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As a smoker for 12 years, I know what it's like to be addicted to something you'd prefer to quit. I felt helpless for years, wishing I could take time out of my life and make it through the withdrawals. It turns out that life doesn't stop for recovery. Sometimes you've got to take it in the gut and get started before it's too late.
It's safe to say that most of us have known someone who died as a direct result of smoking cigarettes for a couple decades or more. For me, it was my grandmother on my father's side of the family. She died when I was just a kid, so unfortunately I didn't get to know her really well. I did understand the pain of my family as they dealt with her lung cancer and had to watch her go a bit earlier than she should have. Sadly, she was the first one in my lifetime to go because of smoking, but not the last. People have passed because of various cancers, heart problems and fires. Somehow none of this led to me turning down my first cigarette, and wasn't really an inspiration for me to stop.
When I finally laid down my last cigarette, it was for me. I started having heart pains because of being overweight and smoking at the same time. I've studied nicotine's effects and learned that the risk of heart attack rises dramatically during the 45 or so minutes that nicotine is acting as a stimulant. This led me to the conclusion that I could immediately cut back my risk of early death by dropping the cigarettes. I didn't play around. I stopped cold turkey.
Quitting smoking cold turkey has a certain allure to it. You feel tough for doing it the 'hard way'. You crush your cigarettes, or even give them to someone else. Dump the ashtray so you don't fiddle about like a crack head making a pipe to smoke the leftovers from your cigarette butts. Believe me, sometimes the cravings are strong enough to make you sink far lower than you've ever imagined.
The withdrawal symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are both physical and mental. You'll be irritable, that is a given. Many people have headaches, likely because of the blood vessels returning to their normal state. The lungs burn, especially in the morning, because of the healing process and the new flow of oxygen. Unfortunately, most of this is constant and isn't nearly as bad as the moment when you have a craving. The true secret is to keep your mind busy and avoid triggers.
As a webmaster, working for sixteen hours a day, I developed a lot of bad habits. Chain smoking and chugging coffee were among the worst. When I stopped smoking, I had to stop working on my web authoring for a couple weeks. I turned my spare time to what I now call crack TV. College in the daytime, crack TV at night. DVRs can be a big help. I'll credit shows like Rock of Love Charm School, Jerry Springer and Cops to helping me keep my mind off of cigarette withdrawal.
Only when the withdrawal had faded to a background noise in my daily routine did I try to ease myself back into the things that I once enjoyed but associated with smoking cigarettes. Now I can type again without getting too irritated, but the cravings still come. Two weeks is a nice accomplishment, and at this stage I won't go back.
Nicotine doesn't have a hold on me any longer, because I feel blissful moments when I stop thinking about it. Even if it seems like a few minutes, I taste a freedom that I long to experience on a daily basis. Waking up one day without a single craving will be pure joy.
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