How many of us are smokers?

Yup, I smoke and the more pain I am feeling the more I seem to smoke. Somewhere in my brain I feel like it keeps my mind off the pain, but it really doesn't. I've tried quitting with the patch a couple of times with no long term effect. Plus the job i had at the time was probably not the best time to try quiting it was sooooo stressfull. I want to quit and my just have to try cold turkey. I've got so many things I want to work on, but don't know where to start you might say i'm being a procrastinator about it. I should just do it, i know i should. I started smoking when I was 21 because my friend was smoking and we were drinking. I've been hooked ever since. I sure regret that night. I wish I never had lit that first cigarette. I'm not 37 so what can i say old habits die hard espically when hubby smokes too.

I started smoking in college to avoid eating while studying at night. I smoked for 8 years, and was up to two packs a day by the time I quit. I used the nicotine patch, and it was the best money I ever spent. I have been cig-free for sixteen years.

All this was well before the Fibro diagnosis. Quitting was the hardest thing I have ever done. I fell all yawl's pain.

I stopped smoking December 7, 2007 after forty-three years of two packs a day. My husband quit with me after fifty years of two packs a day. On Decembe 7, 2007 I went to the ER suffering a horrific headache...doc thought I was having a brain bleed. A brain scan showed no brain bleed...thank God...but the ER doc said my chest X-ray showed signs of emphysema. I put my last cig down on that day and never smoked again. My husband said he would quit with me because he could not smoke if I had COPD. Pulmonary tests showed I did not have emphysema/COPD but my lungs are hyper-inflated which sometimes makes me feel short of breath. I am so grateful for the wake-up call. I was so afraid that I had COPD. I am so grateful that I do not and that fear and gratitude stopped me from smoking. It was hard...my husband and I both went through horrid withdrawals...but it was worth it! Smoking for us is not an option. I used to suffer from IBS for many years...after quitting smoking that completely went away! I don't know how or why that happened...all I know is that I no longer suffer IBS! I have many pluses in my life since stopping smoking. I wish I could say I'm pain free...that's not the case...but all in all I can say stopping smoking is the best most wonderful thing in my life! To all the smokers...I know how hard it is to quit. My heart goes out to you. When you decide to stop you can do it. It won't be easy but you can do it...I promise you that. A great place to go for love and support to stop smoking is about.com smoking cessation. Good luck and God bless.

Joni

Even though we smoke my hubby and i don't do to bad. I'd say we go through about a pack a day. We smoke the same brand and off the same pack. Sometimes it's more, but sometimes its less. So for two people smoking I guess that's not terrible espically since we've both been smoking for so long now. He started smoking long before I did. One of these days I'm going to try and quit again. Just do it cold turkey, the patch tapering off, that stuff doesn't work either i do it or i don't. I have a feeling i'm always going to have cig now and then. It started off as social smoking.

I've never smoked but my father smoked my entire childhood. I bite my nails & have trichotillomania (hair pulling). To me, it's all central nervous system/stress disorders. No judging anyone from me -- I think theyre all related