Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.
I quit smoking more than 45 years ago; before it was known to be bad for your health.
It wasn’t until 1964 that the surgeon
general’s famous report linked smoking to cancer.
The tobacco industry refuted it for years.
I only started smoking because I heard that drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes would curb your appetite.
I quit smoking because I couldn’t stand the thought of being addicted to something.
I couldn’t even sleep all night without waking for a cigarette.
I would wake, light up, smoke, go back to sleep.
Once I fell asleep with a lighted cigarette in my hand.
It fell into the bedspread lying on the floor.
The bedspread caught fire.
I woke because of the smoke.
I grabbed the bedspread, ran to the bathroom, threw it in the tub and turned on the shower to kill the flames.
I turned on the attic fan to clear the smoke.
I went back to bed.
Wait. There’s more.
I woke again because of smoke.
The bedspread in the tub had embers that blazed and caught the shower curtain on fire!
I jerked the shower curtain down into the tub with the bedspread.
I turned the shower on again and waited until both were under water before going back to bed.
Even that did not stop me from smoking.
“Nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin”, the attorney general’s 1988 report says.
Eventually, I had to face the fact that I was addicted.
I knew I had to kick the habit.
Knowing how incredibly hard it would be, I made a plan.
I picked a day a month away to quit.
Waiting made me almost look forward to that day; the day I could finally quit.
I read that you needed to get away from everything that triggered your need to smoke.
I took a two week vacation from my job where smoking was widespread.
We even smoked at our desks while working!
I went to stay with a friend in a different city to get away from triggers at home.
I quit cold turkey.
“What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”
The Heart Association published in 2018 that “nicotine is just as hard or harder to quit than heroin.”
After two weeks my body was free of nicotine, but for at least a year after quitting, I knew that if I took even one ‘drag’ off a cigarette it would all be over.
I’m proud that I quit the ridiculous, dangerous and expensive habit of smoking.
When I see how expensive cigarettes are today, I gasp.
Whenever I’m considering doing something extravagant, I say to myself, “Yeah, but think how much money I saved by not smoking all these years” and then I do it!
I always give myself permission to be extravagant. Wouldn’t you?