My Advice on How to Say Goodbye to Those Filter-Tipped BuddiesApr 03 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line My recommendation to follow your own recommendation. Only you can decide the best way to quit.
Some background on my qualifications to write this essay. My mother smoked until I was about 8 years old. That's when my sister and I convinced her to quit by hiding her cigarettes on her all the time. It wasn't the fact that we were concerned about her health that made her quit, it was her lack of energy to run to the store all the time every time she "misplaced" her cigarettes. Believe me, my family doesn't give up easily though. She even tried having us go to the store for her, which is pretty stupid as we were the reason that she needed more cigarettes in the first place. She finally gave in and never went back. Well, in all fairness, it was because she had asthma, but I like to think that I had a part in it anyway. 4 years later, both my sister and I smoked. When my brother found out about us smoking, he constantly blackmailed us to quit. So, we did what every loving sister does...we purposely let my mother find a butt-filled ashtray and told her that he was smoking. To be honest, cigarettes helped build a bond between my sister and me. She started smoking first and taught me all I needed to know about cigarettes. She taught me how to inhale and the best places to put the butt-filled ashtray so we could blackmail my brother into doing what we wanted or he'd risk us telling our mother that he was smoking again. Yes, we learned much from my brother. She also came up with a code. We smoked a brand called "Players" and built a code around that. When either of us wanted a cigarette, we would tell the other it was time to "play". While my mother smiled with happiness that we were getting close and playing together, we were puffing away in her bedroom while hanging out the window. Eventually, this bond would be broken though. My sister decided that she wanted to become an aerobics instructor and decided to quit. I, on the other hand, kept smoking. I've been smoking on and off for a very long time now. So, I thought I'd share my wisdom with you - total strangers. "Okay, that's more useless information than I wanted to know. Get to the point!" Everyone has heard the stories about lung cancer and other health-related illnesses due to cigarette smoking. We've all heard the stories of second-hand smoke being just as bad for you as well. Yes, that's very important. But quitting won't save your life. Sooner or later, we all die and when your time is up, it's up. I've heard people use the reasoning of "well, I can also get hit by a car tomorrow and die - so what's the big deal? I'm going to eventually die anyway." Well, although smoking will probably get you there faster, I won't get into that debate here. There are other reasons to quit smoking. "I can hardly contain myself. Go ahead and tell me - amuse me!" Well, these are my three things to think about that might help you decide to quit smoking. Cost Face it. Cigarettes are expensive. A pack ranges from $4.30-$5.25 a pack. If you smoke a pack a day, that's approximately $30 a week. Now, that might not seem like a lot, but if you figure how much you spend yearly, that's a whopping (*getting calculator out*) $1,560 a year!! I'm sure we can all think of much better ways to spend our hard-earned money - for instance, going to a bar and getting drunk. Just think about how sloppingly drunk you can get with that much money! Wow! You then can even afford to take car service home when you can't stand on your own 6 feet (no, that's not a typo. Get really drunk and look down at your feet. How many do YOU see?). Suggestion: For every day that you don't smoke, take the money that you'd normally spend on cigarettes and put it in a jar somewhere. Decide on a monetary goal and when you reach that, treat yourself to something nice that is just for you - something that you might not have purchased otherwise. Something that will make you feel good. And no, a carton of cigarettes is definitely not the right purchase! Smell Not only will you be able to smell everything better, but you yourself will smell better. I tell you, it's a powerful thing when you go to visit your family and your little nieces or nephews come over, only wanting to give you a huge hug. They look up at you with such loving eyes, such adornment, and say "you smell like an ashtray." Let's face it - when you smoke, you stink. It gets in your hair and your clothes. Unless you plan on walking around naked and bald, there's no way to avoid it. Plus, it's really helpful to have a better sense of smell again. It's not fun when you smell smoke at home and immediately panic, thinking that your house is on fire, until you realize that it's just the ashtray as the cigarette you *thought* you put out burned the cigarette next to it, starting a cigarette bonfire. Not that it's ever happened to me..... Feeling Better When you get winded rolling down the windows in your car, you know it's time to quit. When you are exhausted from walking up that long flight of stairs, and see that you've actually only gone up 2 steps, it's time to quit. When you have to explain that you rear-ended the car infront of you because your pack of cigarettes fell on the floor amidst a severe nicotine fit and you had to reach over to get them, it's time to quit. And when you wake up in the morning realizing that you now have a filter with a line of ash attached to it in your mouth because you fell asleep while smoking, it's definitely way past time to quit. In all fairness, I did find out that just because you quit smoking, that doesn't mean that you are in shape and can now run up the stairs like Rocky. However, you will find that you get winded on your fourth step, instead of the second. A definite improvement. "Yeah, state the obvious. What-ever. Now what about when I decide to quit?" Well, what if you've made that decision to quit already? How do you go about doing it? How do you get through your day without that little filtered buddy cheering you on? Well, it won't be easy. Get motivated. There are ways you can do it. Nicotine Patch One way is to quit is to use those nicotine patches. But that's not always effective. We get into habits when we smoke. Cigarettes are not just physically addicting, but mentally addicting as well. They become your friend when your boyfriend picks you up from work drunk and starts laughing as he shows you how he can drive 55 mph while everyone else is driving 35 mph and only *almost* hits about 20 other cars. And they give you something to look forward to when your boss comes over with a job with only a *few* minor edits...a few minor edits for each sentence in a 300 page document. Nicotine patches won't help you with that. You are on your own. Also, there are probably certain times a day when you always have a cigarette...either after dinner, or when you are on your computer, or when you are writing long essays (*sigh*) and those are the times of day when you'll crave a cigarette the most. Unless the patch can somehow knock you on the head during those times to keep you from wanting to smoke - from my point of view, they aren't the only answer. Nicotine Gum I can't really comment on this one as chewing my cigarette never appealed to me. And it goes along the same principal as the patch...it only helps with the with the physical aspect of the addiction. Cutting Down You can also try cutting down. But let's face it, that rarely works either. As long as you have the cigarettes within easy reach, you will smoke them. Let's say you smoke a pack a day. You might start out just fine...allow yourself only 10 cigarettes a day and actually keep to it. But one day, it all goes downhill. It starts when you allow yourself one extra cigarette. That's not a big deal. It's only one. A few days later, you again allow yourself to have an extra cigarette. But you already added an extra cigarette a day, so now you are smoking 2 extra cigarettes a day but tricking yourself into believing that you are actually only smoking one (as it's only one extra from the day before). Soon enough, you end up smoking 2 packs a day and now you're so stressed out about your failure, only a cigarette can make you feel better. The Dreaded --- Cold Turkey You can always try cold turkey, if you enjoy biting pens until your tongue is blue or sucking lollipops until you gain 50 pounds and your lip is so deformed that you look like Betty Boop. "Thanks for wasting my time!" Well, I know what you must be thinking. I am wasting your time reading this as I make it sound impossible to quit. I can hear you asking "how the (*insert curse word of your choice*) is this essay going to help me??" Well, it's not. Only you can decide when it's time to quit and how to quit. But it's not impossible. You are not the first person to try to quit and if you fail, you won't be the first one to fail. The point is that you have to be motivated enough to quit. If you are motivated enough, you can try any method of quitting because any method will help. If you are not motivated enough, then you can wear nicotine patches until you look like a mummy and you still won't quit. It might make it harder to smoke with a patch over your mouth, but you'll find a way. It all lies on you. Motivation is really the best and only way to quit. Patches and cutting down are ways to help you, but it wont be the final solution. I suggest that before making that final step to quit, you put a lot of thought into it. Make a list of all the times during the day that you smoke the most and what you are doing then and try to change your routine. For instance, if you find that you smoke the most when going online, try to spend less time online. Try to do something to take you mind off of it..harass your kids or read a book or even get a piece of paper and write an essay on how to quit smoking. If you like to smoke more after dinner, try taking a shower after dinner, where you just can't smoke due to the whole water issue. It will be very hard, I won't lie about that. You might have to totally rearrange certain things in your life, but you'll find that sooner or later, you'll be doing those things that always made you crave a cigarette the most and suddenly realize that not only didn't you smoke, but you didn't even think about it. Also, instead of getting upset for every failure, be proud of yourself for every accomplishment. If you get upset because you smoked a cigarette, you might be more inclined to get discouraged and give up. Even if you still smoke a pack a day, but you don't smoke during one of those "habitual" times, it's still an accomplishment. You can't expect to wake up, decide to quit and never smoke again. I'm sure that people have done that, but you need to have realistic goals. This might sound obvious and simplistic, but it really does work. "Well, will the pain ever go away???" Once you break out of your habits and smoking patterns, and once you rid yourself of the nicotine, it will get much easier. The smell of cigarettes will probably disgust you and you'll probably find yourself suddenly becoming one of those annoying people at the bus stop who wave the cigarette smoke away with their hand, yelling out what a disgusting habit it is and how smoking should be illegal. Of course, you might find yourself smoking again anyway one day. After all, your drunk boyfriend is still a drunk and there are plenty more 300 page documents to edit, but once you have quit the first time, now you know that you can do it and quitting again will be much easier. You'll know what you have to do and will have more confidence that you have the power to take control again. "Are you done yet??" Yes, but one last word of caution: If you do find yourself smoking again, try not to use the fact that you quit once help you to keep smoking by telling yourself that since you did it before you can do it again, so you'll just quit later on. That later on might not come until you are back to wheezing up the 2 steps to your house. And just as the extra money you'll have when you quit will be a thrill, when you start smoking again and lose this extra money, you will realize the loss a lot more now that you've had it and lost it. Okay, that was two last cautions - sue me (although you won't get a dime because all my past savings went to cigarettes). Good Luck!  |
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