How do you stop smoking? Where the ability to quit smoking does come from? Is it in your head or is it in your body? Quitting smoking has been the biggest problem for all smokers all over the world. Especially in a country like ours, where cigarettes are available as cheap as just 1 rupee, smoking is really an addiction. Unlike any other addictions like heroin or cocaine, cigarette smoking is a similar addiction that is killing millions of people everyday. So if other drugs are illegal and must be banned, so should smoking because it is killing and harming more people than any other drug.
I’m 28. I’m not old and I’m living a wonderful life. I am now working 3 jobs, one as an engineer, an English teacher and a singer in my own band. I remember the first time how I started smoking about 13 years ago, forcing that stick in my mouth and trying to act cool in front of everyone. But had I known then that I would be so hooked and that it would eventually degrade my health, I would have never smoked one in the first place.
I was a smoker for 13 years.During this time I have spent over Rs 5 Lakhs just to smoke over 1 Lakh cigarettes. Sometimes, I have smoked more than 1 pack during parties and sleepover nights. If precise calculation is to be done, the answer will have more figures.
Can you imagine spending so much money and besides that, can you imagine what might have happened to my health? If you can, then calculate how much money have you spent and how much more are you going to spend just for breathing in that filthy tar and nicotine inside your body? Everyday, the world spends over 1.2 billion dollars on tobacco. Isn’t it time for you to stop? Do you want to stop? If yes, then read on.
If the doctor told you that you would die right away if you smoked one more cigarette, I’m sure that none of you would be stupid enough and ever make a mistake of lighting up another one. Am I right? So how do you stop smoking? Are you waiting for the doctor to tell you that? Of course not, the doctor will ever tell you that. Even in rehabilitation centres, they always tell you about the effects of smoking, how it harms your health, smoking causes cancer. We all know about this information, but we still smoke, why? Are we really that stupid? Scientists have proved that each cigarette cuts on average 11 minutes off the life of a male smoker. This calculation is based in life expectancy between male smokers and non-smokers and an estimate of the total number of cigarettes a regular male smoker might consume in a lifetime. So in my life, I’ve lost 25,667 hours. Now you calculate how much you have lost, and if you are still smoking, how much more are you going to lose?
All smokers believe that they need the will power to quit. Smokers think that smoking relaxes you, it helps you concentrate, it reduces stress and it reduces boredom. These are powerful reasons for a smoker to smoke. But just imagine for a moment that smoking did none of those things, but instead it hindered concentration, it hindered relaxation, it increased stress and increased boredom too. Now you don’t have a single reason to continue smoking. When you realize this, the desire for smoking goes away. Thus you don’t need willpower to quit. You just need to use your head!
Every smoker today who smoked for the first time in his life, never wanted to end up smoking for his entire life. Me myself, being a smoker for 13 years, I used to wake up and the first thing I did was put a cigarette in my mouth. Despite the heart pain, chest pain, black filthy tar coming out of my mouth every time I coughed, and the fear for someone smelling the smoke after I smoked, I still smoked why? Cause smoking is an addiction just like any other addiction and its killing us all more than any other drug.
There is only one way to quit smoking. No nicotine patch, no electronic cigarette, no chewing gum, nothing can be substituted for quitting. The only way to quit smoking is to extinguish that last cigarette and never to light one up again no matter what hampers you. If you ever have the craving and make the mistake of lighting up another cigarette again, you can and you will never quit!
Remember though, the first 6 weeks is going to be hell. You will have cravings, you will want to smoke, you will see people smoking, but if you can somehow manage only 6 weeks of not smoking, the craving goes away. This is because the nicotine in your body is fading away and thus it craves for more, and when you have no more nicotine left inside you, you don’t have the craving to smoke anymore. Now please don’t misunderstand that to quit smoking you need to only withstand 6 weeks of suffering. If this is what you are thinking, then you are wrong. I have already told you the reasons not to smoke; I have already told you if you decide to stop smoking then never to smoke again no matter what. The only way to quit smoking is never to smoke again. This is the only simple and effective way.
People of all ages, including men and women have a cigarette dangling in their mouth. It’s a pity to know that it’s really so easy to stop but still everyone is getting hooked and dying because of this filthy habit. Everyday more than 90,000 children smoke their first cigarette and they have no idea what filthy habit they are being hooked into. Over 13,000 people die from tobacco related illness every day. Do you want to be included in one of them?
In a fight against smoking one man achieved great victory, victory which will help smokers free themselves from their addiction. Allen Carr, a man who smoked for 30 years over 2 packs everyday but from one night, he translated himself from a chain smoker to a non smoker. Thanks to his method, over 10 million people over the world have stopped smoking, and I am one of them. Thus my credit and influence comes from him and my advice to all you smokers who read this article is to read his book called “Easy way to stop smoking – Allan Carr”. You don’t even need to buy this book; it’s easily available on the internet.
Please remember, I am not trying to become popular by repeating and saying what Alan Carr said, or I am an expert for teaching people how to quit. I’m just supporting his theory and method, because it worked for me, and all I’m trying to do is to rid the habit of smoking for all smokers. Everywhere I go, everywhere I sit I see youngsters smoking cigarettes everywhere. This reminds me of me, because that was the time when I started smoking myself. I am the only one of the very few non smokers in whichever café I go to. I feel pity for all these smokers now when I know that it’s so easy to quit and people are still stuck and killing themselves slowly almost real suicide with such a filthy habit! So let’s quit and be a non smoker and live a healthy wonderful long life!
Remember, Quitting smoking is really easy! You just need to stop! Promise yourself never to light another cigarette after you decide to smoke the last one!! If you ever make the mistake of lighting another one up, you can and you will never quit!
The data are taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/583722.stm
A power engineer by academic pursuit, the writer is working as an English teacher at Asian international school in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The writer is also the lead singer for the band ‘Overload’ in Vietnam.
