Guilty pleasure: How and why different people quit smoking
One way or another everyone knows about the dangers of smoking:Proves the link components of cigarette smoke with a variety of malignant tumors, severe respiratory diseases and other systems; At least 80% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking. Yet, the terrible inscriptions on cigarette packs and the awareness of the harm done to oneself are often not enough to stop smoking. The fact is that the habit itself is quite intrusive, and in the pleasure that a smoker, no matter how cool, gets, and the fact that smoking is a practical entourage, and even a way of communication, which is difficult to refuse. We asked those who managed to stop smoking, how and why they did it and how they felt in the process.
I am twenty-five years old, almost half of which I have smoked, and the last couple of years have been a half to two packs a day. I loved to do this, adored the smell of cigarettes, and even now it does not repel me. I had two unsuccessful attempts to quit: both times I was inspired, read the book of Allen Carr, smoked the last cigarette ... and after a couple of hours one more, and that was all.
About three years ago I began to go to the gym, but even there smoking did not bother. But a year ago, with my friends, I was fascinated by the “Race of Heroes” and “Reebok Become a Man” competitions - now I understand that this helped me a lot. Once we arrived at the race with crossfit assignments, and after a couple of kilometers I felt bad. Everything hurt, darkened before the eyes, from the voices of friends it became even worse, the stomach twisted, and there was still a whole bunch of special effects. In general, it seemed to me that I would die. The next day I woke up from the wild pain under the ribs, in my lungs, it was painful to breathe, it was painful to move, I smoked a couple of cigarettes, and slept the rest of the day, it was Sunday. On Monday, I woke up with the thought that I would not smoke any more cigarettes, I said to myself: “We’re done with this, it’s not enough to suffer so much because of some cigarettes”.
It was hard the first week, but I realized that I had no nicotine addiction. There was a terrible lack of a hand-to-mouth movement, I cried, broke down and did not control my mood. But the decision was made. Now, half a year, as I do not smoke, and I try to remove the consequences that abound: despite the fact that I am by nature thin and it is extremely difficult for me to gain weight, I gained 12 kilograms. I did not eat more, just the metabolism has changed a lot. All this time, I have inflammations on my face, from which nothing helps, my whole forehead in a small rash. But I hope everything will return to normal soon. The main thing - I do not smoke now (and sometimes it seems that I have never smoked).
If you don’t know if it’s time to quit, try to say publicly how many years you smoke. If you are afraid of the figure itself - it's time. I always loved to smoke - on the balcony and on the embankment, after lunch and after the plane, in a hammock and on the beach, with coffee and wine, at work and with a book. However, over the years, smoking has become a completely meaningless neurosis, which prevented me from living. Successfully, a month ago I broke my leg and went to the hospital. It is impossible to smoke, it is impossible to walk, but the dense fog of painkillers helps not to be nervous. I asked all cigarettes, ashtrays and lighters to be thrown out of my house so that there was no choice.
My friend and colleague Philip Mironov helped me most of all - he became a runner himself and successfully quit smoking a year and a half ago. First, they send me motivating horror stories: "Katka, break! Sigi is really disgusting, and you have to hate yourself in them and them in yourself." Secondly, he advised me a brilliant application Kwit - as soon as you want to smoke, you just check in it, and it becomes easier; gamification even turns it into a fun game. Plus, it sends friendly notices like "Your skin looks healthier" and "The voice is getting thinner," and the obvious, but adequate advice: drink more, sleep more. I also watch spirit-lifting videos about how my life is improving right now.
I have not yet passed the test of summer terraces, travels and beaches, but I have already written one hundred statuses in the style “I am vegan” on Facebook. Thus, several thousand people with whom I am friends (and smoked with many) were warned in time that I could not offer this more.
Cigarettes haunted me from my very childhood: in my family of obsessed asylum-makers, smoking was not even discussed, but at night I regularly dreamed that I was smoking, and the smell of tobacco from passers-by caused delight. You can see the Freudian symbols in this, and you can believe the doctors, who believe that some people have a greater tendency to addictions than others; however, those relatives with whom I am familiar, were dependent perhaps on the laying of the track. Whatever it was, at sixteen, having gone to England for the summer, I realized a long-standing dream and lit a cigarette. My already unremarkable growth stopped forever, and I signed up to smell tobacco for the next ten years.
Smoking for me has always been a social history: cigarettes did not reassure me as shown in the movies, but calmed down the anxiety of communication - it was easier and more pleasant to discuss everything in the smoking room, from work to personal life. I liked the ritual of the process, but with every cigarette I thought about death; I still could not stop - due to the peculiarities of the psyche, it was very difficult for me to give up dependence. I tried to move from strong to light, from lungs to months of withdrawal, but every time I broke down. The most difficult thing was to fill the hole in the place of the lost mechanics - so a decade later I switched to electronic cigarettes. I clicked them like seeds: they do not feel dizzy, so you can smoke even a whole (equal to a couple of packs, or something) in a volley.
Friends laughed at the "pen" with a characteristic cap, but it did not offend me at all; at some point I decided that it would be much easier for me if I did not think about cancer dying every day. As psychologists like to repeat, if a person does not want to be cured himself, there will be no sense - I believe that unless you yourself feel that you need to quit for some reason, then you will not succeed. It is possible to print rotten lungs on packs as much as you like - until you yourself begin to be fully aware that they don’t attract you, the scary picture will remain an abstract horror story. I smoked an electronic cigarette for a couple of months, and then I just forgot about it: I had disaccustomed myself from the ritual, and my body chemistry came to a little awake. I can’t remember exactly how much I do not smoke - in the summer it will be about two years; My recipe turned out to be the most difficult and simple at the same time: I decided that it gave me more grief than joy — and the vap helped make the transition painless.
I started smoking in the seventh grade and did not stop for nineteen years. I smoked an average of a pack of cigarettes a day and never tried to quit. There were some small throwing attempts, but they did not last longer than a week. Two and a half years ago, I fell ill with a severe sore throat and lain in bed for five days with a sore throat and temperature. Apparently, during this time was nicotine breaking. When I recovered, I simply did not buy a new pack.
At that moment I was hard at running, and smoking really bothered me. The “Quit smoking calendar” helped a lot, which was approved by WHO and tells us step by step what happens to the body and what changes to expect. I had everything exactly on the calendar: and new smells, and dreams, and periods of wanting cigarettes. Therefore, I was warned and armed. Physically and mentally, I did not suffer, although there were small moments when I wanted to smoke. After throwing, I gained seven kilograms in weight, but this is fixable.
I started smoking at age 18, as a student. Like many, the reason was in the unfortunate first love (read, in the age brainlessness), but despite the fact that I made the decision, being an adult adult, I myself was not proud that I began to smoke. On the one hand, I liked the process, liked the taste of tobacco, liked the social element in smoking, and on the other, after a while I realized that smoking brings me more irritation than pleasure.
I still liked the process and taste of tobacco, but all the "side effects" began to enrage me naturally. First of all, the smell, which was ingrained in clothes, hair, skin, hands, was irritating. There was a cough and shortness of breath, I began to get tired faster and could not achieve the desired results in running and swimming, no matter how often I trained. Thirdly, I had to go more often to brush my teeth and face. In general, I wanted to get rid of the side effects without sacrificing the process itself.
I did not switch to lighter cigarettes, because, working in a tobacco company, I know perfectly well that "light" does not mean "less harmful", and the amount of tar and nicotine inhaled while smoking depends on how you smoke a cigarette. Then I had the opportunity to try the tobacco heating system, and a year and a half ago I switched to it, refusing cigarettes.
In fact, this thing gives everything that I liked: the taste of tobacco and the process itself, but there is no ash, smoke, burning process, and the smell is much less. According to my subjective feelings, I became healthier: shortness of breath was gone, coughing, my skin became cleaner, my dentist was satisfied, the cost of dry-cleaning clothes decreased. I like that it is not an electronic cigarette or a vape, it does not use chemical flavors, liquids or gels, about the benefits or harm of which I do not know anything. This device uses simple tobacco that I can understand, that is, I still get the nicotine, but due to the absence of the burning process, the level of harmful substances in the aerosol is much lower than when smoking cigarettes.
The year when I took my graduate school exams turned out to be tense, and at first I thought it was template: exams are stressful, now is definitely not the time to quit, although it should be. Then I thought objectively: the ideal moment just will not come, and I should create it, not destiny, the cosmos or other "higher powers." Smoking is not an innate need, but an inspired, imposed stereotype; babies or animals do not smoke, why should I enrich tobacco companies? No sooner said than done: I quit smoking on Friday, so that by Monday it would be “three days without a cigarette”.
I tried to quit smoking before, and the previous attempt failed because of the desire to smoke after a glass of wine, so this time I ruled out alcohol for a few months, and also attacked the sport. Surprisingly, endorphins began to be produced not from cigarettes, but from the barbell and dumbbells, and I still get high from training with iron so far. Three days later my sense of smell worsened, and later my dyspnea and a slight heart rhythm disorder disappeared. The first few weeks were harder, then I gradually got used to not smoking, and in May of this year it will be five years without a bad habit.
I started smoking at fourteen, and by the age of twenty I could surely be called a smoker - at least five to ten cigarettes a day came out. With twenty-five years of trying to quit, could last a month or two. I read all the famous books on this topic, but they had no effect on me. I tried tablets like Tabex, but I was terribly sick, and I decided not to suffer. Somehow even went to a psychologist to quit smoking: my colleagues, seeing my torment, decided to give me a course of psychotherapy. She, like Allen Carr, turned out to be ineffective, and even very expensive. I decided that somehow I can handle it myself.
At some point I was probably angry, or maybe I was tired of the image with a cigarette. I wanted to do good for myself, love myself and care - the cigarette did not fit. To top it off, this terrible smell when clothes smell like cigarette smoke before the panties after the party! On the horizon was Tibet, where one had to walk a lot and walk high and breathe hard. Along the way, I gave up alcohol for a while, to make it easier not to smoke and not to break.
Adov physical torment I have not experienced. It was a habit on an emotional level, when you go out on the balcony to dream or mourn, you drink coffee or wine, you go to a bar with friends or to the sea. I liked the process itself, and, maybe, if smoking were not a clear evil, I would have smoked so. By the way, I never liked to go out for a company, I liked to smoke alone with myself, only me and a cigarette are very pathetic. And at one moment it all became ridiculous and not necessary, and trembling smokers in the rain and snow at the office began to cause pity.
In general, quitting smoking was the beginning of the stage of getting rid of bad habits and acquiring good ones; then, for example, there was a refusal to communicate with people who were unpleasant for me. The weight gain, which many throwers fear, did not happen to me; I, on the contrary, lost weight at that time, as I became more engaged in myself: sports, food, sleep. I don’t remember any special effects like the returned sense of smell and taste, everything was fine with it, but it began to feel great physically, and some bonuses — an increase in self-esteem and pride that brought the thing to the end.
As a child, I thought that this would never happen to me: everything in my family smoked, and my mom still smokes, and this irritated me terribly. Then smoking classmates irritated in the same way. But, apparently, I have since sailed somehow in this fairway. I started smoking at the age of twenty completely unnoticed by myself: first just for the company, then for a couple of cigarettes daily, and then just at some point I caught myself buying a new pack every morning (probably, everyone starts it) . I liked to smoke, and I somehow even seriously considered it a part of my image - so far all my nicknames on the Internet are associated with smoking. In any case, over the course of ten years, I had no intention of giving up in my thoughts.
He quit, however, even faster: somehow, in the morning, he was terribly tormented by headaches; It was on this day that I first wondered if it was related to my smoking, and on that very day comrade gave me Allen Carr to read. Since that day I have never smoked again. I felt the difference literally in a week: my head had completely ceased to hurt, the characteristic cough disappeared, and suddenly it turned out that I had been living with both of them for a long time without even noticing it. I finally got a good sleep. But most of all, I was surprised at how delicious all my food suddenly became, even the most casual one. Probably, against the background of these changes, the others simply did not seem so noticeable to me, but I do not remember any discomfort or withdrawal at all. And, oddly enough, tobacco smoke doesn’t bother me at all, I just don’t notice it.
I smoked from the ninth grade - at first it was interesting to try, and almost all smoked at school. The first puff was stolen from the mother of a cigarette, and I did not like it, but despite this, for some reason, followed by the second, after her third, and then whole packs of cigarettes. While I lived in Moscow, I smoked a pack a day and at the same time hid from my mother even at the age of twenty-five; I even rubbed the car with all sorts of fragrant things to remove the smell, and made sure that there was no ash anywhere.
When I moved to Italy, I smoked the same way a pack a day, which was much stronger on the budget, but this did not stop me, as did the protests of the former groom, who did not smoke. At some point I tried to switch to tobacco, but I did not like rolling cigarettes, and even the aftertaste was just awful - I got used to menthol cigarettes. When in 2012 I started to run, I realized after the first time that the breather did not stand up; at the same time in Moscow I went to the dances five days a week and there were no problems, apparently, this is just a different type of load. On the same day I decided to quit because running was more important.
Psychologically, I was very easy. The only thing that was uncomfortable was the inability to kill time, for example, in a restaurant while waiting for an order, but this quickly passed. Physically tolerated too well - without trying to drag out or ask for a cigarette, even in stressful situations. Only once in all these years, after a couple of glasses of Chianti, I took the proposed cigarette, but after the first puff I immediately vomited. I am very glad that I got rid of this habit. The smell of cigarettes is now very unpleasant: I move away if I smoke nearby, and then I feel smoke on clothes and hair.
I probably smoked for about five years, tried to quit, but nothing helped. At some point, it was understood that I was killing my health, I wanted to stop doing it, but I still could not quit. Then she decided to try Allen Carr. He has good things written in the book without negative and intimidation; all the reasons why people smoke are collected. After reading, you understand that it is generally so absurd thing - to smoke, that in the end you refuse. In my opinion, read it better in one gulp without stretching. All previous attempts at throwing were associated with ailments, physical and mental: there was a desire to smoke in the company, there were some mini-habits associated with smoking. After Allen Carr, I never even thought about it - it sounds like an advertisement, but I myself did not understand how it works.
The first attempts to try were about fifteen. Была у меня одна "плохо влияющая подруга" на пять лет старше - она и снабжала сигаретами. А потом был мединститут, где курили абсолютно все, это было модно и круто. В общей сложности я курила года четыре, хотя довольно быстро стало ясно, что это перестало приносить удовольствие. Бросить не получалось - то боялась поправиться, то стрессы мешали, в общем, отговорки придумывались регулярно.
В январе 2013 года при самообследовании я нашла у себя образование в груди. После обследования оказалось, что у меня рак молочной железы. Для меня это был период персонального ада. And, going for an operation at the oncology center, I simply threw away a pack of cigarettes at the entrance. And that's how it cut off. I didn’t want to smoke, I didn’t want, the thought was the same: if I smoke, it will kill me. While I was undergoing long-term (nine months) treatment, I looked at the oncology center patients - absolutely everyone smoked (except, perhaps, young children). I then clearly understood that I would never do this for anything else.
At first I didn’t even like to go to places with smoking rooms and stay close to smokers, I was scared. Then, fortunately, restaurants were banned from smoking, and in my surroundings almost no one smokes. Somewhere in six months, my sense of smell returned to me and I realized that the world is full of smells, and from a smoker, even if he chews the cud or uses fresheners, it smells unpleasant for me. And still, working in reproductive medicine, I can say that nicotine addiction strongly affects the quality of cells and the course of pregnancy, and persuade all patients to quit.