No More Cigarettes - A Quitter's Diary

Day 1: Goodbye, cigarettes! 

My name is Olivia, and I am a nicotine addict. It has been roughly 24 hours since my last cigarette. I have smoked on and off since I was a teen, sometimes for a few months, and other times for several years. I started off as a social smoker convinced I wasn’t addicted – a trap familiar to many. My current bout of smoking has lasted a year now. I am definitely addicted. I am quitting for my children, who are subjected to second-hand smoke (even though I always open the window when I smoke), and for my own health. 

Quitters’ “propaganda” advises those who want to stop smoking to identify their personal triggers, and to either avoid those things altogether or find something else to do to resist the urge. This will be tough for me, because my two triggers are working on the computer and being around other smokers. As a writer, I spend a lot of time on the computer, so I decided to replace cigarettes with lollipops. And in company, I will just have to tough it out. 

There’s still a half-smoked packet of cigarettes sitting on my desk next to my iMac. The nicotine will take around three days to leave my body, and hopefully not smoking will get easier after that. In the meantime, here are my plans for when I have the urge to light up:

• Doing a few minutes of push-ups or ab crunches. 
• Washing the dishes. 
• Drinking a glass of water. 
• And, when I have to work on the computer and feel like smoking, I have lollipops. They should make my hands and mouth feel a little less empty :). 

But I will kick this addiction! Instead of smoking while writing, I will now write about quitting. Sharing the gory details will hopefully make the quitting process a little easier, and will keep me accountable.

Day 2: Still managing

It has been 48 hours since I last smoked now, and I am doing better than I was yesterday. I have had the urge to light up a few times, when I started writing. Not smoking while blogging was easier today than it was yesterday. I was not as distracted and didn’t think about cigarettes at all. I did use a lollipop as a replacement.

Have you ever seen pictures of a smoker’s lungs? They can be pitch black, like a human ashtray. I didn’t want my lungs to look like those in the pictures I saw in my daughter’s biology workbook recently. Every smoker knows that cigarettes can kill them, but the threat seems too far in the future to care. Let’s be honest and admit that we are puffing ourselves, and perhaps those around us, into an early grave.  

Some of the benefits of quitting smoking take a while to materialize – or actually I should say that the negative consequences of smoking stick around for a long time. But 24 hours after quitting, the chances of having a heart attack already decrease. At 48 hours, the point I am at now, a quitter’s sense of smell and taste improves and damaged nerve endings begin to repair. 

Quitting: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Day 3: Feeling good

The urge to smoke comes and goes, but I am still going strong. I have a bit of a sore throat, and I’ve had to do quite a few push-ups – which are a great part of my anti-smoking strategy. My hair is smelling better, and my home-office doesn’t smell of cigarettes anymore either. I finally removed my half-smoked packet from my desk, which brings me to yet another reason to quit smoking. 

Did you know that smoking cigarettes can damage your computer? Apparently, Apple stores in the United States will void an Applecare warranty plan if the computer has been used in a smoking home. The optical drive and hard disk have been reported to be at particular risk of damage from smoking, and overheating can be a problem too. Someone who smokes near their iMac – like I did – might learn this expensive lesson after they start experiencing computer problems. My computer has been crashing very often, and I am wondering whether smoking cigarettes is the cause. Unlike the human body, computers do not repair themselves. 

Day 4: Rough times

Today was a bad day. I seriously want a cigarette. Part of my screams, “You’ve proved you can quit now – light up already!” It took a lot of water, and a lot of push-ups, to get through this day without smoking. I came really close to lighting up, but didn’t. I still have a sore throat, and my joints are aching. This could be a coincidence, or it could be nicotine withdrawal. Quitting requires a lot of will power. It’s no surprise that so many people start again. 

Day 5: Five reasons to quit

Today’s mantra: “I am not a smoker. I am not a smoker.” Yesterday was harder than the first three days of quitting, and today is hard too. I’ve had a stressful couple of days, and smoking used to be my coping mechanism of choice. I am sure that the mental part of the addiction is harder to let go of than the physical part. Hence, I keep telling myself I am “not a smoker any more”. I don’t want to be addicted, and I do not smoke.

I actually enjoyed smoking a lot. Something like herbal tea hardly has the same appeal that a cigarette does. It may be wimpy to admit I kind of miss those "cancerous buddies", but it's true. To stay quit, I’ll have to keep reminding myself of my reasons not to smoke any longer. On Day 5 of quitting, here are my Top 5 reasons for stopping:

1. My children. Children of smokers are much more likely to become smokers too, later on in life. Inhaling second-hand smoke increases the risk of asthma, ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia... and perhaps more serious conditions that smokers fall victim too, like lung cancer. I am not going to make excuses anymore: opening a window doesn’t eliminate the negative effects of second-hand smoke. 
2. My health. No smoker is magically exempt from the horrible diseases cigarette smoking can cause; from lung cancer, to heart attacks, emphysema, and more. I have quit poisoning my body. 
3. Vanity. In the long-term, smoking can make your teeth go yellow, your skin grow more wrinkly than it should be at your age, and it makes you smell bad. 
4. Money. Smoking is an expensive habit. The money I will save each month will be enough to allow me to join a gym. Isn’t that a much better way to de-stress than inhaling nicotine and tons of other chemicals? 
5. Independence. One of the things that motivated me to quit smoking was reading the book The Gift of Fear, by violence-prediction expert Gavin de Becker. The whole book is excellent, but one story about a police officer who was too busy trying to light his cigarette to notice that the car owner he’d just pulled over was about to shoot at him really made me think. When you are addicted, your attention is diverted from the important things in life – and your independence taken away. Quitting smoking will give me freedom. 

Would you like to join me and liberate yourself from nicotine too? Share your plans! And if you have already stopped smoking, feel free to tell others who want to follow your example how you accomplished it – especially in the long-term.