So am I, every evening right now. With my new present I should be good for at least three months. That's pretty rad.
Congrats cutting all the way down to an e-cigarette. It is not easy for former addicts to remove all their vices, and it is certainly not easy for someone to smoke 3 packs a day and replace with an e-cigarette. Eventually you may not even need the e-cigarette, but regardless you should be proud of the self discipline to get as far as you have.
Thanks for the rep and the reply. I think someone already answered re: the e-cig -- it's just the nicotine which isn't much worse for you than caffeine. It's the other junk that gives you cancer or emphysema which, x-ray or not, could still develop in me. My grandfather quit smoking when he was 30 and developed emphysema around 60. As for the wasted years, I mean I wasn't really present; I wasn't really there. I was a very high-functioning alcoholic/drug abuser but I still made a lot of art, I had a lot of fun, I dated a lot of incredible women, I made a lot of lifelong friends, and I created a system by which I could live comfortably, as my own boss, doing what I like to do, which is making theatre. But I have only the vaguest memory of any of it. And I lost a lot of friends during that period, kids in their 20s or 30s themselves dying from accidents or overdoses or suicides or whatever. My 20s and 30s are a fog to me. If I wasn't drunk or high I was hungover. For about 20 years, every day but maybe 10. Maybe 10 days over the course of 20 years, I had a clear head? Maybe 0 days. I can't remember. When people talk of "lost years," this is sometimes what they mean. It is what I meant. I won't lie though. I had a ****load of fun. And I have a ****load of hilarious stories that I wouldn't trade for anything and I had a ****load of incredible experiences. In some ways I was totally dead inside then; in some ways I was never more alive. These days I love other things: my woman, my dog, my cats, my work. A great book, great music, laughing at a great comic or with a great friend. And I outpaced all predictions (especially my own predictions) regarding my life-expectancy by miles so these are all just bonus years the way I see it.
I quit drinking and drugs for two years then backslid some this summer. I'm back on the wagon. It would be a better thing for me to start smoking again than to start drinking again. Alcohol is very dangerous for a person like me. I quit smoking because it was the next thing to quit. And because I felt like I was breathing in poison and then breathing poison out into the world. And because I knew that I smelled bad all the time. And, most of all, because my girlfriend had quit and I knew I couldn't go outside all the time to smoke (I was a major indoor smoker) and that wasn't a cool thing to do to her, so I quit. I've tried quitting a lot of times before and it was always a horrible nightmare of a withdrawal followed by a relapse. I can't quit the nicotine but now that these e-cigs are around I was able to quit cigarettes and I didn't miss them at all. I'm just addicted to the drug.
Don't agree with you on a lot of stuff here on this BBS, BUT, mad credits for your determination to quit cigarettes! I have the utmost respect for people who make the effort for life changes. As a 30+ year smoker that had quit last Christmas via the E-cig, I salute you, Batman Jones.
I smoked Camel Wides and Camel Lights after I was done lifting a pack per week from my Dad's Marlboro Lights carton. this was in middle school and high school, when I used to brag about all the high grade mar1juana that I smoked.
Holy ish, did I do the math right...3 packs a day for 27 years is 29,565 packs What does a pack cost, 4 dollars? $118,260 That right there is enough to stop me from smoking... My uncle smoked like 7 packs a day at one point, and he started smoking when he was 9, I think. That's pretty amazing that you don't have any lung issues. Do you run out of breath quickly? Crazy how some people get lung cancer and never smoke, then others smoke multiple packs a day for many many years and are perfectly fine. You've got some good genes, keep reproducin!
