Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Now, here's the thing ...



Smoke-smoke-smoke that cigarette …
Smoke-smoke-smoke it ‘till you smoke yourself to death.
Tell St. Peter at the Pearly Gate
That you hate to make him wait,
But you’ve just gotta have another cigarette.


They say that nicotine addiction is more ferocious than heroin, and I suspect there is truth to that. As an addictions counsellor I know a lot of people who have quit the booze, and even cocaine and heroin, but still cannot or will not give up tobacco.

I confess – mea culpa – I still smoke. Not much; about 10 a day, which is dramatically down from what I used to smoke, but it’s still 10 too many. I lead a healthy life. I don’t drink, I eat very sensibly, I walk whenever I can and when Wendy and I go on vacation, hiking is very much part of our pattern, as is swimming – but I still smoke a bit. It's silly, really. I mean, why do I smoke a bit when I should smoke not at all?

I am about to embark (yet again) on a regime of quitting the weed. This time I genuinely want to succeed without a ‘maybe’ about it. My health scare last week hit this home with me. I love my life and I want to hang around for a long time. Smoking isn’t conducive to that longevity. Oh, I know there are exceptions and I’ve personally known people in their 90s who have been puffing away all their lives – but they are exceptions.

Added to which, why do I want to shore up the coffers of morally-bankrupt ‘big tobacco’? Why too do I want to shore up the coffers of governments via their huge tax bite, but paucity of balls to actually ban the stuff. Of course they won’t; they don’t want to give up the cash cow.

I come from a family of smokers. My father was a heavy smoker when I was a kid (though he ultimately quit), my siblings are smokers, my aunts and uncles were smokers, my grandfather was a smoker. Damn it, I grew up with it. To smoke was a mark of pending adulthood. And, smoking was ‘cool’. It was ‘way cool.’

And, the elders smoked in the house, and they smoked in the car, and it stuns me to think that when I began smoking, people smoked in grocery stores, department stores, even clothing stores. Nobody thought anything about it. It was a cheap, guilty-pleasure with cigarettes at about 35-cents for 20. Wow.

My celluloid heroes smoked. Bogey smoked, Mitchum smoked, John Wayne smoked, James Dean smoked, and so on and so on. I wanted to be like them.

Though, I actually first took stock of the effects of tobacco with the death of Bogey (at 56) and the lung cancer of Wayne. Hmm, that’s not so good.

But, I continued, largely heedless. My early newspaper days were the worst. Everybody smoked. The newsroom was perpetually in a haze of blue fumes. We smoked as we wrote, we lit up when we answered the phone, we lit up when we made a call. We just smoked and smoked and nobody thought anything about it.

I liked smoking. Liked it a lot. It was a time-out from the rigors of life. A pause that refreshed even more than Coca-Cola. Smoking was fun. Smoking was nearly my hobby. Even today, if I hated smoking, if I had chronic bronchitis, or even a smoker’s cough, it would make it easier, but I have none of the above. But, I do have a health issue, so I must bite the bullet; I know I must.

Even then, as years went by I altered my behavior, and some of my alterations came about because of public health decrees. They banned smoking in restaurants, which initially irked me, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, I was astonished when we went to the Cook Islands a few years ago and found that eatery smoking was still acceptable there.

They banned smoking in the workplace. Again I chafed, but I also found I cut down considerably in my smoking, and that was a good thing. They banned smoking on airplanes. Initially it made me uneasy, but now I’ve made 10-hour flights to and from Europe and haven’t even noticed.

Then I married two women, neither of whom would allow smoking in the house. I acceded to their concerns, and ceased smoking in the house. That made a body cut way back. I do smoke in the garage in inclement weather, but never inside the house proper.

I’ve made forays into quitting before, and have for brief periods of time. Now I have a stronger motivation – my health. Wish me luck, and any suggestions would be appreciated.

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17 Comments:

Blogger thailandchani said...

Good luck.. and suck on cinnamon sticks. It works. :)

2:13 PM  
Blogger Marianne said...

Brilliant post Ian! I agree completely, smoking was my hobby, and I loved it. I loved the paraphanalia that goes with it - the lighter, the matches, the papers, the tobacco - the opportunity to meet knew people and ask for a light! I'm so lucky I quit when I did (about a year ago after chain-smoking 10 and throwing up!) and it's been a lot less tempting since all the bans. In my opinion you have to go the whole hog and go cold turkey for it to work at all.

Good luck and keep us posted on the progress! x M

2:27 PM  
Blogger Tanya Brown said...

I have great respect for those who try to kick the smoking habit. I have no experience with smoking, but my understanding is that it's one of the most difficult addictions to beat.

I have no great words of advice, only sympathy. While I wasn't one of those who started smoking when I was young and immortal, I was one of those who had a certain amount of scorn for those who were fat. Time, karma and a post-childbirth body have shown me the folly of that attitude.

I wish you the best in fighting and winning this important war.

2:40 PM  
Blogger Leslie Hawes said...

I believe you have read my Smoking post.

http://www.lesliehawes.com/wordpress/?p=1082

Quit because you want to stay around to pester people!

Oh, and I love the words, ..."paucity of balls".

3:06 PM  
Blogger Laura Jane Williams said...

Good luck. I really do hope you can do it. Keep us posted!

3:50 PM  
Blogger andrea said...

Best of luck with this, Ian. They say it takes what? 10 (or is it 20 or ...?) tries for most smokers? Anyway, you wouldn't have liked my tongue-in-cheek suggestion considering your little scare. Before I read it (I'm behind on my blogs) I was going to suggest to you that you do what my dad did to quit smoking: have a stroke! D'oh! In his case, it actually took three strokes for him to quit and I'm pretty sure that the last stroke actually altered his brain chemistry so that smoking was no longer pleasurable because I'm pretty sure he'd never have managed it otherwise. I'm just a ray of sunshine aren't I? Just keep those millions of people who have succeeded front and centre and I'm sure you'll make it this time, especially if you repeat to yourself, "I CAN quit. Unlike governments, I do not have a paucity of balls."

4:46 PM  
Blogger jmb said...

For people of my age it was a rite of passage, becoming an adult, taking up smoking. Luckily I only smoked for about 6 or 7 years and one day said this is ridiculous and quit, cold turkey.

Do it for your health's sake Ian, you won't be sorry but you may be if you don't.

5:27 PM  
Blogger Sugar. said...

I'm an ex-smoker. I smoked for 11 years, and smoked up to 2 packs (or more) a day. I quit cold turkey when I woke up one morning and couldn't breathe! I loved smoking and I still miss it, but there's no way I will take up the habit again. My health is too important and so is yours. Good luck Ian, you can do it :)

8:55 PM  
Blogger Dumdad said...

I used to be a heavy smoker - few journalists weren't - and loved smoking. But I knew it was a bad thing and, after many futile attempts, I finally stopped forever in 1984. So strong is the addiction that I daren't even puff on one cigarette for old times sake - I know I'd be back to 30 a day in a blink.

Chewing Nicorettes helped me cope with the craving for the first few months.

I only knew I'd beaten my addiction when I had stopped for a year.

Oddly enough, I still get smoking dreams from time to time. I awake disappointed that I've started smoking again then realise it was a dream. Or a nightmare?

Good luck in your battle, because it is a battle.

3:08 AM  
Blogger laughingwolf said...

go for it, ian, at least you know why YOU must...

i was a heavy smoker, years back, got to some three 25/pack a day, started hacking blood... quit, cold turkey

there were rumblings of a price increase, too... from the 75 cents for a pack... i thought that outrageous ;) lol

6:26 AM  
Blogger Wenderina said...

Do it! I lost a father and an uncle to lung disease from smoking. They went almost to their dying day in denial that cigarettes had anything to do with it. My other uncle finally quit (after losing two brothers in 4 months) using a drug that has been pulled from the market, so I have no helpful advice, just best wishes.

3:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

GOOD LUCK!!! I am thankful that bth my parents quit before I was born. After watching my grandfathers die of smoking-related diseases, I knew all I needed to know to never pick it up.

7:59 PM  
Blogger Rositta said...

Up until last fall you could still smoke in stores in Germany, I believe that is now banned along with restaurants and pubs. Here in t-dot if you want to buy the demon weed you'd better know your brand, all smokes are now hidden behind "power walls" no longer visible and shop keepers have thirty second to open and close it lest some young child see them.
I too still partake like you, about 10 a day and have tried countless times to quit. I suspect I will die with a cigarette in my mouth. I wish you the best and will keep track of how your doing, maybe there's hope for me yet...ciao

8:39 AM  
Blogger Eastcoastdweller said...

You can do it, Ian. I wish you the best.

2:44 PM  
Blogger meggie said...

I used gum to kick the 'tic' habit of smoking. Then came the attempt to kick that habit. I was lucky, the patches did work for me. It is a very insidious addiction. As my mother said, it was her 'best friend'. She quit, but 20 years later died of heart problems assiciated with emphysema.

4:18 AM  
Blogger Jazz said...

Good luck. You can do it. Besides, if you quit smoking you'll have that much longer as our resident curmudgeon.

That alone has got to be worth it.

11:16 AM  
Blogger Echomouse said...

Allen Carr - just buy his book and that will be enough. Although your head is already in the right place for quitting. That's what it's about - our brains. Carr spells it out well.

I quit once for 6 months. Just had enough one day and stopped. No withdrawals or cravings or anything because my brain was in the right space. Like you, I smoke about 10 a day now. Still bad. But I'm quitting also. I hope it's going well for you. I'm still working on getting my head in that space again. Got sidetracked and have to start at page 1 again.

7:00 PM  

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