mgroves

I smoked for almost 10 years, but now I’m clean. How did I succeed where my friends failed? Because I stopped hanging out with my friends.

You smoke because you’re addicted, everyone acknowledges that. But you also smoke because you like smoking. It’s relaxing; it gives you something to do when you’re just waiting around; and it’s social (I can’t count the number of people I’ve met smoking outside a building). So, this is a sacrifice of something you enjoy.

Physiologically, there’s only about 48 hours of addiction you need to overcome. That’s the toughest part. You’ll be stuck in a traffic jam with nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs, wishing you had one. A nicotine patch is great during this time. A 14mg one should do the trick. And you don’t need to use them for the recommended two weeks – you’ll just become addicted to the patch instead.

The psychological part is the trickiest. Remember, you like smoking. It makes you happy. You’ll fight yourself, and barter with yourself, and you’ll trick yourself. I remember posing the hypothetical situation of quitting smoking and still getting lung cancer 25 years later. That was 25 years I could’ve been smoking! Don’t trust your brain. Your brain is a chemical-hungry monster. If it starts messing with you, poke it with a q-tip.

Here are a couple more difficult but effective tips:

1. If your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend smokes, they must quit with you.
2. As soon as you quit, take a shower and wash your clothes.
   Otherwise, residual nicotine will seep into your skin.
3. Stop hanging out with your friends.
   Of course this assumes your friends smoke like you do, but more often than not, that’s the case. They may have even been the ones to get you smoking in the first place (because you’re a follower – admit it). If it wasn’t those friends it was probably another set of friends. You’re not going to have any luck quitting if you have to keep watching them light up. And once you’re clean for a couple days their odor will be repellent to your born-again nostrils.
4. Stop going to bars.
   Smoking and drinking go hand in hand. Depending on your city or state’s drinking laws, this may no longer be the case. But even that smoker’s patio will be an unnecessary temptation.

My wife and I now pursue smoking recreationally. If we go out of town for the weekend, we might decide to buy a pack. Medically, smoking one or two packs of cigarettes in a year is a lot different than 365 packs. We understand it might be difficult to let go come Monday, but quitting has given us the confidence that we’re the ones in control.

That’s an important lesson. If you only quit for 2 weeks or a month, know in your heart that you can do it again. You may be weak but you are not powerless over your actions.

And whatever you do, don’t flick away your last one and say, “This is the last cigarette I’ll ever smoke.” Monumentalizing it only makes it harder. It’s like taking your sick dog out to the woods to shoot (I’m, of course, speaking to the hill-folk out there). What you need to tell yourself is that you’ll, in all likelihood, smoke another cigarette in your lifetime; if you stop for a month, a year, or a decade, it’s no big deal.

Once you quit, you’ll be healthier, wealthier, and more attractive to the sexiest people in the world: the healthy, wealthy ones.

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