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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I lit my first cigarette at a holiday camp when I was 11 or 12. But I consider that I didn't really become part of the smoking clan until I was 15, when I was smoking a good 20 cigs per day. That was fine and we were all much less aware of the harm that smoking could do. My father died age 59 of cardiovascular problems due in large part to cigarettes. My mother stopped smoking then but it didn't stop cancer of the vocal cords catching her and then, 15 years later, cancer of the larynx. As for me, I carried on smoking a packet a day minimum. Quitting was out of the question and I never even tried once in nearly 30 years (except during my pregnancies, when I was lucky enough to be repelled by the smell of cigarette smoke). However, two summers ago, we went to Scotland on a family holiday, and stayed in the middle of nowhere with only sheep for company. It was here, among all that nature, that my husband and I decided to smoke our last cigarette. The fact that we were away from our normal lives for three weeks was really essential. In the first few days I would pace up and down like a bear in a cage, especially in the evenings at the time when, a few days earlier, I smoked the best cigarettes. But I held out. I went walking down the empty roads or cried in the fields and I came back feeling calm. The hardest thing was coming home to our old routine and the little habits we'd forgotten. I discovered a little trick that helped me a lot instead of settling down on the sofa at the end of the day, I'd take myself off to bed with a good book. I'd never smoked in my bedroom so the call of cigarettes wasn't as strong there. Now there's nothing much other than driving and the odd bit of road rage that make me think of cigarettes. I used to smoke a crazy number of cigarettes in my car. Two things stop me from going back to cigarettes: the memory of my dependency and the feeling of panic I used to get when I saw that my packet was nearly empty. I used to have to get in the car and drive as long as it took to find somewhere to buy cigarettes. Sunday was an awful day for that. Whenever I see people queuing on Sundays and bank holidays at the only kiosk that's open in the area, I tell myself I had a lucky escape. Another thing that plays in my favor is the awful smell that surrounds smokers and the image that they project. I used to be someone who drove around with a cigarette in her mouth, one of those people who lights up in the street, and the smell of stale tobacco clung to me despite my best efforts. Now I think people who walk around with a fag in their mouth look awful and it's really unpleasant when wafts of tobacco smoke reach my nostrils when a smoker says hello, even if they've already stubbed out their cigarette. All is not rosy in their world. I think I'm more or less cured, but I've put on a lot of weight while compensating, especially at the wheel (packets of sweets, little detours to the bakery). I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel where that's concerned but it will have taken two years (6 August) to stabilise and start getting back to normal. My kids help me to stay off cigarettes I think they would resent me and be very disappointed if they caught me smoking again. Getting some outside help might have stopped me gaining 22 pounds but however you go about it, quitting is really worth it.

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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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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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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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I smoked my first cigarette when I was 17 and my last on 14 April 2013 , not counting 18 months of not smoking when I was 30 years old. A whole life with tobacco - it was my oldest friend. I quickly smoked a packet a day and at the end of my time as a smoker I was on 2 and a half or even 3 packets a day. Strangely, I found it harder to quit when I was 30 than I did this time. Back then I had made a bet with myself: You're going to quit, you're going to show everyone that you can. A year and a half later I relapsed, which is not surprising because I'd already won my bet, I'd successfully quit, and the smell of a cigarette that a friend lit in front of me was so tempting Anyway, this time it took me a year and a half to decide to quit, to prepare myself, to convince myself that I could do it, however hard it might be. And then one day when I was surfing the Web I came across Stop-tabac.ch by chance and I've been on it ever since. My decision was made and it was time to start acting, and it is Stop-tabac that has helped me, and all the members of the team who have helped me patiently and calmly, picking me up whenever I felt down. As much as I wanted to quit smoking, I didn't want those around me to suffer because of it, and I didn't want to put on weight. I therefore used Zyban in the way prescribed by stop-tabac and in the following months I took Prozac to get over the difficult moments and avoid testing my resolve. To control my weight, I drank sparkling water every time I felt the need to raise something to my lips. I drank it directly from the bottle like a baby, and sometimes drank 3 liters in a day, but it worked. So, now I'm 64 and rediscovering tastes and smells that I knew in my childhood and that I had lost. I've also got my breath back so I run, I walk, I swim, I live. The smokers around me don't bother me now either. In fact, when I see someone smoking, especially a woman, I think it looks very unsightly, very ugly. I feel so strongly that it's a drug that I want to tell them, please stop destroying yourself. But you can't make other people happy, can you?

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I was a hardened smoker, and when I decided to stop I was smoking two packets of cigarettes a day. The ones I smoked were those brown tobacco cigarettes that stink and have no filter - those handed out to the army in the 60s! I was 37 years old and had been smoking for twenty years. Because I knew that my behavior caused me to argue with my friends and family, that I was setting a bad example to my children and that I was damaging my health (and no one even mentioned passive smoking then!) and above all that I was being very stupid, I decided to finish with cigarettes. I had to take the plunge. I decided that, in fact, I only enjoyed about four or five cigarettes of the forty or so I smoked per day, and that if I managed to resist these the battle would be won. Furthermore, I decided that I would no longer lower myself to such a pointless act. Armed with these arguments, and knowing that it had to be all or nothing, I stopped smoking overnight. Once you've decided to quit, the following are the keys to success: *Learn to resist the four or five cigarettes that seem essential (first thing in the morning, after a meal, and so on). You must learn to put up with the craving for about one or two minutes per cigarette, and make sure that you distract yourself during this time. After 4-5 weeks, the intensity of the craving dies down and it disappears completely after 2-3 months. *Have a steel resolve, and simply refuse to raise a cigarette to your lips. *Do some physical exercise. *Stop thinking that we are all victims of modern life and that cigarettes can help us to fight our depression. After the experience I had, I believe that only willpower and good sense can put an end to the habit of smoking. I'll let you imagine what I think of patches and other hypnosis methods - anyone who claims to have found a solution for hardened smokers is on to a very lucrative commercial product. Still, if one of these products helps you to quit, why not! I can't rave enough about the sweet things in life that tobacco robs us of while we are its victims, and that we rediscover as soon as we free ourselves from its grip.

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Here I am, face to face with reality, face to face with my stupidity. Here I am, and I don't understand. The worst thing that cigarettes contain is Addiction, as that takes away your free will, your determination and even a part of your personality, which is burned away without you realising it in those puffs of pleasure! The cigarette is the partner of all the difficult moments that will always be there. The need for a cigarette is deeply embedded in our lungs when life gets us down, when stress overwhelms us, when boredom overcomes us, when our senses are heightened, when fear strikes us, when our cravings become intolerable, when the force of habit is too strong This loyal friend could be there until our dying moments, until our last gasp on our death bed. This family member, this companion, fills our brain with so much smoke that we can no longer do anything without it we are afraid of living without it instead of with it. Here I am, face to face with myself, face to face with the distressing reality, but I am full of hope and I say NO to this poisonous partnership.

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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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A few words that I hope will help you. I'm 45, I've been smoking for 27 years, and in April 2004 I was smoking 50-60 cigarettes a day. I already tried to quit 5 times without success, and now I'm on my 6th attempt. What motivates me is a constant cough which even stops me from sleeping, having to stop 1 or 2 times in order to climb a flight of stairs, and a lung specialist who keeps saying, carry on like this, and you aren't going to be around for long. I have a little 2 year old boy, after we tried for 8 years and eventually underwent fertility treatment. During my wife's pregnancy I tried to quitbut failed miserably! Now I'm on my fifth day without cigarettes, and I'm struggling like you wouldn't believe. The first 2 days were fine but yesterday and today have been so, so hard, even with Zyban to help. How hard would it be without it? What helps me more than anything else is realizing that I was selfish for 27 years, that I've had a little boy I adore for 2 years and that the way I repay all the joy he brings me is by poisoning him with each puff of smoke I breathe out. What kind of a father am I? Yesterday morning, as I was about to crack, I came to this site and read the personal experience of a mother speaking on behalf of her premature baby who was in a critical condition. As I read on, I had a flashback to 2 years ago and realized that the little treasure we waited so long for arrived early with a weight of just over 5 pounds. I can't stop thinking that the reason for that might be his father who poisoned mother and baby, puff by puff. My fifth day is hard, I don't deny it, but I haven't smoked a cigarette. In a year I spend over 3,500 euros on cigarettes, not counting doctor's bills, throat lozenges, cough syrups and goodness knows what else, and my wife puts up with my smoking out of love for me. What kind of a person am I? I'm on my fifth day, I'm scared of cracking but I'm thinking about everything I've written and I'm determined to do this for my wife and son. I'm with all you who are ex-smokers or want to be ex-smokers, and my dream is to be able to prove that I'm a part of this family of ex-smokers. I believe that dreams can come true, and that the prizes we cherish the most are those which were the hardest to win. The best prize I could ever win would be to become an ex-smoker. Best wishes to all of you.

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