|
|
What Is The Natural Means To Stop Smoking? - "Quit Smoking 101"
The writer of the article has been a life long smoker from Europe. After immigrating to the US, and being diagnosed with asthma, nearing her middle age, she was trying to stop smoking approximately on daily basis, but all of the attempts unhappily did not succeed. Nicotine gum and patches didn't work for her, so she consulted her surgeon, who enrolled her in a program and recommended medications, but that didn't her her quit smoking either. What she found was that a severe change of schedule worked good in her case. Somewhat amusing came to to a very serious issue recommends that everyone have to find what works best for them, as well-known "one size fits all" approach never makes everyone contented.
In the first person: I was born 40 something years before in Europe, with a cigarette in my mouth. My parents smoked, my relatives smoked, my friends smoked. My father is 82 and still a chain smoker. Smoking is an inevitable part of cultural habits, socializing, and having fun. For a culture that lives on lanes full of cafes, smoking is not optional, it's nearly compulsory.
I was 13 when I got hooked on cigarettes, enough to begin budgeting part of my everyday allowance for cigarettes. Mind you, I wasn't an outcast, a straight A student, from a well-to-do academic family, I was really trying to fit in. At that point, and also several years later, trying to quit smoking was not even in the back of my mind. It will take me 30 more years to get to that point.
Novelist by profession, smoking was vastly a part of my daily routine. It was exactly like it used to be in the old black and white movies - me, the typewriter, and the big ashtray with the cigarette butts heaped up high. Soon after I moved to the US, the problems with my smoking arised. They were not simply of social nature any more; they became a health concern too. Not just did I move to the Bay Area, California, which was the undisputed leader in the witch search for smokers, I was analyzed with asthma.
I may say from that moment on, 15 years ago, I was trying to quit smoking on a daily basis. There was by now a severe change in place for me - I couldn't smoke at my office any more and I had to time my smoking habits according to the office schedule. It was harder at home because my associate, an American, was a smoker too.
We decided to only smoke outside the home. That didn't work at all, since, sadly, it's California, the climate is pleasant year around, so we both ended up merely sleeping in the house, while living, eating, having friends over on the back yard terrace. It's amazing with how much yard work you can invent - our postage stamp sized back yard became more similar to jungle with heirloom tomatoes, tea roses, sweet peas, and citrus trees.
I at last quit smoking cold turkey. Two years later, with a new lease on life, I'm proud to say - I haven't had a cigarette ever since. I understand it very well: once an addict, forever an addict and I had my share of night sweats, nightmares, unstoppable shivers, unmanageable crying. But I can all the time say it was caused by my divorce drama, not nicotine. Every now and then, during lunch break in the monetary region, I stop by someone smoking in front of their office building. Second hand smoke still smells so good.
|
More Articles
Blogroll
|
