At some point back in October of 2010, I made a conscience decision to quit smoking as of January 1st 2011. And I did, and I haven't smoked a cigarette since, which is nice I guess.
A little background;
I began smoking on and off when I was 16 and became a daily smoker at 18. This continued for about 12 years and to be honest I really got sick of it. I feel like an old man but I can remember when a pack of smokes cost 4 dollars and now, in Massachusetts they are around 9 dollars a pack and going up on a yearly basis. So an extra 180 dollars a month in my pocket didn't really make the decision difficult.
I can also remember when people were allowed to smoke in or near buildings and structures. Now even asking someone if you can smoke in or around someone’s establishment is generally met with a steadfast, heated, venomous outburst about how you can not smoke in their establishment as well as how they personally feel you should not smoke anywhere. You minus well ask them if you can sleep with their sister. If you are really lucky, they will even feed you the kool-aid about how second hand smoke from you somehow weasels its way into the lungs of everyone in the tri-county area. Meanwhile the exhaust fumes pouring out of the 230 million cars in the United States is of no concern to them. When it comes to anti-smoking, everyone is a really shitty scientist. I have zero respect for anyone who imposes their uneducated opinions onto others.
This is basically why I quit. Sure there are health benefits from not smoking. But mainly, it's too expensive and I was just tired of dealing with partially retarded, anti-tobacco, pseudo activist, douche-bags.
There are several things the information that I read on the Internet left out about quitting smoking. Don't get me wrong, by no means did I think quitting smoking would be easy but I thought it would be difficult in the sense of "God dammit, I want a cigarette, right now!!!". This isn't the case, to be honest, the idea of smoking sounds disgusting to me anymore. The main difficulty is not mental it is your body trying to physically transform itself into a non-smoker after years of smoking. This is a slow, physically painful process that I wouldn't wish on Lebron James. I feel like I have had a bad cold for going on two months, flu like symptoms, skin feels irritated, energy is drained etc. My doctor tells me that my body needs time (sometimes up to a year) to push out all of the crap that has accumulated over the course of smoking for more than a decade. Prior to quitting cigarettes, and with the exception of the swine flu (which wasn't my fault), I hadn't been sick, in any way for over 10 years. I can honestly say, I felt 110% better, physically, when I was smoking a pack a day.
The other major pain in the ass has been the fact that, you can't exactly clear your calendar because you quit smoking, Instead, you have to just press on as usual, going to work, dealing with loved ones, handling life's day to day pains in your ass all while trying to quit a substance that is more difficult to shake then heroin. Your boss doesn't care that you quit smoking cigarettes. You can't call in sick to work because you’re having nicotine fit. This is especially hard in the 3rd and 4th weeks when your body is begging you to just close up shop for a few days and stay in bed.
The experience has been eye opening. You really can't realize how poisonous cigarettes are until you begin denying your body their chemicals. It really is disgusting. If I had to advise anyone about the benefits of quitting right now I would say, I don’t know, I will have to let you know once I start seeing some benefits from not smoking, or once I stop feeling like I just spent three weeks vacationing in Chernoble.
And don't quit for New Years. Don't quit anything difficult for New Years. A New Year’s resolutions should be like "I'm giving up soda or I'm not going to buy things off of QVC anymore". Reason being, New Years also marks the beginning of the worst part of winter. This isn't a time for quitting anything. The dog days of winter are hard enough without having to crave nicotine on top of the horrendous boredom that ensues. Keep your vices intact until the weather turns nice, there will be a million other activities at your disposal to keep your mind and body occupied. And get some sort of medical help with quitting. Quitting cold turkey was a poor, arrogant decision that I would take back in a heartbeat.
The "motivations" for quitting that you read on the net are for the most part ridiculous. Like, "Put all of the money you have spent on smokes into a jar so you can see how much money you're saving!" First off, nobody pays cash for anything anymore and nothing looks more "Kentucky" in your home then a jar full cash. And if you need to keep the money that you would have typically spent on cigarettes in a jar in order to keep track of how much it is, it may be time for you to revisit 4th grade math.
Sometimes they tell you to keep a "journal" and write down your thoughts during cravings. Great idea! What a masterpiece of modern literature that thing would be after about one week. I hope my loved ones find it and read all about good ol Matt, Mother F’ing the entire planet! And what am I going to do. Open it up and read it in a couple of years and be like "Shucks!, those sure were some tough times boy!" Do I want to be reminded of this? Do I really want this shit documented for later review? I don't think so brospeh.
Here is the best advice I can offer. Know what you’re in for. Your head, your body, your entire being will tell you that quitting smoking was the worst decision you ever made. But let reason prevail, let that horrible mentality turn into anger about all the crap that they put in your cigarettes, and all the assholes who work there that causes such delusional thinking. I mean, how terrifically horrible can cigarettes be that they can inflict such a tremendous psychological effect onto so many, otherwise forward thinking, logical people?
Don't even try unless you are 100% committed to never having another puff of a cigarette ever again, otherwise it won't work out. Read what other people have to say about it but don't take it as gospel. Everyone's body is wired differently and will react differently when deprived of it's familiar chemicals. That is my motivation. Happy F'n New Years.
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