Four cigarette things
Wednesday, August 18th, 2004 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturnerUpdate 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 08:52 am (UTC)The walking idea is a good one.
no subject
Day Four
Date: 2004-08-18 11:43 am (UTC)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
Date: 2004-08-18 12:02 pm (UTC)Re: Day Four
Date: 2004-08-19 03:16 am (UTC)That's true. My method wouldn't work for Robin because it relies on not being around smokers all the time.