....no I was not that talented. I was finding the whole process too much trouble to continue. The anti smoking thing has become an international event. Soon there will be no place to smoke. I watched it cover the world.

Good luck with your efforts to quit. The questions are, do you still enjoy it, are you feeling negative health effects from it?

FWIW I quite cold turkey. In the end I think it´s the best way. I found taking walks and smelling flowers, taking deep breaths (instead of inhaling smoke) filling my lungs with fresh air helped.

I used to smoke too. I was a chain smoker. It all started in the university. I was enjoying the freedom of being at the helm of my own life in a different city. My father was about my age then. He had no health problems. No one got burned out of smoking. It was just the cigarette burning one after another. Entrance was free, friends kept offering until they thought I became a freeloader who needs to pay for his own cigarettes. My mind was busy then. Perils of smoking were so low on my list, I did not give that any thought. Years followed one another. I became a regular smoker with firm preferences about the brand I smoke, the time I start smoking and the thing that I drank with it. Cigarette seemed to give me peace of mind and concentration when I was in need of a boost in my cognitive skills. It acted as a painkiller and a tranquilizer.

Then one day in February 2001, I decided to quit never to smoke again which I did. I dumped everything smoking gave me and regained my lung capacity. As a mild asthma sufferer, I would say that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. That was also the hardest decision with consequences so hard to endure. Years after quitting, I was still smoking in my dreams. I just did not light that single cigarette which saved me from relapsing to the smoking habit.

Now I ask myself this question: why would someone smoke knowing its hazards? I think many people (including myself) have tons of mild psychological disorders. These are so mild, we don´t recognize them easily. With many people around us suffering from similar problems, we sleep on those problems and resort to smoking and/or drinking for an easy cure. Smoking is the aspirin of temperament problems. The bad feeling goes away but the suffering remains. When you don´t smoke, you become more aware of your condition and seek help.

There is so much to say about the psychological, sociological and economic aspects of smoking. Like anything related to humans, it is so complicated. It is the tell-tale sign of a very serious social dysfunction.

It was a cold february evening in 2010 and I was on my way back home, and behind the steering wheel of my car I smoked the last cigarette in the box.. As I was considering to stop smoking since a while ago, I wanted to promise myself not to smoke again (I had been smoker for over 15 years  .. It was my last cigarette.. I enjoyed it as much as I could and that last one felt really good It´s been two years now since I stopped smoking.. I miss it from time to time but I am determined not to smoke again.. 

This is the exact place where I lit my last cigarette:

p.s. lemon will you please "like this message" also? 

Yes I still enjoy smoking and I had medical tests done not long ago and the specialist told me that if I would not have told her I was a smoker for 28 years she would not have known,  the x-rays of my lungs were like the ones of non smokers and the exhale test, well I can empty my lungs out at 94% wich is better than some non smokers.

I have on the other hand cut down the amounts of cigarettes I smoke, I went down from 2 packs a day to about 10 to 15 cigs a day, eventually I will stop but for now I do not feel ready.

 working in the health field I laugh when I hear idiots claim their lungs are the same as that of a nonsmoker. What about the rest of your body? Smoking increases the risk of many different diseases including heart attacks ( which we all know you have claimed to have had)

heart disease, emphysema, bronchitis, stroke, cataracts, bone diseaes, reynards sydrome, trouble getting pregnant - slow fetus growth when you do, linked to lung throat mouth nasal stomach pancreatic acute myeloid cancer..............on top of hurting others nearby which can include or induce asthma, ear infections, sudden death syndrome.... the list goes on.

I suggest you seek both therapy and counselling as not are you only hurting yourself you hurt others around you too.

Stumpy  last year you had heart issues........ duh.......it´s a no brainer quit while you are still alive

nothing worse than seeing an overweight patient suffering from a self inflicted illness.... I have no sympathy when they refuse to help themselves.

smoking is bad.......... just don´t do it

not attacking you just informing you and anyone else about the vile habit of taking smoke into you lungs, Remember when you were a child and safety in a fire was stop drop and crawl out of the smoke. There was a reason why you should not inhale smoke into you lungs

Don´t be too hard on other people, acute dear. We don´t know anyone else´s story. What is easy for me is difficult for someone else.

I smoked for a few years in my youth. When I learned I was pregnant with my first child I quit the same day. It was natural and easy, no second thoughts ever. It was easy because I did it for someone else. If it was for me I doubt if I ever would have found myself worth it.

Sixteen years later the same boy, as a highschool student, began to smoke himself and I couldn´t do anything about it.

If you were taken to the top of a cliff or a building and told to jump with no one explaining the dangers to you - would you?

how about putting your hand in a burning fire?

with news about health issues being on tv in newspapers and internet why would you make an excuse for self inflicted stupidity.

When a person does something completely stupid and it is brought to the attention of others - the results are often what were you thinking or why were you not thinking.

I bring the same issue to drug addicts, smokers and alcoholics there was a time when you had the opportunity to say no to it. A time to quit it.

why should over taxed health care be used on self-servient people who stands there saying oh let me have one more cigarette before i start my chemo treatment........ a bunch of weak minded idiots who should just get on with their new disease at home by themselves.

I have no mercy or compassion for those who committ suicide slowly and cause others pain by having to watch them do this.

As someone who works in the health field you should have sympathy for patients. Yes, everyone should be treated similarly with taxpayers´ money no matter how many mistakes they have done in their life. And yes, you should light the last cigarette for the cancer patient who is going to have his chemo therapy.

It´s called mercy.

I like the Islamic idea of shared guilt. The whole sin is not on the final user but all those who benefit from a bad habit are to blame. When it comes to tobacco, it means every one from the farmer to the seller of the corner kiosk. A whole lot of people. Plus the smoker himself. In the limits of their freedom of choice they should all say no.

accute my infarction was cause by a blood clot that was the result of a bruise I had on my thigh, it detached and made it´s way to my heart and before and after my heart attack I got an A+ bill of health so think what you want.

I am more healthy than probably you are but seems that the outward appearance of a person allows you to judge them and determine that they do not exercice, eats nothing but junkfood, is an alcoholic and a drug addict.

That is a biggoted way of thinking that is way more harmfull than my 10 to 15 cigarettes I smoke a day and unfortunetly that way of thinking falls into the same stupid category you have put others in and unfortunatly there is not cure for it, welcome to the club!

I am happy to see also that you have lived a sheltered and insulated life where it seems you did not suffer from peer presure and social conventions which many of us are now trying to shed habits picked up because of it. 

oh and by the way accute thank you for turning this post which I was finding supportive and incouraging into a "you are so stupid for..." post

your welcome

keep on smoking and eating and lets see what happens  to your health in the next few years. keep me posted