Helping someone quit smoking

To be honest as far as motivation is concerned it was a no brainer. I wont go into my situation but anyone smoking should ask themlseves one question:

Think of all the problems you may face in your life at this moment and all the difficulties you may be having whether they be personal, business or financial in nature. If you were told tomorrow that you had cancer then all those difficulties and problems would, in the big picture of things, be irrellevant. Even worse would be if you solved all those problems and then were diagnosed, everything you would have done would be for nothing.

Without your health you have nothing so why run the risk -thats what made me stop, I don't like that scenario.

To be honest as far as motivation is concerned it was a no brainer. I wont go into my situation but anyone smoking should ask themlseves one question:

Think of all the problems you may face in your life at this moment and all the difficulties you may be having whether they be personal, business or financial in nature. If you were told tomorrow that you had cancer then all those difficulties and problems would, in the big picture of things, be irrellevant. Even worse would be if you solved all those problems and then were diagnosed, everything you would have done would be for nothing.

Without your health you have nothing so why run the risk -thats what made me stop, I don't like that scenario.

Can you talk to my husband?

No one in my immediate family smokes...only a couple of cousins do in our family, other than my husband. I just want to look at him sometimes and say that I don't want to raise our daughter alone and that cancer is a horrible and painful way to go. But, I don't. I've not asked him to quit. He mentioned that he was going to quit last year when we visited my family and he realized that no one there smoked and it made him feel somehow separate from the rest of the family. I hate it, it makes him stink and I hate kissing him after he smoked one. But I don't say anything...he has to want it for himself.

I just don't want to be a widow.

Like you said he has to want it himself. best you can do is get him to ask himself the same questions i did.

Good luck!

Like you said he has to want it himself. best you can do is get him to ask himself the same questions i did.

Good luck!

Good luck to you english.bloke!! It sounds like you're very motivated, so I hope you are successful.

I work in a skilled nursing facility and we admit patients who have end stage COPD and cancer on a regular basis. It's a very sad thing to witness, so please keep going and know that this decision could make a HUGE difference in your quality of life when you're older.

Hubs has officially been a non smoker for a month tomorrw...we read alan carrs book together...but he has found it difficult, we both have....

I was on the nicotine patches when I quit, which helped a lot.  But w/o the motivation nothing would have helped.   I'm sure I would have died of emphysema years ago if I hadn't quit.  Aside from wanting to be able to breathe, another motivation for me was all the times I couldn't enjoy myself because I was in a place where I couldn't smoke - someone's home, a museum, a cinema, a classroom, a long wedding or funeral, etc etc...Also I quit with the attitude that failure is not an option.  Besides I didn't want to fail and go through that hell again!  If you don't get rid of all the smoking related stuff - ashtrays, lighters, cig cases, etc then you are allowing/expecting to fail.  I dumped all of it. 

As for second hand smoke... I worked with a woman who didn't smoke and her husband did.  They had 4 small kids and he refused to go outside the house to smoke.  The wife got lung cancer and died at the age of 33.  I've no idea what the health of the kids is now but wouldn't be surprised at asthma or worse.  (they live with the grandparents neither of whom smoke).

My grandmother was that kind of smoker; she had a cigarette maybe a few times a year. If I could smoke like that, I'd still be doing it.

My mother's like that.  She can honestly take it or leave it.  She's gone on holidays of a fortnight with non-smokers so she doesn't bring any fags and isn't at all bothered.  She can go months with no fags and then have a few on a night out.  That sort of thing.

I had a great aunt who smoked 3 cigs a day - one after each meal - and that was it.  She didn't even inhale.  What was the point?

I had a great aunt who smoked 3 cigs a day - one after each meal - and that was it.  She didn't even inhale.  What was the point?

I agree!  How do you not inhale?  I remember when I was 15 and had my first fag.  My cousin and I were going to a teeny-bopper nightclub.  You couldn't get alcohol, but you could get any drug going and plenty of fags.  So she told me I had to learn to smoke because in order to get talking to guys you needed to ask them for a light.  She lit a ciggy, then put it in my mouth and pinched my nose shut till I inhaled. 

She did this in the bathroom so the toilet was handy when I invariably tossed my cookies.

I can't believe I kept doing it after that, but I moved to France for a year a while later and well, I went to lycee and it was a way to break the ice.

I think people just can't quit quitting.

This morning I woke up thinking about how amazing it is that apart from a couple lapses, I've not been a smoker since autumn 2007.  And now I haven't had the gum in a while, it's even more incredible to me.

I never thought I would be a non/ex-smoker, but I am now.  I have quit at least 50 times (not kidding), and each time it seemed to be more of the right thing to do.  If I ever smoke again (and I hope I don't), I won't try to hide it from those around me.  My mum sneaky smokes and it's horrible.  You can't address it with her, and she has no reason to think we'd judge her harshly because of it.  She sneaky smoked when every one of her kids smoked (now two of us have quit ) as well as her husband.  I am not sure why people do it, but it's a promise I've made myself and my husband.