Good luck with the challenge , but be realistic.. Lung cell damage won't disappear.

but at least you are not piling More, on top of it ..

I'm very realistic. Given time the lungs will usually repair themselves. Unless you are unfortunate enough to already be pre-cancerous or have early COPD.

"[h=3]Benefits of Quitting Smoking for Older Adults[/h]

• Quitting smoking has proven health benefits, even at a late age. When an older person quits smoking, circulation improves immediately, and the lungs begin to repair damage. In one year, the added risk of heart disease is cut almost in half, and risk of stroke, lung disease, and cancer diminish."
  https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/abo...er-adults.html

I wish you the best. I am 47 and started smoking right after High School when I joined the work force. Sure I quit a couple times, used the gum, hypnosis, chantix but always seemed to start back up again. Then one day not 5 minutes after a smoke I suffered a heart attack. I haven't had a smoke since then and that was on 3 March this year. I still tend to reach for the lighter in my pocket that isn't there any longer but I know that it would only take one and I'd be smokin a pack a day within a month. Unfortunately this is one of those things that you need to consciously be working at doing all the time.
Good luck to you and stay strong.

Good luck. I had a heart attack 5 minutes after I put out my third morning smoke and now walk around with 4 stents. 14 years later, if I feel the urge when I smell the aroma of a freshly lit cig, I remember being on the table with tubes running into both legs, dye being injected, balloons being inflated while placing the stents and the click, click, click of the aortic boost pump keeping me alive. Somehow the urge passes.

Just to keep this at the top, How goes the battle Mr. Welch? I hope you are hanging in there, and if you have fallen off the wagon, well thats OK too, I cannot tell you (because the number to too high for human comprehension) how many time I fell off the non-smoking wagon and and was run over by it. I even after three years, I still feel at risk, and if I could not ride my bike anymore...

Anyway, tell us how you are doing, please

Today is day 9. My get up and go has got up and gone. Sleeping poorly with anger management issues. But I'm still nicotine free. It's amazing what kind of rationalizations your mind come up with to start again.

I'm only getting 2 or 3 major craves a day now. Lots of quick craves that come and go rapidly. I'm glad I've got the light on the bike since it seems the worst ones are after dark. I just go ride them away.

It will get better and easier. I've started back playing Diablo 3. Killing things seems to help.

I bought into the "three days and the physical need is gone" crap myself. I was an OTR truck driver........sit, look out the window and drive all day when I quit. I had most of a pack when I stopped smoking and just left them on the dash.

Everything was fine...........until day 21. I was in North Bend, WA. I cussed, screamed, rocked back and forth, yelled and did everything EXCEPT smoked. I don't know how I made it. Day 22 was as bad........I know I made it through the day because I had survived the day before. That was it for the real hard stuff. I went a year or so wondering if I would EVER stop thinking about smoking. Then, somewhere along the line I forgot that I ever did.

I haven't had a puff in over 2 years, but it was not a tour of the pie factory getting here.

Nine days...........they get eaiser and eaiser from here on out. Maybe a bit of temptation here or there but, you are there. Good job.

One thing that helped me is to chant, repeat, scream or yell "NOPE"................Not One Puff Ever.

For the really badly addicted people who find this so hard to do,,,

You got some good freinds right ?
Who care about you,,,real friends will do anything for you btw,,no matter what.

Get four or five of them together and have a meeting. YOU the ADDICT need to detox/crash.
Take a two week vacation from work.
Go buy some handcuffs and lock your self up In a barn or hotel room,,,
have your friends take shifts bringing you food and sitting with you...

If your a big guy make shure they can whup your butt if you try and go for a smoke..

Then after a week or two when you walk out in public, before you do make your friends swear that they
will hurt you bad if you ever smoke again...

Man up to the challenge, I mean come on people,,we landed a man on the moon remember ???
and you can't quit smoking on the first try because It's too hard ???

Shame on you !

Your very life depends on this,,,

Better to die trying to quit than live out your life knowing you are not In control of yourself..

Victory through a superior state of mind !

Well done. I was also trucker at the time I quit 35 years ago. (Still am for that matter.) I had quit at least a hundred times before, and never made it past the second day.
Then, on April 1, 1977, I woke up with the first thought of the day being that today, I quit. I had spent the night at the facility I was to load at in the morning, and the first thing I did was give 2 brand new unopened packs of cigarettes to the kid that loaded my truck.
Surprisingly, I found it easier to resist the urge while driving than I did over the second cup of coffee at a restaurant, so I simply removed myself from the situations that made it hardest to resist.
I had people give me a hard time for not lingering to visit, but I just knew if I didn't drink up and get out of there, I was going to bum a smoke off somebody, and then buy a pack on the way out.
I never relapsed, not even once. I think it was about two years until I felt I had truly conquered it.

Stick with it. It is so worth it.

Way to go! Yep, i recall that anger problem, seems like once i quit smoking I could see clearly how may idiots there were in the world. Eventually, magically, they were all cured of their idiocy and the world became a better place, eventually.

Smoking Is like a fan,
Stand behind it and it sucks,
Stand Infront of it and it blows,
Stand beside it and it don't do a thing for ya at all....

Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.

So,,Tell me,,
Do you really like sticking your lips up to a butt ?
They call that,,,nvmnd..

Want to drive health care cost down in this country ?


quit,,

You're doing great although I know you're not thinking that right now.

Stick with it and I'll be right behind you. Looking at a 12/1 quit date. Its been 23 years for some stupid reason.

Ten years last March for me. It gets easier after the first year. I wouldn't even consider stating again now, although the thought of a good cigar makes me drool.

I first "quit" about 35 years ago after smoking 1-2 packs a day for well over a decade. Didn't smoke for over a year. Started up again after a job promotion (go figure huh?).



Quit again for about a year and a half. Started again for some reason or other.



Finally quit for good back in '82 or so.



Anyway, here's what helped me quit:




1. I stopped with the "answer the phone light a smoke, drive a car light a smoke, finish eating have a smoke, drink a beer have a smoke, and all the other "reactionary smoking." This helped me get down to less than 10 a day.




2. I finally realized that quiting means that you quit for good (you can't "just have one smoke" when you've quit).




3. This allowed me to quit "cold turkey" once and for all.




Hope this helps.




Btw, feeling much better physically, while not having to worry so much about cancer and not having to have cigs on hand at all times, was very much worth it.




And it does get easier after the first year (like "waldowales" and others say).

The longest cell life is 7 years,,so,,
After 7 smoke free years your lungs should look like a normal persons,,
Altho genetic/Rna/Dna damage is permanent.

Forget life extension all together,,
dont think about the extra years you will live,,
Think about the life you will have and do not concern yourself with how long you live..

You will feel better when you stop poisoning yourself daily..
Sick 24/7,,365 days a year and smokers never even see it....

Just a quick update. Day 30, 1 month smoke free. Energy levels back to normal. Life is good. No major cravings. I can breathe again without coughing. Food tastes good, and no weight gain yet. I'm being careful of how much and what I eat.

Twentysomething go for it. If I can do it cold turkey anyone can. I won't say that it's a piece of cake because it isn't. But if you are serious about quitting you can do it. Some of the reading I've done says that 3 days, 3 weeks and 3 months are the points when most people fall off of the wagon.

I'll let you know in another couple of months but right now I am an ex-smoker.

Congratulations! Quitting smoking was the hardest addiction I had to break - and I have broken a few. Well done.

Congratulations! You have the hard part out of the way...

Well you have the hard-work part out of the way -- but not the hard part. The hard part is to STAY smoke free. There will be MANY temptations -- they don't stop at any special time period.

For me, after over 15 years, I still would like to have "Just one". But I know where "just one" will lead...

Well done, but don't let your guard down.

I smoked for just a few years when I was young and stupid, as opposed to older and stupid.
Last smoke was in 1976.

Every once in a great while, the idea sneaks into my head that smoking a cigarette would be pleasant. Not gonna happen but for most of us who have smoked, the urge never completely goes away.

Watch this whole video then lets see you light up,,,

Go on I dare ya,,,,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=5zWB4dLYChM

My mom died of lung cancer at 62, just short of getting her PhD. A quarter century later, my non-smoking dad is still enjoying his retirement.

I quit January 6, 1996 at 10:25am. I had a 10:30 appointment with a hypnotist. It still wasn't easy but as time went by it did get easier. I started smoking in the mid-eighties to quit chewing snuff (Copenhagen), which is like main-lining nicotine. Don't believe anybody that says nicotine isn't bad for you but if the patch helps you quit then use the patch.
A friend of mine quit a couple months ago, he read a book called “The easy way to stop smoking” by Allen Carr. He said he read the book and stopped smoking the next day.