By Katie Potter
I am going to fight with the smoking advocates for a second here. I want everyone to realize something really important about quitting smoking. It’s totally possible. There is so much information out there about how terribly addictive smoking is and how many people aren’t actually able to quit. While this might be true, I am worried that people might understand it to mean that they are totally screwed when it comes to smoking. The thing is, you can use that information as a resource to help yourself understand the challenge of quitting smoking. But it should not actually change your ideas about quitting smoking.
In other words, it’s one-hundred-percent possible to quit smoking. I am actually on my fifth-week as a non-smoker. Shocking, I know. I wrote all these articles about health-related ideas and what not, meanwhile I was sneaking off to have a cigarette! My understanding of it is that I started when I was a teenager in high-school. To me, smoking was a “coming of age” act, and fit in well with my rebel-persona. But as time went by and I have been growing and changing, smoking no longer fits in with my life. That’s when and why I had to face the addiction, habit and also the side of me that loved smoking.
What you have to realize is to quit smoking isn’t just simply putting down a pack and never picking it up again. A smoker has that in their identity. To be a smoker, it becomes part of yourself. So to quit that is to, in a strong way, have to redefine oneself, or at least part of oneself. It’s a big change for anyone to make. But it’s also a change anyone can and should make.
If you are a smoker, think about yourself five years from now. Imagine yourself, and if you are still smoking without plans to quit, then you need to imagine yourself five years from now as a smoker. Make sure you are being realistic — don’t leave out the yellowing teeth and fingernails, the drying skin, the raspy breath and cough. See yourself as a little tired and worn out, even if you are enjoying your life, because smoking is, in essence, making you sick. It’s basically a self-inflicted terminal disease!
Does that sound good to you? Or do you like the idea of looking back, five years from now, saying “I quit smoking five years ago.” Can you imagine how great that will feel! Because like I said, quitting once you’ve started is no easy task. Staying a non-smoker for longer amounts of time is probably the real task at hand (I’m only at 5 weeks so I can’t tell you much about the long term other than I know that I can’t have even one at any point.)
So if you think you need to quit smoking, (which you do) then start doing some research. Get to know nicotine, and check out pictures of a smoker’s lungs. Also, a big thing that helped me was to feel the truth of every cigarette. That means actually feeling your body while you smoke and after you smoke. Know exactly what you are doing to yourself (poisoning) yourself as you inhale. Of course that will make your cigs much less enjoyable … but will also make it much easier to quit!
And as always, use any and all resources available to you. Books, support systems, other people who have quit are all great places to go for help. Focus on what you want and you’ll get there. I know you can do it!
