Smoking is probably the second largest health risk today; second only to improper diets. In the United States alone, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – in nearly all cases due to smoking – ranks as the third or fourth most common cause of death (depending on your sources). 1000 Americans die every day because of smoking. One in six American men will die a smoking-related death. We all know smoking is bad for you, so why do so many people still do it?
Let me paint you a picture to make a little bit of a comparison. If I were to market a mixture of asbestos, heroin, cat feces and old milk as a perfume that sold at $40 a bottle, I doubt I’d get very many buyers. People would be more likely to look at the product once and then run away screaming. It would be overpriced, it would smell bad, it would – if you got past the disgusting part and continued to consume – be addictive and over time cause cancer and several other health problems. Even though we all know instinctively that the perfume is a lousy idea, many of my readers will still go out and buy cigarettes.
I’m sure part of the reason people start smoking is because of peer pressure and the fantastically clever marketers at the major tobacco firms. It’s easy to blame the image that smoking has; a lifestyle choice that makes people look more mature and grown-up, something that screams to the world that they are rebelling against authority and deciding for themselves. However, I’m also convinced that a large part of the reason that so many people start – and continue – smoking today are all the quick-and-easy cures being peddled in bookstores, on the Internet and in magazines. Because they’re being exposed to these miracle cures, people are getting emotional support for the fallacy that “I can quit whenever I want to”. In their eyes, smoking suddenly doesn’t seem as bad anymore. After all, if I can quit smoking overnight, as some gurus claim, then what’s the problem? I’ll just quit some time soon, but not now because …
… because what, really?
It’s been around five weeks since I last smoked a cigarette. I can’t guarantee that I’ll never ever smoke a cigarette in my entire life, but at the moment, I don’t think I will. It doesn’t feel like I will. I don’t miss smoking in any way and actually feel a little sick when I feel the smell of cigarettes. Still, I’d be lying if I said that getting here was easy. In fact, the time it took me to quit smoking is longer than the longest time that I’ve ever held a job. The time it took me to quit smoking is longer than my longest relationship to date was. It look me longer to quit smoking than it took me to learn to juggle four-ball showers.
All in all, it took me just over five years to quit smoking, and here’s how I did it:
I quit over and over and over and over again – and again. I failed at quitting smoking so often that I eventually got it right. I lived the famous statement by Mark Twain, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times”. I made so many mistakes that eventually I fell upon the method that worked for me.
You see; I don’t believe that there is a miracle cure. I don’t believe that there is a surefire way for everybody to stop smoking. I don’t believe that every smoker out there can read a book and then be cured of the demon named nicotine. The reasons that we started smoking and the reasons that we continue to smoke are all individual to us. Instead of finding some general rule that works for everybody, we all need to find our very own reasons to quit. That said, however, there are four things that I feel are more general than others and that I would like to bring up:
- Cutting back on cigarettes gradually still means that your physical abstinence will be just as bad – but it will last much much longer. Quitting cold turkey is far faster. Also, cutting back will make every cigarette during that period feel more like a reward for enduring. We definitely don’t want to be associating smoking with the feeling of rewarding yourself.
- If you crave a cigarette, it usually doesn’t take more than five minutes until the craving is over. If you just endure those five minutes, you should be fine. Chewing gum or eating a carrot helps with the oral fixation.
- Get some exercise. Jogging, push-ups, sit-ups or even a nice brisk walk will do the trick. You’ll notice the effect of not smoking much faster in this way and have an easier time motivating yourself.
- Don’t be afraid of failure when you decide to quit smoking. Almost nobody manages to quit smoking and get it right the first time around. Keep at it and eventually you’ll get there.
If you’re curious as for what eventually worked for me after so many years of failure, it was the decision to stop buying cigarettes. I would instead bum cigarettes off of friends, family and colleagues until I felt like I was such a cheapskate that my sense of honor and integrity outweighed my need to smoke.
In short, I suppose I only have this one suggestion to people out there who smoke cigarettes. Quitting smoking is hard work, but it’s definitely worth it. Your wallet, your health, your friends and your loved ones will thank you for it.
