Imaginary taste -

 

Even after six months quit, I still get a daily crave, usually when up late at night clicking around on the web. I just think, "it will pass soon".

It is like the crave hits and I think the smoking ritual in a good way. Like such comfort, taste, relief, joy, blah blah...

But then I think, those stupid things never tasted good when I DID smoke. Maybe ONE out of 20 was alright but the rest kind of gross.

One time when I was a kid i asked my dad why people smoked. He said, "For the flavor". I asked "what do they taste like?" He said, "Poop". Yeah I walked away kind of baffled. Decades later i am still like, "Smoke for the flavor, taste like poop, WTF?"

 

So my biggest thought when a crave hits is, "it will taste great!" But then i remember how gross it was before and wonder WHY this thought happens. OK it is like this - There are certain foods I hate hate. NEVER, even when really hungry, have i thought, "Ya know, this or that gross food might taste good".

 

Sometimes when I get lost in my thoughts about smoking, I DO imagine how good it would taste and feel but then out of nowhere in the same fantasy, the cigarette makes me choke. Like an erotic dream gone horribly wrong. Like a beautiful song playing and then the needle scratching across the album.

So the chart below, Does it hit reality? Especially "in my imagination" and "when i start to smoke again"?

 

30+ year quit -

Everyone is different but people wonder how quitting may help. My dad started smoking when he was 14. He quit when he was like 46. We went down for Sunday breakfast (oh it was awesome on Sunday Mornings! Eggs, sausage/bacon, toast, juice, milk, coffee...) But anyway one Sunday my dad is sitting there wheezing real hard. My mom is arguing with him that he needed to go to the doctor but he resisted. He could not even breathe but was trying to yell back. So mom calls the babysitter so my sister and I would not kill each other while she took him to the hospital.

We went to see him a couple days later and he was laid up in a hospital bed, complete with oxygen tubes in his nose. He had some kind of lung disease and the docs told him in so many words, "quit smoking or die".

He recently celebrated his 80th birthday. He has not had a cigarette since before he went to the hospital that Sunday morning. Before that he smoked two packs of Camel non-filter a day. Yeah, Camel non-filter. For anyone who does not know, that is about as lethal as it gets.

I truly hope for every quitter out there that my assumption is true. That assumption being - "if you quit while you are still ahead, you will be fine".

 

Taste chart -

 

 

 

 

I love your chart! And cheers to many more birthday celebrations with your dad!!!

Nice post. I still get craves even though there are people out there who say it isn't craves. To me it seems the same as a crave.

 

Nice story about your Dad. I have a sadder version. My Mum had a heart attack at 38. Quit smoking for one year then started again. She got sick shortly after this with a crippling disease and died of lung cancer. So yeah it does kill if we keep doing it but we can be healthy and have longevity if we quit.

 

Great message there and the chart is good.

Thanks for sharing Jetblack.....and I LOVE your chart! I've never seen it before. But it looks like a remarkably accurate representation to me.

I did not make that chart. Looks like something i would make but I cannot take credit for it.