USVI-On-Line

The responses to the VI smoking ban got me curious.

I'm surprised by how many people never smoked. As a former smoker, I guess I have kind of a skewed perspective. And going by the responses, there aren't many smokers here. This possibly is because non-smokers are pretty quick to announce that they don't smoke, while smokers may not be so eager to identify themselves.

I quit cuz I had a stroke. Good motivation! But I was on my way to quitting when I had it- onlyt @ 4 butts a day. I don't miss it except when I have a cocktail which I haven't had many of since the stroke anyway .

I don't think smoking should be banned outside. That's crazy.

I quit when they went up to $.75 a pack. That was just too expensive! Plus, I started being aware of how my clothes and hair smelled most of the time and I made myself sick.

I smoked off and on for 20 years, as did my husband. We both went for long stretches of not smoking (2-3 years at a time) and then would fall off the wagon when smoking "just on vacation" or "just went at the bar with friends"

Neither of us has smoked in nearly a year and hopefully we won't return. We both feel it was getting harder and harder to quit as we got older.

I need to check out that thread....

nyb

toes in the sand wrote:nyb

California Girl wrote:

toes in the sand wrote:nyb

NYB None of your business

oh. sorry. i didn't understand.

We had a large group of people on island a few weeks ago, some had shown up from a cruise and 6 of stayed in a villa on St John. While we had talked about this trip for a long time and most of us are smokers (with, sadly only a few who had never smoked). While in our planning stages we proposed a group stop smoking campaign when we returned. That way we would have a lot of support from the people we drank with and socialized with on a regular basis. Little did we know our last day on island was the same day the smoking ban went into effect! Timing is everything and 5 of us quit 6-7 hours ahead of time because of it! At any rate, I think we are all doing well, maybe a slip here or there (at least on my part). It's hard when you slip, but you just have to remind yourself that you have not smoked 19 cigarettes out of that pack today (even if you did have 1). We all hope it works and if not we'll try again until it does.

You GO Deb! Congratulations!

Congratulations, Deb. I'm happy for you. Quitting smoking has been one of the best things I've ever done for myself and for the people in my life.

It's a hard thing, with a huge payoff. Smoking bans do make it harder to continue to smoke, but don't necessarily make it any easier to quit. Studies do show that the more help we have in place for ourselves, the better chance we have. There are plenty of organized community and internet supports. Chantix or the nicotene replacement systems can be extremely helpful. Help is available.

Good going.

Lex wrote: Smoking bans do make it harder to continue to smoke, but don't necessarily make it any easier to quit.

Boy, you sure are correct about that! It's actually pretty hard to smoke, when you live somewhere with a smoking ban. And then feel like an alien if you do smoke! As though you had antennas on top of your head! Well, I'm not quitting because I've been shamed into it, I'm doing it for me. I think that is the only way it will work. You can't do it because someone else has told you to quit - just won't work. And I thank you for everyone for their support.

Hang in there Deb!

Mr. PA had very good success with Chantix but by week 9 he started to have all the wacky side effects summarized in the commercials but by that time, he felt comfortable quitting the meds.

Our family doctor thinks it is a wonder drug (assuming one can handle the side effects, should they occur) and he is not one to write Rxs. He said he has had many hardcore (like 4-pack a day truck drivers) quit using Chantix.

I had great success with the gum, the only problem being I replaced a smoking habit with a nicotine gum habit! I have since kicked the gum habit.