Four cigarette things

[robinturner]

Update on my cigarette quitting ...

First thing - if anyone here wants to describe smokers, drunkards, heroin users and the like as "weak-willed" or having "addictive personalities", prepare to be as slapped-about as is possible in a virtual medium. This is not like the kind of conflict of will you experience when you are wondering whether to have another drink or turn in early - unless, of course, you are a genuine alcoholic, as in having a brain that responds differently to alcohol. This isn't a case of two desires slugging it out in a good-natured way with Queensbury rules; this is Will vs. Chemistry, and no holds barred. Will is winning at the moment, but it's a tough fight. Not smoking a cigarette when everyone around me is smoking and there are packets lying around spreading their tops is the equivalent of a dirty old man walking through a Girl Scout convention and thinking about plate tectonics or hydrangeas.

Second thing - if any smokers here are considering giving up, I say "Do it!" Not so much because it is healthy (minimising the chances of an agonising death is a plus, but then few deaths are positively enjoyable) but because it is fascinating. In a perverse way, it's fun watching your neurons squirm. It makes you think long and hard about the mind-brain-rest-of-the-body relationship.

Third thing - giving up smoking allows you to experience that "I am saved" social approval without doing something stupid and dangerous, like handling snakes or strapping a load of C4 to yourself and getting on an aeroplane.

Fourth thing - related to the former point, you get a lot of tolerance from people around you (or if you don't, you have a good excuse for slapping them around - see the first thing). My wife is being really supportive, which doesn't just mean trying not to blow cigarette smoke in my face, but includes accepting my occasional need to get blind drunk and getting well out of the way when the aggression starts.

This last one is really interesting. When I was in England, I didn't get any of the normal quitter's rage. I got occasional Rainman episodes, but I get those anyway - it's just who I am, and nicotine was useful in controlling it (which reminds me that I need to find another way to avoid beating my head with my hands and shouting "Hot water burned baby"). Now I'm getting something more like the Manchurian Candidate. Oh well, this too will pass.

Never underestimate the power of a molecule.

Comments

[tristan-moore.livejournal.com]

you crack me up boi.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I smoked for about ten years, and it took a bit of a toll on my lungs. I was getting bronchitis more often than I liked, certainly.

I started moving towards giving it up when I was around 26 or so, even if I wasn't always conscious of it at the time. The whole process of stopping smoking took about five years for me, really. The first step was not smoking inside my house, followed by mixing up what I smoked a bit with light cigarrettes, rather than my beloved Dunhills. I would stop or greatly decrease smoking when I got bronchitis, and I also made an effort to change some of my habits which encouraged smoking.

For instance, one of my habits was going out somewhere for drinks, at which point I would often give in to the cravings to smoke, buy a pack of cigarrettes, and then feel compelled to smoke all of those over the next few days. I changed this habit, in part by drinking less, and in part, by making a deal with myself... if I went out drinking and wanted a smoke, I would either pay someone a dollar for an individual cigarrette, or I would buy a pack, smoke only one or two, and then either give the pack away or throw it away. It sounds silly or wasteful, perhaps, but smoking is ultimately pretty silly and wasteful anyway. Having methods like that which allowed me to give in every now and then without having a serious relapse really helped.

Another thing that helped a lot was exercise every day. Going for walk breaks rather than smoke breaks is a really helpful thing.

It took a long time to get past all the cravings... years, really. I still miss the occasional cigarrette on cool nights in the rain, and once or twice a year or so, I will go out to a nightclub and bum a clove cigarette... most regular cigarrettes taste "dirty" to me nowadays. but the thing is, I can enjoy such a thing for what it is nowadays and not need more. I can also go out for drinks, enjoy my time, and not even think about having a cigarrette, too. It's a very good, liberating feeling to have that control back, at times...

[solri.livejournal.com]

The control factor is certainly important. At various times in my life I've temporarily stopped doing things I do regularly, largely just to know that I can.

The walking idea is a good one.

[vret.livejournal.com]

Going to the gym can help, too.

Day Four

[cf.livejournal.com]

I am on day four since my last smoke. I almost had one last night, but couldn't find one. (oh so lucky!)

I rented a bicycle instead of a car for my stay here in the Western US, and my lungs sure are feeling better for it.

I hate former smokers telling me how to quit. Just because their method worked for them, it doesn't mean it has application to me.

But interesting comments, Robin, and god knows you can't become a militant anti smoker on the hills of angora...you'd get executed.

I wonder if Neslihan smokes...:)

Re: Day Four

[solri.livejournal.com]

She might - it was volleyball that introduced my wife to smoking when she was a teenager.

Re: Day Four

[vret.livejournal.com]

I hate former smokers telling me how to quit. Just because their method worked for them, it doesn't mean it has application to me.

That's true. My method wouldn't work for Robin because it relies on not being around smokers all the time.

[ironed_orchid]

this is Will vs. Chemistry, and no holds barred.

That's the spirit. Glad to see you are getting some satisfaction out of the process. And good for you for spending time with smokers while you quit. It might seem masochistic now, but I think it really helps later on.

[solri.livejournal.com]

I often don't have any choice about hanging out with smokers, but I probably would do anyway. As I said before, the last thing I want is to turn into one of those non-smokers who throw tantrums like a two-year-old whenever there is cigarette smoke within a five-mile radius.

The Bio/Psycho-Social factors after quitting.

[biladna.livejournal.com]

"Third thing - giving up smoking allows you to experience that "I am saved" social approval without doing something stupid and dangerous, like handling snakes or strapping a load of C4 to yourself and getting on an aeroplane."

That is like the funniest observation I ever heard, about giving up smoking!! (I dig Social Psychology)

"In a perverse way, it's fun watching your neurons squirm. It makes you think long and hard about the mind-brain-rest-of-the-body relationship."

This line was even more hilarious. Detachment from ourselves is so cool?!!

Actually, what I'm trying to say is that you sound like Viktor Frank in "Man's Search for Meaning".

He wrote that the one survival mechanism that concentration camp members had is this weird,detached curiosity about their fate- whether they'll get gassed or sent to a crematory.

That's FranklSTEIN

[bram.livejournal.com]

I think that was a typo and you meant Frankl not Frank.

Re: That's FranklSTEIN

[biladna.livejournal.com]

Bram,

Yeah I meant Frankl!

Wait, who are you referring to in that title?
Norman Finkelstein?!! (If so, I've read his books too)

Re: That's FranklSTEIN

[bram.livejournal.com]

In the title I refer merely to a scene from Young Frankenstein.