McCall St. Brewer
Well-Known Member
SWMBO was a 2 pack a day smoker for over 20 years until she quit a little over 6 months ago.
The thing is, though, that the last 6 months have been hell for both of us. I am almost to the point where I want to tell her to just go back to smoking.
The problem is that she doesn't see any advantages to having quit. In fact, every day she complains and tells me that she will hate me for the rest of her life for encouraging her to stay quit. Unfortunately, I think she may have quit for the wrong reasons (the main one being that her 13 year old son had started to smoke. When she would tell him not to, he would throw it up in her face that she was a smoker. Now that she has stopped he has only smoked a few times that we know of). I don't think she really stopped for herself.
She glosses over the fact that until she quit she was plagued by frequent severe and sometimes even migraine headaches that would last for days and would not respond to anything other than injections of expensive prescription medication. Now those headaches are virtually gone. Our house smells much better, but she doesn't appreciate that.
She gained about 10 lbs. and complains about that every day. She claims she cannot breathe any better and that she hasn't noticed any improvement in the taste of her food or her sense of smell. Her gums have started bleeding when she brushes her teeth. (My dental hygenist sister-in-law says this is fairly common after quitting).
I noticed almost immediately after she stopped that my sense of smell improved dramatically. I can breathe better and can sleep more soundly now.
Anyone have any advice for her on how to stay quit? It seems as though there is lots of stuff out there on preparing to quit, but not enough on how to stick with it. I thought that by now it should have been getting easier, but she says it is still almost as hard as it was in the beginning.
The thing is, though, that the last 6 months have been hell for both of us. I am almost to the point where I want to tell her to just go back to smoking.
The problem is that she doesn't see any advantages to having quit. In fact, every day she complains and tells me that she will hate me for the rest of her life for encouraging her to stay quit. Unfortunately, I think she may have quit for the wrong reasons (the main one being that her 13 year old son had started to smoke. When she would tell him not to, he would throw it up in her face that she was a smoker. Now that she has stopped he has only smoked a few times that we know of). I don't think she really stopped for herself.
She glosses over the fact that until she quit she was plagued by frequent severe and sometimes even migraine headaches that would last for days and would not respond to anything other than injections of expensive prescription medication. Now those headaches are virtually gone. Our house smells much better, but she doesn't appreciate that.
She gained about 10 lbs. and complains about that every day. She claims she cannot breathe any better and that she hasn't noticed any improvement in the taste of her food or her sense of smell. Her gums have started bleeding when she brushes her teeth. (My dental hygenist sister-in-law says this is fairly common after quitting).
I noticed almost immediately after she stopped that my sense of smell improved dramatically. I can breathe better and can sleep more soundly now.
Anyone have any advice for her on how to stay quit? It seems as though there is lots of stuff out there on preparing to quit, but not enough on how to stick with it. I thought that by now it should have been getting easier, but she says it is still almost as hard as it was in the beginning.
