One of my biggest deterents in not smoking is the healh issues. I am 40 and have seen people I know diagnosed with different ailments/diseases regardless of age ad lifestyle.( Anything can happen - even to healthy balance people). But as we all know the likelihoods of smokers pickingup ailments/diseases increases exponentially - therefore (hate to state the obvious) as smokers we are at much greater risk of almost every sickness/disease/cancer out there. This brings us to the detering factor of all this - however, just knowing this is enough to stop a smoker. its just not powerful enough on its own at an arms length away. Sadly it affects up more if one of these ailments etc affects a direct loved one, but even them is not powerful enough to instigate change in us. ( I am sure there some exceptions to all I'm saying - i am not Oprah or Dr Phil.) How I have internalzied these issues for my self is whenever I am a hospital or docs office for any type of visit or check up, I visualize my self getting the worst possible diagnosis possible due to smoking. And I live with that for a while as I am in the offices waiting for them to come back in and do their thing. I picture days and days of these test and then ultimately be there for hours on end for chemo - I take it through to the point where I hear I dont have long to live to due to smoking- then i have to think through my the life of my wife and 2 kids under 3. That gets to me - that is a powerful series of thoughts that works on me. I know thatjust because I quit 2 months ago, doesnt mean this cant become a reality anyway - But I feel like it now wont - and if for whatever reason it did - i would be at peace with it because I had taken the necessary steps to rid myself of the killer. THink about living in hospitals doing colonoscopies, amd MRI's, scans and lung x-rays. stress test after stress test with cardiologist to repair heart. we all know the dozens of smoking induced diseases we can get - some of you may already have gone through some this. My reason for posting it in so much detail is I find it works when one really goes down a path of what-ifs. What Im saying this is my bigget deterrent for my familys sake. I also take it one step further. I imagine my funeral at the age of 41, hav

Thanks for the post! I know at least in my experience, that quitting has to be something that the person wants. I watched my grandmother go from having severe emphazema to dying from liver cancer. She smoked all her life. That did not make me quit. A friend of mine died of lung cancer and that still did not make we want to quit. I even went through a cancer scare myself, that still did not make me want to quit. I just got up one day, was tired of smelling like cigs, of it burning my throat and not being able to breath right that I finally decided to quit. So I think 50% of the quit is us wanting to do it. We all need to do what we need to do to keep our quit going. So whatever works, keep doing it. Karen [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 3/1/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 7 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 151 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $35 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 0 [B]Hrs:[/B] 19 [B]Mins:[/B] 16 [B]Seconds:[/B] 10

JQ - Thank you for writing this. Yes it is morbid, but it is also reality. [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/24/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 12 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 433 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $78 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 1 [B]Hrs:[/B] 1 [B]Mins:[/B] 0 [B]Seconds:[/B] 56

JQ, Thanks for posting what is working for you. Yes, we can all learn from one another and this may help someone to push themselves through the crave and move forward throughout their journey. Josie _____________________ The SSC Support Team.