I thought i'ld already posted this but it seems to have "disappeared"...?
Right...! Here goes then... I'm posting this so that others who got it bad... Can see that it's never a lost cause...!
I'm sure you all know me by now then...??
This is a
heavily <cough!> cut down version btw!
At the age of 15 (1980) I found an unopened packet of 20 fags on my way to school... Sweet I thought, you know how it is at that age? Opened, smoked, rest is history!
By the age of 17 and leaving Sixth Form I was a light smoker of about 10 a day...
By the age of 19, and to being 22(ish) with money coming in, it kinda gradually rose to the 20/30 a day mark...
At 22 I started my current job (i'm 43 now), £90/week in 1987 was a lot of money!
At 23 I was promoted to Full LGV Driver (7 years earlier than most of my current colleagues!), an instant rise to £174.50/week basic. But because of the commitment shown to gain the promotion I was also working upto 20 hours a week overtime and regularly drawing in excess of £300/week... It's at this point that the drinking/smoking/spliffing gets out of hand!!
At 24 I started my D.J. life!
And by the age of 27 I was working the normal 39 hours a week, + upto 30 hours a week overtime and running a successful DJ business with 3 evening residencies a week and 3 professional bookings a week... The SMOKING and drinking is out of hand now, the spliffs given up though because of bad effects..
By the age of 29 I was doing 2 residencies and 5 professional bookings a week as well as the day job and extensive overtime... I was completely out of control and on top of the drinking was smoking a minimum of 60 a day.
At the age of 30 I had a complete mental and behavioural breakdown and went into complete meltdown, and just before being 31 my family and closest friends stepped in and forced me to take a harsh look at myself..
The D.J. stuff went, I was banned from drinking at home, and forced into starting save for the future..
By the age of 33 with few friends left but otherwise a sense of normallity returning, the drinking was going down, but the smoking was the same or worse and upto 70-80/day...
At the age of 34 after a long fight with my Doctor over the side effects of Zyban, said Doctor retired and the new Doctor immediately gave me Zyban, which worked and I actually gave up for 7 months... Yet for no good reason one Tuesday morning when I was having problems at work I found myself outside a newsagents shop and just walked in and bought 10 fags... Within 2 weeks I was back to where I left off..
At the age of 36 (October 2001) Niquitin CQ Lozenges were launched and I managed to get off the fags again... But these things are just nicotine in a different disguise and I got hooked on them... OK i'm not smoking cigs and ingesting TAR... Lesser of 2 evils...
Late 2003 (39), My Dear Dad's now very ill, terminal cancer, going back to meltdown and looking after Mum and keeping a 3 month hospital vigil on top of work... Back to the fags bigtime, 100/day now and the lozenges on top...
Upto June 2007... Still smoking 100/day and.. Getting through a full box of lozenges a day! - £220 a week!!!
Friday June 22nd 2007 - I found myself in a complete emotional mess at the rear of Piccadilly Station Manchester, having gone out in an emotional state, with no money, no fags and no lozenges... In a sheer state of panic I managed to get enough for a packet of patches from Boots on the Station... Applied the first patch there and then, got home and actually read the instructions...!!! And by Tuesday 26th June 2007 developed a backbone and gave up Cold Turkey.
So, Dear Friends... From Tuesday 26th June 2007 I have been
TOTALLY nicotine free. And to this day... It's now 16 months since I became totally nicotine free, I have not partaken of the weed or the lozenge since..!!
The moral of this story...?
Read MY STORY and just give up. It's a mind thing and it's not really that hard when you actually knuckle down to it because you have to!!
Well... That's what i've gone through to give up the weed... It's 16 months now, and I swear on the Memory of my Dad, and on the promise i've made to both my Mum and myself that i'll never smoke again.
It's working good for me...
Good luck and best wishes to everyone thinking of stopping smoking!
Regards to all... Dave - DMD.
Please don't forget to make a donation... However small! 
diskmandave -vs- nicotine **WON** 
