Removing the Shackles

I'd like you to meet Diane, a recently freed ex-smoker. At six months into smoking cessation, Diane has plenty of insight and hope to offer.

Congratulations Diane, and thanks for sharing your story. The work you're putting into quitting now will pay you back with benefits for many years to come.

From Diane:

I've been smoking all my life, until now.

I was born in 1960, a time when there was no real link between smoking and health issues. Smoking was not only acceptable, smoking was fashionable. Everyone smoked. Not just the movies stars of the silver screen, or the television stars, doctors also smoked. You could smoke on a plane, in a public building, even in a hospital. Smoking was a way of life. It wasn’t until 1966 that the Surgeon General put the warning on cigarette packages...

Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health

Caution? May be? That was a joke because nobody was paying attention.

My mother was a good and wonderful woman. I had a great childhood. There was nothing dysfunctional about us and by no means do I blame my smoking addiction on my mother. My mother was a nurse who smoked, but again, in the 60's, medicine was not as advanced as it is now. If she knew the dangers, I know my mother would have never smoked while pregnant, and not around me and my brother.

I started smoking at conception. I smoked in the womb with my mother during pregnancy and in the course of my childhood through secondhand smoke. So for me, I was predisposed to pick up the habit of smoking. Nicotine has always been in my system.

I didn't feed my craving for it though until I was in college. I really wasn’t a legitimate smoker (yet) and could always quit with ease. In 1985 I became a bona fide smoker and could not – would not – did not want to quit smoking.

There was a brief moment in time when I did quit for three years with the pregnancies of my two children (who are 15 months apart and are now 17 and 18 years old), but I hit a bump in my life and picked up that crutch - cigarettes. I used to think cigarettes eased the stress; I used to think cigarettes were good after a meal or made alcohol taste better. I thought smoking made me look cool. It didn’t.

A Slave to Smoking No More...

Fast-forward to September 2010. I turned 50 years old and decided it was time. Time to take the shackles off so I could be free. I made a plan, talked to my doctor, and on December 31, 2010 at 11:45 p.m., I smoked my LAST cigarette and my journey to freedom began.

I ain’t gonna lie – it wasn’t easy in the beginning. But I promise you, I have not looked back. I prayed often and still do.

One day I stumbled upon a book (that can be downloaded for free) on the internet when I was having a moment of doubt and had no sponsor to talk to. It’s called Never Take Another Puff by Joel Spitzer. This book was a gift out of nowhere. Something I needed at the time to keep me going and whisper in my ear that I was going to make it. It help me understand the addiction to smoking. It gave me knowledge about nicotine that armed me to never want to take another puff.

I had no intention on rattling on about this, but perhaps I needed to tell this part of my story so I can keep traveling. I am a recovering smoker, it's been six months and I am smoke free!

I am Diane.

6/8/2011

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The First Six Months

Between nicotine withdrawal and recovering from the many associations we have with smoking, the first six smoke-free months are challenging for most people. The ups and downs of smoking cessation are poignantly reflected in the following personal accounts that detail the challenges at various points during the first six months smoke-free.

Settle in and do some reading -- there is no shortage of inspiration and motivation to succeed to be found on these pages!

KerriFrom Kerri
"My name is Kerri. I'm 31 years old, and I have been a nicotine addict for more than half of my life. I was 13 when I smoked my first cigarette. My friends turned green; I got good at it. By 15, I was using my lunch money to buy cigarettes."zSB(3,3)MaryFrom Mary:
"I started on a slippery road
with fear and trembling in my sack,
but once around the corner
I knew there was no turning back."DarleneFrom Darlene:
"Please rejoice with me, because I am one of the lucky ones. I quit smoking and have been given a second chance. I am three months smoke-free as of today, September 9, 2008, and have found a peace and freedom that I've never before felt. I believe it is because I quit smoking and have completely changed my life. I abused my body big time in many ways for most of my life, but no more."StockxpertFrom Kay:
"One thing I have learned here is that all it takes is a single puff to break a quit. By reaching for a smoking buddy's pack after not smoking for a few days or weeks, I actually lost all my previous quits well before the three-month anniversary."StockxpertFrom Marah:
"I hope to encourage new quitters by listing some of the benefits I’ve derived from not smoking these past 3 months. I smoked for 27 years, 20 of those years a pack a day or more. For the last 3 or 4 years, I’d been chewing 5-6 pieces of nicotine gum a day on top of 20 cigarettes, so I had ungodly amounts of nicotine coursing through my bloodstream."LarryFrom Larry:
"Here it is Christmas Eve day 2006, and tomorrow morning around 9 am PST it will be 4 months since I put out that ONE cigarette I had been in search of for the better part of 50 years (the last ONE). How in the world could ONE stinking cigarette be so elusive, so hard to find?"AngelaFrom Angela:
"When I think of a cigarette, I think of the four thousand chemicals that would rush into my mouth and burn their way into my once healthy lungs. I think about that nasty taste, that nasty ring of polluted air I would create in the space around my body."DeeFrom Dee:
"This does not have to be a 24/7 battle. Fact: there is a price to pay(urges, cravings, etc)for freedom. Relax, accept that fact. Keep it simple, take it one day at a time, and move the heck on and enjoy your life being smoke free"zSB(1,2)JaneFrom Jane:
"Long before August 5, 2006, I had been thinking how much I hated smoking, not quitting smoking, just hating it. After all, I had smoked for 37 years. Cigarettes were a part of who I was, how I functioned, and ingrained into my fiber."LeslyFrom Lesly:
'Six months, half a year, and two seasons since I smoked.'(EB) "This is so hard for me to believe! I'd like to take a minute and give my thoughts to people coming up behind me, or people who might be struggling. To get free of this addiction, it is my belief that you have to educate yourself to the "lie" of the cigarette."if(zSbL

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Prepare to Quit Smoking

Preparing yourself for what lies ahead when you quit smoking will add to your ability to make a success of your efforts. Preparation puts you into the driver's seat when you quit smoking, and will help you get your mind geared up for the big day. It's a good idea to plan your quit date no more than a week or two ahead of time. Any more than that, and you're likely to lose momentum. Read, read, read, and read some more. Use the library here at About.com Smoking Cessation to learn as much as you can about nicotine addiction and how it affects your body. From what to expect when you quit smoking, to ways to deal with recovery, education is a vital part of a successful quit program. It forces us to take the blinders off - most smokers avoid reading and thinking too much about the dangers of what they're doing. It's called denial, and the sooner you remove it, the quicker you'll be on the road to recovery. Understanding Nicotine Addiction How Smoking Harms Us - From Head to Toe This little tool is a terrific quit aid. Use it initially for your list of reasons to quit smoking. Follow up with some other lists of things that have meaning for you. Suggestions include: pros and cons of smoking goals you have in your life benefits you can envision as a nonsmokerOnce you quit smoking, use that journal to log your daily progress. Make an effort to write in it at the very least, once a day, and more if you feel the need. Weeks down the road, you may have a bad day when thoughts of smoking are at the front of your mind. Taking a look back at week one and getting perspective on just how far you've come could be the boost you need to get over that hump. The Pros and Cons of Smoking EB's List of Reasons to Quit Smoking Make an appointment with your physician for a physical and let him/her know that you're going to quit smoking. It's a great time to discuss quit smoking aids, and get advice on what may be best suited for you. Ask your doctor whether you might benefit from a vitamin supplement. Smoking depletes nutrients from our bodies, and a multi-vitamin can give you a head start on rebuilding your health.

Quit Smoking Supplies

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Free of Nicotine - 10 Stories

Once we quit smoking, the word freedom takes on a depth of meaning it never had before.  The benefits of better health and more money in our pockets only marks the beginning of the positive changes most of us enjoy after quitting.

The stories below illustrate the value freedom from nicotine addiction has had on 10 unique and precious lives.

If you're still smoking, their stories cannot help but inspire you to tap into your own ability to quit too.

To that end, the links below will help you get started:

Believe in yourself and make smoking history.

You CAN do it!

Bill Ledbetter

From Bill:
"How many times have you heard songs about fools? There must be as many fool references in music as there are trains. Fool for love, fool and his money goes separate ways, foolish games, fool for your stockings, fooled around and fell in love, won’t get fooled again...you get the picture. Fools and foolish behavior are good song material. One of my all time favorites is "Fool for a Cigarette."

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Declare Your Independence!

July 4th is a great day to quit smoking.

Here in the U.S., July 4th is a day that is synonymous with freedom.?? What better day to mark the beginning of your new life, free of the chains of nicotine addiction?

Use the resources below to get started with smoking cessation.

How to Overcome the Fear of Quitting

Quit Smoking 101 - a Free Email Course

The Mindset for Success

Smoking Cessation Support Forum

There is no time like the present to start work on the changes you want to make in your life.

Make today count!

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The First Six Smoke-Free Months

There is no better teacher than the voice of experience, and when it comes to quitting tobacco, members of the About.com Smoking Cessation forum have valuable insights to share. An important resource for the new quitter, their stories are full of practical tips about what works when we quit smoking and the benefits we might expect to enjoy.

The personal quit stories I've selected to share here focus on the first six months of smoking cessation. While the journey to quit smoking is a personal one, many of us face similar challenges early on. Learning how others have broken the chains that bound them to nicotine addiction? sets us up to overcome the issues we might encounter successfully.

Settle in and do some reading -- these real life success stories are sure to inspire, and if you're still smoking, motivate you to embark on your own journey to freedom from nicotine addiction.

Reader Contributions:

Image ? Stockxpert

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Third-Hand Smoke

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) have coined a new term that describes yet another set of dangers associated with cigarette smoke: third-hand smoke. Study results published in the January, 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics discuss how this new health hazard, third-hand smoke, is especially dangerous for children. Have you ever stood in a check-out line and known there was a smoker nearby, even though no one was smoking at the time? Or have you perhaps walked into a room that had the unmistakable smell of stale cigarette smoke lingering, regardless of the fact that a fan was moving the air? This is what researchers are calling third-hand smoke -- and it represents the toxic deposits that are left behind long after a cigarette is put out.

Cigarette smoke contains gases and small particles that are deposited on every surface they come in contact with, be it the smoker's hair and clothing, or the environment the cigarette was smoked in. Dangerous for young children who may crawl on contaminated surfaces and ingest toxins via hand-to-mouth, third-hand smoke is a serious health risk for our kids, especially those who live in the homes of smokers.

In discussing the hazards of transferring toxins clinging to the smoker and his or her surroundings to children in the vicinity, Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and assistant director of the MGHfC Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy explains, "When you come into contact with your baby, even if you're not smoking at the time, she comes in contact with those toxins. And if you breastfeed, the toxins will transfer to your baby in your breast milk."Winickoff adds however, that nursing a baby if you're a smoker is still a better choice than bottle-feeding.

Researchers involved in the study surveyed more than 1,500 households in an effort to learn about adult attitudes regarding the danger third-hand smoke represents to their children and how that might affect smoking in the home. Highlights of what they discovered include: approximately 95 percent of nonsmokers and 84 percent of smokers believe that secondhand smoke is hazardous for children.On the issue of whether third-hand smoke threatens the health of children: 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers felt that third-hand smoke harms kids. When asked about rules regarding smoking in the home: approximately 88 percent of nonsmokers said they didn't allow smoking, while only 27 percent of smokers prohibit smoking in the home.However, both non-smokers and smokers who felt that third-hand smoking was harmful to children's health were more inclined to restrict smoking in their homes. Researchers have identified upwards of 4,000 different chemical compounds that are present in cigarette smoke, including 200 poisonous gases, 60 carcinogens and several heavy, toxic metals. When a cigarette is smoked, about half of the smoke is inhaled and exhaled (mainstream smoke) by the smoker and the other half floats around in the air (sidestream smoke). The combination of mainstream and sidestream smoke makes up environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Also known as secondhand smoke, ETS plays a role in a multitude of health problems that can affect nearly every organ of our bodies. From heart disease and cancer to respiratory problems that steal our ability to breathe, secondhand smoke is toxic and dangerous to anyone exposed to it. Children face a higher risk than adults of the negative effects of secondhand smoke. Not only is a child's body still developing physically, but their breathing rate is faster than that of adults. Adults breathe in and out approximately 14 to 18 times a minute, where newborns can breathe as many as 60 times a minute. Up until a child is about 5 years old, the respiratory rate is quite fast; usually between 20 and 60 breaths per minute. When the air is tainted with cigarette smoke, young, developing lungs receive a higher concentration of inhaled toxins than do older lungs. Young children have less control over their surroundings than the rest of us. Babies can't move to another room because the air is smoky, or the floor is contaminated with the toxic residue of cigarette smoke. They depend on us to provide them with a healthy environment to grow up in.

Do your part to insure that children don't suffer the health hazards posed by cigarette smoking. Ban smoking in your home and car, and if you smoke, quit now.

Source:

Third-Hand Smoke: Another Reason to Quit Smoking. 29 December, 2008. EurekAlert - American Associateion for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

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