Saturday, January 3, 2009

Quitting the Filthy Habit

The smoker's body cells have become addicted to nicotine, and to quit smoking won't be easy, since withdrawal symptoms can be expected. Here are some helpful tips that might ease the quitting process:

The heavy smoker should allow two weeks for cutting down, then quit completely. An extended cutting-down period only prolongs the pain. Prepare for an agonizing month or two, though you might get off easily. The close family must give up, too, at least in your presence. It'd of course be best if the whole family quit at once. The pain and agony you'll suffer can be relieved completely in most persons by taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance. That means to take as little as one gram or as many as fifty grams (50,000 milligrams) every day until you reach the point of liquid diarrhea, then decrease the amount until your stools are normal. But "normal", for many smokers, means frequent constipation. Stools must always be soft, never, ever, necessitating any straining.

If anti-smoking drugs help (Nikoban, Bantron, Pronicotyl), good, but be prepared to find they won't. Vitamins C and B1 and tranquilizers often help to decrease irritability and other withdrawal symptoms.

After eating don't sit down. Take a walk instead. Try to avoid situations that you associate with smoking, such as sitting in your favorite chair, particularly after dinner. Try to avoid situations that are conducive to smoking, such as bars, meetings, and boredom. Don't invite smoking friends over during the critical first few months. Never, anytime, let them smoke in your soon-to-be smell-free home. In fact, after you've quit for a few months, you'll notice how your clothes still have a strong residual smell of an ashtray. It may be necessary to clean or clear away every source of that smell, usually from carpets and clothes. Then get ready for a new life of clean lungs and great health. Your non-smoking friends won't avoid you anymore now that you no longer smell like an ashtray.

When you get that urge to smoke (and you will), drink some water. If that doesn't work, suck a prune and keep the pit in your mouth for an hour. Try the buddy system: phone a friend who's also trying to quit. Think of the satisfaction of not having given in to that filthy urge. Think how bad you'll feel if you do give in. Think about how your cigarette money helps support those hypocritical tobacco companies whose income is derived at the expense of the health, wealth, happiness, efficiency, and resources of the addicted smoker.

After giving up, that filthy urge may remain for several years, so don't start again. Some people are lucky in that after a few months the thought of smoking makes them sick. But don't bank on being lucky.

Cigarette displays, cigarette ads, cigarette machines, anything having to do with smoking, must be looked upon in your mind as existing only for those poor unfortunates who are addicted to that filthy habit.

Life's too good and too short to waste on that filthy habit.

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