The third Thursday of November is the Great American Smokeout, a tradition started by the American Cancer Society on November 18, 1976. This year I want to mark the occasion by telling a personal story about smoking, and two very special friends of mine.
For many years I went on a fishing trip with some close friends. The couple who took care of the island where we stayed, Sheldon and Carol, were terrific company. In his regular job Sheldon worked as a trucker, and Carol was a homemaker. Sheldon was an unusually funny and intelligent man who told unforgettable jokes. Even more than the jokes themselves, it was Sheldon's delivery that really put them over. Just to convey a small flavor of Sheldon, when the Canadian authorities decided to make everyone, including the old hands, take a test to be fishing guides, he told us the following version of the questions on the test: "If someone falls overboard what do you do? (a) throw them a life preserver or (b) throw them an anchor. My answer was (c) depends who it is". I often thought that if Sheldon had the educational opportunities of Winston Churchill, he also could have been a prime minister.
Every year we met him at the dock, and it was always great to see him. In recent years though, his chain smoking had aged him and his breathing was labored. We would always wonder: "how long can he go on smoking like that?" As if he'd read our minds, he would light up a cigarette and say "well you have to die of something". Carol, his wife, was as good-natured and good-hearted as can be, and also great fun. She made the best macaroni salad in the world, or at least that I've ever had. She also smoked just like Sheldon, one cigarette after the other. You couldn't help wondering how long it could go on for her as well.
Last year, when we arrived for the fishing trip, Sheldon was subdued, not his usual self. He had been coughing up blood and was waiting for the results of a test for lung cancer. Gloom descended over the fishing trip. The first night up there we would always have a party, with Sheldon and Carol joining in eating lobsters, and of course Carol's amazing macaroni salad. For the first time in decades, Sheldon wasn't smoking and he was hoping for the best. We all anxiously waited to hear his test results. They weren't good, and when he came "up lake" to let us know, the first thing he did was light up a cigarette. Knowing I work with smokers, he said "what kind of monsters created the bad feeling I had when I quit?" We didn't say another word about it. Four months later Sheldon was dead. A few months after his funeral, Carol had a massive heart attack and died while her son was driving her to the hospital. This summer was the first time in many years that we didn't make it "up lake".
Dr. Seidman is author of the new book Smoke-Free in 30 Days: The Pain-Free, Permanent Way to Quit with a foreward by Dr. Mehmet Oz (Fireside Trade Paperback Original, January 2010). An audio book is available from Random House. Dr. Seidman first introduced his own program to stop smoking as a featured expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Dr. Oz early in 2008. For more details about the book go to www.danielfseidman.com
Here's what happened with me...
I definitely did not want to die young and was looking for a way to quit smoking after 12 years of this nasty habit.
Cold turkey didn't cut it for me. I managed to keep off the cigarettes for about a month and then I started smoking again.
I didn't bother trying patches because I knew it was that hand-to-mouth experience that I was craving for.
About six months ago a good friend of mine found an interesting gadget that helped him cut down his smoking from 2 packs of Camel a day to only half a pack.
It surprised me so I decided to give it a try too.
Guess what? I have now totally given up the regular tobacco cigarettes and it was pretty effortless.
If you have been struggling too then I recommend that you at least take a look at the website where my friend (and later me) found that helpful device.
Don't forget to send me a message if it helped you quit ;)
http://tryecigarette.com
The nicotine prohibitionists are responsible for a lot of misinformation about alternatives to smoking. I don't know that I'd have switched to smokeless tobacco decades ago if I'd known how much safer it is than smoking, but I'm furious that not only was I not privy to that information, I was lied to by groups I long held sacred, like the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association.
It's way past time for the truth to come out about smoking alternatives. Adults have a right to make informed decisions, and the so-called health organizations, as well as the media, have an ethical obligation to see to it that complete and accurate information is available.
Also, my mother is 92 in January and my father died a terrible 3 year death from cancer at 77. Neither ever smoked. His sister died at 86 a proverbial smoking chimney while she was alive. We're all going to die one way or the other and smoking is just one of the risks in that path.
Finally, being a trucker, Sheldon spent years in a truck that more than likely was diesel powered. Talk about confounding factors in risk. I know of a lot of cases where the husband or wife dies soon after their spouse, smoking and a broken heart both can be risk factors. Nice article by someone that feels he has to control other people's lives though.
Today we have many smokeless tobacco alternatives that are incredibly safe compared to smoking as well as E cigarettes. Do these organizations suggest them, no, they suggest products that they know have a 2% success rate after 20 months. Embarrassing really, but why would they do that?
They have become more interested in insuring that their cash flow continues from the MSA agreement and other gov money from cigarette tax dollars as well as huge contributions from the Pharma industry. Sorry but I'm not impressed.
My husband never smoked he would always joke with friends who smoke and tell them that smoking to him is like some guy who takes a drink then spits it back at you, much like a smoker would blows smoke at you not all are that rude but you get the point.
Of course he would do it with effects and take a drink and spew it on his friend to make a point which they all found funny.
There is no reason for anyone to ever smoke cigarettes again. The tobacco industry does not want you to know about these (because they tried to make one and failed miserably) for obvious reasons as well as pharm/FDA/AMA etc because it's all about the mighty $$$$.
www.AnyShinyThing.com, A Blog for Smart Women of a Certain Age
I can't tell you how many times I quite smoking.
I can't say when it was I finally stopped because one day I just realized I hadn't had a smoke in, I didn't know how long and I didn't want one.
I'm 59 now and I haven't bought a pack in about fifteen years. I must admit I share a few cigarettes with an old friend I see about every year when I visit my home town. I also must admit after an evening of indulging in my favorite self destructive passtime I feel like crap for days and remember why I quit the nasty things.
And also: After you quit you will realize what nasty things they are. When people ask me if I mind if they smoke I smile and say, "Go right ahead. I subjected everybody around me to the stink for years so I sure can't complain about it now."
NEVER STOP QUITTING! One day you will break that jones if you just keep trying.