Hey Gang,

I have recently given up smoking cigarettes- I must say that it is the best thing I have done in a very long time. I was a pack of 25's Benson & Hedges every two days smoker for a very long time.

Prior to giving up- I thought that it was too much of an impossibility. I thought that I needed to have will power, and I wouldnt handle the withdrawl and the anxiety (I do suffer sometimes)

"Cold Turkey" aint an option gang, if you want to give up smoking, that is the hardest way to give up. I havent used patches or lozenges or anything, simply- I cut down to 2 ciggarettes a day for 7days, then to one every two days less than a week, then none.

Its not easy- but it was a damn site easier than cold turkey.

I must say that I dont feel like Im totaly over it- I do get cravings but they are very weak, almost non-existent. I have noticed that I have my breath back- I dont 'wease' my breath, my taste is back and I all of the sudden have an appetite for sweet foods now which is bizare..



Did anyone say 'Cake'!?!

The most important thing, is my health is coming back to me, and boy- do I feel good. Not only my attitude has become kick $@!, but my wellbeing has changed- its the 'insde' thats feeling good. Im feeling positive, and I tell you what- I have not felt like this in a very long time. I feel like a new person inside because Ive shaken off an addiction that has grasped at me for a long time... Deppression? forget it, I feel better- I can handle it because my well being is taking form. Once that happens, the rest will follow

Ok ok, I dont want to sound like Im preaching like I havent smoked before- because im beginning to sound like it. But I want to tell everyone from an ex-heavy smoker: Blertles says you can do it, and its worth it. Your spouse will thank you for it, (if your single, chicks dig non-smokers, its a fact) Your co-workers and friends will be proud of you, your family will too and if you have little ones in your family, they will notice too. Most of all you will feel like a new person. Trust me when I say:

YOU CAN DO IT- THERE IS NO FUTURE IN SMOKING CIGARETTES AT ALL

Break off those shackles guys and dont let an addiction rule your health- anyone can give up.

If anyone would like to share your experiences then please do- Im sure there is someone here that wants to give up that perhaps needs a gentle nudge


...Damn that cake sure looks good

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Everytime I would have bought a pack of smokes, I put the money I would have spent in a jar. I had enough for a Peterson Strobostomp saved after a month.

Great to see that jar fill up. It's like paying yourself for getting healthy.

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No no and no

Thats awesome mate Glad to hear it. They are cool tuners for sure..

You dsont realise how much smokes dominate your life till your rid of them I dont know what the hell I was thinking...

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Good to hear mate- sometimes it takes a split second decision on the spare of moment to change things...

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Good to hear, Blertles. I can only imagine what it's like to give up, as I've never smoked anything in my life... I could see that there were no benefits that could possibly counterbalance the disadvantages. I remember my mother telling me that she begged her father (a heavy smoker, died at 51) to let her try a cigarette when she was 13. He said that she could... but only if she promised to smoke a whole pack. She didn't make it too far through before she was permanently turned off...

On April 18, 1998... I'm a 2 pack a day smoker. About 3:00 PM after a day of raking 3 truckloads of crap out in the yard and going with my wife to try out a used BMW then visiting her niece... I was back home, alone. The wife had gone with our daughter to play at the softball fields just a couple blocks up and Lord knows where my 14 year old son was off to.

Damn indigestion... went and grabbed a bottle of pepto because this was major heartburn. Nothing. Didn't touch it! Damn feeling of impending disaster started coming over me.

Walked out, got in my truck and drove the 2 blocks to where my wife was. Told her I was in trouble and we packed it all up in her car, left my truck there and swung by the house to drop my daughter off. Then a short mile 'n a half to the regional medical center emergency room. Funny little anecdote here... my wife was so rattled that she drove right past the ER door and parked the car so I had to get out and walk across the parking lot to get to the ER. I'll never let her forget she didn't let me out at the door!

I went inside and was asked what my problem might be. "My chest is tight and both of my arms hurt"... "COME WITH ME!" and was whisked into the back immediately.

They did a hurry-up job of getting me prepared and sure enough, as I lay there on the gurney, I watched the monitor as my heart rate climbed. The doctor asked me how I was doing, told him it was hard to breath, saw the monitor hit 171 then "0!" and then heard the ominous flat line "beeeeeeeeep" as I tell the doctor I'm going to pass out. Amazing how your heart can stop but you don't go down quite immediately!

I remember this super peaceful feeling for a little while and then a flash and a loud "PING" sort of sound as if someone had struck a huge anvil! The poor little nurse attending me could not have weighed but about 90 pounds and I damn near threw her across the room. I had begun thrashing about so because it felt as if I was being suffocated. I finally drew a deep gasping breath and returned to normal. They had used the paddles on me. I was almost pissed that the peaceful feeling was gone.

So, I was put in an ambulance and taken to another hospital Over the next two days a series of tests and three stents inserted into two blockages. Sent home feeling great! Did an 8 week cardiac rehab program and here I am, 12 years older and feeling fine.

I quit smoking that day! It was easy! For a year or so I would find cigarettes around the house... a pack in a jacket pocket or in a drawer. I'd just take them to the shop and give them to one of the smokers. "Knock yourself out buddy!"

But, maybe I'm a damn fool... OK wise guys... stifle yourselves... anyway, I probably bum a smoke from someone about once a year. Just so you know, I find them quite nasty these days. Now... a little bud? Well! That's quite another thing altogether! But that's even more infrequent than the cigarette.

Hope I didn't bore you to death with the little story. Just a small piece of my life.

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You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.

Good on you Blertles! Coming up on the year mark myself!

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Good for you Blertles!!!


I won't bore you with my long life story but will just tell you that i smoked for too many years through many health issues. Now I have COPD (look it up) and I'm on Home Oxygen.

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Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
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http://www.facebook.com/cafeathers


I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

good for you! i smoke a pack a day and drink like a fish. i MUST quit smoking. drinking beer....... i don't know. reading this makes think that maybe now's the time to get serious about it. i've done it before by doing what you did. cut back gradually. again, good job.

Way back when, 'watched Mom and Dad blast through more than a pack/2+ packs a day and then came stuff like lung cancer, empysema, asthma.

Father's gone for 30 years, didn't even amke it to 55, Mother can hardly cross a room without wheezing and still coughs stuff up after quitting after 2 heart attacks, years ago.

Decades ago, 'put the cost of a pack a day away for gear and books.
'Got a great library and some okay instruments and amps. And really good health.

Best wishes and prayers to all who want to quit, just quit, are struggling to stay off, are off and living large.

Yeah, I decided 44 years old was too young to drop dead. No way should 22 be considered "mid-life"! I hadn't even done a crisis thing yet!

I consider my motorcycles to be paid for by my cigarette money.

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You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.

I've finally quit smoking "cigarettes" and it is nice to be saving lots of money I would have otherwise wasted on them. I think back to all the money i wasted over the years on the stuff and damn I would have no debt, a nice house and serious guitars had I been smarter. But I was going through some things and it helped me cope or I thought it did.

I am doing the same thing that Niki is doing, I have a jar that I stuff all my extra money and change in, knowing before I would have raided the jar after a week to score but I am liking seeing it fill up with moolah.

I have literally smoked one real cigarette in my life, it made me feel sick and I just never touched one after that.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I went cold turkey back in 1995 after 20 years of a pack a day. I ate a lot of pickles those first couple weeks and I haven't smoked a cigarette since.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Rolled your own huh?

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You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.