I quit smoking 16 years ago. I had smoked for 10 years prior to this. I had "quit" smoking to previous times, each time lasted a couple of months or so. What made me successful the third time? Well, I technically did not quit smoking, I simply stopped buying cigarettes. I would smoke one only when I could bum one. All of my smoker friends started avoiding me like the plague. A lot of the time, the smoker who would give me a cigarette would smoke something vile, such as a Picayune, a Camel No Filter etc. Or, it would be a menthol, and I was a non-menthol smoker. This, combined with the embarrassment of begging, eventually weaned me from "needing" a smoke. But, 16 years later, when someone lights a cigarette and I smell it, my mouth almost waters. I can remember how wonderful that first drag of a fresh cigarette was. I know that I will never smoke again. I know that if I smoke one, I will have to fight that battle again to keep a plant product from reigning over my life. I am too smart for that.
I used to be so
superior to smokers—I had taken up and abandoned the habit on the same day, when I was about 5! But as I watched a TV documentary about addiction on Australia’s ABC network (similar to the BBC) c20 years ago, I realised how tough it could be to try to stop. Understanding further enhanced by talking to a woman who had given up up 20 years earlier: “
Do you miss them?” “
Every day” was the reply.
