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"smoking" (25)

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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Brigitte (41 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

The month of May is coming the beautiful month of May. Last year I said to myself I'm going to quit. I can stop whenever I want, anyway, so I'm going to stop now. 2 packets a day, the smell, the smog, as I called it.the cough in the morning, the hoarse voice, and often the fear of straining something or coughing my lungs out! So when May came along with the challenge of 31 days of not smoking (in Switzerland) I thought to myself, why not? Suddenly people were saying chicken, you don't dare! and you won't last 3 days all around me. This lack of faith in me annoyed me. Yes, I'll admit it, I stopped smoking to shut my colleagues up and leave them to get on with their gossiping behind my back! That was 16 May 2015 Twelve months later, they've stopped offering me cigarettes in the morning with a wicked smile, and one member of their clan has even joined me over on this side of the fence. It was the first time that I'd tried to quit smoking. I was 42, and I'd smoked since I was 16, so you can do the maths. At first, I played the hard woman the smell didn't bother me in the slightestand then I decided to stop lying to myself! It stinks, and now I can't stand those who make the air around me smell disgusting, and make all my moments smell and taste disgusting. I suppose I've become a bit intolerant. Now, I make people smoke outside when they come to mine, and if I'm forced to go somewhere where people are smoking, I wash my clothes as soon as I get home. Apart from bringing out this pretty crazy side to me, quitting smoking has also given me a fantastic trip to London. I honestly put the price of two packets of cigarettes in a piggy bank, that's 11.60 francs a day. I split the pig open in February, went on the trip, and I still didn't spend all the money I'd saved! And the best thing is that no longer smoking has brought me back the taste of my meals, the smell of flowers, my breath when I go on long walksmy dogs thank me every day. I haven't put on an ounce because I didn't replace my cigarettes with food. *I am already quite round, so I was very strict with myself about this :o).* I can only encourage those who read this to go for it and to ignore all those friends who say you won't be able to do it. They say that because THEY wouldn't be able to do it. Nobody believed in me on 16 May last year. Nobody! (I didn't even believe in myself!) I am proud of myself today, and I'd like to thank everyone at Stop-Tabac, where I was able to find everything I needed to be successful. I'll never be a non-smoker, I will always be an ex-smoker, a bit like alcoholics who no longer touch a drop. To quit using a drug is to carry on living, and it's wonderful!
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Veronica (52 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

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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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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Georg (67 years )
Nationality Swizerland
31 August 2021

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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Claudia (41 years )
Nationality Holland
31 August 2021

It's now 6 months since I stopped smoking. I wore patches for the first 2 months so I had time to change my habits without missing the nicotine. After that, I stopped using the patches and apart from feeling a bit on edge from time to time, everything went really well. To be honest, my last few years of smoking were completely devoid of pleasure and full of guilt, and I realize now that it was harder to smoke than it was to quit! Let's stop talking about how hard it is to stop smoking - all that does is scare smokers and put them off trying to quit. Personally, I stopped smoking without any great effort, without gaining more than 4 pounds, and without making myself into a martyr. The desire to smoke is like a beast in your belly that demands feeding It is not really you it got introduced into you and can leave again. The sooner you stop feeding it, the sooner it disappears. Cutting down on cigarettes just keeps the beast alive. I would like my personal experience to reassure smokers who want to quit that it is not so difficult. Since I stopped smoking, I enjoy my life a lot more. I no longer have to live with the guilt I felt in relation to my children, my health and my wallet. I'm finally at peace with myself. That really makes it worth giving up for good. Forget whatever people have told you, and make quitting work for you. You'll soon see that it's much easier than you thought!
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Lily (60 years )
Nationality Canada
22 June 2021

I wrote a testimony for this site in 2003, when I was 42 years old and struggling to quit smoking. I quit on and off in the years following, and when I was 50, learned that I had cancer which had started in my airway and grown into my left lung. Although not technically a "lung cancer", I'm sure all those years of smoking didn't help. Also breathing in hair dye, because I was a hairstylist. I had to have my left lung removed, which is major surgery. Luckily I survived. I have never smoked again. I sometimes wistfully think about the (psychological) relaxing effect of smoking a cigarette, but I know it's not real, and all the pain and suffering it causes is not worth it. I'm 60 now and living my best life. But having one lung is a constant reminder of my poor choices in regards to smoking.
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Rosalie (59 years )
Nationality Swiss
31 August 2021

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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Philip (45 years )
Nationality England
31 August 2021

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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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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