Many years ago.....forty or more to be exact, smoking was considered tres chic, the "in" thing to do....the classy way to live and the best way to stay slim, beautiful and attractive. Smokers were considered to be happier, have more fun, be part of the crowd and one of the guys....or gals. Smokers were glamorous movie stars or politicians, our neighbors, our friends, our doctors and our relatives. Smoking graced the cover of maginzes, was on TV, was allowed just about everywhere we went and was part of everything we did. Then, in the early sixties, it was finally realized and made public that smoking was non of the above....smoking was deadly, smoking killed. Over the years we learned more and more about our deadly addiction....but we felt that we were not the people that they were talking about.....us get cancer?.....us get emphysema? heart attacks, circulatory problems, asthma?......still we kept smoking. Now some forty years later we are finally seeing the light....we are getting cancer, we are getting emphysema, we have lost relatives, we have lost friends and we are finally learning that smoking is indeed the deadly addiction they have been warning about. Now many of us at forty years plus are realizing the truth....we are living proof of what smoking can and does do to us. Some of us have been lucky.......some of us are suffering and still more of us do not know what the future holds.....but what we do know is that we are finally quitting.....finally saying enough is enough and wondering why in the world we did not have the guts or courage to quit and quit for good before.
Online support and the wonderful information provided here at Freedom has helped many of us 40 year plus quitters to finally see the light. Many of us, for the first time in our lives, can look in the mirror and smile at ourselves and think.....wow....I did it and am I sure proud!! For some of us it has been somewhat difficult....but many of us forty year plusers...have found the quitting has been the biggest relief of our lives. Quitting was lots easier than we expected. We found that not only do we breathe better, smell better, look better....but we walk taller, we smile more and we have learned that no matter how long we've smoked....we can still quit and that there is a wonderful life after quitting.
So this thead is for those of us at Freedom who have smoked for forty years or more. Please, all you wonderful quitters.....join me in adding your story to this thread so that we may show the younger quitters not only what it has done to us over the years....but how it is possible to regain our freedom from the deadliest of the addictions. And may it tell our younger quitters that we wish that we had had the courage at their age to do what they are doing now.....gaining their freedom so they don't have to worry when they become our age about what damage they have done to their bodies.
Linda.......After smoking for 41 years...I have been smokefree for one year, two weekS,
five dayS, 10 hourS, 1 minute and 16 secondS. 7708 cigaretteS not smoked, saving $1,156.25. Life saved....3weeks, 5 days, and 18 hours.
