Lets make a list of pro’s and con’s.
PRO’s
1) I like it (bloody loved it really… shame)
2) Its sociable?. Well it was anyway. All my friends smoked, but now?
3) I’ve been smoking for over 44 years. At 55 now, I remember smoking on my paper round in
Liverpool when I was 10 years old. Woodbines I think it was, then Players No.6.
4) Its cheap (here in Gran Canaria it is. 9.50 Euros for 200 of my brand. Sorry, rest of the world....)
5) It keeps my weight down (biggest lie of all. My highest weight was whilst smoking)
6) …. ????Exactly. Nada.
CON’s
1) It makes my mouth taste like a sewer
2) It stains my teeth
3) It makes my clothes and breath smell like an ashtray
4) Its bloody expensive (not in GC, but we don’t all live here..)
5) Its becoming increasingly anti-social.
6) Can’t smoke anywhere anymore anyway.
7) It stands a good chance of killing me.
8) When I don’t smoke, I can actually breathe and stop using an inhaler.
Ok, Ok. You win. I give up. Well, thats exactly what I did. With a little help from my dodgy heart. I stopped purely and simply (first week of August last year, 2011) because I couldn’t actually breathe, because of what turned out to be build up of fluid inside my chest due to a dodgy heart.
Still, it worked. I havn’t had a single touch of a fag since then. Not wanted one, I like breathing much better. So I did it ‘cold turkey’, which is not so much the hard way, but is a sneaky way. You don’t tell yourself you are stopping smoking, just do it and surprise yourself! Not quite that easy tho. You need to have your head in the right frame of mind to succeed, and to also acknowledge that initially, you will probably feel worse, ie tetchy, nervous, fidgety, ‘what do I do with my fingers now?’ type thing. Trust me it passes. I had periods about every 5 minutes at first, when I mentally acknowledged that ‘I would have a fag now if I smoked’. It was just a ‘twitch’ sort of thing, a ‘reach’ for the non-existant pack to my side. Perfect time to use an e-Cigarette really, no harm done at all, yet you get all the 'benefit' of having a fag. I was actually smoking about 50 ish a day (2 and a half packs for you US citizens), so no small feat to just quit. I didn’t go to hospital with the heart condition for about 7 weeks after I quit, so that wasn’t any factor in helping me quit, only that I felt terrible when I was smoking, and didn’t when I stopped.
The best I can tell you, is that if you quit:
a) Make sure your head really wants to quit
b) Tell people, it keeps you honest and puts a bit of pressure on
c) Don’t think you won’t get ‘twitchy’, you will. Ride the storm.
d) When you have a ‘twitch/thought about cigarettes’, remember this is normal, acknowledge it,
forget it, or reach for the e-Cigarette - at least it won't harm you.
e) Day by day, it actually does get better, especially if it has been affecting your chest/breathing.
Someone got me an electric cigarette for Xmas, or an e-Cigarette (anything electronic starts with e- it seems) ‘just in case’. They are really good and do work, I know this. My main problem used to be the habit of doing something with my fingers, so they don't really help break this cycle, but from a health point of view, you can keep on 'smoking' without any harm to your health, which must be a great thing. I appreciate having this, because as we all know, never say never, but it is definately something I was about to buy myself, before I just went cold turkey. Try it, they look fun and you can ‘smoke’ them anywhere. Good luck.
These are one of the best on the market, give it a go.
http://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/571.html
Dave Thomas
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