"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:t5hCf.735401$_o.263844@attbi_s71...
I'm gonna hang my hat on the "no longer a smoker" peg...just give me
more amunition to keep being an ex smoker!

One of the bullets they gave us at the last stop-smoking clinic I
attended (that's the one that worked, by the way) was this. Collect a
bunch of buts from an ashtray. Get a Mason jar about half full. Then fill
it halfway with water, so they're all good & soggy and put the lid on.
Anytime you want a cig, open the lid and take a whif.

Smoking is the damndest addiction. I haven't had a cigarette since New
Year's Day 1986. Not even one. I was smoking 2.5 packs of Marlboro
Menthols per day then, and just quit, cold turkey, after watching my
father-in-law waste away to 85 pounds before dying of lung cancer.

I despise smoking, and am appalled to say that most smokers are slobs. No
one does more damage to our property, I can't stand what smokers do to our
hotel, and I can't stand the way I stink when I get home from a bar full
of smokers.

Yet -- despite all that -- sometimes I REALLY want a smoke. Still.

Good job quitting, Jay, you'll never regret it, but remember -- as with
any true addiction, you never really get over it, mentally. Stay on
guard, and don't ever, EVER even have one again.
--
Jay Honeck

I have a very close friend who is a 12-stepper and recovering addict (C/S
for almost 12 years now...God bless him...) who was very involved with a
halfway house for those in similar situations and told me that they had
success getting people off booze, off pills, off coke, off heroin, off just
about anything to which you can become addicted ... except cigarettes. The
only way off nicotine is to just want off.

Thank you for the encouragement.

Jay B