30+ years ago I used to know a projectionist who chain-smoked 4-5 packs a day + gallons of black coffee; a habit that began in the military. His wife chain-smoked too. She suddenly caved in with terminal cancer and not too long after died in great agony in his arms in a hospital bed. The shock of this caused him to immediately quit 100%, and two weeks later he was telling how much better food tasted.

He has never smoked again.

Of my doctor/investor friends, the one who is "Certified in the treatment of chemical dependency" is away on a trip to the Greek islands, thus the precise facts I can offer at this instant are limited. However, I can supply the following...

Nicotine is waaaaaaaaaay up on what is called the "addiction scale." It is equally as bad or worse than heroin or alcohol addition [that's right, plain old booze!] This is why people who have one or more of these monkeys riding on their backs have such a difficult time quitting. To say nothing of the illogic in why heroin and marijuana are unlawful prohibited substances, yet alcohol and tobacco are OK. The explanation of this is simple -- the majority of both houses of our US Congress is comprised of bag men who take money under the table [oops, sorry, Political Contributions!] in exchange for passing laws written by Big Bu$$$$iness. There are good people in Congress, but a majority is all it takes for the evil to prevail.

In order to quit, the first step is you must have decided you REALLY WANT TO, and be prepared to suffer a little distress although with luck it could go real smooth.

Most cities of any size have a community health center or outpatient clinic where free programs are offered to help people quit. Seek out one of these and attend a free intro meeting.

One of the most successful devices recently introduced is a little gizmo which looks like a cigarette, available by prescription only. The addict snaps in a a nicotine capsule which come in 3 different strengths. Your doctor will decide what level to start you at. This permits the addict [you] to inhale and obtain the necessary nicotine fix as though you were actually smoking, with the added advantage that you immediately become socially acceptable in all situations as there is no smoke... thus you don't pollute the air which others have to breathe and deposits of the noxious substances don't build up in sensitive equipment such as laser printers or videotape machines of all kinds.

Thus, the cigarette replacement is a nicotine delivery system virtually exactly the same as the original produced by Big Bu$$$iness for the purpose of poisoning Americans and other victims world-wide.

With this device your doctor will also prescribe one of several drugs which have proven very effective to quickly reduce the "craving." The family of medications available includes anti-depressants. Your doctor has the expertise to determine what's best for your specific circumstances. It is the combination of the two things that has worked in countless "hard-core" cases of victims who have tried everything else without success, most particularly the patch.
It's a tapering-off process. Some patients graduate past the cigarette substitute device in a few-10 days, others may take longer. The medication might continue for some weeks as is needed.

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This seems to me very hypocritical. Either smoking is acceptable and therefore tobacco should not be taxed any more heavily than (for example) alcohol, or it's not and should be outlawed.

Personally, I'd outlaw it. The main reason why is that smoking not only harms the person doing it, it harms others as well and to a far greater extent than any other unhealthy habit. Smoking generates smoke, and for other people to breathe that smoke in has the potential to damage their health. And it's very difficult for a non-smoker to avoid this and still have a life. For example, if I go to the pub with four friends, two of whom smoke and suggest that we sit in the no smoking area, the two won't have it and so either I spend the evening by myself or put up with the smoke. A teetotaller spending an evening with people who drink, on the other hand, is not going to be harmed in any way. That's what makes tobacco a special case.

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I stopped about 18 months ago, it looks like it's permanent, & nobody can be more surprised than me. I had been trying to quit for decades.

Probably the big thing which turned the switch for me was when I was smoking a cigarette, & this older guy I knew walked by & said, "You still smoke?"

So I was bracing for the damn anti-smoking lecture, & he said, "Man, I loved those things."

There you go, the first honest ex-smoker I'd met, & it was a revelation. Most people I knew who'd quit were now militantly anti-smoking & said weird things like "Those things are nasty! I'm glad I quit! I hate those things" which just reflected a massive fiction they had to create for themselves to motivate themselves. But I've never had much capacity for self-delusion, & probably most head types don't.

The first 3 months of cold turkey were just skin-crawling, hand shaking, unable to concentrate or even think months, but by 6 months it was all pretty much over. I think that if during that time I had to really be in a situation that required constant type A concentration & head work, I couldn't have done it. Also, I think the age when quitting probably has a lot to do with it: when you're older, you're getting more used to just having to not do things you used to enjoy & the denial of fun stuff is less of a problem. Personality type is a big player too: At a college campus in Florida in the mid-1980's, I walked out of the building with the business & economics classes; & lit up a little self consciously noticing there were almost *no* cigarette butts in the ashcans or on the ground. But over in front of the humanities building, the ground was *carpeted* in butts. So, head-wise, it's like we all know: Every installation is different.

Anybody who *thinks* about smoking should stop & consider the fact that (to statistical significance) *everyone* who smokes winds up desperately trying to quit. Certainly by age 30, that number becomes about 99%. I would never have wanted or been able to quit in my early 20s; I wish I'd never have started.

Falling off the wagon is sort of uniform, though. It seems generally that folks get so pounded by the withdrawal that it becomes impossible to remember why they were so violently compelled to do something as radical as to quit. I wrote down & freakin carried in my watch pocket the list of reasons I had to quit: tired of feeling crappy, the need to have another cigarette one after another, & getting less enjoyment from them, smoking was getting to be nothing more than propping up the addiction. When the craving became close to falling off the wagon, I remembered the list & remembered that the falling-off-the-wagon cigarette really wouldn't give me much, but would leave me with a pack of cigarettes left to smoke one after the other while not enjoying them much, & being back to having to start all over again.

Some people quit for months or years then start again; those people seem to then never be able to stop again. Everybody seems to fail on initial, shorter-term attempts (I'd never made it past a couple of days before), but some people really berate themselves for the failure. I think the best approach is to just look at the numbers & see that it takes many attempts (like threading a needle) & go ahead & do what folks do anyway - try again the next time it feels like you've got a good shot at it. It seems generally that folks get so pounded by the withdrawal that it becomes impossible to remember why they wanted to quit. I wrote down & freakin carried in my watch pocket the list of reasons I had to quit: tired of feeling crappy, the need to have another cigarette one after another, & not getting much out of them anymore except propping up the addiction.

DAMN those things were good. I hang around smokers, because I know & am around a lot of that personality type, but I also sort of pull over now & enjoy a bit of 2nd hand smoke from strangers. I don't think anyone who depends on rationality & accuracy can delude themselves about the fact that they're giving up something that is in many ways very enjoyable, often very wonderful, & itself tends to bring nifty extras like nice work breaks & self-rewards, & enjoyable & constructive moments of introspection.

After I quit, I began to realize that I could remember individual smoke breaks, & they were almost always really nice memories. Like after really tough shows that were long, hard, down-to the-wire painful sweat jobs to set up & run, & continued to be the kind that you had to stay late to get everything straightened out like it should be. Like rough, grinding nights in Mobile that dragged on until morning, & when it finally got to the point on breakdown when I got the chance to put the makeup table on "crawl", walk out on the fire escape, light a cigarette, stop for a second & let the world go deep focus, & notice the sun coming up & the fog starting to roll in and get a little perspective on things.

http://www.geocities.com/rotoflex/misc/urns.htm

I really miss moments like that, & had an incredible moment of envy just yesterday when I saw a guy walk up to a railing downtown, light a cigarette, & look up at the skyline.

But I really, really like having that damn monkey off my back. You can't BELIEVE the feeling of liberation.

It has been 1158 days since the last post.

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