vivfox
06-15-2011, 11:28 PM
As of today I am cigarette free for 9 years!!!:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:
I chain-smoked for 20 solid years. Beginning at age 20 I was working as a waiter and that is stressful work. All the smokers were allowed to take a break every 15 min. to have a puff. When I tried to take a break I was told to get back out on the floor because I wasn't a smoker. I decided to become a smoker so I too could take more breaks. Also my best friend at that time was addicticed to cigs and I remember telling him that I was gonna smoke for 6 months and then show him how easy it would be to quit.
Many times I tried to quit. I could never get past 10 days. I called it "the 10 day hurdle."
I always said I'd quit when I turned 40. In my 30's I told myself that there would be a heavy price to pay for all the nicotene I was allowing to enter into my body. I kept smoking and smoking endlessly. I felt like a slave to those fukcers.
At age 39 I started to have sleep apnea attacks that became more frequent in time. I would wake up choking and would beg God to let me live. It was very scary. A few months into the age of 40 I became dehydrated. I thought I might die. My body was so sick and it would not allow me to inhale smoke so I forced myself to quit.
I made a decision. I knew I was gonna gain weight but felt it would be better to be overweight than to be a smoker. I played a game with myself calling the cigarette pack the "High School." I smoked my cigs to the last one in the pack. I'm not one to waste money. I called the final cig "the last day of school." No matter how bad you wish you could go back to school you can never go back because it is the last day. I never, ever smoked again. When I had a craving I would say "sleep apnea" out loud and realize that I could never smoke again. I had a craving every day, 4 times a day anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds and then it would pass. Each time I had the craving I would inhale air and exhale as if I were inhaling a smoke. It worked. I had these cravings daily for 11 months and then they stopped. I won the war.
It would be 7 years before I would obtain health insurance and I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I knew I had had it and guess what the number 1 cause is: cigarette smoking! I sleep every night with a c-pap machine attached to my face. It looks like those breathing/oxygen masks people wear in hospital beds. I hate wearing it but I have to. It prevents sleep apnea attacks.
Just last night I had remembered how I used to tell myself in my 30's that there would be a heavy price for smoking. You just never think it'll really happen to you. I'm gonna have to sleep with this machine, possibly for the rest of my life.
I'm 49 years old and thrilled to be cig free for 9 years.
Please remember these words the next time you take a drag of that cigarette.
(cigs were $4.50 a pack when I quit)
I chain-smoked for 20 solid years. Beginning at age 20 I was working as a waiter and that is stressful work. All the smokers were allowed to take a break every 15 min. to have a puff. When I tried to take a break I was told to get back out on the floor because I wasn't a smoker. I decided to become a smoker so I too could take more breaks. Also my best friend at that time was addicticed to cigs and I remember telling him that I was gonna smoke for 6 months and then show him how easy it would be to quit.
Many times I tried to quit. I could never get past 10 days. I called it "the 10 day hurdle."
I always said I'd quit when I turned 40. In my 30's I told myself that there would be a heavy price to pay for all the nicotene I was allowing to enter into my body. I kept smoking and smoking endlessly. I felt like a slave to those fukcers.
At age 39 I started to have sleep apnea attacks that became more frequent in time. I would wake up choking and would beg God to let me live. It was very scary. A few months into the age of 40 I became dehydrated. I thought I might die. My body was so sick and it would not allow me to inhale smoke so I forced myself to quit.
I made a decision. I knew I was gonna gain weight but felt it would be better to be overweight than to be a smoker. I played a game with myself calling the cigarette pack the "High School." I smoked my cigs to the last one in the pack. I'm not one to waste money. I called the final cig "the last day of school." No matter how bad you wish you could go back to school you can never go back because it is the last day. I never, ever smoked again. When I had a craving I would say "sleep apnea" out loud and realize that I could never smoke again. I had a craving every day, 4 times a day anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds and then it would pass. Each time I had the craving I would inhale air and exhale as if I were inhaling a smoke. It worked. I had these cravings daily for 11 months and then they stopped. I won the war.
It would be 7 years before I would obtain health insurance and I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I knew I had had it and guess what the number 1 cause is: cigarette smoking! I sleep every night with a c-pap machine attached to my face. It looks like those breathing/oxygen masks people wear in hospital beds. I hate wearing it but I have to. It prevents sleep apnea attacks.
Just last night I had remembered how I used to tell myself in my 30's that there would be a heavy price for smoking. You just never think it'll really happen to you. I'm gonna have to sleep with this machine, possibly for the rest of my life.
I'm 49 years old and thrilled to be cig free for 9 years.
Please remember these words the next time you take a drag of that cigarette.
(cigs were $4.50 a pack when I quit)