Election-Free Zone: Rusty’s battle to quit the cigs

Haylee says:

01:43pm | 28/07/10

Quitting smoking is not easy, but it is totally do-able…...The trick is to stop making excuses and just do it.
No amount of “Ooooooh my kid saw” or “its harder than herion to stop” or “My mum and Dad doesnt know” will make you stop. Getting off your butt (pardon the pun) and making it so is the only way…..a smoker
(now an ex smoker) for 16 years.

Steve says:

02:43pm | 28/07/10

Have had a number of friends stop smoking and also myself. There have been many and varied actions they have taken to stop some were hypnotized some went for walks some had special diets me I took some pills from my doctor called champax or something like that…. But the secret ingredient that they all had was they wanted too stop smoking…. not for the country not for there mum nor there kid just for themselves they wanted to stop… so when you want to stop ... you will… took me ages and ages every story you can think of I used it…. but then I wanted to stop and did .... so-far!! lol

S.L says:

03:46pm | 28/07/10

The only way to go is cold turkey. All the patches, gums and hypnosis is rubbish full stop! If you want to quit you will. I gave up for 6 years then met a lady who was a smoker. Before you know it I was back on the gaspos. She lasted 6 months. My renewed habit….17years. I’ve been off them again for 5 years now and I think “that’s it, I’m over it!” If Rusty isn’t serious he’ll find every excuse in the book to start up again.

Peter says:

03:57pm | 28/07/10

Ok, if you want to stop smoking, go and read an Alan Carr book or go to one of his seminars… Avoid the con job that is Quit.. I work in a building that houses Dept of Vet affairs people. They did a 7 week Quit course through work and they are all still smoking. Go to an Alan Carr seminars or read his book and you’ll stop smoking overnight. No patches, no products from pharmaceuticals, just a natural enjoyable way to stop..

If my info is correct, the NHS in England is looking at the Alan Carr method, the man (now passed) was a genius…

Zeta says:

04:07pm | 28/07/10

I’ve quit smoking 12 times today since 5:00am. Between 9:00am and 11:00am I quit for a good two hours. I think the longest I ever quit for was between Sydney and Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong to London. I don’t count Sydney to LA because I used an inhaler and patches. It only really counts if you go cold turkey.

I feel for Crowe, because I know that when I have a kid, I’ll quit. I’ll light up in the middle of a pub after enough drinks and wait for someone to kick me out. There’s no where and no one that will make me think twice about having a cigarette. It’s my own personal f*** you to the universe.

But I won’t smoke in front of children. I talk a tough game about how smoking is your personal right, how it’s the giant health care industrial charity complex that wants you to stop to line their own pockets - but in all honesty, I smoke because my old man smoked. He wasn’t around much, but when he was, the thing I remember most about him was that he always smelled like cigarettes. And I freaking loved that smell because it meant Dad was home. And as I got older, if I wanted to hang out with Dad the best place to do it was while he smoked. And when I was old enough, I’d smoke too, we’d go through a pack of cigarettes together while Mum was working night shifts and he’d teach me the ways of the world.

A lot of the time I go and have a cigarette out of habit. But under stress, I have a cigarette and think about what the old man would do in my situation. And smoking takes me right back to those important life lessons. Always shine your shoes before a funeral. Never trust a man who doesn’t know how to button his suit. Timing is everything. And never make a deal with a Gypsy, or a South Australian.

My Dad gave up the habit during a mid life crisis and bought a boat. I always felt it was a kind of betrayal, like he got me hooked and now he doesn’t have the balls to follow through with it, to go down with the smoking ship at my side. Thing is though, his greatest shame was never telling me I shouldn’t.

Most important lesson my Dad ever taught me was to be your own man, and to tell the world to f*** off if they don’t like it. I’d like to give my kids the chance to make up their own minds about smoking, without me prejudicing them. I reckon that’s probably what Crowe’s thinking.