Giving up?

[Groggy]

Thinking of giving up? I gave up smoking 3Y 8M 2W 5D 48m 20s ago and have saved $8,485.63 dollars from 33,941 cigarettes not going up in smoke,

16W 5D 20h 25m of my life has been recovered.

Money saved was put aside and bought a TS, BS, Jointer, thicknesser, dust collector, timber and goodies form LV and LN (plus a bunch of items for the family).

I hope someone gets some incentive to quit from this.

(this will also be my signature for a few days)

[craigb]

It's been 7+ years for me (don't know the months days hours :p )

Best thing I've ever done.

I reckon I must have "saved" $35k (I used to smoke a LOT :eek: ) .

Buggered if I know where it's gone though. :rolleyes:

[Wongo]

Good one mate. Worth a greenie. :)

[Gumby]

Over 20 years for me. I hate to think how much money I've saved but where the *** has it gone ???? :rolleyes:

[echnidna]

Cigarettes are gone, are you going to give up whisky and wild wild women and become a real wowser?

[Groggy]

Cigarettes are gone, are you going to give up whisky and wild wild women and become a real wowser?Why? Where do you think the rest of the money went?:D

[Daddles]

Young, dreamy eyed man - I'm looking for a girl who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't spend her night's clubbing, who lives clean and simple.

Old bloke - Why?

:D

Good stuff on giving up the fags. I was lucky - smoked as a teenager but never got hooked, something I've always been extrememly grateful for.

Richard

[Grunt]

16 years ago for me. I used to smoke 30ish a day and double that if I was drinking.

[zenwood]

My grandfather and grandmother died in their early 50s of heart disease: heavy smokers. My father died at 42 of heart disease: heavy smoker. My mother died at 51 of lung cancer: heavy smoker.

My other grandmother is still going strong in her 80s: non-smoker.

I've never smoked, and am glad I've at least lived longer than my dad did.

I cannot understand why cigarettes are legal. Governments are supposed to legislate for the public GOOD. I fail to see the good in legalising tobacco. Smoking is one of the few practices that I can't abide.
\end{wowser_mode}

Goodonya Groggy. Keep up the sig for a long as you like. :)

[silentC]

I cannot understand why cigarettes are legal.
Money...

Never was a full time smoker but I used to smoke a lot when out on the p!ss and that was every night for a year or two a few years back. Decided one New Years day that it was a dumb thing to do, sat on the roof of my house and watched the sunrise as I smoked a ciggy and said "this will be the last one of these I smoke this year". Had my next one the following New Years day. Bit of a tradition now, with a couple here and there throughout the year when the mood hits me. Very lucky to have never been hooked.

Good on you Groggy...

[DavidG]

Gave up 3?4 years ago.
Wife said she would buy me a VL300 if I gave up.
She is way ahead on money now although I do manage to get a few little things by mentioning it.

[Gumby]

16 years ago for me. I used to smoke 30ish a day and double that if I was drinking.

You had 2 in your mouth at once, plus a glass - that must have been something to see :)

[zenwood]

Money...and just think what they could get out of crack, ecstacy, mm's...

[Gumby]

I cannot understand why cigarettes are legal. Governments are supposed to legislate for the public GOOD.

We've got enough legislation now as it is. I don't want governments telling me what to do all the time. It's like seat belts. How is it any of their business if I decide not to wear one and kill myself?

We are grossly over-regulated now. No more please.

[Wongo]

If there is something wrong with a type of medicine, food or toy. They will be off the shelf in 24 hours. Totally recall nationwide or worldwide.

But when it comes to cigarette…. :confused:

[Gingermick]

Cigarettes should be illegal. To me it is illogical for someone to take a drug that has a very, very, very mild effect,, ensures that your always going to want another and has a delivery mechanism that tastes worse than a cars exhaust, reduces the bodies capacity to carry oxygen, and eventually kills you.
Gave up about 4 years ago, but I refuse to count, makes it seem like one's pining. I hate it. goddam awful sh!te.
Tho I still think that we should ban all drugs or ban none. Fags and drinking kill more people than just about anything else, but they're Ok. Its boggling.

[doug the slug]

Thinking of giving up? I gave up smoking 3Y 8M 2W 5D 48m 20s ago and have saved $8,485.63 dollars from 33,941 cigarettes not going up in smoke,

16W 5D 20h 25m of my life has been recovered.

Money saved was put aside and bought a TS, BS, Jointer, thicknesser, dust collector, timber and goodies form LV and LN (plus a bunch of items for the family).



Iv never been a smoker, so i cant give it up, i guess i will never be able to afford a ts,bs, jointer,thicknessser, dust collector and all that other stuff. i guess i will just have to settle for the triton gear. wish i was a smoker so i could give it up and be able to afford morehttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gifhttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gifhttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gifhttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Grunt]

The problem with making it illegal is that everyone who is a smoker and can't give up will become criminals. Should we put them all in jail?

The price of cigarettes will go through the roof. Those who need a fix will be forced to steal, lie and cheat to get their next fix. Real criminals will start a black market for them. They will make some real money.

There are smokers who just can't give up. My mother only stopped smoking because she had had so many small strokes she could no longer pick up a lighter let alone actually make it work. She had half a lung removed because of lung cancer 5 years before she died. Still didn't give up. Dying from smoking isn't enough to make people give up so making illegal won't either.

It is a health issue not a law enforcement issue. The quit campain is working. Less people are smoking now then ever before.

It is illegal for under 18's to smoke yet they do.

[Daddles]

Making smoking illegal will just introduce a heap of other problems, create yet another area for crims to make a buck and create more work for bods like Dan. That isn't to say that we should legalise the other drugs, it's saying, let's maintain the status quo and tackle the problem with education. It seems to be working, though not well enough as kids still take up the habit. Then again, kids drink to excess too (seen the stories on young female binge drinking?).

And in the meantime, the govt makes a motza out of it. Bit like the pokies. There's no real incentive (sorry, saving lives never rates very highly among pollies as it is always too expensive :mad: ).

Sorry, I don't see a solution except to continue educating and helping people quit. I'm not sure you can stop kids from starting as kids will always be attracted to risk and the 'naughty'. At least with alcohol and ciggies, they can legally indulge in this - to me, that surely lessens the attractiveness of the illegal drugs, even if it doesn't stop their abuse.

Richard

[goat]

i gave up smoking 4 years 8 months and 4 days ago when i was a smoker i weighed 85 kilos,very active and fit then i gave up smoking i put the money in to buying a pc then food started to taste really good then i realized that i could drink more with out getting a hangover now i drink too much weigh 110 kilos and sit in front of this dam pc all day too lazy to get off my fat arrrse and expecting a heart attack any day now :confused: i might take up the fags again

[craigb]

The problem with making it illegal is that everyone who is a smoker and can't give up will become criminals. Should we put them all in jail?

The price of cigarettes will go through the roof. Those who need a fix will be forced to steal, lie and cheat to get their next fix. Real criminals will start a black market for them. They will make some real money.

There are smokers who just can't give up. My mother only stopped smoking because she had had so many small strokes she could no longer pick up a lighter let alone actually make it work. She had half a lung removed because of lung cancer 5 years before she died. Still didn't give up. Dying from smoking isn't enough to make people give up so making illegal won't either.

It is a health issue not a law enforcement issue. The quit campain is working. Less people are smoking now then ever before.

It is illegal for under 18's to smoke yet they do.

well said Grunt. Greenie for you if I'm allowed.

[zenwood]

The other aspect that annoys me is the thought of cigarette company executives making millions on such easily avoidable death and suffering.

With cold and sober:eek: consideration, of course you can't suddenly criminalise smoking. I'd like to see much more being spent on anti-smoking campaigns. The "yuck" ads shown on Australian TV are the envy of the world anti-smoking lobby, and we should build on that. The South Australian Quit campaign is also good, but much more should be done in terms of increasing the tax on cigarettes, reducing the profile of cigarette displays at supermarkets, etc, and reducing the amount of advertising.

Am I a hypocrite, though? I like a glass of wine or a beer most evenings, and yet drink-driving is a huge killer. Yet I think there is a disctinction between drinking alcohol, which is enjoyable and harmless in moderation, and cigarettes, which are harmful in any quantity.

Then there's the issues of other drugs. Should we be consistent in how we legislate for tobacco, maruijana, cocaine, etc? If one is a health problem, rather than a criminal one, then aren't they all? Would treating hard-drug addiction as a health problem lead to fewer deaths, and reduce the rate of drug trafficking?

Whew! It's all too much for one post.:confused:

And don't even get me started on poker machines:mad:.

[Sturdee]

I gave up smoking about 13 years ago when Kennett increased the taxes so that a carton was $ 20. I was surprised to see that a carton now costs over $55.


Peter.

[Iain]

Gave up in 92-93 bit like Sturdee.
I actually detest smokers now and find the smell repulsive.
What is the SA campaign, I saw the sign over the pub in the centre of Mt Gambier announcing how many people have died from smoking related illnesses, bit like the jackpot signs over the pokies, goes up every few minutes.

[davo453]

It's odd how we all react differently to things, I gave up smoking about 21 years ago, a then girl friend asked me why I smoked and I although I didn't say so I couldn't think why I did it.

As it turned out I wasn't addicted and had never actually liked the things even though I smoked 20+ a day. I gave them up a few weeks latter and have never had another, I think it was a "look cool thing" pathetic really a folly of youth.

Now alcohol is a different story, I've had issues with that all my life and have to say that the problem is that I do indeed like it and although I’ve tried to give it up it keeps coming back.


Dave

[DanP]

It is illegal for under 18's to smoke yet they do.

No it's not. It's illegal for them to be sold cigarettes but not for them to smoke.

FWIW. I'm a smoker and I have tried to give up several times. Making it illegal will not change peoples addiction. I'm also over the bullshidt that people carry on with about smokers. Things that would be highly descriminatory if said about any other type of person are fine to say about smokers. If you don't like it then don't stand next to me. I always have consideration for those around me when I smoke, moving to an open area and it never ceases to amaze me, the people who come and stand near you then pull faces at the smoke.

Dan

BTW Alcohol causes MANY more social issues than smoking.

[Trav]

Could you just imagine the government putting forward legislation trying to ban smoking? They'd be out on their arris before you know it. Political suicide. It probably wouldn't really work either.

Love it here in Canberra where you can't smoke indoors anywhere (even pubs now) and they have even banned smoking in the stands at the footy. Someone even came up with the idea that non-smokers should get an extra 2 weeks holiday each year....doubt that this will ever get up.

My grandad dies of lung disease and it is a sheyet of a way to go. I feel for people who can't give up, but each drag is killing you.

Trav
(non smoker)

[DavidG]

Lets all get together and pertition the government to ban smokes and alcohol.
This will solve all the world problems.
;) :rolleyes: :D :p

[rufazguts]

The 11th of February is my "anniversary", and on the next 11th of Feb. it will be 11 years since I smoked my last one. In all that time I have had one drag of a fag and I think it took me 2 days to get the foul taste out of my mouth, YECH! My daughter smoked till 2 years or so ago till she finally had to quit for her kids sakes. My sons have never smoked ( although I did spot Johnny with a fag in his gob one new years when he was very alcoholically challenged) and don't have many friends who smoke. My wife, the local pharmacist, used to counsel people on quitting then nick out the back for a fag when they left... :rolleyes: She gave up the same day I did. :cool: I hate smoking and I hate the reek of smokers, I really don't like to think that that is how I smelt too!
Anyone who tries to quit should be absolutely encouraged to quit. If someone you know is trying then support them with lots of positives and all the encouragements you can think of.

Oh, Dan, I am sorry mate but I think you will still pong whether I am standing near or way over here in SA! ;)

[maglite]

I know that i really should give the smokes away, but to do so takes a fair bit of consideration.

In fact, i think i need to go outside and have a smoke to consider it.

Cheers
Steve

[MajorPanic]

It about 11 weeks of me.................

I DON'T HAVE MOOD SWINGS, OK!!!!!!, GOT IT? :mad: :mad:

It hasn't affected me at all, although SWMBO seems to think so :p

[Iain]

What really pi$$es me of is walking through the cloud of smoke outside the entrance to a building which is smoke free where crowds of smokers accumulate to perform their regular suicide rituals regardless of others in the area.
And the workers who go outside for a smoke twice an hour or so for ten minutes but still get the same leave entitlements that I do which is in the vicinity of 80 hours per annum that I work and they don't.
Bugger, thats two weeks extra leave for smokers, why can't I have an extra two weeks to be taken at my leisure?

[ozwinner]

Im wid ya brudda..


Al :confused:

[Grunt]

How many fags do you have a day, Al?

[craigb]

What really pi$$es me of is walking through the cloud of smoke outside the entrance to a building which is smoke free where crowds of smokers accumulate to perform their regular suicide rituals regardless of others in the area.
And the workers who go outside for a smoke twice an hour or so for ten minutes but still get the same leave entitlements that I do which is in the vicinity of 80 hours per annum that I work and they don't.
Bugger, thats two weeks extra leave for smokers, why can't I have an extra two weeks to be taken at my leisure?

Well Iain, all I see in that type of situation is a bunch of sad losers (they are - trust me I used to be one :rolleyes: ) who need all the help that they can get.

I bet every one of them, deep down, knows that they are pariahas.

What everyone of us non smokers, and particularly the ex smokers, need to do is to give positive and encouraging vibes to a smoker who's decided that they want to give up.

[Gingermick]

But that just woodn't be PC; (poofs) at the moment it is politically Ok harrass the bejeezus out of smokers. But I only do it when they come within smelling distance of my house. Being an ex-smoker, I'm a bit hard lined.

And of course banning smokes would not work and would leave even less time for the Police to chase and nab those evil pot smokers, smells as bad a cancer sticks anyway.

Working in an offfice being a smoker really sucked. I didn't get breaks but every time there was something to be done outside the office I volunteered.

[Wood Butcher]

I have been smoking for almost ten years and am now trying to quit. I have using that zyban tablets and find them very helpful. The hardest for me is going out and being near other smokers ( i now don't go out as much). I want to quit for my kids sake and also for my own well being. What I think is worng is that cigarettes are deadlier that alcohol but easier to buy. Why??

[craigb]

I have been smoking for almost ten years and am now trying to quit. I have using that zyban tablets and find them very helpful. The hardest for me is going out and being near other smokers ( i now don't go out as much). I want to quit for my kids sake and also for my own well being. What I think is worng is that cigarettes are deadlier that alcohol but easier to buy. Why??

When you're truely ready you'll be able to do it.
I must have "given up" at least a hundred times before I was successful. ;)

Let's face it, it's a bloody hard thing to do. It is possible though as I'm sure that plenty of people on this board will confirm.

Right now, I couldn't think of anything I'd like to do less than smoke a durrie.

And for 25 years I was a slave to the bloody things.

[johnc]

My father and grandfather died of smoking related diseases, although my grandfather made 91 but for years his lungs had barely enough air to carry him around. My father had a lot of operations on his arteries and in the end his legs could barely carry him around. He tried endlessly to give up and in the end it was only the threat of removing his legs that got him to stop.

Those who peddle this stuff create a lot of misery, but only after people have spent years lining there pockets from the sales of those white coffin nails. You can't ban them but hopefully one day the market will be to small to warrant producing them.

I smoked for a very short time but Dad's first operation and the realisation that it could happen to anyone was enough to make me stop. You should take a look at the wards they had in the 70's of older men minus legs and those still with them despite toes going black. Sure makes it hard to stand at a work bench.

Johnc

[Gingermick]

I have been smoking for almost ten years and am now trying to quit. ?

Keep at it. Find books by Alan Carr, he's good and very though provoking. It's good to not have your actions dictated by a substance. re itching to get out after meal etc

I must admit I found it easy, the year I quit I spent 6 weeks in hospital. Woke up after 3.5 weeks and started to smoke again, but without the same enthusiasm. I think that helped.

Gingerchick says that I should turn a table setting and a few bowls and platters and candlesticks out of the chip on my shoulder.

Out of interest does anyone know if the illegal drug laws are part of common law or statute?

[doug the slug]

I have using that zyban tablets and find them very helpful.

Be careful of zyban, that $h!t is dangerous. an ex-girlfriend of mine tried quitting using that. she could be 2 weeks off the zyban and have some alcohol and she would totally lose any recollection of what she had done for days at a time. she went right round the twist and i had to get rid of her which was a pity cos before that she was extremely nice and very beautiful as well. just be careful that what you are using to fix the problem doesnt do more damage than the problem itself

[BJP]

there would be know way they would ban smoking the government make to much money out of it, if they did I reckon income tax and every other tax would go through the roof, just my thoughts on it though,:)

[Grunt]

I think the cost of smoking to community out weighs the tax revenue. The hospital system is full of smokers.

[dzcook]

well i work in a boarding school at least 1/2 the kids smoke ( big trouble if they are caught ) yet teachers that are catching them are smokers so kids feel its not right that they are getting into trouble for something and then see teachers smoking outside

I also find it annoying that pple that i work with slip out for a quick fag and leave the non smokers to carry the load while they are gone when in a employer postion always told smokers that they could smoke on their breaks but if they went for a extra one then everyone has a break not just them

Also as a cook find it strange that other cooks smoke and then taste food ? How can u taste anything when your taste bubs are stuffed from smoking

woman i work with can not eat a meal or drink a coffee without a smoke going at the same time just dont get it , and has said that if they ever try to make her stop she would leave the job rather than stop smoking

now that new regs are in re schools and smoking the smokers now go into a close by staff flat and smoke there even longer away from the workplace now !! and as its a private accomadation the regs dont cover it ( u can smoke in your own hse after all )

[Gumby]

My Dad had 5 heart attacks, beginning at the age of 45. And still he smoked.

Blood pressure problems, circulation problems, and still he smoked. Countless health problems.

I finally confronted him when my son was born and told him he'd better enjoy him because he wouldn't be around for when he got older. At that point he gave up.

It was too late however, the damage was done. 2 years later he had a stroke, spent 2 years in hospital, the next 8 as a burdon on my Mum and finally as a vegetable in a nursing home.

When his leg by pass collapsed for the 3rd or 4th time , when we had 2 choices:

1. remove his leg.
The doctor said he probably wouldn't survive the operation anyway.

2. leave the leg on and let him die within the next 14 days.

Over a cup of coffee at Epworth hospital, and after consulting the doctors, we decided he'd had enough and it was best to let him go. You can't help feeling a bit selfish making a decision like that but I couldn't let my Mum take any more. She'd take food every day to the nursing home only to be treated like crap and watch him grope any nurse within reach. That's what happens to old men when their brains have gone. There was no quality of life or even any recognition of life. he couldn't have cared less.

He went back to the nursing home he'd been in for the past 2 years and died a week later.

Although I have fond memories of my Dad, I didn't cry for him. The suffering of those last 10 years, what he put my mother through and the deterioration in him mentally washed most of the good memories away.

he always said he didn't care if he just dropped dead. he was going to smoke because he enjoyed it. Stubborn b*stard. He made others suffer for too long just because he refused to quit.

It isn't just about you if you smoke. It's about your family too.

I stopped smoking many years ago. I intend to see my grandkids grow up and remember me as a person , not as an old man who doesn't talk to them, doesn't care and doesn't know who they are.

Painful stuff. :(

[Harry72]

Looks like plenty of reformed types here, me too gave up in 2001 after 14yrs(I started very young at 14)... sent SWMBO to the other side of the world(Italy)for the 1st month and was on holidays from work this helped greatly not being near any smoke or social pressure.
I didnt drink for 6mths... then a big shock to the system discovered beer taste's horrid!

I used that zyban worked for me, the only side affect I got was mild insomia but being a shift worker Im used to that... other than that it turned me into a health freak I went from a 105kg+(only 5'10")down to the high 70's then gymed it up to 89kg(12% Bfat)now hovering around the 90kg mark after 6mths off with a op on my back(back into it now).
I walk 1-1 1/2hrs a day and gym 6 days a week currently... but that'll change once I go back to work.

They say reformed smokers are the worst, I reckon so, while driving along the hyway I can smell if the car infront has a ciggi burning in it!
I dont think even the death penlty would stop a smoker if they banned it, as they all ready have one.

[Gingermick]

They say reformed smokers are the worst,.

That's smokers saying that and they are confused, what they really mean is reformed smokers are the BEST.


Funny thing about smokers who say they aren't addicted, they just enjoy it. Ask them why they can't just enjoy it once or twice a week and 'um...Well I enjoy it soooo much that I do it ever hour or so, I'm not addicted but, I can give up anytime"

[julianx]

I used that zyban worked for me,

Good to see the drug companies cashing in on the tobacco industries misfortunes, they have much better ethics ;) :p

[Gingermick]

Wouldn't suprise me if they had the same parent company.

[NewLou]

Yer i'm off the smokes the grog n the drugs.........n Oh yeah thx to swmbo the sex to!!!!!!!!!

...............Now I do woodwork!!!!

Ha ahrrrrrrrr....................now the secrets out!!!!!!

:D:D:D:D:D


REformed LoutoYou!!!!!!

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I'm a smoker, not particularly proud of it but not ashamed either.

This isn't a justification for smoking, I'm not even going to try. I've no intention of even trying to explain why I smoke. I'm informed. I smoke. It's my choice. You're informed? You vote liberal? Who's the bigger fool? :D

The funny thing is I can easily, and often do, go without a cigarette for 8 hours. Usually when I'm working on-site at a non-smokers' house; gotta have some respect for the customers. Don't even bother lighting up when I stop for lunch... then I've better things to do, like eating. I occasionally do without for a couple of days when I run out of tobacco, without feeling any "need," although admittedly my last stay in hossie (some 7 days) left me fangin' fer a fag.

And yes, I'm a fairly heavy smoker, have been for years. I don't know how many packs per day 'cos I smoke shed tobacco. Home-grown "Rollies" to the uninitiated.

Given the above, I can't help but wonder how much of the addiction to "cigarettes" and how many related diseases are actually due to the additives major companies put into their tailor-mades as compared to plain tobacco? All the results and all the testing I've seen has been done using tailor's, I've seen no figures whatsoever on pure, unadulterated tobacco. Filtered or otherwise.

And don't tell me there are no additives. Any rollie or pipe smoker'll tell you that plain tobacco will extiguish itself if you don't keep a draw going. Unlike a tailor: light it, put it in an ashtray and watch it burn twice as fast, almost like a fuse...

Just another thing that makes me go "Hmmmm...." ;)

[craigb]

Skew,

As you say, it's your choice to smoke. It's not illegal.
How do you know that there aren't additives added to rollie tobacco though?

All I know is that most people on this board spend significant amounts of money on systems that will hopefully prevent micron sized dust particles entering their lungs when thay are woodworking.

However you are voluntarily ingesting them. :confused:

As our American cousins say, go figure.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

How do you know that there aren't additives added to rollie tobacco though?

Rollie tobacco sold commercially? I don't, although I assume there is. After all, it is being sold by the same tobacco industries. Mine is home-grown shed tobacco. My home, my shed. Environmentally friendly stuff. Except for the occasional bit of cocobolo or lily-pilly in the sawdust I use for mulch. Oh... and the occasional bloodstain, but I'm convinced it's not infectious.

Trivia: boiled tobacco makes an effective, eco-friendly pesticide. Well... eco-friendly if you're not a pest. ;)


All I know is that most people on this board spend significant amounts of money on systems that will hopefully prevent micron sized dust particles entering their lungs when thay are woodworking.

However you are voluntarily ingesting them. :confused:

Yup. I'm also investing in one fairly soon. I should point out that they'll extract down to micron sized dust and woodworking generates quanta more particles than a cigarette. If smoking was the same as breathing in a handful of sawdust I doubt I'd have started in the first place!

And I'm sure that not having to sweep the floor after every session didn't have influence on their decisions. :D

Still, you've a valid point. Oh, the vagaries of children, pets and woodworkers!


As our American cousins say, go figure.

Our American cousins also have reported figures that air travel is safer than driving down the street. So why does anyone still drive a car? Go figure! ;)

[Gingermick]

Yes life is an inherantly dangerous pastime. You could go to sleep and wake up dead. Or trip on the bedside table, if you do manage to live through the night, and hit your head on the dresser and die.
If you make it out of the bedroom there's all manner of things waiting to get you. Porcelain bowls, sharp knives and potato peelers. If you make it past all this gratuitous horror and out to the shed, you're lucky everytime you get back. I need not point out the dangers of the shed.
Yes, life is indeed risky enough without adding to the danger for little or no reward. :p

[zenwood]

BTW Alcohol causes MANY more social issues than smoking.
Not according to Quit Victoria (unless things have changed dramatically in the last five years):

In 1998/99, the total social costs of tobacco use in Australia were $21.1 billion. This accounted for 61.2% of the total social costs of all drugs, including alcohol and illicit drugs.

From Smoking rates, diseases, passive smoking and costs, "Background Brief", Jan. 2005, p. 6 (see http://www.quit.org.au/index2.html > Resources > Background Briefs).

[DanP]

I didn't say social costs. I said social issues.

[Wood Borer]

I’m a smoker. I wish I wasn’t but I am addicted to the %$#&ing things.

It is not good for me but I continue to smoke – doesn’t make sense to me either.

I have tried several times to give up but I have failed each time. I once went to a Chemist to get some patches but I was refused because I needed a doctor’s prescription!!!!! I don’t recall getting a doctor’s prescription to start smoking. Here I was determined to give up at that time but I was stopped. The determination to give took a big nose dive and I went outside the chemists and lit up after having a very heated argument with the %$#!head pharmacist. Are they fair dinkum or is it just another little game for them?

I could reach a conclusion that patches are more of health hazard than cigarettes. Or perhaps doctors are trying to cash in on people giving up due to lost income writing out death certificates. Maybe it is just the small minded people in the government who make up laws to stop the smooth flow.

Like DanP I think I am a considerate smoker in that I don’t try to inconvenience the fresh air of others. I even ask visitors to my shed for permission to smoke in my shed. I certainly don’t smoke inside the house.

Avid anti smokers do not help. They are most annoying and I generally end up telling them that I hope I die soon so I don’t have to put up with them anymore. Do they really think that smokers have not been made aware of the dangers already and that their rude remarks will suddenly make me see the light? Wrong, try and help me, don’t abuse me. I think they enjoy the new socially accepted sport of being nasty and rude to total strangers who smoke. They might be disappointed if there were no more smokers left.

The anti smoking ads on TV remind me of smoking so I walk outside and light up long before the gruesome pictures are beamed at me. They are sickening those pictures but they don’t help give up either.

How did I start? When I was younger, silly old fools with twisted ideas on other subjects told me it was bad.

In hindsight that was the only sound advice they ever gave anyone. The same people thought warnings about DDT were communist plots and that young people of today were hopeless and always would be because they had not experienced the Depression, the Beatles were crap, long hair and flares corrupted people’s minds etc etc etc How does that make someone defiant like myself react?

I would like to give up and hopefully I will before it kills me prematurely, makes me terribly sick and stops me from seeing my grand kids grow up and doing my woodwork. (See I am trying hard).

So if you are one of those people who think it is smart to be rude to smokers, ask yourself what it is that you are trying to achieve. Being rude to someone like me is not helping at all, it will result in a double dose of abuse back and me continuing to slowly commit suicide.

If I ever do give up, please put a bullet through my head if I become a nagging ex smoker because one death is not as significant as multiple deaths.

[zenwood]

I was refused because I needed a doctor’s prescription!!!!!
Un-bloody-believable. You'd think they'd be freely available. The govenment should even subsidise them so they don't cost anything. The saving to society of not treating lung cancer must be greater than the cost of an anti-smoking course.


Are they fair dinkum or is it just another little game for them? Presumably there are chemicals in the patches that are hazardous in some way. I dunno....


Avid anti smokers do not help.
Yeah; there's alot of self-righteousness involved...

WB: Any chance of trying to get hold of a prescription? I'd like to see your posts on this board for a long time to come.:)

[Wood Borer]

Yep,

I have to visit the doctors on an unrelated matter soon so I will mention it.

You won't get rid of me that easily. :D

[Geoff Allen]

Jeez Borer,

After reading your story I had to find a hankie and blow my nose. How cruel are they attacking somebody who is already depressed.

Of course you are considerate to non/ex smokers and so is DanP 'cos with the tax on coffin nals being so high you guys are paying to keep our troops in Iraq etc.

Keep up the good work ( now who else can I encourage to pay more tax than me)

regards
Geoff

[Wood Borer]

Geoff,

Not depressed, just extremely frustrated at trying to give up this stupid habit with anti smokers and chemists seemingly putting obstacles in my way.

Nails, Nails, Nails???? I don't want those terrible things in my coffin - hand cut dovetails for this black lunged duck thankyou. :D

Don't even try and fool me by making them with a jig and then scribing the joint - I will know! I will haunt you foillie or not! ;)

[Sturdee]

.......extremely frustrated at trying to give up this stupid habit with anti smokers and chemists seemingly putting obstacles in my way.



Absolutely amazing that they make it so hard. As I posted I gave it up about 13 years ago having started when I was about 12 years old.

Rob. like you many a times I saw the warnings both on packets and tv ads but neither them or even complaints of my family made me give it up until I was ready to do so.

I believe that it is a matter of willpower and until you really want to give it up you won't succeed. I went cold turkey ( took a fortnight for the cravings to go ) but patches would make it easier. I found that it helped to make changes in my habits, eg don't linger after meals but get up immediately to break the urge to smoke.

Good luck Rob.


Peter.

[Gingermick]

So if you are one of those people who think it is smart to be rude to smokers

Being rude is being rude and it is never justified,
I had 'The little book of quitting' by Alan Carr. That was all about getting your mind ready to quit, rather than worrying about cravings or dealing with symptoms. He went though all the reasons people give for smoking and explained them in terms of nicotine. Made a lot of sense.
Quitting is so hard because it's so easy to give in and you dont need heaps of cash to go and buy some.
Being free of an addiction is a wonderful feeling.
You'll get there when you're ready, then your beer tastes better :D
(I was a bit abrupt with someone the other day for smoking too close to my house, told them to ****** off somewhere else. I dont think I was rude)

[Daddles]

I knew a bloke who used the nicotine chewing gum to give up smoking. Worked with him for twelve years - he chewed the gum that whole time. I often wondered what it was he'd given up. :confused:

Richard

[Groggy]

Having started this I may as well attempt to finish it.

Like most smokers I was hooked early and "enjoyed" it. I tried a few times to give up but wasn't really motivated. I tried zyban, hypnosis, willpower and the rest without success.

What it did take was a reason, and eventually I came to realise this. So, I looked for a reason "for me". I happened to hear bits of the Congressional hearings in the US and got so (expletive deleted) mad at the lying bastids I managed to get the resolve to quit.

I suggest you learn a little bit about how these companies designed the drug to be compatible with a developing teenager's chemistry, so their brain actually changed slightly to derive better pleasure (hence addiction). They denied it ever happened - especially since all the research had been destroyed at their direction years ago.

It did me a favor, but they should all be in jail. It is a physical addiction, plus a mental (habitual) addiction. Not easy to give up and no one should be embarrassed about failing the first few attempts. After all, scientists and tobacco companies spent years making sure you wouldn't.

[DanP]

Two days in and I hate you all.

[Groggy]

Two days in and I hate you all.Good onya Dan! Turn that hatred towards the bastids profiting from your misery and the job gets easier (and the tools get bigger!).

I pity the bad-uns in Cobram over the next few weeks!

[DanP]

Don't worry, I hate everybody.

WB - Can't see why you can't get patches from the chemist. They are not a prescription item.

Dan

[ozwinner]

Geoff,

Not depressed, just extremely frustrated at trying to give up this stupid habit with anti smokers and chemists seemingly putting obstacles in my way.

Nails, Nails, Nails???? I don't want those terrible things in my coffin - hand cut dovetails for this black lunged duck thankyou. :D

Don't even try and fool me by making them with a jig and then scribing the joint - I will know! I will haunt you foillie or not! ;)

No Woodborer no, No Woodborer no, Noooooo Woodborer. :D

Al :)

[Wood Butcher]

SWMBO found this on the net. You've probably seen something like it before but it is all ways worth remembering.

[julianx]

I agree with groggy I had to have a reason to give up.
about seven tears ago, soon after I had separated from swmnlbo, the kids came back from there mums place and said she'd given up smoking. As we were still feuding at the time I couldn't possibly have her beat me at this so I gave up there and then. Sounds a bit immature now but it worked, I've had only 4 cigarettes in 7 years.
She took it up again after 3 months

swmnlbo = she who must no longer be obeyed :D

[zenwood]

Two days in and I hate you all.
Onya Dan. Good stuff:)

[DanP]

I still hate you all.

[AlexS]

Day 4. Geez I miss that 1st cigar with my morning coffee, but not so much today. Cranky as s**t yesterday, but bought a heap of myrtle at Mathews this morning, so much better.

Who said retail therapy only works for women. :D

[zenwood]

Day 4.
Excellent stuff, Alex. Keep Butcher's list on the fridge door. Keep a tally of the cigar money you save, and buy, buy, buy.

[Groggy]

For Alex, Woodborer, Dan or anyone else giving it up.

http://www.silkquit.org/meter.html

It's the meter I use to track money saved and other stuff, looking at it every now and again helps to remind you when to buy a new tool...

Sample info provided is:

Three years, eight months, three weeks, six days, 2 hours, 53 minutes and 39 seconds. 34128 cigarettes not smoked, saving $8,532.26. Life saved: 16 weeks, 6 days, 12 hours, 0 minutes.

[AlexS]

Day 5. Didn't miss the phlegmcutter at all this morning, nor the afterlunchie, as I was eager to get into the workshop. Finished final sanding on latest project.

[Gingermick]

Congratulations to all on the wagon. It is indeed a most noble pursuit.

[Harry72]

If you get a craving urge, stop what ever your doing and do something else, you'll be suprised how easy it is to distract yourself!
You need to assoicate things you do with not smoking ie, when you have breki/lunch/tea soon as your finished, have a shower or read the paper(whatever) this way you are training not to assoicate smoking with certain actions. Like after a coffee have a chewy instead of a smoke, spit it out at about the same time it takes to finish a smoke and then do something that involves thinking hard/intensely(hey your a woodie think of yer next project!).

[adrian]

If you want to give it up you have to be a 'manual smoker' rather than an automatic one. Don't just reach for the packet and light up. Make yourself aware of every process from the moment you light up. Be aware that you are filling your lungs with all kinds of muck and poisons and you are doing it for fun.

When you wake up in the morning and start to cough don't go on about having a slight cold or some other feeble excuse. You have filled your lungs with muck that has probably settled during sleep and you have to move it around to get a clear space to absorb oxygen and reduce the irritation. Ask yourself whether this is the act of a sane person.

If you have kids, you should ask yourself what kind of role model you are going to be be for them. If you smoke around your kids you should be aware that it is child abuse. The only difference between passive smoke and beating the daylights out of them is that the bruises take years to show.
Maybe you should think about getting a list of the carcinogens and the poisons and their doses and inject them into your child's veins so that they will get their fix when they are away at camp. Don't hold the mistaken belief that there is any difference between making them inhale the smoke or getting the chemicals intravenously. Ask yourself what you would do if a stranger did inject your child with the same chemicals.
If you are a parent and you care, then giving up is the easiest thing in the world to do.

As for totally banning smoking in all publc places where it is possible for someone to inhale passive smoke, it is only a matter of time before someone tests the waters by asking for a smoker to be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Smoking is well recognised by every major health organisation around the world as a major cause of preventable death. As I have said above, there is no difference between inhaling the poisons and receiving the same chemicals as an involuntary injection. The only difference is the ingestion of tar into the lungs when inhaling, which adds an additional danger. Being injected with those chemicals would constitute an assault and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a smart lawyer working for the anti-smoking lobby could easily prove the case, given that cigarette packets clearly carry warnings of the dangers to others.

[Gingermick]

Are you an ex-smoker too?

[Iain]

Here endeth the lesson.
Sounds like Fred Nile of the anti smoking lobby...................................not that I disagree.

[zenwood]

Good onya adrian.

Shoulda seen my post: my first censored post, and I'm not even a reformed smoker. Just a witness to some of its effects.

[AlexS]

12 days...so far so good.

[Groggy]

12 days...so far so good.Hmm, at a pack a day, costing around $10 a pack, that should be the first tool purchase worth $120. That'll get you a H.N.T. Gordon special or a Lee Valley, another two weeks and you're a contender for a Lie Nielsen award :D

Good going, keep it up!

[adrian]

Are you an ex-smoker too?

Yep! It's been about 9 years. I've given up quite a few times but the only effective way I know to stay a non smoker is to acquire a pathalogical hatred for smoking. Which I have done with relish.
As for being the "Fred Nile of the anti-smoking lobby" if that's what I have to be labeled then I don't mind. It's in a good cause.

AlexS
Keep it up. You are over the worst. Just remember when you want to light up again that you are going to have to put yourself through what you have gone through for the past 12 days, again. I found that getting angry at myself for the stupidity was enough to keep me away from them.

I know it sounds like a lecture but if a lecture can change just one person's attitude then it's worth being thought of as a wowser.

[Gingermick]

I find it makes it easy to hate it with a vengeance. And you've been bagging every smoker you know, so you're too sh!te scared to start again too.
Apart from the fact the it does nothing for you, except get you addicted.

[AlexS]

Hmm, at a pack a day, costing around $10 a pack, that should be the first tool purchase worth $120. That'll get you a H.N.T. Gordon special or a Lee Valley, another two weeks and you're a contender for a Lie Nielsen award :D

Good going, keep it up!

Not quite. was just (?) having 2 cigars a day, at about $2 each. Still, $120 a month's not to be sneezed at.

[Groggy]

Stumbled across this thread while looking for something else so I thought I'd update it. I hope the people who gave up are still on the wagon :2tsup:

Six years, one month, one week, one day, 10 hours, 33 minutes and 2 seconds.

55760 cigarettes not smoked,

saving $18,587.00.

Life saved: 27 weeks, 4 days, 14 hours, 40 minutes.

[Cliff Rogers]

I gave up 27 years ago, that is about 395,000 smokes ago.

How do you work out the cost over 27 years?

[Honorary Bloke]

I gave up 27 years ago, that is about 395,000 smokes ago.

How do you work out the cost over 27 years?

In $$ or in lost satisfaction? :?


:D:D:D

[Groggy]

I gave up 27 years ago, that is about 395,000 smokes ago.

How do you work out the cost over 27 years?from 01 Jan 1981 averaged at $5 per pack and smoking 25 per day:


Twenty-seven years, one month, one week, one day, 10 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds. 247511 cigarettes not smoked, saving $41,251.91. Life saved: 2 years, 18 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 55 minutes.

[Black Ned]

Attention: Cliff Rogers

Benson & Hedges cigarettes were $0.72 (pkt of 20) on New Years Eve 1979 when I gave smoking. Have not smoked since.
Equal to $0.036 per cigarette in 1979
Average this out with cigarette cost now and make a huge guess!

[Cliff Rogers]

They were about $1.50 a pack of 20 when I gave up & I was smoking about 2 packs a day but how do you come up with an average price per pack over the last 27 years? (not that it matters that much anyway.)

[Groggy]

They were about $1.50 a pack of 20 when I gave up & I was smoking about 2 packs a day but how to you come up with an average price per pack over the last 27 years? (not that it matters that much anyway.)
Just a guess Cliff, that's all, no science behind it.

Here are some rougher figures, allowing for your smoking rate (almost double my estimate) and increases:

$1.20 packet for, say, 15 years packets of 20 - $13,239.73.

$5.00 packet for 6 years packets of 30 - $14,863.71.

$10 for 6 years packets of 30 - $29,727.44.

Total: $60, 000 (ish) - My guess was a lot more conservative based on 25 per day. Although allowing for the 40 per day vs 25, the estimate was not too bad! Whatever the figure, it is a heck of a lot of tools. It is the equivalent of burning a complete kitted out workshop. Makes the arguments about the cheapest tablesaw or whether to buy an old Stanley or new Lie Nielsen sound a bit silly.

Note that according to the life estimate you have gained over two years of your life back :2tsup:

[Cliff Rogers]

...Note that according to the life estimate you have gained over two years of your life back :2tsup:
Not the way I drive. :D

[DJ’s Timber]

Been about 4 yrs since I've given the smokes away and I've only had 1 beer in about 2 yrs

[Sebastiaan56]

11 years, 2 months smoke free, I was a pack of drum every two days man. Havent had a beer for about 20 hours, hmmmmmmm

[Rocker]

I am fortunate that, apart from a week or two attempting to smoke a pipe 50 years ago, I have never smoked.

However, I have had open-heart surgery two weeks ago (for a congenital defect that was only recently discovered). The experience of heart surgery is literally traumatic; you are likely to have 750 mm of painful wounds. For me the surgery was inevitable, if I was to avoid a rapid decline to an early death. But, if you have the choice of avoiding it by giving up smoking before it is too late, I strongly suggest that you do so. Smoking is one of the principal causes of heart disease.

Rocker

[wayfarer]

Note that according to the life estimate you have gained over two years of your life back :2tsup:

Which two years? Not the two at the end stuck in a nursing home bed? ::EEEK:: :)

I gave up 10 years, 1 month and 11 days ago... about $41K if I'd invested each year @ 5% @ avg $7 per pack (smoked 40 a day)

hmmm.. i wonder where all that money went.

I used to love smoking, still wish I did. But glad I don't.