I smoked for ten tears (25–35 age) but managed to stop.. it was the most difficult thing I have achieved in my life. But I can offer some useful advice from my experience. I didn’t smoke before that because I was living with my family. My father was a heavy smoker and they say this is a good reason for the children to be smokers. My mother smoked sparingly in her youth but stopped well before marriage. But they would never approve of me smoking.
I started smoking when I left to the UK for my higher degree. I was away from the watching eyes of my parents, confused in a new environment, and struggling with difficult courses, I started drinking strong coffee to keep my concentration in class, then moved to cigarettes as the next up-remedy. My smoking slowly increased from few to two packets a day over the years, to a degree I started feeling my chest burning from inside. I tried then to stop and to my astonishment found that it is not easy at all. I stopped many times but returned back again.
I developed excuses not to stop. Like if you stop coffee will not have any taste, and food will not either. This I found false later after I stopped, and also found that smoking has nothing to really do with relaxation. One time on Sunday at 1 in the afternoon I was in the lab and in a smaller room containing computer terminals(personals were not invented yet) and I was getting good results and writing a report to be submitted the next day. I needed an eraser and couldn’t find one. I left the work, went down to South Kensington tube station, bought the eraser and with it a packet of cigarettes! When I went back to my desk, I saw my eraser on the desk sitting in front of my eyes.. I got a deep shock.. I lied to my self, blind my eyes all so that I keep away nicotine deprivation. It makes you feel you lost control. For this reason I truly sympathize with all addicts of all kinds. They do need help and should be given that at all cost.
I tried smoking hand made, then a pipe thinking it helps to consume less tobacco, but it didn’t. How did I stop then. After I returned to Basra, I was standing in a long queue to buy foreign cigarettes. It was a long ques and I asked my self.. what am I doing here.. wasting time, money and health, and for nothing! So I decided to stop and that was final. What helped in this;
1-It was a weekend, so I didn’t have to go to university the next day. This gave a day of rest. My family were away on holiday, and my father didn’t leave any supply at home.
2-I didn’t tell anybody about it. When people know they as a joke, offer you a cigarette knowing you will not say yes. In normal times they don’t. They don’t realize then how much destruction they are doing to the will to stop.
3-I didn’t object to others smoking, and I didn’t mind inhaling some in the process, as this seems to help a little to keep one going.
4-Use things to keep your fingers and lips busy- thing like chewing gum, nuts etc. The crave for smoking I am afraid, will continue more than a year after you stop.
5-Stopping should mean absolute.. even one cigarette can pull you back a full turn into smoking. I don’t know of electronic cigarettes, but I feel they are just as bad.. nicotine is very bad for the body as a whole and there is no shortage of literature on this. I didn’t have any of that to try at my times.
To recap, stop suddenly, preferably on a holiday, not tell anyone and keep the struggle personal, don’t use substitutes, don’t try to make the others quit at this struggling period, keep your lips happy, and be ready for a year stand at least before you are free from nicotine slavery.
I started smoking when I left to the UK for my higher degree. I was away from the watching eyes of my parents, confused in a new environment, and struggling with difficult courses, I started drinking strong coffee to keep my concentration in class, then moved to cigarettes as the next up-remedy. My smoking slowly increased from few to two packets a day over the years, to a degree I started feeling my chest burning from inside. I tried then to stop and to my astonishment found that it is not easy at all. I stopped many times but returned back again.
I developed excuses not to stop. Like if you stop coffee will not have any taste, and food will not either. This I found false later after I stopped, and also found that smoking has nothing to really do with relaxation. One time on Sunday at 1 in the afternoon I was in the lab and in a smaller room containing computer terminals(personals were not invented yet) and I was getting good results and writing a report to be submitted the next day. I needed an eraser and couldn’t find one. I left the work, went down to South Kensington tube station, bought the eraser and with it a packet of cigarettes! When I went back to my desk, I saw my eraser on the desk sitting in front of my eyes.. I got a deep shock.. I lied to my self, blind my eyes all so that I keep away nicotine deprivation. It makes you feel you lost control. For this reason I truly sympathize with all addicts of all kinds. They do need help and should be given that at all cost.
I tried smoking hand made, then a pipe thinking it helps to consume less tobacco, but it didn’t. How did I stop then. After I returned to Basra, I was standing in a long queue to buy foreign cigarettes. It was a long ques and I asked my self.. what am I doing here.. wasting time, money and health, and for nothing! So I decided to stop and that was final. What helped in this;
1-It was a weekend, so I didn’t have to go to university the next day. This gave a day of rest. My family were away on holiday, and my father didn’t leave any supply at home.
2-I didn’t tell anybody about it. When people know they as a joke, offer you a cigarette knowing you will not say yes. In normal times they don’t. They don’t realize then how much destruction they are doing to the will to stop.
3-I didn’t object to others smoking, and I didn’t mind inhaling some in the process, as this seems to help a little to keep one going.
4-Use things to keep your fingers and lips busy- thing like chewing gum, nuts etc. The crave for smoking I am afraid, will continue more than a year after you stop.
5-Stopping should mean absolute.. even one cigarette can pull you back a full turn into smoking. I don’t know of electronic cigarettes, but I feel they are just as bad.. nicotine is very bad for the body as a whole and there is no shortage of literature on this. I didn’t have any of that to try at my times.
To recap, stop suddenly, preferably on a holiday, not tell anyone and keep the struggle personal, don’t use substitutes, don’t try to make the others quit at this struggling period, keep your lips happy, and be ready for a year stand at least before you are free from nicotine slavery.