02/04/2017
"Another REAL LIFE STORY of a MAN who struggled a lot, failed thrice, BUT refuse to quit every time and in the end, his determination last longer than his addiction and he became a HERO". His words:
My daughter, who is presently on a campaign of spreading awareness on the ill effects of smoking and promoting a to***co free world has been after me to pen down my thoughts on the subject. My initial reactions were much akin to Laloo being asked to talk about family planning. But, on the flip side and to honour my kid's wishes, I thought I might,as well, share my experience of smoking; getting into the habit as also leaving it three times only to get back to it; at least somebody gets the right message of what they ought not to do.
Was it peer pressure or was it some fashionable act of the times (I am talking of late 70s and early 80s) coupled with some inappropriate sense of a feeling of being a grown up man with its associated freedom or a combination of it all, I slowly got into the habit of smoking. It was social at first with just a few ci******es a week. My smoking habit was aided and abetted by the availability of good quality ci******es at discounted rates being easily available on board ships. Being at sea and having to work at odd hours especially in the initial part of my career in the Navy, smoking and that too in good measure became part of me. I never realised how soon this developed into a real bad habit never easy to remove. It provided me some means to stay awake and also aided concentration or so I believed. This may not be true but I mention it here to express my feelings or experience of that time and space.
Not dwelling too much into this and fast track by 25 years to my experience of (trying to) leave this habit, it was a wakeup call of a health fear that jolted me to try and quit. Some problem with my vestibular apparatus lead to bouts of nausea coupled with sweats made me approach a Doctor as the symptoms mimicked a heart related ailment. I did not want to die then; besides, my thoughts on my responsibilities owed to my family and especially my kids came to my mind, time and again. Even though the Doctor consoled me to say, it was nothing to do with heart attack after a series of tests, I still deeply felt the need to kick this habit. There was a weekend with another holiday thrown in and all I did was sleep, have lots of water and my meals when awake. They call this method - COLD TURKEY and it was effective. I must say the cravings for a cigarette did die after about three days. I was scared that the cravings will come back once at work but it did not. Drinking lots of water regularly helped the cause. Soon I had a sense of achievement and did boast others to quit smoking. My family was the happiest. Many working days and many a social function went by without me smoking; I was convinced I had kicked this habit. And then, after almost four months of not smoking, one social function, after downing two drinks I smoked, just one; maybe just half of it. I had this feeling that this habit of mine is well behind me and that this one cigarette or few puffs at it would do no harm. I did not touch a cigarette for good two weeks thereafter and I was immensely pleased with my self control. Few days later, fuelled with this false sense of self control, I had another cigarette. My wife had a premonition and asked me if I had smoked and I lied. In any case, I had smoked only two ci******es in matter of almost 5 months time and this was not called smoking or so I thought. Soon I found I was having an odd cigarette once a while in the office, invariably borrowed. From there, I moved on to a state where I was happy with just one smoke as soon as I got to work. Alas, soon I was back to full throttle. There were two more such attempts at leaving, both resulting in a similar pattern of quitting and getting back at it. Looking back at my experience, I honestly feel that ni****ne dependence can be overcome by abstinence in a matter of few days. Drinking lots of water helps in detoxification too. Resorting to ni****ne gums or ni****ne patch is really not required, these only delay the process. Besides, taking in ni****ne to overcome ni****ne dependence seems out of place. What’s more important is to kick this habit so as to say.
"Once you leave don’t ever have the so called first cigarette and don’t ever try and test your self control in these matters." Now armed with a reasonable knowledge of what went wrong, I feel it’s almost time for me to quit and hope it is sooner rather than later. I am almost there……….
There are some key points in this article that one can learn :
"Definition of slip and relapse"
Slip is while in ni****ne withdrawal smoking.
Relapse is after successfully overcoming ni****ne withdrawal resorting to smoking much later.
There are no standard definitions for these two terms however they serve a purpose to tackle them.
To prevent relapse.
1)If you have relapsed don't despair, don't be guilty, this is often counter productive. You still have a chance to prevent a full blown relapse.
2) Identify your triggers. They can be
-A party
-Drinking
-Other people smoking
-Stress
-Anger
Or anything
Write these down and either avoid them or have a game plan to cope with them and not resort to smoking
3) Ask for help from family and friends.Tell them exactly what you expect from them.
4) Learn from every relapse.
5)Reward yourself for every milestone attained.
REAL LIFE STORY - 1
Here's a dose of inspiration for everyone.
"This is my confession and I hope it helps the To***co Addicts. My name is Dr. Varsha Kothari and I'm an Anaesthesiologist. I had been addicted to to***co for more than 10 years. The blame was always on difficult circumstances and this gave me inner satisfaction as it left me with very little guilt. This helped me to enjoy To***co and slowly the dose increased.
As an Anaesthesiologist, I always found doctors who were addict too and so I got it for free without having to buy.
When I used to get caught regularly, I just told a lie to my daughter and got away.
When my younger daughter became 9 years old, she discovered that I was a To***co addict and it frightened her as she was aware of the advertisements on TV. Whenever she caught me, she would cry so loudly that she scared me.
One day I gathered strength and spoke to my elder daughter about it. I was put on Ni****ne (2mg) treatment by my husband. My daughter put a message card at all the places where I used to keep To***co which read - ' We love you a lot and be there for us always.' This really touched me and helped me to QUIT.
Now whenever I feel the craving, I take Ni****ne, go for exercise and also start backward counting. This helped me a lot to QUIT. I request everyone to stop To***co use by confiding into the person you love. Take medication and develop self confidence. You are sure to WIN as I did.
Thank you.
Here is my no. I'm keen to help those who want to QUIT - +91 98 28 020186"
***co ***co
