|
|
What Is The Natural Means To Stop Smoking? - "Quit Smoking 101"
The author of the article has been a life long smoker from Europe. After moving to the US, and being detected with asthma, nearing her middle age, she was trying to quit smoking approximately on everyday basis, but all of the efforts miserably did not succeed. Nicotine gum and patches didn't work for her, so she contacted her surgeon, who joined her in a program and prescribed pills, but that didn't her her quit smoking either. What she discovered was that a severe change of schedule worked best in her case. Something humorous approach to a quite serious issue suggests that everyone have to get what works efficiently for them, as popular "one size fits all" approach never makes everybody happy.
In the first person: I was born 40 something years ago 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 necessary part of cultural habits, meeting people, and having fun. For a culture that lives on lanes full of cafes, smoking is not optional, it's nearly necessary.
I was 13 when I got addicted on cigarettes, enough to begin budgeting part of my everyday allowance for cigarettes. Mind you, I wasn't an outcast, a straight A learner, from a wealthy academic family, I was really trying to fit in. At that point, and even many years later, trying to stop smoking was not even in the back of my mind. It will take me 30 more years to reach to that point.
Novelist by occupation, smoking was very much a part of my everyday routine. It was precisely 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 ensued. They were not only of social nature any more; they became a health concern too. Not merely did I move to the Bay Area, California, which was the undoubted leader in the witch search for smokers, I was analyzed with asthma.
I could say from that moment on, 15 years ago, I was trying to quit smoking on a daily basis. There was already 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 tougher 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, alas, it's California, the climate is pleasant year around, so we both finished up merely sleeping in the house, while living, eating, having friends over on the back yard patio. It's astounding with how much yard work you can spend - our postage stamp sized back yard became more similar to jungle with heirloom tomatoes, tea roses, sweet peas, and citrus trees.
I lastly quit smoking cold turkey. Two years afterward, with a new lease on life, I'm proud to say - I haven't had a cigarette ever since. I realize it very well: once an addict, forever an addict and I had my share of night sweats, nightmares, inevitable shivers, unmanageable crying. But I can all the time say it was resulted by my divorce drama, not nicotine. Every now and then, during lunch break in the fiscal district, I stop by someone smoking in front of their office building. Second hand smoke still smells so good.
|
More Articles
Blogroll
|
