Quitting smoking

[BJK]

I quite smoking for the final time in November of 2004. I'm saying it's the final time because I will not go through it again. If, one day in the future, I break down and start smoking again, I will do it for the rest of my life. Quitting smoking is the hardest thing I've ever done, and it still affects me almost two years later.

I don't deal well with cravings, and I do have cravings still. Those cravings make me ill tempered. I don't have physical withdrawl symptoms anymore, but the psychological symptoms were always worse for me. I also don't do well around second hand smoke. One hour of exposure to second hand smoke brings back all of the immediate withdrawl effects I felt when I quit.

My advice to any poker player who is trying to quit smoking is to be prepared to take a break from the game. I went about six weeks without playing, and my return to the game saw some huge losses before I learned to cope with the withdrawls at the table. Nothing tilts me more than when someone lights up at a no smoking table.

Congratulations on your decision to quit. I know that most poker players (at least the winning ones) don't believe in luck, but I wish you luck anyway in continuing with your quest. I'm on 19 months and counting, which puts me two months away from the longest I've gone without a cigarette since age 9.

[LetsGoMets]

life is hard.

so we put smoke in our throats and toxic fluids in our stomach

[Freelancer]

Conclusion; Smoking sucks.


Thank god I will never smoke. I've got astma, and just being in the neighborhood of a smoker can get me sick for the rest off the day. Than again I'm allergic for a lot off stuff, ranging from cats/dogs to grass/other green stuff that grows to cheese/eggs. Nothing I won't survive, but it will surely keep me off smoking. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[FloppyJ]

After smoking for 14 years, I took one shot at it cold turkey and it worked. I had only gone 24 hours without previously.

I read a book which basically didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, it didn't use any scare tactics or anything but I got lucky and it helped me. Maybe the timing was just right, or something but I stopped smoking as soon as I finished the book and I was smoking as I read the final page. I have not smoked since. I have lent the book to others and they didn't have the same experience. But for $10, you can't really go wrong.

Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking, or something along those lines.