My input is why be a casual smoker when being a non smoker is so much better. Apart from the Lord what really gives me the strength I need is the mere fact that I'm so happy to be a non smoker. I no longer need or are controlled by the nicodemon. I always wanted to quit, subconsciously I was probably afraid that maybe I never would. So now that I have achieved the "impossible" the joy and happiness is keeping me going and has made this dreaded event really easy.
So everybody I advise... Just quit it's possible and worth it :)
John
I read this last night and have been thinking about it today off/on. Thanks Kristine, for sharing your friend's thoughts and perspective. It helps me have perspective on it, too. There is no such thing as a casual smoker, indeed.
Your friend is correct and that is why we all live by N.O.P.E. It's been over 5.5 years for me, but I know that I'm just one puff away from over a pack a day! That nicotine is a powerful drug!!! My neighbors fooled themselves and thought that they could casually smoke a cigar every now and then on the weekends. Then they found the little cigarette sized cigars and since they were small, the could have one every few days. Then it was one or two a day and so on. Now, between them they are smoking over a tin of 20 a day! They are under the impression that they are all natural and without the additives that are added to cigarettes and that they are not that bad for them! Oh, and they are filter-less!
The point I am trying to make is that people can talk themselves into whatever they want to believe. I'm sure that they both know that smoking those cigars are bad for them, but I'm afraid that it is going to come down to one of them becoming severely ill before they consider quitting! The nico-demon is EVIL!
Keep that great quit going, Kristine and kick that evil nico-demon's ash!!!
And a big SSC welcome to you Marthemarpa! We're glad you could join us! We're all rooting for you!!!
I know I have had the same feelings. My husband was a casual smoker. The first time I tried to quit, it infuriated me every time he went out for a smoke. I was so mad that he could do it and I couldn't. Well, that quit failed. This quit, he vowed to quit with me (and has). He has been offered smokes since we quit (by his mother of all people) and he has turned them down every time.
I had the same thoughts about casual smokers. My husband was one of those. He quit after me and admitted he found it hard giving up those 2-3 cigs a day!
I reckon we all have the same jealousies about folk who can do that......it goes with the quit!
So, I was catching up with a friend today who quit smoking so long ago I had actually forgotten he'd ever smoked. Needless to say, he had some nice advice and perspective on quitting, and I really wished I'd talked to him about it sooner. The most helpful thing he said had to do with "casual" smokers, of which his ex-girlfriend was one -- the kind of person who could buy a pack to have fun on the weekend but be fine not to smoke all week long.
He said he used to be envious of so-called "casual" smokers, knowing that they can have one anytime they want but he can never have one again. But those are also the types of people who are most likely to go on smoking for years and years -- because they never HAVE to make a formal break with it, a lot of the time they never do. And eventually there are health implications for them same as there would be for anyone else. As he put it, smoking a pack a day for 10 years is not very different, in the end, from smoking a pack every weekend for 40 or 50 years. There is really no such thing as a "casual" or "healthy" smoker, even if it seems that way sometimes.
I just really appreciated that because I have had the "I wish I could be a casual smoker" thought more than once, as I'm sure other folks here have too. It's a seductive idea, but there really are no "casual" smokers. And being off cigarettes entirely is definitely better than being a smoker of any kind.