High pfts, symptoms

"What's the use?"  The use is that your lungs will deteriorate faster and your life will become increasingly restricted and you will die sooner.

So you're different to all the millions of people who've successfully quit?  I don't think so, that's the addiction talking.    E smokes do help some people, but personally I think they maintain the smoking habit and make it more likely people will go back to cigarettes.

Try hypnotherapy;  try Allan Carr's books;  try meditation;  try patches;  try gum ... try anything unless you want end stage COPD to get you much quicker than it needs to.   You do realise that at the end of COPD you won't have enough breath to eat, drink, move or speak?  Why bring that closer?

Hi EMT - to smoke or not to smoke is a decision we each make, it is our decision.  To decide not to smoke or keep smoking.

I was 52 when diagnosed, smoke from age 15, decided to stop smoking as soon as I was told 'for every cigarette I continue to smoke, it would cause me further lung damage'.  That did it for me, could hard breathe at the time, no puff for walking and no energy for exertion, slept most of time.  And after sitting in the cardiac wait room next to a COPD patient who could hard breathe to talk, also waiting for the routine cardiac check, it just sort of hits you in the face, do you value your life enough to do all you can to avoid death by fags.

The other thing I will tell you both positive and very scary. I regained lung function over the years from stopping smoking and keeping up the exercise after PR.  In my 10+ years I have known a few people with COPD pass from this world, they have all been those who continued to smoke after diagnosis.  One person diagnosed later than myself, but younger than my years, same lung functioning and lung condition, continued to smoke, he died 2 years ago.

Seriously if you want to improve your chances of better health, improved activity and a longer life, one of the very best things you can do to help yourself achieve these things is choosing not to smoke.;  I hope you will care for yourself and your life more than the smokes.

Whatever choices you make, I hope that things will be easier for you in the days, months and years to come.

There's lots of help out there for any one who asks, we just have to choose it.

My advice would be don't give up on stopping smoking.

Best wishes V

Very well said, Vee2!

Ok. I'll try again and again some more. Idk y quitting hasn't ever worked for me. I just thought, ' hey, it's not been a great journey and I wished and even prayed for death since I was a kid. NOW that I'm remarried and happy for once, NOW, it works! But I'd wished for it long and hard enough and I DID bring this upon myself, what's it all matter now. '

Having read ur msg, tho, I think I'll try again. They DO make the e-cigarettes now. I don't really like them at all. But, maybe I'll try a different brand. It's not quitting smoking, but at least I'll be smoking without the added chemicals there are in cigarettes. Ok. I'll do that. Now, to set the date. Thank you for letting me know there's hope.

I don't know anything about E fags so can't comment, but I hope it works for you.    You can change your thinking you know: have a contradicting statement ready, written down if necessary and when the addiction takes over your brain with that sort of nonsense, block it out with your chosen replacement.    

I did this for a while to the extent that I'd put my fingers in my years and go "Bla bla bla I can't hear you" whenever the addiction told me that just one drag or just one fag wouldn't matter  ... they do!    Maybe that voice comes from whatever  happened to make you not want to live - ie smoke long enough and you'll die sooner?   Just a thought ....

Good luck - sounds as if you have good reasons now to want to stay healthy as long as possible

Yeah, actually, the thought was "since I couldn't get it right early on, and I was too much of a coward to grab a knife n cut myself, the more I smoke, the quicker I'll die. Finally, to be off this planet, asleep in death, no more pain of any sort. What a beautiful concept. Then, I met George. We were married almost 4 years ago and, for the most part, I'm happy. Happy? Wow! I didn't think that was even slightly possible, but here I am. Now that I've been smoking about one n a half packs a day for so many years, it's such a habit. It's really addictive. Ridiculous. At least there's SOMETHING now that can help. And even tho I'll still be smoking something, it won't have all the other garbage in it. And, the plan is to get off of that as well. It's gonna take time, but I'd really, really, REALLY like to HAVE that time... And then some. Thank you for your kind words of advice. I'll certainly keep them in mind and put ur advice to work.

As for Chantix-no. I did try it and it made me feel like I wanted to kill someone. (Or maybe that was the nicotine monster in my head.) I'll be back. I think I'll start a new thread having to do with ppl with COPD who were able to give up cigarettes and those who are currently trying.

Good on you EMT - hang in there, I promise it is worth it!

That's an excellent idea for the new thread - go for it - it could make all the difference for you and for others.  Glad you stopped the Chentix, certainly doesn't sound like a drug you should go anywhere near!

This is a little tip I found helpful :  each time that craving for a smoke hits you, on average it will only last for around 30 seconds.  It's not like other addiction withdawals where the craving never stops and goes and on, escalating as it does so:   if you can have some activity or pattern of thought ready, even just counting, for that thirty seconds, with practice it will become automatic and much stronger than the craving.

Bee, thank you for your reply. Since this post my fev1 is 86 with a bronchodilator and I have another portable spirometry soon, hope it does not go down. My oxygen goes from 94-98. I do have the disease, unfortunately. Your thoughts very helpful.

It is possible to still have normal oxygen levels with COPD:   my spirometry results haven't deteriorated since diagnosis 3 years ago and my oxygen levels have remained at around 90%.    It seems that although my breathing is sometimes difficult I'm still getting enough oxygen from it.    

The more posts I read on this forum the more I realise how variable and sometimes paradoxical a condition COPD is.