To those who don't smoke: BEWARE!! STAY AWAY!!!
I salute anyone who's beat those things... I've done it before, for four years, and I will do it again (when, I'm not sure).
Thinking about the money definitely helps (let's face it, any smoker is in denial about the larger health issues). I'm getting to the point where I almost make the leap just as I'm about to lay down my money (and the price is going up around here!). I realize "Hell, I'm about to buy these things that do nothing for me except take away the craving left by the previous one... how stupid is that?" :-/
But it ain't easy. They are addictive, and the little rituals of smoking become deeply ingrained.
Like hawking up phlegm in the morning, and having yellow teeth and fingers... gosh, I'll really miss that.
Actually, kicking the nicotine really is the easy part... although I do recall two weeks of being dizzy from the sudden doubling of free oxygen in my blood, having a metallic taste in my mouth, and oh yeah, feeling like my skeleton was about to claw its way out of my body and go rattling down to the gas station to buy some smokes.
The
really hard part is years- yes, years- of sitting there with that first cup of coffee in the morning, or a fine alcoholic beverage, or pushing back from the table after a fine meal, and wanting to smoke so badly you'd kill a kitten with your bare hands so you could just have one little puff.
It takes a long time to adjust; it's like losing a limb, I think.
But of course, it's all in your head. Nicotine casts its spell quickly and very effectively, but it gets flushed out of your body quickly. It's not like heroin, which requires some serious effort to get addicted to, but actually alters your cell chemistry. I know people who've kicked heroin, and they laugh at nicotine "withdrawal" stories.
Best advice I've ever heard regarding quitting cigarettes is in the video linked below... the key is to confront the big myths about quitting, using simple logic.
The thing he says that resonates most with me is "no smoker ever decided to become a smoker", even though most of us can recall our first cigarette quite vividly. It's not a conscious choice, and kicking the habit requires you to remember that. Willpower really isn't the key, even though it begins with a willful choice (like heeding this advice instead of promoting it while still smoking, LOL).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgvkSoYGeS4
