Hello everyone. I started smoking when I was 12, which might seem young, but if you start at that age, it's just to fit in with the group, to seem cool and not get rejected. But at that age, you also have no idea how much smoking can damage your health. I got caught up in the whirlwind. At 16 I managed to stop smoking for a year, but a short period of depression followed and I fell back into it, dragged down by a friend who was doing just as badly as I was. I should never have restarted! A few years later, I started realizing how much cigarettes were damaging my healthwhen I ran I tasted blood, I threw up more often, I was nervous, on edge, often tired, my breath was like a camel's and I started really worrying about how stained my teeth were getting. Then I met a 45 year old woman with a hole in her throat. She'd had a tracheotomy (already, at her age) because of smoking, so I couldn't understand a word she was saying. And that was the trigger for me. As soon as I got home, I threw away all my cigarettes and now I haven't smoked for a year. I still think about it, because you need a lot of willpower to quit, but it's changed my life. My skin is brighter, I no longer have stained teeth and I have reduced my risk of getting cancer. And I hope that everyone who wants to quit smoking does it, because now I miss certain nights out to avoid suffocating on other people's cigarette smoke, and I'm sick and tired of washing clothes that stink after less than an hour!! Now I know how left out non-smokers can feel and I really regret having put a cigarette in my mouth for the first time. Honestly, you're better off without them!

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Hello everyone! I would like to share my uplifting story with all those who are still struggling to stop smoking for good. It's now 5 months since I last touched a cigarette, and it wasn't at all easy to quit! For about a month, I really struggled with anxiety and obsessive cravings. Then, after the second month, everything fell into place! No more urgent need to smoke, just a little desire (more like a thought) from time to time. I can hardly believe it myself and yet it's true. For a month now, my life has been changing. I feel that I am not at all the same. I was scared that my personality would change: I thought that quitting smoking would make me less interesting and shyer, that I would be less fun. And in fact, to my great surprise, the opposite is true! I am much more open to other people, less stressed, and very confident in myself and about the future. As well as the classic health benefits that come with quitting, for some weeks now I have felt an urgent need to put my whole life in order!! I've learned that I am a strong and motivated person who is full of life. It's as if I must appreciate every second of my new life and have learned how to put my worries into perspective. After having put up with my bad moods before, my friends and family now appreciate my enthusiasm and good humor! Long live non- smokers!!

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Hi there, I consider myself to be an ex-smoker now. I quit on 14 mars2016, thanks to your site which I came across by chance. I read the testimonies by other people, then I started a blog myself and received testimonies from other people who wanted to quit like me I read the site often, and encouraged other people myself. In fact it's a sort of bet with myself if other people can do it then why not me. That's the challenge I set myself and so far, I'm holding out. The day I came across Stop Tabac was for me the turning point. Articles, personal stories and lots of other things beside have been created to help you and I think that's great. I was an alcoholic but have been sober for 19 years and now I'm in charge of a help association for alcoholics. You see, anything is possible. Although I have problems just like everyone else, I no longer need a glass or a cig to solve them. Whether you're happy or sad, neither alcohol nor tobacco help us it's just an illusion, a feeling of wellbeing that's very fleeting, but also sneaky because you have to regularly increase your dosage and by the time you've realised you've got a problem, it's generally too late, you're addicted, and at that point you start saying, I'll stop! But tomorrow! I could write pages here, but I just want to tell those who want to quit: YES, IT'S POSSIBLE. Best wishes, and thanks again.

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I smoked my first cigarette when I was 17 and my last on 14 April 2013 , not counting 18 months of not smoking when I was 30 years old. A whole life with tobacco - it was my oldest friend. I quickly smoked a packet a day and at the end of my time as a smoker I was on 2 and a half or even 3 packets a day. Strangely, I found it harder to quit when I was 30 than I did this time. Back then I had made a bet with myself: You're going to quit, you're going to show everyone that you can. A year and a half later I relapsed, which is not surprising because I'd already won my bet, I'd successfully quit, and the smell of a cigarette that a friend lit in front of me was so tempting Anyway, this time it took me a year and a half to decide to quit, to prepare myself, to convince myself that I could do it, however hard it might be. And then one day when I was surfing the Web I came across Stop-tabac.ch by chance and I've been on it ever since. My decision was made and it was time to start acting, and it is Stop-tabac that has helped me, and all the members of the team who have helped me patiently and calmly, picking me up whenever I felt down. As much as I wanted to quit smoking, I didn't want those around me to suffer because of it, and I didn't want to put on weight. I therefore used Zyban in the way prescribed by stop-tabac and in the following months I took Prozac to get over the difficult moments and avoid testing my resolve. To control my weight, I drank sparkling water every time I felt the need to raise something to my lips. I drank it directly from the bottle like a baby, and sometimes drank 3 liters in a day, but it worked. So, now I'm 64 and rediscovering tastes and smells that I knew in my childhood and that I had lost. I've also got my breath back so I run, I walk, I swim, I live. The smokers around me don't bother me now either. In fact, when I see someone smoking, especially a woman, I think it looks very unsightly, very ugly. I feel so strongly that it's a drug that I want to tell them, please stop destroying yourself. But you can't make other people happy, can you?

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The month of May is coming the beautiful month of May. Last year I said to myself I'm going to quit. I can stop whenever I want, anyway, so I'm going to stop now. 2 packets a day, the smell, the smog, as I called it.the cough in the morning, the hoarse voice, and often the fear of straining something or coughing my lungs out! So when May came along with the challenge of 31 days of not smoking (in Switzerland) I thought to myself, why not? Suddenly people were saying chicken, you don't dare! and you won't last 3 days all around me. This lack of faith in me annoyed me. Yes, I'll admit it, I stopped smoking to shut my colleagues up and leave them to get on with their gossiping behind my back! That was 16 May 2015 Twelve months later, they've stopped offering me cigarettes in the morning with a wicked smile, and one member of their clan has even joined me over on this side of the fence. It was the first time that I'd tried to quit smoking. I was 42, and I'd smoked since I was 16, so you can do the maths. At first, I played the hard woman the smell didn't bother me in the slightestand then I decided to stop lying to myself! It stinks, and now I can't stand those who make the air around me smell disgusting, and make all my moments smell and taste disgusting. I suppose I've become a bit intolerant. Now, I make people smoke outside when they come to mine, and if I'm forced to go somewhere where people are smoking, I wash my clothes as soon as I get home. Apart from bringing out this pretty crazy side to me, quitting smoking has also given me a fantastic trip to London. I honestly put the price of two packets of cigarettes in a piggy bank, that's 11.60 francs a day. I split the pig open in February, went on the trip, and I still didn't spend all the money I'd saved! And the best thing is that no longer smoking has brought me back the taste of my meals, the smell of flowers, my breath when I go on long walksmy dogs thank me every day. I haven't put on an ounce because I didn't replace my cigarettes with food. *I am already quite round, so I was very strict with myself about this :o).* I can only encourage those who read this to go for it and to ignore all those friends who say you won't be able to do it. They say that because THEY wouldn't be able to do it. Nobody believed in me on 16 May last year. Nobody! (I didn't even believe in myself!) I am proud of myself today, and I'd like to thank everyone at Stop-Tabac, where I was able to find everything I needed to be successful. I'll never be a non-smoker, I will always be an ex-smoker, a bit like alcoholics who no longer touch a drop. To quit using a drug is to carry on living, and it's wonderful!

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