I’ve been seeing those commercials on TV that claim to have the definitive way to quit smoking – from drugs, to therapy, to “time-proven methods” and what-not. Hubby will attest to my disdain each and every time – you can’t succeed at a quit without WANTING to quit. And what most of these people seem to not get is the fact that almost ALL smokers do not WANT to quit.
I don’t have statistics on hand, but I am willing to bet that those with the most successful quits are those who had a life-changing experience of some kind that made then WANT to quit. Everybody else succeeds for a time, and then go right back to it.
I am not going to blame the tobacco manufacturers because I am not convinced they ALL engage in underhand methods to keep consumers hooked. I am a perfect example of this concept. I was one of those Jamaican teens who was introduced to the habit in college by peers. Jamaican manufacturers seem to be a separate entity since Jamaican cigarettes taste completely different and far more “natural” than the American ones I have sampled. If they are adding ish to their product, it’s in an ingenious way that doesn’t alter the experience. I can’t imagine the Americans haven’t discovered the same way to inject their chemicals without altering taste.
Nevertheless, it’s a nasty habit. I was the first one to admit it in those days. It stinks and causes you to stink and everything around you to stink. I personally could not STAND the smell of stale cigarette smoke. My ashtrays were always clean because I would wash them out twice a day. I stayed out of my bedroom with cigarettes, closed the door so that minimal smoke would get into my clothes and sheets, turned the fans on myself to not only cool me down (it’s HOT in Jamaica, come on) but also to blow the smoke away from me so I wouldn’t sit in a cloud of smoke.
Near the end, I was binge-smoking up to a pack a night and sometimes more than the 20 in the pack if I was unable to sleep. I was under a lot of stress from a job I had come to hate, a long-distance relationship that was becoming painful (not to mention expensive) to maintain, and a living environment that made me scared out of my mind half the time I was in it.
I was fully aware of all the risks that smoking exposed me to. I was 30+ and on oral contraceptives – so deep vein thrombosis was among the dangers I faced. My greatest fear was not cancer or even the DVT, but Emphysema. One of our most famous Jamaican TV personalities died of emphysema – Dennis Hall – and I watched him all of my childhood years on TV delivering the news and coughing like a man about to keel over and die. It was an awful cough – it sounded like his entire breathing apparatus was clogged with nasty sounding phlegm (as I am sure it was).
Yet – I still smoked. I always knew mine was an addiction of a more psychological nature than physical dependency because I could go through an entire day at work without the need or desire to smoke a cigarette. Sometimes days would go by before I felt I NEEDED one. I had actually succeeded in quitting many times – I always caved and went right back to it the minute I felt stressed. And I came to understand my triggers too – personal, professional, environmental … if all was rosy with those, I was unlikely to even think about picking up a cigarette.
Then, I noticed that visiting hubby here in the States gave me the environment in which to quit. The first time I visited, I brought a pack with me “just in case” and never once thought about it for the entire time I was here. The same was true the second time I visited … and I realized what it was I needed to do.
While I realize my situation may be fairly unique, I do recognize that quitting is not all about substituting the nicotine in the blood, or altering behaviour, it’s a lot more involved than just that. I wish all that was included in all these “time-proven” drugs and methods etc. Of course, that would interfere with their sales, but … if you’re going to help people, be honest with them.
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