"Sobriety" Coins/Chips/Medallions For an Ex-Smoker?
June 10, 2014 9:51 AM   Subscribe

After several decades of sucking up carcinogenic fumes, Mr. Thumbscrews quit smoking... yay! I'd like to present him with the smokers' equivalent of AA sobriety "chips" on his various "___ months without a cig" dates. My Google-fu is failing to produce anything. Any ideas, Hive? The ideal medallion would be cheap-ish, possibly funny, and definitely non-hokey (no soaring eagles or serenity prayers). Thanks!
posted by julthumbscrew to Shopping (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
My first thought was to see if you can get your hand on some Pogs. There is such a range of designs that I'm sure you could find ones that were related to his interests that might be fun for him to collect.
posted by coppermoss at 9:59 AM on June 10, 2014


Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but you should consider this carefully and talk it over with him first. When I quit smoking with the Allen Carr method, it really highlighted that you are not 'giving anything up' and it's not a celebration of resistance week by week and month by month, like people often think it is. Rather, you are just free of smoking once you really choose to quit. Getting something to say 'well done!' now and again is fine, but you need to be very careful on the messages you're sending your subconscious. It's the difference between 'I am celebrating this new life' and 'I am celebrating holding out another month'. The time-based nature of your gift plan may push towards the latter, and have an inadvertently detrimental effect.

Aa an alternative thought: if Mr T was paying USD8 per pack and smoked a pack a day, after six months of not-smoking he would have saved the equivalent of an American Eagle gold coin (roughly USD1300). So maybe get him something smaller now to celebrate the new life, and a more significant present later.
posted by StephenF at 10:00 AM on June 10, 2014 [11 favorites]


The chips are color-coded. How about procuring (on Etsy or wherever) a miscellaneous series of cool objects made to Mr. Thumbscrew's taste, each of an appropriate color?

That way there will also be the motivation of suspense, as he waits to find out what the hell you've chosen for the next month ...
posted by feral_goldfish at 10:02 AM on June 10, 2014


Also: you know there are Nicotine Anonymous chips, right? These look cheerfully low-key: somewhere between a merit badge and a poker chip.
posted by feral_goldfish at 10:10 AM on June 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


(If you go the color-coded route, you'll have the joy of overhearing Mr. Thumbscrew muttering to himself, somewhere around the 4 1/2 month: "Pink! WTF is she going to get me that's pink? A box of chewable Pepto-Bismal? It could be worse I guess. Or maybe a pink shaving brush? She knows I need a new one ...")
posted by feral_goldfish at 10:18 AM on June 10, 2014


Response by poster: StephenF: excellent point, but in his case, he's struggled with it a LOT and eagerly recites milestone days himself to stay motivated. So while I do think he'd like some encouragement, I can totally see where it might not work for everyone, depending on their quitting methodology.
posted by julthumbscrew at 10:27 AM on June 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


How about one of these customizable award medals?
posted by HotToddy at 11:12 AM on June 10, 2014


this shop makes customized golf ball markers, which are probably roughly the same size and heft, and can give him something to fidget with. you might be able to contact her and ask fi you can get something made.

you can also google for "keepsake tokens" which brings back a lot of different options.
posted by koroshiya at 12:15 PM on June 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Military challenge coins. Or the shops that make them. Bonus: if he meets any military personnel, coins up.
posted by chrisinseoul at 12:02 PM on June 11, 2014


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