I actually used this idea myself to give me some incentive, not to quit but to not smoke again after I'd quit which is where the real struggle takes place. I went to a local trophy maker for my own version of this and so far it's worked beautifully (even if the average visitor to my house does give me funny looks when they see what's on my mantlepiece). I do wonder if it might work for other people. Anyhoo, here's the concept.

You decide upon a date when you will quit smoking. You purchase your last pack of cigarettes with a view to running out and smoking your last cig on the day you have pre-arranged to quit (most smokers know exactly how long their current pack will last). Smoking this last pack is important because it gives you time to get used to the idea that you are definitely going to quit and you know that this is your LAST PACK. On the day you smoke your last cig you have made an appointment with the Incentive Not to Smoke Again clinic. Not a clinic but a shop really. You bring along your last pack which is empty now and give it to the guy behind the counter who takes the pack away to be plated in silver and mounted on a nice polished wooden stand which itself is fitted with a silver plaque. On the plaque is scribed the exact date when you quit, your name and possibly a little personal pledge you have written up beforehand. (The guy who did mine for me had to put the pack through some kind of solidification process beforehand. I'm not clear on the mechanics I'm afraid)

The clincher is this: the service must be very expensive. You are not buying a novelty silver plated cigarette pack, you are buying your way out of your addiction. The silver plated cigarette pack is your totem from this point on and physical evidence of the money you have invested in your own health. If you smoke so much as one cigarette ever again then you know that your very expensive silver plated totem becomes redundant and all the money you have spent is wasted. The harder you have to work to save the money to pay for the process the better for it.
-- Nickynackynoo, Jun 30 2003

Everything in my experience (vicarious, as I've never smoked. Well not directly anyway) says this won't work. But clearly it has. In which case have a croissant for beating the addiction.
-- egbert, Jun 30 2003


I too am dubious, but I congratulate you.
-- snarfyguy, Jun 30 2003


Have your lungs silver-plated - *that* will stop you smoking.

jutta: hey, attagirl!
-- DrCurry, Jun 30 2003


I met a guy who had a severe lung infection and wound up on a breathing machine with a tube down his throat for almost 2 weeks. He was in restraints the whole time because he kept tearing the tube out of his mouth, and kept getting it put back down. Finally he recovered enough to get off the machine. When he could talk, he told the nurse to dig his last tube out of the trash for him. He tied it to the half empty pack of cigarettes he had in his pocket when he got sick and put it on his TV set at home, to discourage him from smoking. There are things worse than expense.
-- bungston, Jun 30 2003


very true bungston. But I think most of us would prefer expense.

jutta, why'd you change your annotation? You made the point, if I may comment on your pre-edit, that this comes across as 'playing mind games with yourself' (sorry if that's not exactly what you said but I don't have the original to refer from/to). That's a very good comment and completely true. Whenever I tried to quit smoking, or indeed cut back or quit on other vices in which I've indulged over the years, it almost feels like a split personality experience. In effect, you are battling with yourself. Rather, your conscious sensical self is battling with that subconscious part of yourself which desperately wants to reach for a pack and light up; to hell with the consequences. In this sense my idea does involve a joust with the inner self, or as a counsellor I once knew put it "manipulating the id". Whether this is a healthy practise or not I don't know. The aforementioned counsellor seemed to think it was.
-- Nickynackynoo, Jul 01 2003


Kudos and a croissant for a good quitting idea that won't blow smokers' brains to pieces. That seems to be rare around here.
-- disbomber, Apr 09 2005



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