I fucking quit...

[Angrboda]

Nine years, two months, and 14 days ago.

I'm curious if you're willing to tell the story.  How early did you start, how heavy a smoker were you, how long did you keep it up and what led you to give it up?  Sorry if I missed it.

I think I started when I was twelve. I didn't become a regular smoker until high school. Over the years I smoked roughly a pack a day for 30 years or so. During that time, I quit a number of times, sometimes for up to a year. The last decade or so of smoking I wanted to quit, but was just never successful in completely leaving it behind. So it wasn't any one thing that led to my quitting, though the health risks were probably the most important reason. Ultimately, it just took multiple times, learning new things about myself and how to stay quit that eventually bore fruit. I'm sure both my age and my prior experience played a part as the last times I quit and relapsed, I didn't have a lot of problems with cravings, my relapses were more due to stupidity than inability to remain quit. If I could smoke for free without any cost to my health, I'd probably be right back there today. I still love cigarettes and smoking, and enjoy the smell when I'm lucky enough to experience it second hand. It's just not worth it, overall. Lately I've been amazed at the number of people I see smoking. There was a strong anti-smoking sentiment for a number of years there, but that seems to have waned. I wonder if things are getting better or worse on that front.