Quitting Smoking Is Like Rolling In The Mud

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(I admit it, the picture’s ridiculous, but it was too funny to pass up!)

Did you ever play in the rain or roll around in the mud when you were a kid? It’s fun, but when you get older you realize something: Even though you’d like to go out there and play in the mud, it’s going to be a real pain in the ass afterwards when you have to clean yourself off and wash your shoes with a toothbrush. That’s kind of what it’s like to quit smoking; it sounds great, but as soon as you start you can’t stop thinking about how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be over the following months and years. You have moments of doubt when you wonder if it’s even worth the struggle. The only thing is, this isn’t your typical mud; rolling around in this mud quite possibly could save your life, and if that’s too long-term for you, you’ll feel a hell of a lot better when you’re not hacking up a lung every morning. So here’s an update on my progress so far…

If you’re a regular reader here at my personal development blog, you probably already know that I’ve decided to take the big leap from smoker to non-smoker. Ahhhh, I can feel my lungs healing as we speak! I decided to quit smoking exactly a week ago and I’m finding it’s difficult, but no more so than I originally thought; I have to say, I’ve had a little help.

The Social Pressure

I rent a room with a family that hates smoking; luckily they’re pretty good friends of mine, so they never gave me much flak about it in the past aside from the occasional joke hinting at the fact that they don’t like cigarettes. Scott, the dad, is really against it as he grew up with both of his parents smoking and, I believe, lost a close family member to lung cancer as a result of smoking. Last week, Scott and I were talking and he mentioned how he and his wife would prefer it if I didn’t smoke in around the kids, which I agree with, but haven’t been very vigilant with it. Anyway, last Sunday I told him I’d quit in two weeks. Even though they never gave me any flak about it before, once I told them I was quitting, they started watching my every move; I knew they just couldn’t wait to call me out on it. The best way to get rid of a habit is to seek it’s presence out in every nook and cranny of your life and eliminate it entirely, so this family has provided me with a good deal of social pressure to stick to my word and actually quit.

The Patch

I also bought the nicotine patch; Mother of God, has that been a lifesaver! It’s the easiest thing in the world; every morning after my shower I just replace it with a new one, that’s it. From what I gathered while I was trying to figure out which version of the patch to buy, it comes in 3 stages. Stage 1 is for people who smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day and Stage 2 is for those who smoke less than 10 cigarettes a day. Stage 3 seems to be just a final “weening” stage no matter how much you smoke. I smoke 10 a day and I chose to start on Stage 2 because I’m impatient.

Not only has the patch helped me overcome any physical addiction I had to smoking, but I used to smoke about a pack every other day, and the patch is costing me less money than smoking! I bought the generic Target brand at one of the Target stores nearby with a pharmacy; it’s about $30 for a 2-week supply in the store when I was spending around $35 every 2-weeks buying cigarettes, plus it’s over-the-counter. I was going to try it anyway, but at that price, there’s no reason you shouldn’t give it a shot if you’re a smoker.

Meditation

I’m also meditating, and like I said in a previous post, it’s more of a mid-term strategy as its effects usually aren’t realized for a month or two at least. I’ve used meditation in the past as a confidence-building tool and it’s worked incredibly well. Admittedly, I’ve been slacking on the meditation; I’ve only done it a couple times in the past week, so that’s something I really need to focus on in the coming weeks because it can be incredibly powerful.

Results

So how have I been doing so far? Great! I only smoked 1 cigarette in the past week, and that was because of a stressful business situation on day 2, so I’ll forgive myself for that. The first day was difficult, even with the patch. Learn from my mistake, if you’re going to use the patch, it takes a few hours to kick in, so if you put it on in the morning on day one, you’ll be craving a smoke the whole morning. So, I suffered a bit that first morning, but I got rid of all my cigarettes so I was out of luck; plus, because of some minor automobile registration issues, the only way to get more would have been to ask the family I live with for a ride to the store, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to show weakness in that way after I told them I’d quit. After the first morning the physical cravings were gone completely and haven’t come back since. The mental addiction is still there, however; I still think about how nice it would be to have a smoke, especially after meals or with my coffee in the morning, but it’s not that “I have to find another cigarette or I’ll pull my eyes out” feeling. The only real way to get through the mental addiction is going to be with time and meditation; both of which work to open up the door to convince my subconscious that smoking is terrible and disgusting, an attitude I’m sure I’ll need for the first several months after I’m off the patch.

Week 2, here I come!

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