Good Morning Gus cigarette addicts. Thank you for allowing me into your posting schedule and homes, permitting me to share my thoughts about the horrible and nasty habit of smoking nicotine laced cigarettes. Pay me no mind for calling you cigarette addicts. I cannot think of another word. At least for this diary I can`t. National No-Smoking Day is today Wednesday 12th March and if you’re taking the plunge, there are plenty of health benefits to be had. I lobbied for this important date in mind for today`s spot on your schedule to post this diary to commemarate my own personal salvation day to smoking.
Stump it, Grind it, and kick it to the curb
We all know, and I will never tire or cease writing that smoking is bad for us but did you know that each cigarette contains around 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known to be toxic such as Arsenic, Acetone, Cyanide and Formaldehyde?
I did not know that, thanks to those who advertised just how cool smoking was and how cool I looked smoking.
Fate has been kind to me. Once again I take this opportunity to share with you how I managed to kick out my vicious smoking habit in a fashion that I firmly believe fell just short of being miraculous. I like to equate the occurred to a divine or supernatural intervention, like a guardian angel, or other supernatural beings, manifesting my own will-power to quit based on the day I decided that I was done with smoking.
This imagined guardian angel I would later recognize, was not Clarence Odbody of the movie It`s a wonderful Life protecting my newly-born grand daughter from cigarette smoke and the unhealthy hazards of the leading toxic chemicals that I described above in the second paragraph. That day I felt it inside of me. No face, no ringing bells or wings to be had if I quit smoking.
It made me choose between smoking outdoors during extemely cold weather here in Milwaukee in December Christmas Day (when my daughter brought the child home from the hospital wrapped in a velvet-red blanket and a Santa`s cap). Or whether I smoked indoors, poison and harm the health of my newly born grand daughter with second hand smoke, or quit.
The strengh of my will-power to prevailed over came me and I became smoke free, and believe me, Clarence was not there. It was like if this angel inside of me had waved a magic wand. If you laugh, rightly so, thinking I am for believing in fairly tales, you are right. I do in this case, and I will forever peddle this Ole Texan story of how I quit smoking cold-turkey.
Like some of you who struggle with this burden of cigarette addiction, I too struggled through most of my life to kick the nicotine habit. Time and again I quit only to fall back off the wagon with a vengence. But I did it. I paid a nasty painful price doing it and I may yet write a diary specifically describing the path that this evil habit took me to get to where I am today...smoke free since 1994. I haven`t even had a toke of weed since.
That is why it makes me sad to see the folks here at Gus carry such a heavy burden as nicotine addiction in their daily lives. Desperation to quit smoking has driven many here at Daily Kos to resort to E-cigs. Electronic cigarette use is exploding among adolescents, and the latest evidence indicates this is not good. A study published last week in JAMA Pediatrics found youth e-cigarette users had higher odds of being tobacco smokers, progressing from experimentation to established smoking; were more likely to be heavier smokers; and were less likely to have quit smoking than smokers who did not also use e-cigarettes.
I have been there and understand the pain and anxieties involved in trying to quit. I was once a nicotine addict and I base that fact and that experience when I call you nicotine addicts..I am sorry.
When I was here a week ago in the comments section Wednesday during flumptytail`s last diary I came away feeling sad as I have said, after reading some painful experiences women wrote about. It was not the first time I have felt like this. Indications between the lines told me those writings pointed to the painful experiences of withdrawal symptoms to nicotine addiction and to quit this habit of smoking. Believe me, quitting smoking is not a piece of cake.
I said in a comment that I was going to rehash my old story of how I kicked smoking cigarettes cold turkey in 1994 after having smoked since I was a mere child. I failed to say that the long ago child can be seen in some of my writings in numerous diaries of the past. I`ll tell a little bit about that here. That mere child to me meant being taught to smoke by an older child way back in the 1940`s. The older one gets, the farther the mind has to travel back in time but I can clearly see me gasping and coughing the first time I tried to smoke.
Granted, Bill Clinton must have stolen my line because I "did not inhale" back then. I guess no one would expect a boy around 6 or 7 years old to inhale smoke on his first couple of drags on a cigarette butt. But unlike Big-Dog, I never stopped.
I kept on smoking on and off since then until the life of my little born angel was threatened with harm to her health, and in that situation my conscious forced me to quit, cold turkey -- or cause irreparable harm to the days-old new born child if I continued smoking indoors.
In fact, after that episode I was forever cured of my addiction and I like to take credit for having raised my grand daugther up until her teens - absence of any smoke fumes hanging over her. If I have ever done anything good in this life it is giving a child an apportunity to live and grow healthty and to add another limb to my family tree.
Because check this out: That new born child then, who came home on Christmas Day of 94 is now my grand daughter. A few weeks ago she rewarded me with a great-grand child. Holy guacamoli I now have two healthy and lovely grand kids. How cool is that?
Was that supernatural intervention inside of me a guardian angel or simply "Will-Power"? Think about it. My great-grandchild was born January 9th of this year. His name is Krason -- now how cool is that name??
One important reason I wanted to post this diary today is to pass on the above red-link so that if you are addicted to nicotine you can find products that are different from the old patches many smokers rely upon, like nicotine replacement methods, you can also try products like ClearMel Honey from NuVitiality. This all natural mix of herbs is designed to help with the healing of smoking damage, by clearing the respiratory systems. The link has very informative and helpful tips that may change your life if you smoke. Check it out.
I hope that anyone who has been successful in curtailing their smoking addiction may post any information to those who keep struggling with this health hazard as is nicotine addiction. I am sure any information you may share, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated by someone down the line. Today is National No-Smoking Day so join me in reminding folks to do the right thing. Their lungs demand no less.
I have never been able to put a name or a tag on the "will-power" that gushed out of me all those years ago then forcing me to quit smoking forever. Amazement has dominated my mind long after my sinuses cleared and I could smell my food. I even tend to pretent or sense feeling a soft breeze caressing me at times and I think of that long ago guardian angel that fate gave to me without ever deserving it. Appropriately in this case when I hear a bell ring, I know its my bird in his cage ringing his bell to be fed.
So when I read Gus diarist`s struggles to quit, these two words jump up in my head and continue to be in my mind when ever I visit Gus and walk away sad. I always choose to stay silent, lest I am viewed as a wanna-be smoking therapist, flashing unwanted and unsolicited advise akin to a smoke-banning cop.
Please note that today I refer to the struggles to quit smoking applicable to women here at Gus only. My conscious and heart had a hugh battle over this decision not to mention men here. If you find this to be sexist you would be wrong.
I will not even try to compare the burdens and difficulties women have during their daily cycles with those of men. Men have not damn cycles to suffer from in case of withdrawal symptoms. So men, that is why I left you out. You have my sympathy as well if you are addicted to nicotine trying to kick it. For you dude, "no ifs and no butts' just quit.
Today is a very special if not important day for me in more than a few ways. So I will try to be pushy and suggest/advise you to seek out your own will-power. All one needs is that will-power that we all have naturally -- the will to do what we want not matter what. And for the sake of those desperately trying to quit smoking, what better way to do that than imagining in your mind that a guardian angel wants you to quit for whatever reason. Believe me its inside of you.
I`ve said it before. I will say it again.
If I, Ole Texan at 78 years of age still has will-power, what about you? Make no mistake though, quitting cold turkey comes with a hefty and agonizing price. Perhaps down the line I will tell the price I paid. But I can assure you upfront that any pain, no matter the agony it causes is worth while. Trust me on this.
Use it my friends once and for all. Quit smoking for those who love you and live among you at home. Thank you for letting me in to share this with you. You too may contribute to the safety and well being of health of a life down the road.
P.S. If you fool yourself smoking an E-cig and say it makes you feel better, you may as well be me. I fool myself dying my hair with Just for Men coloring shampoo. Each time I look into the mirror I smile and say: Oh my, I look so young.....
Peace.