Quitting Cigarettes is Easy...... NOT

Have you ever heard the joke about the smoker bragging about how easy it is to quit the habit. "I've done it hundreds of times" he said. Well if quitting was easy you would only have to do it once. For most folks quitting cigarettes is an ordeal. It is tough. It puts you through physical and mental anguish. You don't feel good when you are withdrawing from nicotine. You can get depressed. After all you are losing something that has become a part of you for quite some time. Something that has calmed your nerves when they felt frayed. Something that has helped you cope when times were tough. Something that has helped you celebrate the good times. Something that has kept you company when no one was around. Something that seems to go naturally with other addictive things like alcoholic beverages or coffee. Yes, there is nothing like a cigarette and a cup of coffee to get the bowels going first thing in the morning.

Cigarettes are great....... until they injure or kill you.

They start to do damage from the very first puff. Dry, hot chemical containing smoke and healthy mouths, windpipes and lungs don't mix. Something is eventually going to give. If it is not cancer of the lungs, or cancer of the pink mucous membranes of the mouth and larnyx, it might be emphysema related decay and clogging of the lungs. If that stuff doesn't get ya, maybe heart disease or stroke will.

We all are going to die of something anyways

Pray to god you die in a car accident or are swiftly murdered. Dying of cigarette related disease is definitely not for wimps. I have been working in a nursing home for 6 years. I have seen some wonderful people waste away and die from both heart disease and lung disease. Terminal smoking related illness is a tough row to hoe. Sometimes the treatments for these diseases that prolong your life for a while, put you thru hell as well. If your "lucky" these treatments will buy you some more time on earth. Use this time wisely. You won't be cured. But again, you may be able to "buy some time". The typical triple heart by-pass surgery can run you from $60,000 and up..... Not counting the thousands of dollars spent on tests, therapy and medications after surgery.

How Mom Quit Smoking.

It was heart disease that forced my Mom to stop smoking. She was 57 years old. She was at work one day and started to feel lousy. She went to the restroom to get herself together and she collapsed. Luckily someone noticed right away and called 911. Mom had a heart attack. She spent the next two months in the hospital. She was so sick and heavily medicated, withdrawing from nicotine was easy for her. Being in a hospital she couldn't smoke even if she wanted to. Mom was ready to quit. 3 clogged up arteries was incentive enough.

Heart by-pass surgery is not a piece of cake or a walk in the park. I will never forget the day Mom came out of surgery. Shortly after the by-pass operation I was allowed to go see her in the intensive care unit. What I saw brought tears to my eyes... made my bottom lip quiver... made me feel deep sorrow.... Mom looked like she had the living shit beat out of her. Her color did not look natural. Her body was all puffed and swelled up. She had tubes sticking in and out of her nose and various other parts of her body. She was hooked up to various pieces of machinery. The most scary thing of all was the respirator that was mechanically assisting her breathing. You could hear the machine filling her lungs with life giving oxygen and see her chest expanding as the respirators tubes flexed under the pressure. You could hear the machine exhale for her and see her chest collapse as the tubes flexed again as the pressure was relieved. All the while knowing that your Mom's breastbone had been split open so Doctors could get to her heart cavity. Knowing that your Mom's body temperature had been reduced, her heart was stopped, her arteries were sliced and replaced with ones from her legs. She was at great risk of a stroke or a bad reaction to the cocktail of drugs circulating thru her body. Seeing Mom laying there in such condition, personally brought it home to me, how fragile life can be. How precious it is. How much I would miss my Mom if she was gone. How I had better quit my own smoking habit before it happens to me. How, It is bad enough putting your self thru hell as the result of cigarette addiction, but putting your own kids thru the hell of seeing a parent laying there helpless, near death and hooked up to the eeriest sounding machinery. No, I am not gonna put my kids thru that........

Cold Turkey....

After Mom's triple by-pass I decided it was time to attempt quitting again. I crushed the 3 cigarettes I had left in my last pack that night and swore I would not smoke again. I woke up the next morning still motivated and managed to make it thru the whole day with out a smoke. The second morning I didn't want to get out of bed. I felt lethargic and depressed. My brain felt as though It was in a fog. I had trouble focusing my thoughts. I felt like I was physically and mentally ill. "How can I go to work this way, feeling like this", I said to my self. I had gone "cold turkey" a few times years ago and briefly quit smoking but never felt this lousy. Sure I had the "heebie jeebies" ,but nothing as bad as this. This is the worst case of mental anguish I have ever had. Is it because I have smoked for so many years? I had changed to the "light" brands of cigarettes several years ago. I would have thought that it would be easier to quit. Damn these cigarettes and the people who make and sell them. How can it possibly be legal to get people so hopelessly hooked on such a horrible thing. I knew the only thing that was going to help me rejoin the human race, so I could go to work and function at an acceptable level, was a cigarette....

My hands trembled as I drove to the cigarette store. Am I doomed to be a smoker the rest of my life? It is not easy being a smoker in this day and age. You are banished to huddle outside in the cold with the other smokers for a cigarette break. You have a choice, will I have some lunch, or a few cigarettes? You can skip lunch, but you can't skip a cig break. Non smokers often look down upon the hapless smoker, kind of like a second class citizen, a lower form of life. Like cigarette smokers are ignorant, inconsiderate losers.

When I lit up that cigarette after 38 smoke free hours, I immediately felt a gush of relief from my withdrawal symptoms. It felt so good to inhale that cigarette smoke and feel the nicotine do it's evil work. I felt giddy with the knowledge that my that my depression was lifting. I also felt a bit dizzy, like that first time I inhaled a cigarette. I failed again. At least this time I told my wife I was going to buy a pack. In the past I tried to hide my relapses. It sucks having to admit your lack of will power, your defeat, your human weakness. Mom was hoping that both me and my sister would quit, so we wouldn't have to go thru the hell that she did. I will try again.....

The Patch...

"The Patch", the transdermil nicotine delivery system, helped me to finally quit. I had been seeing the commercials on TV about these patches you stick to your skin. They are supposed to slowly release nicotine into your system to cut down on the withdrawal symptoms. The theory is that you can break yourself of the mechanical motions of smoking easier if you are not abruptly cutting off your supply of nicotine. The patch allows your mind to think rationally while you get out of the habit of lighting up, inhaling and going thru the usual rituals of smoking. The patch allows you to focus your mind on the ultimate goal, the goal of taking deep, full breaths of FRESH air. The goal of becoming an ex-smoker. Yes, the patch has given me a realistic chance at finally quitting the smoking habit and my family the opportunity of living in a smoke free environment. Even If I have to stay on these patches for a couple of months, surely it is better than inhaling smoke into the lungs. 35 to 40 cigarettes a day is alot of smoke. My body is going to be absolutly thrilled to be done with that huge volume of hot toxic gasses.

Where you first apply the nicotine patch, you get a mild burning or itching sensation within 20 minutes. That is the nicotine drug being absorbed into your skin. Shortly afterwards the burning stops, and you begin to get a "feeling of well being" as the nicotine works its way into the appropriate receptors of your brain. I really got a sense of how powerful a drug nicotine really is. I am not really addicted to the act of smoking the tobacco... the puffing, the inhaling, the exhaling. I am addicted to the nicotine in the tobacco. The act of smoking merely delivers the dose of nicotine that my body and mind so badly craves. I was finally able to clearly seperate the two intertwining actions... the ritual of smoking and the chemical addiction. I was given a really good chance to at last break this horrible habit. I vowed not to blow it this time.

Getting Off the Patch

One of the premises of the patch is to decrease your dosage of nicotine gradually, by going to weaker patches with smaller doses of nicotine. In essence, weaning yourself off from nicotine in increments so you don't notice any big changes. This greatly reduces the withdrawal symptoms and allows you to concentrate on a life without smoking. I remember looking forward to the prospect of taking bike rides with my children without the huffing and puffing and the breathless feeling. I felt good that my kids and my wife were not being forced to hang around with a chronic smoker any more. I could see a future where I didn't have to worry about if I could smoke where ever I went. I was excited by the prospect of now being able to afford that multi-media computer system that the kids and I so desperately wanted. I was gratified by the genuine happiness of my Mom, she was proud I could quit smoking before it was too late.

Yes... Success

Well I weaned my self off from the patch within a month, It was easier than I thought it would be. I had none of the horrible cold turkey symptons and I was broken of the mechanical motions of smoking. I was eager to stop spending money on patches and put the savings into a computer payment. The computer was a reward for breaking the cigarette addiction. And it is my solution to the problem that ex-smokers have of... "what do I do with my hands". I can truly say that the "nicotine patch" saved my life. It was the help that I needed to minimize the "heebie jeebies" so I could finally become free of the "demon nicotine". It is a product that I can whole heartily endorse as a useful tool to overcome cigarette addiction. Like any useful tool, there is a technique to its proper use.... YOU NEED THE DESIRE TO QUIT. You have to admit to yourself, you're an addict and you need help. Whether that help comes from religion, sheer determination or in my case "the patch", it is that vision of being smoke free, being healthy, and being able to take deep, clear breaths of fresh air, that will ultimately contribute to your success. Good luck with your quit smoking endeavors. Don't be afraid you will fail, Just keep trying and you will succeed.