Quitting Smoking

“Quitting smoking is easy, I have done it a thousand times” - Mark Twain

Seven years of smoking experience has indeed proved to me that quitting smoking is indeed very easy. I may not have done it a thousand times like Mark Twain, but I have definitely done it more than 50 times. Needless to say, quitting smoking is not a problem, refraining from smoking is. The question then really is how do you prevent yourself from relapsing? In this essay, I will describe the approach I have taken to refrain from smoking.

First and foremost, there is a need for willpower. Willpower to quit smoking arises only after one has identified a reason to quit smoking. More importantly, this reason should be personal after which the determination to not smoke holds ground. Yes, there are a million different health reasons to quit smoking, yes, every cigarette pack comes in with a statuary warning and some countries require pictures of nasty diseases to be stuck on cigarette packs while some countries are considering removing the brand image. These reasons don’t hold any value, evident from the thousands of doctors or medical students that you see smoking around. A reason as simple as “my mom would kill me if she found out” will have a greater value, if it really means something to you. For me there were quite a few reasons, the most important one being my reduction in stamina. I started feeling like I would be out of breath very soon if I needed to do any athletics. Then, I started getting annoyed by me having to clear my throat so often, and it was especially annoying during exams in a quiet lecture hall. I also realized that for quite a few years, I have not been able to taste food properly and that my mouth is always bitter. In a nutshell, I was able to find reasons that related to me personally.

The second step was to think about these reasons and to make it magnanimous. I sometimes would not smoke for half a day and realized that it made a huge difference and I felt much more alert and active. I then decided that I would definitely quit. So, I chose a day that would be the end of it. I made sure it wasn’t around the time of any exams or stressful situations so that I would not feel tempted to smoke. (BTW, smoking does not relieve stress, it just feels like it does when you haven’t seen the other side). When the day came, I was ready to quit cold turkey. At this time, I should mention that I think only quitting cold turkey works for me. The whole idea of slowly cutting down and then stopping never worked for me, and if it works for you, good for you! So, from smoking a pack a day, I was down to smoking nothing.

The first day I didn’t feel like smoking at all because the day before I was out with a few friends and had smoked a lot so I was still feeling disgusted. However, the next day, I started thinking about a cigarette again. As soon as it came to my mind, I was convince myself that it wasn’t going to be worth it and would only think about how disgusted I was feeling yesterday and how good I was feeling today (other than the times I would think about a cigarette). Moreover, I made sure that I did not have any cigarettes lying around in my place so, I could not get hold of one right away. However, I knew that this strategy would not last long. I then bought some nicotine gums, which I would chew on whenever I had a craving for cigarettes. I had a stock for about a week. By the end of the week, smoking was completely out of my mind and I also stopped using the nicotine gum. However, I was still avoiding hanging around smokers. By the end of two weeks now, I am a proud non-smoker who feels healthy and full of energy. All foods taste better and the smell of cigarettes disgusts me.

As concluding remarks, I should stress that quitting smoking is very easy. But to refrain yourself from starting again, you should be serious and should have made a realization that you really do want to stop because of this reason. After you have made that realization, tailor your strategy according to what you think will work for you. If you have a strong will power, you can stop today and never want a cigarette from tomorrow. If you don’t have a strong willpower, you might want to try means to limit your access to cigarettes. Another thing to try is to make sure that you don’t have any friends that would just give you a cigarette when you ask for one. You should ask all your friends to not give you any cigarette. Also (as a side not), quitting in a group has its merit and demerit. While quitting as a group can help, if everyone involved is serious, it will do more harm if you are more serious and the other people are just in it because they want to quit without having found a personal reason.

However, I should stress also that there is no universal method to make this happen. I personally believe that people who want to quit will at some point in their life find a reason to do so. I just hope it is sooner than later.

By: An Education City Residence Hall Student