Quitting for Your Sanity

I’m writing this article for you. Seriously. You are probably wondering if I really do mean you given the enormous readership of Imprint each week so here is a test. Fill in the following sentence with the first word that comes to your mind, “I wish I could quit ______________”, Skipping class? Stealing my roommates food? I know it’s neither, because this article is about you and you want to quit smoking.

Most issues I tip-toe around with a certain degree of sensitivity but there is 100% no reason why anyone needs to smoke and since I know you have already thought of all the reasons why you want to quit I won’t give you any more room for excuses not to. I bet you want a cigarette right now don’t you? You are probably cursing me as you feel for them in your pocket. Go on take em’ out, light it up and read this while the guilt of what you know you shouldn’t do removes everything enjoyable from the experience. Are you the only one right now outside smoking up? If not, for every 2 people out there with you 1 of you will die as a result. Just saying.

I smoked once, I mean not just one cigarette but something like 32,000 of them. For 6 years smoking was my everything. You non-smokers laugh but smoking is more than a habit, it’s a best friend. When you are happy you celebrate with one and when you are angry at the world you take a moment with one to question everything in your life that isn’t helping you get to where you want to be. Smoking helps you calm down, contemplate and create that moment in the millions of moments in the day that is just for you. Well, wake up! Who hasn’t had a friend who lied to you, manipulated you, stole a few dollars from you and pretty much had nothing but selfish motives in being your friend. Marlboro, Players or Du Maurier, whatever you call them ditch them like you would a friend who slept with your partner after maxing out your credit card and deleting your hard drive.
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This isn’t just about health this is about insanity. There is absolutely no rationality for smoking. Here are some of the excuses and conditions I know you’ve made for yourself. This is the last time you will read them because you are done making them as of today.

1. I only smoke when I drink. Do you drink every week? Day? Then you won’t quit smoking
2. I need to smoke to get ride of my headache/reduce my irritability. People get headaches and have bad days, that’s what Tylenol and real friends are for. Suck it up.
3. I’ll quit when I finish this pack. If you’ve said it once before you have already become accustomed to not believing yourself. Don’t wait. Break up those bitches right now and get over it
4. I’ll quit when (weak excuse with no actual time point). These are all ‘tomorrow’ excuses that never come because we all know tomorrow is just a day away and with it your last puff stays in a comfortable place in the future where you think you are in control but you never really get to.
5. I like it. You know what? Me too! I LOVE smoking and if I could smoke one continuous cigarette all day long and not be inhaling the fumes of chemicals used in concentration camps I would.

Let me create a scenario for you: You are walking through the grocery store and come across the chip aisle. Various brands, various flavours, some claiming less fat or less salt but they are all chips in one form or another. Now you pick up a bag, maybe because you like the label, maybe because it is significantly cheaper than the rest. You turn it over and on the back is a big fat “This product will kill you” label. Would you still buy it, eat its contents and even bring it to a party and share with your friends?

Where is the rationality then of paying money for something that has absolutely no benefit to your health or lifestyle in any way? Well, there isn’t any rationality and that is why you are going to quit. While you continue to hold on to all your excuses and conditions you are maintaining some level of rationality for yourself to continue to smoke. When I was in highschool at the end of each summer my best friend and I would have a campfire to set goals for the next year. For 3 summers in a row I’d throw each cigarette I had on me into the fire and with it a reason why I should quit. Even though I had enough reasons I didn’t have reason enough to finally make the break until a few years later when I reunited with an ex-boyfriend who had quit smoking. He was running 10k a day and far exceeded me in every health category I had until that time surpassed him in. This was a man who had previously smoked a pack a day and didn’t move far from the garage for anything but a beer or a joint. I didn’t quit for him but what he said to me triggered the rationality lever in my head, “If you care about your health you wouldn’t smoke”. I know right?! And this is EXACTLY why people never start in the first place or eventually quit. It is so obvious but we are illusioned to believe that we are invincible or that we aren’t strong enough to quit. The truth is there are millions of more people who have quit than are smoking today, they either chose health over death….. or they died. And so will you.