing constipation, acid reflux, belching, flatulence , allergies & heart palpitations and i am seriously worried, i have been to so many health stops but none of them seems to help , i have long changed my diet to try and alleviate the symptoms but it's just keep complicating things for me, ever since i quit i never held a cigarette nor a beer for about 5 months, Guys i need your help on how to deal with these sufferings !
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Jeremy (30 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

Hello everyone. I started smoking when I was 12, which might seem young, but if you start at that age, it's just to fit in with the group, to seem cool and not get rejected. But at that age, you also have no idea how much smoking can damage your health. I got caught up in the whirlwind. At 16 I managed to stop smoking for a year, but a short period of depression followed and I fell back into it, dragged down by a friend who was doing just as badly as I was. I should never have restarted! A few years later, I started realizing how much cigarettes were damaging my healthwhen I ran I tasted blood, I threw up more often, I was nervous, on edge, often tired, my breath was like a camel's and I started really worrying about how stained my teeth were getting. Then I met a 45 year old woman with a hole in her throat. She'd had a tracheotomy (already, at her age) because of smoking, so I couldn't understand a word she was saying. And that was the trigger for me. As soon as I got home, I threw away all my cigarettes and now I haven't smoked for a year. I still think about it, because you need a lot of willpower to quit, but it's changed my life. My skin is brighter, I no longer have stained teeth and I have reduced my risk of getting cancer. And I hope that everyone who wants to quit smoking does it, because now I miss certain nights out to avoid suffocating on other people's cigarette smoke, and I'm sick and tired of washing clothes that stink after less than an hour!! Now I know how left out non-smokers can feel and I really regret having put a cigarette in my mouth for the first time. Honestly, you're better off without them!
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Barbara (37 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

Hello everyone! I would like to share my uplifting story with all those who are still struggling to stop smoking for good. It's now 5 months since I last touched a cigarette, and it wasn't at all easy to quit! For about a month, I really struggled with anxiety and obsessive cravings. Then, after the second month, everything fell into place! No more urgent need to smoke, just a little desire (more like a thought) from time to time. I can hardly believe it myself and yet it's true. For a month now, my life has been changing. I feel that I am not at all the same. I was scared that my personality would change: I thought that quitting smoking would make me less interesting and shyer, that I would be less fun. And in fact, to my great surprise, the opposite is true! I am much more open to other people, less stressed, and very confident in myself and about the future. As well as the classic health benefits that come with quitting, for some weeks now I have felt an urgent need to put my whole life in order!! I've learned that I am a strong and motivated person who is full of life. It's as if I must appreciate every second of my new life and have learned how to put my worries into perspective. After having put up with my bad moods before, my friends and family now appreciate my enthusiasm and good humor! Long live non- smokers!!
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Maud (33 years )
Nationality canadian
31 August 2021

Hello! My name is Maud and I wrote my personal experience on this site just under a year ago, when I quit smoking. It will be a year in a few more days and I'm proud, extremely proud. I'm writing again today to show you that yes, it is possible. A year ago I smoked a packet of cigarettes a day. I no longer touch cigarettes and it's not torture, it's a joy. Believe in it, try it, and try it again. And say stuff it to the people who don't believe in you. Find your own motivations, write them down, at home, at work, in the car (thank goodness for Post-Its!). I've had a pretty bad year, to be honest I've cried, I've lost sleep, I've ballooned in weight (gained 22 pounds!), I had pimples all summerbut I came through it all. I gave myself a year to evacuate cigarettes. Here's the proof of it. *I cried for hours on end for no apparent reason. My best friends tried to help and ended up laughing at me, while I was still crying! But it passed. Now I've got my spark back! *I lost sleep. Yes, and that still happens from time to time. I look at the positives hot milk before bed, relaxing infusions, soft music, baths with candles and essential oils. My little girl loves it. So do I. Trying to cure your insomnia is not so bad after all! *My weight has ballooned. Ah yes, I must admit that that is really unpleasant. But I had accepted it might happen and I think that it has really contributed to my success in quitting. A year of being chubby for a healthier life. I'll take it. If I start attacking the green beans instead of the biscuit tin, the scales will soon start smiling again. And with them, my clothes. And as for me, I'm not even thinking about it! *I broke out in pimples in the summer. That, girls (and boys) is the time to go to a beautician for a bit of facial pampering. Take some time for yourself, look after yourselfwhat could be better? I'm now starting my new, healthy life as an ex-smoker. My two best friends have just quit, too. They are sick of having to go outside to smoke when we're all inside! If they are reading this, I'd like them to know that I believe in them. Finally, if I've got enough willpower to quit smoking, I've got enough willpower to achieve many, many things, haven't I? Woohoo!"
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Cedric (37 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

I waited for the desire to quit smoking to come to me. I had tried to stop ten years ago but without any real conviction. Then one morning about a year and a half ago, I was outside smoking the last cigarette in my packet and it was so cold it was snowing. I realized that part of my actions were dictated by tobacco, and that made me want to stand up to it. I decided to free myself and I quit. I'd been smoking for 20 years, and the desire to quit only came to me once in all that time. I didn't want to miss the boat. Tobacco left my life just like that, and I didn't miss it, because I defied it. I also defied all the people who told me I'd only last a month, and then 2 months, then 6 months, then a year My defiance allowed me to never let down my guard.
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Olivia (24 years )
Nationality Belgian
31 August 2021

That's it, I've quit. After 8 years of smoking 15 cigarettes a day, here I am going through a personal revolution. It's crazy. I can hardly believe it. I, who couldn't bear the thought of not smoking the after-dinner cigarette, the start- of-the-night cigarette, the ice-breaker cigarette, and thousands of others. How do you get over that? How do you fill the void left by cigarettes? I'd never managed to go a whole day without smoking. In 8 years! 8 years of my life where I smoked every day And now it's been a week without a single cigarette, and believe me, everything's fine! Yes, I had some cravings in the first 2-3 days, a bit of a headache, a short temperyes, that happened. But nothing terrible. I feel spurred on by all the good that I'm doing, or all the bad that I'm no longer doing. I breathe deeply, I close my eyes and I try to picture the inside of my body. It will probably take it years to recover completely, but I already feel better. It's as if an 8 year argument between my body and me has finally finished. We're speaking to each other again. Actually, my body never stopped talking to me (pain in my lungs, pain in my chest, discolored skin and teeth, breath that smelt like an ashtray) but I didn't listen. Now I'm my body's friend again, and the best thing is that my body doesn't hold any kind of grudge. My boyfriend says that I've never looked so beautiful, and as for me, I've never felt better. So come on, it's easy! Do it for your own self-esteem!"
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Shari (25 years )
Nationality New Zeland
31 August 2021

I quit about 5 months ago and after many several attempts to stop smoking and this is the first time I have felt confident that I will not smoke again, because this is the first time I have realised that I don't want to smoke, I don't like to smoke, and that I really never did. Once I understood that there's a lot of misinformation about smoking I felt free from the trap. After that it was actually easy. The benefits of not smoking far out-weigh any desire to have a cigarette ever again.
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Sofia (26 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

Twelve years. Twelve years my cigarette and I have been living together. I started smoking at the age of 14. I felt bad about myself as a young teenager, looking for reference points, wanting to defy the law.... in short, all sorts of more or less valid excuses to make me feel less guilty. The result is there. Twelve years of smoking. One cigarette a month.... "I stop when I want", one cigarette a week... "I stop when I want", one cigarette a day... "I stop when I want...but it will be harder...", then two, three, four, "I need more and more", one pack? Why not two? Then come the explosive associations: Coffee-bottle-bottle Alcohol-bottle Night club-bottle End of meal-bottle- bottle ....... And all these little habits that gradually become part of well- defined, well-oiled rituals. Why stop? You feel so good with your cigarette. You even have a favourite brand! your favourite brand without which nothing can happen. The ideal companion for all good evenings, for all hard times, for moments of stress and pleasure. In order not to miss it, it becomes imperative to buy the cartridge, ten packs at a time! Then (because it never ends) small problems insidiously arise. A little cough here, an allergy there, suddenly you stop doing sport, no breath, no legs, headaches, fatigue, a whole bunch of little things that are not important, often blamed on a little temporary fatigue, hay fever (a great classic in spring). In passing, we note one or two comments from family and friends: "go brush your teeth, your breath is foul", "you should stop before it's too late", "if you smoked less you would....". But why do we have to be bothered with our beloved cigarette? We're not hurting anyone? And we are perfectly aware of the risks! Yes....., perfectly......, except that the day it falls on you, you measure the true extent of the damage. The little coughs gradually turn into big coughs, then into bloody sputum, then comes the X-ray of the lungs and the prognosis, much more reliable than the lottery: "Sir, you have lung cancer, we have to operate urgently on a lobe" ....operation.... chemo....operation...chemo... "sir, we're sorry you're at the terminal stage, everyone goes down.... to the morgue"..... cries, tears, then nothing more This is my dramatic story. I am 26 years old, my best friend was 27. We started smoking our first cigarettes together. He died four days ago in front of me. It doesn't just happen to old people, it doesn't just happen to others. Think of Frank when you light up that next cigarette, especially you young people.
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Marco (39 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

The biggest hostage taker of all time! Nearly a million and a half hostages around the world. A hostage executed every 5 seconds. A new hostage captured every second as he lights his first cigarette. An astonishing ransom paid in small installments with the purchase of each packet. For over 50 years, tobacco companies have been the hostage takers. What's their weapon of choice? The cigarette! And their technique? Brainwashing. Yes, it's incredible how low the companies will go and still go to fool nearly a third of the human race, under the lax (complicit?) gaze of the government, who are far too concerned with not killing the hen that laid the golden egg. The most beautiful piece of deception in the world, carefully dressed up in pretty, colorful packets. That cowboy proudly posing in front of an evening sky, the immortalized camel, the hero in your favorite film, the associated moments such as coffee breaks, meals, aperitifs, etc., the reassuring feeling that you can buy your favorite packet whenever you like and wherever you are in the world, and the reassuring opinions of smokers who are so happy to be smokers. What a masterful achievement to make dependence on a hard, addictive, murderous drug seem just as vital as eating, sleeping, drinking, or breathing. And making the relief of nicotine withdrawal seem like the greatest pleasure known to man! Pleasure? Would you buy a pneumatic drill just to feel the pleasure when the noise stops? Or would you buy shoes that were too small for you and wear them all day long, just to feel the pleasure of taking them off in the evening? Would you bang your head against a brick wall just to feel the pleasure of stopping? And would you light up that heaven-sent cigarette to put an end to the feeling of lack that tortures your spirit? Well yes, of course you would! The directors of tobacco companies have succeeded in poisoning our subconscious, in making us believe that we need to smoke. The most effective way of pulling the rug from under their feet is thereforeto stop smoking! Remember that just one smoker who stops represents thousands of francs pulled from the industry, and also the state, in the years to come. Smokers, let's rise up against this dictatorship and become non-smokers!
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Olivier (39 years )
Nationality England
31 August 2021

Hi, everyone. Cigarettes and I, we had a great love affair. I smoked for 22 years and I tried to quit lots of times (at least 6), and failed every time. I stopped smoking for two years but still thought that one or two cigarettes a day couldn't do me any harm. That's how I started again every time I didn't want to give up the enjoyment of smoking a cig with my friends on a night out or at work. Unfortunately, that just meant that I lapsed back into being a smoker. You smoke one, and then two and before you know it, you're smoking 10 a day. Now I no longer smoke at all and I've learnt the hard way that the most important thing if you want to quit for good is never to touch another cigarette, even months or years after quitting. Thanks.
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