For over 30 tears I smoked 30-60 cigarettes a day, and about 6 years ago I switched to hand rolling tobacco and made my own in what was really a feeble attempt to quit.

I reasoned at the time, that with all those horrible chemicals that they put it ordinary cigarettes, by making my own with no additives in them I would be ok health wise, and I would save quite a bit of money.

The thing that had escaped me, was that I was still shoving a pile of smoke down into my lungs with every puff, but then I thought if I increase my physical activities I will be fitter, so that's what I did and played racquetball twice a week.

What an idiot.

Over the years I had a go with the nicotine patches and the foul tasting chewing gum, but ended up one day wearing a high strength patch, chewing the gum, and having a cigarette at the same time, thereby concluding that these things do not work, for many they do but not me.

All the help lines and advice centers said that willpower was required, to be honest the thought of failing, was worse in my mind than actually smoking, so I tried again and failed miserably as was expected.

I suppose if you TRY to do something, you never will, you have to "DO" to do anything successfully, so my feeble attempts to TRY and Stop Smoking met with the usual subsequent failure fairly quickly, so I rationalized and stopped trying, and carried on puffing away like a chimney.

They say that things happen for a reason, and I ended up in hospital in March 08 coughing up blood, which frightened the life out of me, but thank goodness the x-ray proved completely clear, and incredibly so were my lungs.

The doctor said I was not coughing blood; it was probably due down to my gums bleeding, which was later verified by my dental hygienists, who said I had gum disease from smoking (Great).

This whole situation had really really scared me, and I knew then it was the wake up call I needed, so I decided to DO this time and not just try. I had purchased some cds about Self Hypnosis and one set were about how to Stop Smoking, so right there and then that night (31-3-08), I put on my headphones and listened to them, went to bed, and have not smoked since, and that was over six months ago.

Why did I carry on smoking for so long?,almost 40 years, when the process of giving up was so painless in the end, and on the one occasion when I thought I would like to have a cigarette, a little voice inside said, "You do not smoke why would you want to do that", and the thought went away almost instantly.

All those benefits you read about when you pack up smoking are now being enjoyed by me, when I did not really understand them before, like;

• I do not stink of stale smoke anymore, and neither does my home or car.
• Friends have said that giving up smoking has taken ten years of my looks.
• My skin colour and general tone through out is what it should be.
• Wheezing and that smokers cough are a thing of the past.
• The chances of me getting a heart attack have dropped dramatically.
• I have actually got more money in my pocket all the time now.
• All of the obvious health benefits of not smoking are gradually being restored in my body.
• The respect level from my family and friends has gone through the roof which is kind of cool in itself. I DID it and succeeded.

Going back six years or so, I was smoking two or more packets of cigarettes a day, and on stress ...   more »