Have any US members of Funtrivia come across Yefim Shubentsov? When I lived in Boston for three months in 1997 I heard about this famous "Russian human energy consultant"(!) who ran clinics in Brookline Massachusetts to help people with addictions. It only cost $40 and I was spending a LOT more than that on cigarettes every week, so I thought why not ...

There were about 25 of us in the 90-minute clinic, he barely spoke about cigarettes at all, in fact with his heavy Russian accent I struggled to hear what he was saying a lot of the time ... yet I threw my packet of cigarettes into a bin before I left his office.

Now okay, on that occasion I only stopped smoking for two weeks (it was another 4 years before I finally cracked it) but it was a fortnight with no cravings and no temptation. Pretty amazing for someone on 50 a day.

(After a fortnight my then wife flew in from Belfast for the weekend, she was still smoking, and one thing led to another ... ah well! )

He seemed pretty well known across the States. I wonder if he's still running his clinics, and if anyone else has been to them?

Mr. Shubentsov is still at it in Brookline, with seemingly mixed results.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yefim-shubentsov-brookline

My iron willpower runs in the family. My mother was almost 45 when she had me and there had been some concern that the baby (or babies, there were supposed to be twins) might not live. So while my father paced downstairs boiling water I was delivered upstairs and my brother told Dad that I looked healthy enough. My father knew that they couldn't afford for him to smoke when there was a baby to feed so he threw his last packet into the fire and never smoked again.

My brother gave up cold turkey too - we all worked on the principle that we were addicts who should never smoke again but frankly as soon as I realised what I must have smelled like I didn't want to. Seriously, I walked round stinking the place up all those years and no one said anything? Well, not any more - I don't go near smoky places now if I can avoid it and other people's hair, clothes, breath... all make me recoil. Yuck!

Giving up smoking was easy compared with chocolate. Or cake. And biscuits. After my recent heart scare I discovered that I was also borderline diabetic so I'm trying to manage that by controlling my sugar intake and losing weight at the same time. Now that's hard.

Thanks to my older brother, I am not and never have been a smoker. He introduced me to cigarettes with a forbidden packet in the lane behind my grandmother's house when I would have been about 9 or 10. It was so disgusting that I never felt the need to prove my 'grown up-ness' amongst my peers in that manner.

My brother turned into a heavy smoker, and still smokes now.

My father smoked a pipe throughout my childhood, and cigars on special occasions. I still love the smell of cigar smoke, but hate all other smoke odours. He gave up smoking for over ten years, but always claimed that even when the need for a nicotine fix had dissipated and eventually disappeared altogether, the desire to smoke was as strong as ever. I therefore salute any ex-smoker who manages to keep that desire at bay and remain a non-smoker.

Dad gave up smoking firstly indoors and around my daughter (his first grandchild) as she was very poorly as a newborn, in particular she had a serious issue with her lungs. He then went on to give up smoking altogether a couple of years ago and his motivation once again was my daughter. She always hated seeing her grandfather smoking and was afraid it would badly affect his health, which was one massive motivation for a doting grandfather, and secondly he hoped to encourage her to quit biting her nails. The first was a raging success, the second hasn't worked yet

I smoked the odd cigarette in high school - giving to peer pressure and all that - but smoking disgusts me, and I don't understand how people willingly get into the awful habit.

I started smoking at an early age and in 2000 I started using the "patch" to quit smoking and I successfully did. I told myself that I wouldn't become one of those "nasty ex-smokers" that complained about smoke, but I did anyway. The smell of a cigarette made me gag as did the smell on clothing. Then one horrible night on the town with girlfriends drinking, dancing and partying, I said to a friend who smoked "here, let me try that cigarette". I can't believe I took a drag, gagged, then took another. Pretty soon I was smoking that cigarette and nine years just fell away like it was just days. So here I am, three years later, and I've become a closet smoker. I don't smoke around anyone, so therefore no one knows that I smoke. I carry hand-wipes, perfume, and gum. I've tried to quit again with the help of the patch but it seems to be harder this time around to totally let go. Even hubby doesn't know I smoke. I am very careful to never smoke around him or anytime that we're going to be together. I don't know why I smoke, I don't ever even finish a whole cigarette, just a puff or two and I'm good. Makes me sick.

Sue, I still remember some of the hallucinations I had. They were all freaky enough to make Ingmar Bergman blanch.


Alexx, you are not alone.

You'd put money on that, would you?

My husband's friend's wife was always very good about walking the dog, even when she had next to no energy, but she had an incentive. She told us her husband had no idea that she smokes.

Meanwhile, her husband is telling us, she thinks I don't know - but I do wish she wouldn't smoke in the car.

Just a thought.

I guess I neglected to add that during the first year of smoking again, I told hubby that I started up. He complained, so after awhile I told him I quit again. Yeah, I'd pretty much bet on it that he doesn't know. If he did, he's not afraid of voicing his opinion on it.

The fact that they thought you were twins explains a lot flopsy!

Yep, two of me would scare anyone's cigarettes into the fire, lol. That idea was the result of an x-ray of course - I'm always amazed that my generation doesn't glow in the dark.

I'm smokin'... oh, you mean cigarettes? Quit those over five years ago when I just decided that it wasn't right for me to be damaging my lungs which I need to ride my bike a few miles a day. Upon making the decision and immediately ceasing the habit, I experienced no withdrawal symptoms, making me question if my addiction was physical and not just psychological. I find myself sitting on a humidor with a hundred cigars in it. They improve with age, don't they?

Pleased to say I've never smoked One reason is because of a small hole in my palate (from several botched cleft palate operations) - I'd probably not be even able to puff a cigarette even if I wanted to Another reason is the smell. I used to go out to a local club with both parents and friends, when smoking wasn't so "anti". There was nothing worse than coming home with your clothes stinking of smoke.
Both Mum and Dad smoked, but they both gave up for health reasons and for the expense.
So a very proud non-smoker here

I think that I need to speak up a bit here. I was born in 1940. At that time there was a war on and things were difficult. Many people smoked. There was no one saying it was not a good thing to do. As I grew up you could smoke in restaurants and pubs, shops, hospitals, taxis, cars, cinemas, theatres, buses, trains, parks, swimming pools, sports venues,school staff rooms (even classrooms so long as children were not going to be in there for half an hour.) You could smoke in most places, it was the norm. Soldiers were given cigarettes, accident victims and even in 1962 when my daughter was born, smokers were asked to use the balcony, not the wards. I smoked from 14. I could buy them in shops and pubs, I just had to say they were for my mum and no one checked. We smoked at school, under the stage , and when found out we were told off for missing lessons, not for smoking. I didn't smoke to try to be grown up, it was usual, that's what we did.We had no ads saying don't, we had no reasons given us not to start.I do remember someone saying you could start smoking when you could earn money to buy them yourself.That was all.
So before you say
" Yuk, I don't know how people can even start to smoke,"
think again. Rant over.

Ren, I don't think anyone is speaking about those who began smoking long before the public had any inkling it was harmful. I think what is puzzling to most non-smokers is why anyone would begin smoking now. The dangers of both smoking and second -hand smoke are so well documented that it's mystifying why anyone would want to begin a habit that is so difficult to stop.

Point taken.I hope you are right.

I remember "no smoking" notices springing up everywhere. You could no longer breeze through shops with your ciggie alight, and pictures of crossed-out cigarettes started appearing inside taxis and even some private cars.

In 1961/2 I had a geography teacher who started every lesson by hopping onto a desk facing the class, sitting cross-legged, and lighting up. He would then puff and drone till we all fell asleep or the bell went. Wonder if that was against the rules. Of course he couldn't do that now - he'd be strung up for even trying!

Just yesterday the government put through a bill that puts all cigarettes will be sold in "plain packaging" from December. The packets will be mostly grey, with a large picture of something gross and just the brand on the bottom .. all brands will have the same font etc.

When I first went overseas in the 80s you could still smoke on planes and cinemas and lots more places. I can never remember teachers smoking in classrooms but there was a cloud when you went in the teacher's lounge

I am so much older than you Jill, I can remember teachers smoking, an ashtray on the desk.

As for smoking on planes, you used to be able to smoke anywhere on the plane, then they introduced smoking and non-smoking areas although for the life of me I don't see that the people in the first couple of rows of non-smoking were much better off other than not sitting next to a smoker.

When I was working in an office it was normal for there to be a great pall of smoke in the rooms, the same in pubs, smoking was the norm, non-smokers tended to be the minority.

I remember an office job I had in the early '80s - so, fairly recently all things told - where I was told I had to start smoking tailor made cigarettes. My hand rolled ones made big ashes that smeared all over the paperwork. They transferred me to the RJR MacDonald account (this was an ad agency) so that I could get a free carton of their tailormades every month - Export A if I remember correctly.

For me personally, it wasn't anything to do with being grown up or looking cool (most of my friends disapproved, in fact), it was just something to try. See for myself what it was like. I've tried lots of things out of pure personal curiousity. Smoking was one of them. I never thought, "I'm going to take up smoking as a full time habit", and luckily it never became one (I was smoking like a pack every two weeks, at the very most), but I'm sure for some people it easily becomes one.

Time to come out here and confess I still smoke - around 10 a day. I've smoked since I was about 15, have given up more times than I can count, but somehow seem to always end up lapsing again. I exercise a lot, two or three miles walk a day with the dog, an hours walk every time I cut the grass (twice a week), digging, carrying bags of compost etc. I think I probably get around three hours aerobic exercise a day on average without going near a gym, and that helps counteract the effects.

I remember the times when Doctors used to smoke during surgery hours, we had a couple of teachers in primary school who smoked during lessons, it was almost anti social not to smoke. Like Ren that is the environment I grew up in and I still find it hard to accept that to most people smoking is now an anti social menace.

Having said all that I do find it hard to understand quite why kids take it up these days. They know the risks, which we didn't, there are so many places they can't smoke yet you see them outside every pub and club. It must be some sort of rebellion thing I suppose.

Lets just say I'm one of those strong anti-smoking people, that if it were up to me, I would ban it completely. Absolutely filthy habit. Why people do it will always be a mystery to me.

Well, Christinap, you and I are alone on this island. That's good, because we have space. LOL

I have been a smoker since I was 7. Still smoke like a freight train on fire. And you teachers and students who remember smoking in school, you'll love this -- I still have the ashtray (in my desk - yeah, I'm a teacher, too, and OLD). I pull it out occasionally just to amuse the kids. I try to get them to quit or to never start. I realize that most people think we smokers stink, but I love the smell of smoke. I was completely rude one day to a lady in an elevator: she wrinkled her nose at me and said, "you stink like a filthy cigarette." (This was the 80s when it became chic to try to shame smokers.) I wrinkled my nose at her and told her that her cheap K-mart Jungle Gardenia perfume did little to cover up her body odor and nothing for her grotesque appearance. I immediately felt awful until the other people in the elevator began hooting. She harrumphed and got off on the next floor. Meh, another opportunity for a date blown.

Of course, it could be that I'm a southerner (US). We tend to have more smokers than any other region, I think. I would kinda like to quit, because I think I would save about $2,400 a year.

Maybe I need a buddy to bet me $50 this New Year's Eve.

_______________________________________

"As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake."
Mark Twain

I bet you $50, Bitterlyold, that you can't give up smoking for a year from New Year's 2013.

I started smoking aged 9 at a boarding school for asthmatic boys. Smoking wasn't associated with bad chests in those days so I don't feel at all stupid for taking it up. We had lots of roll models who thought there was nothing wrong with it too. These included film stars parents and relatives. Smoking was definitely the done thing and all my friends smoked to some degree or another. I can't understand anyone taking it up now though, what with all the information that is around on the subject.

I stopped smoking with great difficulty 32 years later ..mainly out of fear. I'd already lost one kidney because of a tumour on it and had a few growths zapped inside the bladder with a laser over the period of a year or so. On the last recurrence, I thought I was on my way out. When I saw 'Must stop smoking' written in large red letters on my now huge wad of medical notes, I stopped the cigarettes. Smoking can cause cancer not only in the lungs.

I'm still here 26 years later and in better health than the above might imply. I can ride my bike for miles. No more bad chest and no recurrence of lumps anywhere (checked out once a year).

I'm not supposed to ever be exposed to cigarette smoke but I don't worry about that too much. I don't see smoking as a filthy stinking habit. As I remember, it was a rather enjoyable one. Relaxing with a cigarette while drinking a cup of coffee, downing a pint of beer or after a meal was good. I can do all those activities now without thinking about smoking but missed it for a few years. If people smoke in my presence, I'm not going to walk away or think worse of them. About the only rule made is no smoking in the house or car. One of our children smokes but goes in the garden to do so.

I think people getting cancer due to smoking might be partly genetic. If it's in a person to get cancer, then smoking possibly brings it on. On the other hand, there are people who smoke into their eighties and nineties without problems.

Hey bitterlyold, welcome to the island. Pull up a chair, have a cigarette!

OK, I accept that people who don't smoke don't like the smell and object to second hand smoke, I accept that a lot of non smokers are, like converts to anything, quite vocal on the subject, however, like it or not, smokers are people and we have rights too. Like tellywellies said, smoking is actually enjoyable, I enjoy it. Unlike some other recreational habits smokers rarely if ever kill people with their car because they are smoking and driving, neither do they mug people for money for their next fix. Neither does smoking turn them into spaced out zombies. If we weren't paying sky high taxes on our habit the rest of you would have to make up the shortfall, and believe me you would notice the difference.

When it comes down to it it is a question of freedom of choice. If I choose to smoke knowing the risks, well, it's my body. If someone else chooses to drink a bottle of vodka a day knowing the risks, well it's their body. Difference is the drinkers aren't nagged by society in general to give up, in fact drink is cheap, look at any Supermarket, happy hours etc. We are all going to die eventually, no matter how much Governments of all nationalities nag us to eat this, not eat that, do this, don't do that, we are not going to live forever, and lets face it, the way a lot of countries treat their elderly these days who wants to. We're here for a short span and that is it, might as well enjoy it in whatever way we want to.

Well said Christina! As an ex smoker I couldnt have put it better!

Freedom of choice is a bit hollow when you are talking about one of the most ADDICTIVE substances on earth. I know ex heroin addicts who cannot kick smoking. The problem is the tobacco companies market to minors who think they are bullet proof and have them addicted before they have an adults common sense.

I don't think they do market to minors, or not here anyway. There is no tobacco advertising, it's been banned for years, and there are heavy fines for anyone selling cigarettes to anyone who is under-age, and they regularly carry out spot checks with mystery shoppers, usually children of trading standards officials. Minors are also subject to heavy anti smoking campaigns in schools.