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Over the past six months I see somebody and I realize with a start holy God, they've got a cigarette! I'm literally startled, surprised that people are still doing that. There are days it seems where I go through and rarely see a smoker - then there's one outside the bank and it hits you - people still do that!
It's kind of hard to believe that I, too, smoked, a pack, pack-and-a-half a day (one day I went through 2.5 packs, but let's just say I wasn't in my right mind then
), and did so for about 12+ years. I would sit with my friends in smoke-filled rooms, coughing, eyes blinking, not thinking really all that much about it. I'd appreciate the clear air when we left the bar, but the first thing we would do is light up a cig (if we didn't already have one going), pretty much putting an end to that.
But I quit 6-odd years ago and never looked back. Even through the CRG crap, the issue with my parents, whatever, I never had a desire to smoke. Oh I would get the occasional craving but they are really short-lived and would always be gone within a couple minutes of onset. But I never found myself at a convenience store thinking... should I? Just one, then I'll throw the pack out the window.
So I've done it, I think. I'm a non-smoker. Not an ex-smoker, counting from the days/months since his last smoke, but a person who has put it out of his mind about as well could be expected for an ex-addict.
So here's how:
Mental
You have to decide to quit. Let me rephrase that: You have to be proactive about quitting. You can't just stop smoking and unhappily suffer the consequences, you have to attack that bastard like you've never attacked before.
This starts with the decision to quit. Regardless of what motivates you, you are going to have to decide that this cigarette is the last one. You have to quit, not "smoke less", not "reduce", not "smoke fewer until I don't need to smoke anymore" (
), not "until I'm out of boot camp": QUIT. It's your only hope.
When you decide to quit, don't quit! Not yet, for you have to prepare. Figure out where you smoke, when you smoke, with whom you smoke. Try to avoid or change the situations that lead you to smoke. Make a list of places you smoke, knowing that you're going to have to clean (your car) or avoid (the smokers hangout at work).
Obviously you can't avoid everything - you're still going to finish your meal, you're still going to drive your car, you're still going to hang with your smoking friends, you're still going to be post-coital. Now you're just going to do it without cigarettes and deal with it.
Another thing you have to remember: your emotions are lies. You're withdrawing from an addiction, one severe enough to capture billions in its grip. You're going to get crabby, people are going to irritate you, upsets become more common.
Ignore them. Sublimate it. People say don't "hold your emotions in", but when you're quitting smoking, that's what you have to do for they aren't true emotions, they're emotions caused by the very real physical suffering you must endure to come out the other side. Be an adult and don't make others suffer for your mistake (starting in the first place) and recognize your anger as artificial.
You also have to reconceptualize it. Smoking isn't fun, it's an insidious disease that's near-guaranteed to make you die a wretched death. Smoking isn't cool, it's what causes people's noses to crinkle when you enter a room. Smoking isn't relaxing, it's just the relieving of physical tensions caused by an unfulfilled addiction - if you weren't addicted, you wouldn't need the cigarettes to make you relax from the "pain" of not having smoked!
In short, don't miss cigarettes, hate them!
Lastly, be patient. The cravings will reduce and end. The temper tantrums wll taper and die off. The suffering is the price you have to pay for X-years of cancerous indulgence. You can't avoid it, and understanding and accepting that fact will allow you to go far towards succeeding.
Once you decide to quit and mentally prepare yourself for the pain to follow, you're literally halfway there.
Physical
You stub out that last cigarette, confidently knowing that you're going to succeed, that this is the last time. 10, 30, 90 minutes later, the tightness hits your chest and before you know it, you're patting your chest pocket or looking over at the table.
I strongly recommend the patch. I strongly don't recommend the gum (more later). The usual disclaimer about checking with your doctor applies here, but for me, the patch was the way to go. It reduced the cravings, assisted in weaning me down from nicotine, and was very simple to deal with (except for pulling it off my arm - that wasn't fun).
Lungs
If you're a pack a day smoker for 10 years, you have inhaled the cindered remains of 73,000 individual cigarettes into a warm, moist, organic cavity. Two of them, actually. You do this for 40 years and you're looking at 292,000 cigarettes. Go to a pack-and-a-half and the numbers increase to 109,500 and 438,000 respectively.
Point is, there's a lot of crap in your lungs. Point is, even more, there's a lot of tar and nicotine in your lungs. I have absolutely no idea if this is true (I didn't do any reading on how to quit smoking), but my theory has always been that many cravings are brought about by residual pockets of tar and nicotine breaking down, the toxins entering the bloodstream... but at such reduced levels that it just magnifies the need, it doesn't satisfy it.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!
So here's what I figured - if I want to reduce the time that I have to spend in the bad period, I should do what I can do to clear out my lungs, to expectorate all that crap.
So I started running, running until I couldn't run anymore, not because my legs couldn't handle it, but because my lungs couldn't handle it, finishing by hacking up big globs of grey phlegm, speckled with black. I ran for a couple of months, but the first week was the worst, no endurance, lungs on fire, legs rubbery. But I got rid of an amazing amount of sickly looking phlegm, tar and nicotine that didn't have to slowly clear its way through my body.
You don't necessarily have to run, but any cardio activity that gets you breathing, hard, will help in clearing out the wreckage of your lungs.
And if you don't think it's too bad in there, check out the attached picture of a 25 year-long smoker. For those of you five, ten-year smokers thinking "that ain't me": the lung didn't get that bad between year 24-25!
Habitual
Do not replace or substitute the habit - get rid of it! That's why I disagree with the gum - you are replacing one oral fixation (smoking) with another with the specific intent of breaking you from the earlier oral fixation! (It seems rather circular to me), A lot of that's unavoidable, but the intent matters - if you begin to feel that you can't succeed without the gum, how are you going to break yourself from the gum?
However, you will eat and gain weight - if you're smart, you won't worry so much about that in the first couiple of months as it's a regular part of quitting smoking. If you start an excercise regimen, it'll help. Quitting the exercise regimen means that you're going to gain a few pounds - I am evidence of that.
However, you shouldn't really change your life because you quit smoking. You should change some things, but for the most part you're just going to live your life... you're just not going to smoke. Getting rid of that habit of reaching for your cigs will take months to break, but again, the longer you do it, the easier it becomes. Until not reaching for the cigarettes becomes... well, habitual.
Social
You've quit. Congratulations - you are no longer white trash! Well... it's not that stigmatized, yet, but it's close.
I know. Some people might complain about stigmatization, but as an ex-smoker I can tell you that any stigmatization I felt is brought upon by myself. Smoking kills, it's dangerous, and it made me stink. My hair, my lungs, my breath, my clothes, my hands, me. And you.
And socially, it's not as if you're cutting yourself off, you're opening yourself to a world where people do things together without smoking. When I smoked one always unconcious question about any destination was "can I smoke"? When the answer was no, I was in a pissy mood the entire time. Now it's irrelevant, I'm free to go to places with smokers and non-smokers, not having to worry if I'm going to be an hour away from getting a fix because of a "stupid state law abridging my rights to..." be a junkie in a manner particularly offensive to most of the people around me, when you get down to it "... in a restaurant."
So, that's the secret. Decide to do it. Plan how you're going to do it. Do it. Be glad you did it.
Of course, YMMV.
It's kind of hard to believe that I, too, smoked, a pack, pack-and-a-half a day (one day I went through 2.5 packs, but let's just say I wasn't in my right mind then
), and did so for about 12+ years. I would sit with my friends in smoke-filled rooms, coughing, eyes blinking, not thinking really all that much about it. I'd appreciate the clear air when we left the bar, but the first thing we would do is light up a cig (if we didn't already have one going), pretty much putting an end to that. But I quit 6-odd years ago and never looked back. Even through the CRG crap, the issue with my parents, whatever, I never had a desire to smoke. Oh I would get the occasional craving but they are really short-lived and would always be gone within a couple minutes of onset. But I never found myself at a convenience store thinking... should I? Just one, then I'll throw the pack out the window.
So I've done it, I think. I'm a non-smoker. Not an ex-smoker, counting from the days/months since his last smoke, but a person who has put it out of his mind about as well could be expected for an ex-addict.
So here's how:
Mental
You have to decide to quit. Let me rephrase that: You have to be proactive about quitting. You can't just stop smoking and unhappily suffer the consequences, you have to attack that bastard like you've never attacked before.
This starts with the decision to quit. Regardless of what motivates you, you are going to have to decide that this cigarette is the last one. You have to quit, not "smoke less", not "reduce", not "smoke fewer until I don't need to smoke anymore" (
), not "until I'm out of boot camp": QUIT. It's your only hope. When you decide to quit, don't quit! Not yet, for you have to prepare. Figure out where you smoke, when you smoke, with whom you smoke. Try to avoid or change the situations that lead you to smoke. Make a list of places you smoke, knowing that you're going to have to clean (your car) or avoid (the smokers hangout at work).
Obviously you can't avoid everything - you're still going to finish your meal, you're still going to drive your car, you're still going to hang with your smoking friends, you're still going to be post-coital. Now you're just going to do it without cigarettes and deal with it.
Another thing you have to remember: your emotions are lies. You're withdrawing from an addiction, one severe enough to capture billions in its grip. You're going to get crabby, people are going to irritate you, upsets become more common.
Ignore them. Sublimate it. People say don't "hold your emotions in", but when you're quitting smoking, that's what you have to do for they aren't true emotions, they're emotions caused by the very real physical suffering you must endure to come out the other side. Be an adult and don't make others suffer for your mistake (starting in the first place) and recognize your anger as artificial.
You also have to reconceptualize it. Smoking isn't fun, it's an insidious disease that's near-guaranteed to make you die a wretched death. Smoking isn't cool, it's what causes people's noses to crinkle when you enter a room. Smoking isn't relaxing, it's just the relieving of physical tensions caused by an unfulfilled addiction - if you weren't addicted, you wouldn't need the cigarettes to make you relax from the "pain" of not having smoked!
In short, don't miss cigarettes, hate them!
Lastly, be patient. The cravings will reduce and end. The temper tantrums wll taper and die off. The suffering is the price you have to pay for X-years of cancerous indulgence. You can't avoid it, and understanding and accepting that fact will allow you to go far towards succeeding.
Once you decide to quit and mentally prepare yourself for the pain to follow, you're literally halfway there.
Physical
You stub out that last cigarette, confidently knowing that you're going to succeed, that this is the last time. 10, 30, 90 minutes later, the tightness hits your chest and before you know it, you're patting your chest pocket or looking over at the table.
I strongly recommend the patch. I strongly don't recommend the gum (more later). The usual disclaimer about checking with your doctor applies here, but for me, the patch was the way to go. It reduced the cravings, assisted in weaning me down from nicotine, and was very simple to deal with (except for pulling it off my arm - that wasn't fun).
Lungs
If you're a pack a day smoker for 10 years, you have inhaled the cindered remains of 73,000 individual cigarettes into a warm, moist, organic cavity. Two of them, actually. You do this for 40 years and you're looking at 292,000 cigarettes. Go to a pack-and-a-half and the numbers increase to 109,500 and 438,000 respectively.
Point is, there's a lot of crap in your lungs. Point is, even more, there's a lot of tar and nicotine in your lungs. I have absolutely no idea if this is true (I didn't do any reading on how to quit smoking), but my theory has always been that many cravings are brought about by residual pockets of tar and nicotine breaking down, the toxins entering the bloodstream... but at such reduced levels that it just magnifies the need, it doesn't satisfy it.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!
So here's what I figured - if I want to reduce the time that I have to spend in the bad period, I should do what I can do to clear out my lungs, to expectorate all that crap.
So I started running, running until I couldn't run anymore, not because my legs couldn't handle it, but because my lungs couldn't handle it, finishing by hacking up big globs of grey phlegm, speckled with black. I ran for a couple of months, but the first week was the worst, no endurance, lungs on fire, legs rubbery. But I got rid of an amazing amount of sickly looking phlegm, tar and nicotine that didn't have to slowly clear its way through my body.
You don't necessarily have to run, but any cardio activity that gets you breathing, hard, will help in clearing out the wreckage of your lungs.
And if you don't think it's too bad in there, check out the attached picture of a 25 year-long smoker. For those of you five, ten-year smokers thinking "that ain't me": the lung didn't get that bad between year 24-25!
Habitual
Do not replace or substitute the habit - get rid of it! That's why I disagree with the gum - you are replacing one oral fixation (smoking) with another with the specific intent of breaking you from the earlier oral fixation! (It seems rather circular to me), A lot of that's unavoidable, but the intent matters - if you begin to feel that you can't succeed without the gum, how are you going to break yourself from the gum?
However, you will eat and gain weight - if you're smart, you won't worry so much about that in the first couiple of months as it's a regular part of quitting smoking. If you start an excercise regimen, it'll help. Quitting the exercise regimen means that you're going to gain a few pounds - I am evidence of that.
However, you shouldn't really change your life because you quit smoking. You should change some things, but for the most part you're just going to live your life... you're just not going to smoke. Getting rid of that habit of reaching for your cigs will take months to break, but again, the longer you do it, the easier it becomes. Until not reaching for the cigarettes becomes... well, habitual.
Social
You've quit. Congratulations - you are no longer white trash! Well... it's not that stigmatized, yet, but it's close.
I know. Some people might complain about stigmatization, but as an ex-smoker I can tell you that any stigmatization I felt is brought upon by myself. Smoking kills, it's dangerous, and it made me stink. My hair, my lungs, my breath, my clothes, my hands, me. And you.
And socially, it's not as if you're cutting yourself off, you're opening yourself to a world where people do things together without smoking. When I smoked one always unconcious question about any destination was "can I smoke"? When the answer was no, I was in a pissy mood the entire time. Now it's irrelevant, I'm free to go to places with smokers and non-smokers, not having to worry if I'm going to be an hour away from getting a fix because of a "stupid state law abridging my rights to..." be a junkie in a manner particularly offensive to most of the people around me, when you get down to it "... in a restaurant."
So, that's the secret. Decide to do it. Plan how you're going to do it. Do it. Be glad you did it.
Of course, YMMV.
Whatever.
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