A Page From My Personal Diary - How I Stopped Smoking

Hello everyone in the Steemit Philippines Community. I hope you are all doing okay. This is my first post here after my Verification Post and I had a difficult time deciding on what topic to talk about. I checked the current contest that we have in the community about "My Parents In 10 Pics" but I went over my archives and would you believe I don't have 10 photos of them? That's because cell phones weren't popular when they were still alive so not much pictures of both of them were taken by me.

After thinking about it for a while, I remembered one of the topics that both @long888 and myself talked about during our first and very recent meet up. You can read about this here for those who missed my post on this. It was about smoking and how I was able to quit the habit. And so, for those of you smokers who want to quit and also for those who don't smoke but would like someone else to stop, this is for you.

But first, a short background of myself, the smoker, is in order. I began smoking when I was 11 years old. At first it was just sort of doing it to get accepted by friends who were also smoking. It actually gave me a manly feeling, a grown up status, and a macho image. I remembered one of my favorite advertisements at that time was the Marlboro Country and the Marlboro Man. Now I was the Man.

Fast forward 20 years later. Heavy smoker doing one and a half packs a day. That's if I don't go out drinking with the guys. When I drink consumption went up to 2 to even 2-1/2 packs. The first and last things I did everyday was smoke a cigarette. I was heavenly addicted to smoking. You may wonder. Did I suffer any health problems then? None that I can think of. I was regularly exercising and playing basketball. So I was still physically active and fit. I did suffer sometimes from tonsillitis, especially during heavy days (like drinking with the gang) and smokers' cough. But at that time, antibiotics could be purchased over the counter without prescription. I just took antibiotics when my tonsils acted up. No problem.

One day, my ex-girlfriend, now my wife, dared me. She said I could not quit smoking even if I wanted to. She also said it in a mocking manner and I got so irritated that I said I can stop anytime and that I was going to prove her wrong. And the challenge was on. I brought out all my unopened packs of cigarettes and threw them in the waste can. Then I stepped on them and crushed them all. And to prove to her I could do it, I went cold turkey. Complete stop! Immediate termination! Total elimination!

What did I get myself into? I wanted to give up already. I was already reaching out for cigarettes when I woke up the next morning only to realize I threw them all away and that I quit. I did? The office was worse. Most of my beer buddies from the office were smokers. My boss was a smoker. His boss was a smoker. And when they found out I quit, they all laughed and started to smoke in front of me, offering me cigarettes. The sweet smell of the smoke nearly drove me insane. I was not going to make it. Impossible. But I held on thinking of how my girlfriend's lovely face would tease me and say, "I told you so. I knew it." No, I will not give her the satisfaction. That night, the guys invited me for beer and it was the worst drinking night of my life. How I managed to drink without smoking is beyond me. DAY 1.

The next day was even worse. All I could think of was smoking. I was distracted and a nervous wreck. I talked to customers without really listening to them because my mind was totally in smoking. I was writing memos and accepting orders from buyers without thinking about them. My beer buddies were even more determined to get me back to smoking. But I just kept on thinking of my girlfriend and I passed the challenge. DAY 2.

DAY 3 to 7 - Same and about to give up on quitting.

Now there was this Australian client that the company had. His name is Tom. In one of our drinking sprees he noticed how heavy I smoked. I said I was addicted to nicotine. He laughed and said nobody is addicted to nicotine. Nicotine is a short term drug and people who claim they are dependent on it don't really know what they are saying. Proof of this is a smoker can sleep 6 to 8 hours a night straight without waking up in between to get a fix of nicotine. He said that smokers are actually addicted to the motions if smoking. The feel of having a cigarette between the fingers, the act of taking a drag from the cigarette and inhaling the smoke, the flicking of the ashes onto the ash tray, the twirling of the fingers while holding the cigarette and talking to someone. All these are habits that were developed while smoking and these are what someone kicking the habit misses.

I thought about this as I recalled this conversation. It did make sense. And at that point I needed all the tips on quitting to get me through the ordeal. I will try this out.

DAY 8 to 4th month. I now had an unlit cigarette clipped between my two fingers. I was inhaling from the unlit cigarette, flicking the imaginary ashes onto the ash tray, blowing the make believe smoke from my mouth. I was even doing smoke rings, would you believe? Surprisingly, these actions calmed my nerves. It gave me focus and concentration in my job. I noticed that the thought of smoking was not consuming and eating up my mental status. I was smoking but not smoking. It was a very serene and peaceful time after the storm.

After the fourth month, I was inside a restaurant and I felt irritated by the smoke from anther customer who was smoking. What? Did I just felt that? It was then and there that I realized I was well on my way to successfully kicking the habit.

7th month and 34 years and counting - Cigarette free.

Quitting is hard. But I realized it is only hard in the mind. The heart still rules. I found a reason to stop. It wasn't because of health reasons. It was because of pride. My pride, which is from the heart and not the mind, made me quit successfully. I now understand that despite the health hazards of smoking, people still do it. Why? Because the way I see it explaining about health issues and even the cost issues are all actually hard sell which make people think. But in the end, people almost always do what they feel. Not what they think. And of course, smoking without the smoke can go a long way to quitting the habit.

I bet you can't quit even if you wanted to.

(NOTE: ALL PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF PIXABAY FREE DOWNLOAD PHOTOS.)