iSmoke #not

Okay, i am calling this blog notjusthitech. Which means it is not just about hi tech. So please, dear reader, hop on aboard a low tech ride to the limits of human stupidity. Yeap, you had it right. This post deals with my smoking addiction and the way out of it (for the time being). While preparing for the ride, i am  asking you to think about your biggest success so far. Or maybe about a hard choice that you have had to make. Or a sacrifice for your most beloved: You.

Smoking related facts

Let me first set some things straight by providing the bellow facts:

1. Smoking is bad for your health. No need to elaborate on this one.

2. Smoking is bad for your wallet.

3. Smoking is bad for people near you (people you love/care about are included).

4. Smoking is bad for your, uhhmmm, bedroom performance.

5. Smoking sometimes feels awesome.

6. If you have never been a smoker in your life, chances are you are happy and do not even know it.

7. The level of addiction to smoking is different among different people.

8. There are people who have managed to quit smoking.

9. Only about 4% to 7% of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without medicines or other help.

10. The government does not care about your health. All they care about is how much your smoking related health issues will cost them. And it is true that it will cost significantly more  than they make in smoke related tax money. That alone explains the antismoking propaganda we are now experiencing, whereas fifty years ago governments had no objections whatsoever.

11. Young people are getting smarter and they can understand the risks of smoking.

12. Tobacco companies are evil. Pure evil. They use additives to make smoking even more addicting. Yeap. 

13. It is really hard to quit smoking and stay out of it for prolonged periods of time (best case scenario: rest of your life).

Personal experience

14 years of smoking

I started being a professional smoker when i was 19 years old. Of course i had been smoking a little even when i was in high school but it was not systematic or actually quite enjoyable. I did it just so that my pals could see me. Mostly on a Saturday night, when i was out with friends. All i wanted to do was make sure i was counting as a true member of the "hip" group of adolescent idiots that were considered trendy/socially succesful back then.

It was while wasting my second year as a technical student that i really took up smoking. This is when i became addicted. It did not happen overnight, but i could sense it after it happened. Cigarettes became something i really had to regularly "enjoy". I have never been a heavy smoker, since i used to top out at about 15 cigarettes a day. Every day, that is. And i needed each and every one of these God damned cancer sticks. Did i enjoy them all? By far, no. But some felt (the word "felt" was very carefully chosen - it will all be clear if you keep reading this) great. No reason to lie here.

There were however many nights (early mornings if the night was succesful) i would come home after hanging out for a few drinks with friends, that i really hated myself for smoking. It had to do with that particular taste and smell that only smokers can identify with. A feeling of "no more" before you crash into bed that is replaced by "i want one" by the time you wake up.

I had twice tried kicking the habit when i was about 25 years old. 

1. The first time it was on May 31 (can't remember the year though) which is the World No Tobacco Day. I managed to stay away for 45 days and then i smoked again. Oh God, it felt so good!
2. The second time i had a respiratory infection which rendered smoking an impossibility for a few days, so i grasped the chance and managed to quit for a month. And then i smoked again. And it again felt good!

 I was not ready to quit. Simple as that. My attempts were half hearted and doomed to fail. 

The decision to quit

It is the 15th of March, 2012 and a dear friend of mine (who had been smoking two packs a day for five years) calls me and the following dialog takes place:

- Know what? I quit smoking today!

- No way!

- No, i did and i intend to keep it this way.

- You won't do it.

- Wanna bet?

- Yeap.

- Okay, if in one month i am not smoking then you too quit. Deal?

- Okay. (I was thinking that she would not manage to quit, so i felt safe...)

But unfortunately she did quit and on April 15 she called again and reminded me about my part of the deal. That was it. It was a matter of pure luck that i also decided to try quitting. In the photo you can see the last pack of cigarettes i have ever purchased and hopefully it shall remain the last one. 

Is it easy to keep on living after you quit?

The first days

Well, for the first few days which may stretch up to a month, the sincere answer is no. No. No. No. It is very difficult. You are trying to win one of the most powerful addictive substances in the universe (nicotine, that is) as well as the additives (599 of them last time i checked) that tobacco companies use to hook you up for good. It feels very bad. I am not going to go into details, but it feels like when your girlfriend that you are very much in love with unexpectedly decides to break up with you. Only worse. Because when you break up you can smoke (and drink) all the way out of your misery, whereas when you quit smoking your girlfriend cannot really help you. It is a battle you have to fight against yourself.

The above stands if your try to quit cold turkey. There are also other ways to try quitting, but i cannot testify about them.

After the first month

After the first month things are getting significantly better. The craves are not that frequent, the nervousness recedes, sleep quality improves. Still, in my case, a mild depression was present. It felt like my world was drained of it's colour. Like suffering from a hunger that was present all the time, one that could not be satisfied. Like a dark cloud preventing the sun from warming my heart. Like the new iPhone is out and you do not have the money to buy it, while being a fanboy at the same time. Or something like that. Hope you get the meaning.

These are the symptoms that you are winning the battle. Perhaps the most astonishing thing i have read about the effect of nicotine on the brain is that the "good" feeling you enjoy when smoking (let's say the first cigarette of the day after a nice breakfast) is the result of the shock that you force your organism to endure by poisoning yourself with nicotine. 

The first thing that a quitter notices is the sense of smell that returns with a vengeance. Dear smokers among you, believe me. You cannot smell anything at all. If you manage to stay away for some months, the respiratory benefits are also becoming obvious. Best way to measure that is by exercising regularly.

After the first year

Let's assume that you have managed to stay clear for one year, one month and nine days. Are you through yet? Nope. It may take another half a century before you are completely free. But all you have to do is "never take another puff" as Joel Spitzer put it.

The craves come and go every once in a while and they are not that intense. But it's easy to believe that you have killed the (immortal) nicotine monster and that may lead to just one cigarette which will definitely renew your daily subscription to the "Lung cancer, heart attack if you're lucky or C.O.P.D. to say the least"  Times special edition for big time suckers that are hooked in the "pay2die" service the tobacco companies are offering.

The hi tech aspect

Maybe you are too young to be actually motivated to stop smoking by the health related benefits. How about an annual bonus of a thousand Euros then? How does that sound? As you can see, i have saved 1.054,84 Euros so far and i was smoking an average of 13 fags a day while one pack cost 4 Euros. If you are doing two packs a day, please do the math. It is a serious amount of money. How about a vacation abroad every year for free?

Even better, how about the latest iPhone and iPad for free? Or a hi end laptop? Or a 46 inch 3D smart TV?  Or whatever it is from the gadget universe that your heart desires and costs a grand (or even more)? How about that? Why not kill the iSmoke app you have been running (non stop) for years? It is not easy, but you can at least try. Starting today.