Up in Smoke
This might be my second or third post about this on Steem and unfortunately here I am again, the same difficulty in front of me with the same failures behind me. Quitting cigarettes. Of course the posts where I failed and started smoking again are missing from my Steem profile but maybe 3rd time's the charm.
I've been smoking for about ten years now with some breaks here and there, I grew up in a nice school where only a few students were smokers and we didn't even start drinking until we were 14-15 which is pretty uncommon for Finns. I never understood the addiction to smoke at the time, looking at smokers and thinking "why don't they just quit? It can't be that hard", oh boy was I young and naive. As I was making my way to mandatory military training I remember everyone saying "yeah that's where they get ya, everyone starts smoking there cause of the pressure and stress" but I didn't take those seriously cause I never had those problems and I was sure I would not face them. I was right, for the most part, I didn't start smoking for most of my military training except the last couple months when things died down and there wasn't a lot to do and we were just hanging out doing nothing with some smoker roommates. You could pretty much say I started smoking out of boredom as dumb as that sounds like it's unfortunately true.
I was probably in the best shape of my life at the time and I didn't see smoking as something bad right then and there. I used to run 10-15 kms per day and took smoke breaks now and then cause it just tasted amazing to me at the time and as long as I'm still being healthy with everything else this could not hurt much, could it? Well shortly after we had to move and being in a new place without knowing many my good habits of running and working out quickly turned into gaming and being up late procrastinating online while continuously smoking.
To keep this post a bit shorter and cut out all the years of smoking I wanna get to the last few years where it really has started taking its toll. For the past couple years I've been feeling unlike myself, self-diagnosed I'd blame it on thyroid and cholesterol but who knows haven't been on a checkup yet. You may wonder why that is and I'd tell you you're not the only one wondering that. Maybe it's self-destructiveness, I read somewhere that each human has that ability built in and some just tend to do it more often than others, I don't know. To tell you the whole truth it would get quite personal and bring up a lot of other things that may have an effect on everything I would not want to share here today yet, maybe some time in the future, who knows.
I think this would be a good time to take a break, try really hard to get rid of many bad habits I've amassed over the years and feel a bit healthier and in a better situation for HF21 as Steem is still my main focus. I'll also be posting a bit more than usual, it usually goes in waves where I don't post much for a long time as I have other things outside the chain to do but still for Steem and some other times like these when either everything is flowing well (which hasn't been the case lately) or there just isn't much to do for me personally where I get back to posting. For now though I'm gonna try and force myself to take a break from all the other responsibilities, maybe try and not talk to others as much during the next few days as I'm quitting smoking - don't take it personally if I'm not replying or acknowledging your comments on my posts during this period - and hopefully I'll be back better than ever with the new HF to make the most out of what the new changes bring and make it possible.
I am still very hopeful and looking forward to how I can help out the most not just myself but everyone I deem worthy of being a good Steemian on our chain. For now, wish me luck, the image above are my last three cigs that took me forever to put in that position with shaky hands which has also caused my lines when drawing to not be the best they can be. Hopefully that will go back to normal after a few weeks of non-smoking.
This time around I'm going to try and be honest if I fail with quitting and maybe write some more posts about my progress throughout it. I'll also be using an app called QuitNow which counts the time and money I've saved so far by not smoking and also drops in some achievements and statistics of your health which are pretty interesting, will keep you up to date on that too.
If you've been in a similar situation as I am now and managed to quit and have some good advice for someone attempting to go cold turkey in a very hot climate, now would be a good time to hear them - I'm mostly planning on curating, writing and watching a ton of anime to get the time to go as fast as possible but I fully expect to sweat a lot, be restless, get annoyed quickly, do some collateral damage and keep bugging my roommate to give me "just one last cig" even though I've told him like 3 times so far not to listen to me when the time comes.
I quit about 10 years ago, cold turkey. I would like to say it was easy, as it was not. 10 years later, still not easy. They hardest part was not the actual stopping, it was managing the triggers. The after a large meal, or that part of the commute into work, or simply the quiet time in the morning. I had to break those, not smoking was much easier when I found away to reprogram my mind to stop the desire during those trigger points. Saying that, I still want them. I miss the taste, the occasional buzz, and just the relaxing nature of getting a minute to myself. I am also a firm believer, that people quit when they are ready to quit, not before. If you are ready to quit and want to, not need to, but want to, you will quit.
The large meal trigger is pretty bad, dessert anyone? :)
Well, dear @acidyo, it is the first time I write to you, even if by fame I have known you for a long time, I was attracted to this post by the photo of those 3 cigarettes, then reading what you wrote I would like to express a few concepts about smoking. I hate smoking, I always hated it, I never started smoking because smoking took my grandfather from me because of lung cancer 39 years ago (I'm pretty big), so I never felt the desire to smoke, not even to try. One of the factors that helped my partner quit smoking, after 30 years of smoking she quit 15 years ago, her father also died in the same year as my grandfather (even after only 10 days one on the other hand, really a strange case ...), I never gave her any respite, I was a constant "breaking of balls" on the smoke, until a gift was made, finally stopping. I have to take something in your head, you have to convince yourself that smoking is pure shit for your body, looking in your mind for something to hold onto to stop smoking, it's never too late to do it, even if it won't take you to extreme consequences will you get constant damage to your body, sometimes irreversible, and how much money you will save on medicines, cigarettes and health ??? So many, so many, you know, so when you turn on that cigarette disgust, think of the words of an Italian loser who hasn't hurt himself with smoking, 50 years ago the consequences of smoking were still unknown, now you don't they are more mitigating, smoking is very wrong and very harmful to your health.
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:p yeah
lol I remember you were in my first or second post about this as well, how time flies
Good luck. <3
codl turkey
damn this would've been a much better title :(
I heard you miss it forever; which always seemed daunting, but that's absolutely not the case.
I'll go months without thinking about it; even surrounded by smokers now it holds no appeal or temptation.
Thanks, needed to hear that after some of the other comments in here.
I quit for two years after our first baby. Once our 2nd and third came at the same time (twins) I am back at it. I tell myself right now that i am working on other things (which is partially true) and smoking will come later. I am still constantly working out so that makes me feel a little better about it. Fucking sucks.
Well, if it makes you feel better I've seen several studies where they concluded on average it takes 3-4 attempts for a person to actually quit smoking. So, you're certainly not alone in your efforts here, dood. Hopefully you can kick this shit this time around. Just think about how you won't have COPD and be tied to an oxygen tank in your mid 50's if you quit now ;D
Imagine when u buy cigarettes, u didn't buy steem for that money :)
Try to think with logic here, I know it's the hardest to be real to yourself but get there and be sure that you trully understand the consequences.
As Bob Marley said: only a fool lean upon his missunderstanding.
We tend to convince ourselves that we're going to be good. But, our organism has its limit and we need to accept it. Health is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in life and we forget about that until we come to some crazy point where our health is going bad.
I also had bad health period lately and I had to distance myself from all the activities that put me in that position. That's just what u have to do.
Talking to people will also help you. Ofc, choose those who don't put you into stressful situations with their topics of talk.
Anyway. Good luck stay strong. It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
Peace yo!
I've had some experience with addiction of another kind. I think it comes down to internal work - while simultaneously trying to change behavior, too - getting to the root reason of a given addiction, and working it out, because will power only lasts that long. That is based on my own experience anyway.
Hopefully you'll be able to shake off the cigs, but you also should have mercy on yourself in case of a relapse and just get back on the horse.
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