Among Friends

[ollie5]

If you were ever a smoker, what age did you quit?

[Terrywu]

I started late, 21 and quit the year I turned 50.  Had bad bronchitis and stopped cold turkey and promptly gained 10 pounds that I still carry today.  Just turned 81 UGH,!

[StylishLady]

I quit in 1991 at age 57, a year after DH quit. I was a smoker who lit one up when I got up and was putting one out when  I went to bed. I was getting a job after finishing college with a BS in Accounting and could not see me having to go outside at work to smoke. DH figured I was going through about $20 a week in cigarettes. He opened a special bank account for me and put $20 each week I had quit. At the end of one year I could use the money to buy some clothes. When the year ended and I had $1040 in the bank and it happened to be the same time when our older daughter was getting married. I spent it on her wedding. I never smoked again and neither did DH after he had quit after a bad bout of asthmatic bronchitis. I'm sure we both owe a lot of our longevity to the fact we stopped when we did. I'm going on 86 and he is 81. 

[Kachina624]

I was in my mid-forties when I quit cold turkey on a whim.  I'm so glad I did because every one of my friends who continued to smoke is now dead of a smoking-related illness.

[KarenQVC]

I smoked during college, from age 18-22.  After that my dad yanked my meal ticket and I was too poor to smoke.  Just as well.

[chickenbutt]

I can't even remember.  I know it was somewhere near 30 years ago.  Like others here, I just stopped cold turkey.  Doc said I was on my way to emphysema, so it was as good a time as any.

When people ask how did/do you quit?  Uh, just stop doing it!  That's how you quit.

[NickNack]

I smoked a pack a day and quit when I was 30 years old on New Year's Day.  It wasn't a New Year's Resolution though.  I just woke up hung over and feeling bad.  I don't drink a lot but drank enough that New Year's Eve to feel bad the next day.  I didn't tell anyone in my family for a few days.

When I told my parents they were so happy.  My father said that he would buy me a Rolex watch in a year if I didn't start smoking again.  I never smoked another cigarette and got my watch.  I'm 63 years old and still have it.

[ollie5]

I give you ladies a lot of credit! I m 63 and still smoking, I know I need to quit but just can t find it in me!

You lovely ladies give me some incentive! Let a hope!

[conlt]

I started at age 14 and quit at age 38. I hate that I started to smoke but in those days it was what teenagers did. In September it will be 24 years since I quit. So half and half, I smoked for 24 and quit for 24. 

[spiderw]

Sadly when my father died at the age of 51 in 1965 from lung cancer directly related to smoking, I still kept up the habit.  I finally went cold turkey in the early eighties.  

I had a hyper thyroid issue which I was unaware of and one day caused a physical problem.  I blamed it on the cigarettes and out of fear quit then and there.   I don't miss it one iota and  wish I had done it sooner..