The Decision to Quit Smoking

I was a very addicted smoker. I couldn't go more than a half hour or so without smoking or it felt like I'd die so I know what it is like to be where you are right now. I have to admit now too that I loved smoking and if it wasn't for the negative health effects I'd probably still be a smoker. But those negative health effects are a bitch and I didn't want to end up dead from lung cancer or having to tote an oxygen tank around. So I had to change my mindset about smoking and to do that I decided to look at the habit rationally and to try to convince myself that it had to be done and that I could do it. It took a week or two for everything to sink in but once I got my mind right, I knew that I could quit.

First, I acknowledged that my body just couldn't take too many more cigarettes. I had a bad smoker's cough, I was out of breath, and I just felt sick and run down all the time. My body was telling me that it was time to quit and that the next cigarette could be the one that triggers something really bad. Every time I saw someone with an oxygen tank I let it sink in that that could be me someday. There is no way I wanted to end up like that.

I also spent a lot of time researching lung cancer. I'll tell you straight up that it is a death sentence. You might live a few years but eventually it will get you. For me the most insidious aspect of lung cancer is that you don't have to be 88 years old to get it, lots and lots of people under 40 get it too. And believe me, dying from lung cancer is one of the worst ways to go, you suffer right up until the end. This article is the one that put me over the top.

Next, I divorced myself of the idea that cigarettes were my friend. I think a lot of smokers develop a relationshiop with their smokes because let's face it, they are with us through everything and sometimes they are the only consistency in our otherwise tumultous lives. No matter what happens, good or bad, cigarettes are there with you. You must realize that they are a drug delivery device, nothing more. I remember looking at a half-smoked cigarette and wondering why the hell I had ever given an inanimate object so much power in my life and that realization helped me quite a bit with my quit.

I also discarded the idea that nicotine was something "evil" or a demon of some sort because that isn't true and when you give it those qualities, you shift the blame from yourself back to your cigarettes. Nicotine is a chemical, nothing more, nothing less. It has no power over anyone unless you give it that power. Don't.

After that I decided to take full responsiblity for my habit. Nobody, not even the tobacco companies, had any say in whether or not I smoked. I made the choice to start, I could also make the choice to quit.

Finally, and this is important, I had to have a payoff. I was giving up my favorite habit, what benefits could I expect? As it turns out, there are plenty and many of them manifest themselves in the first hours and days after you quit. Click here to learn about the benefits of quitting smoking.

When I put everything together in a rational manner, I knew I could quit. It wouldn't be easy but since I had armed myself with the powerful knowledge on this page, my confidence in my ability to quit was greater than ever before and I knew I could do it - and I was right!