So proud of my OH!

My OH has been a smoker for some fifteen years. He decided and planned that he would give up for his thirtieth birthday but was unsuccessful.
I smoked for a time at college, and started again for a while at the beginning of my divorce. I am one of those lucky people who can take it or leave it - I have never suffered withdrawl or any desire to smoke after I have decided to stop. If my OH had moved in and been a non-smoker, I would have just stopped again but I continued smoking the odd one at home when my OH did, but only felt an actual desire to smoke when very stressed or upset.

As some of you are aware, my OH agreed to quit smoking to help us afford to have a puppy. My parrot is leaving soon (going to live with my ex, as agreed as part of our divorce ), so the money we would otherwise spend on her and on my OH's habit more than cover Amber's expenses and allow us to put some money aside for emergencies. He had his last cigarette on the 1st of November.

My OH and I love to debate with each other, and last night started off in a conversation about the problems I am having with the girl who part-loans my horse, and some four hours later, we had gotten onto the topic of my disability.
I became very emotional and distressed, and he went out and bought me a pack of cigarettes. It turned out he had an ulterior motive - he wanted to "test" himself, as to whether it was "addiction" that made him want to smoke or purely that he had smoked out of boredom which had become an associated behaviour (I compared it to toilet training dogs ). Now that he no longer has any nicotine in his body and his withdrawl is over and he is essentially an ex-smoker, he wanted to find out if he could have a single cigarette and still not be bothered by not smoking, or if that one cigarette would set off all those withdrawl symptoms again. I also think part of it was that he didn't quit because he wanted to quit and felt ready to quit, but because of the financial need - if he kept smoking, we couldn't have a puppy.

He sat for a good thirty minutes with this cigarette in his hand, and we debated the matter. I told him that as far as I was concerned, he had quit and gone three weeks cold turkey, no patches, gum or help, other than the support I offered. He had proved to me that he COULD and I was proud of him. Regardless of his choice, as it was HIS choice and his body, I would still be proud of him that he did what he said he would do and he had quit.

After a full thirty minutes of contemplation, he gave the cigarette back to me to return to the pack. I have put the pack away, and I think we can say that my OH is now successfully a non-smoker. I don't know if he will one day take up the habit again, but for now he has conquered his demon and won.

OOooohhhh - very risky - not something I would even contemplate after almost three years of non-smoking.
I sometimes give a lift to a work colleague who smokes. He always discards the cig before getting into the car, but the stench on his clothes is vile..... it's enough to keep me away from the evil things

Congratulations! He should be very proud of himself!
Becky

Congratulations, well done, he should be an inspiration to others