Quitting a habit

[Steppenwolfe]

Anyone here have a similar story? Mine was quitting chewing tobacco about 10 years ago. I chewed Beechnut from HS till after 50. Kids and wifey were always on me to quit, but chewing was my thing, I loved it. Then one day I just up and quit, cold turkey, right out of the blue. I haven't had a chew in 10 plus years. But... I still have days I would crawl across broken glass for a chew. I dream about having a chew. Not too long ago I was cleaning out some old tool boxes looking for something and I came across an old pack of Beechnut, half full. I opened that up and stuck my whole face in it and took a long, deep breath; my God that smelled good. I seriously thought about putting some in my mouth, but didn't, after several moments though of considering it. I am determined not to backslide, but boy are there days...

 

[Doofy]

I started out with Redman and Beechnut in 1972. Graduated to Skoal with occasional Copenhagen in '73. I spit for the next 30 years and finally quit spitting when the price went up to $6 per can (to expensive to spit).
Up to 2 cans a week for the next 10 years and then I just quit. The Wife was switching from cigs to vaping and after a year of slowly decreasing her amount of nicotine...she finally quit for good.

I miss the chew every single day and still find myself reaching for a "Pinch". Been over 6 years since quitting. Maybe on my deathbed I will have a taste just to get me to the pearly gates.

 

[Bird]

From the time I was 10 until I was 14 years old, a friend and I rode the old dirt roads out of Healdton, OK, picked up pop bottles and at 2 cents each, could buy a pack of Bull Durham tobacco for 6 cents and try to learn to roll cigarettes on horseback like those movie cowboys. But my buddy, TJ, liked to get a plug of chewing tobacco that cost 11 cents. Now I figured if he was that extravagant, it must be good. So I finally bit off a piece once, promptly spit it out, thought I'd never get rid of that terrible taste, and I haven't tried any such tobacco since.

However, I did take up smoking a pipe when I was 18, changed to cigarettes when I was 24 and just quit cold turkey 13 years ago (7/11/2006). I never had any of the so called withdrawal symptoms I'd heard of, but for some time I'd catch myself reaching for my shirt pocket where the cigarettes used to be only to find nothing there.:laughing:

 

[bunyip]

never seen chewing tobacco or anyone use it but gave up cigarettes in 1990.

 

[turnkey4099]

I chain smoked 3-4 packs/day from 19 to about 70. I was on my monthly run to Fairchild wih a couple hundred bucks to estock (50 mile run). Got about 20 miles into it, decided I had a lot better use for that money elsewhere. Price had gone up to IIRC about $!!-12 carton. Did a U-turn in the middle of the highway, came home, smoked up what I had and quit cold turkey. Wasn't too bad. That was some 20 years ago and If I'm working hard and take a break my fingers still stray to the cig pocket.

 

[Thomas]

Mine was coffee of all it was nothing to drink 12+ cups a day easy none since 21/10/2010,I sure do get a strong strong urge most often.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Started smoking at age 15, quit at 20 while in the Army. Cigs were 19 cents a pack and well, "smoke if you got em", I was going through four packs a day. A bad cold had me gagging so I made up my mind to quit. I tapered down over a month's time to nothing. When I got the urge, I would stick a piece of gum in my mouth. That was 1970, it took many years for that impulse to go away.

I have had my share of alcohol as well but I do not imbibe anymore. I do let loose a barrage of cuss words on occasion and buy a lottery ticket now and then.

Had my share of coffee over the years especially when I was truck driving. I still drink two cups every morning. But last weeks study said it will not hurt you. Next week who knows?

 

[Bird]

Price had gone up to IIRC about $!!-12 carton.

I looked at my old records and found that the last time I bought cigarettes in 2006, it was $397.85 for 20 cartons from a New York Indian Reservation. We had bought that way for quite a few years, and no tax, but they had recently gone way up because the New York attorney general had sued saying the Indians had to pay the taxes. So the jump to $19.89 a carton had something to do with my decision to quit smoking.

 

[Doofy]

When the Wife quit, a carton was $75. A pack a day amounted to $225 a month. Imagine those poor suckers that smoke 3 or 4 packs a day! Addictions will not only kill you, they cost big bucks.

 

[Bird]

When the Wife quit, a carton was $75. A pack a day amounted to $225 a month. Imagine those poor suckers that smoke 3 or 4 packs a day! Addictions will not only kill you, they cost big bucks.

Yep, and since my wife smoked, too, it was getting both too expensive and too dirty a habit. The house and car stay much cleaner since we quit. My wife finally quit just about a year after I did. But when I quit, she quit smoking in the house and car, and a year later finally was able to quit completely.