Doctors Smoke Camels

Another entertaining cigarette commercial from way back in the day...

Videos!

I am kind of at a stand still with my progress towards my goal of quitting smoking. I'm pretty much a non-smoker sober (maybe 1-3 a week), but a regular smoker when I drink beer. I was looking over my past blog posts trying to figure out what I should make my final few posts about when I decided that anyone reading this blog must be getting tired of hearing me blab on and on about my struggle to quit smoking. So I decided to at least attempt to make my blog a little more interesting with some multimedia. Here is a funny, and truly unbelievable cigarette commercial from the 1950s. Talk about marketing towards children....

E-Cigs Pt. 2: How it Works

I have continued to look into the electronic cigarette that I posted about previously, and it is truly strange, but fascinating. The more I look into it the more I want to try it out. Below is a video that demonstrates how the typical electronic cigarette works. Maybe rather than being Addicting to cigarettes I could be E-ddicted! Haha!

Sympathize With Me!

As I near the completion of my blog during which I have traced my struggle to quit smoking cigarettes, I realized that it must be very hard for anyone who has never been a regular smoker to understand why it is so hard to quit. If you are one of those people, I tell you that it is very, very hard. It is one of the hardest challenges I have ever taken on in my life. Quitting cigarettes results in real withdrawl sypmtoms. The following is from a website I came across as I researched different ways to quit smoking:

"To quit for keeps this time, know your enemy. The nicotine in tobacco is extremely addictive.3 When you try to quit, the absence of nicotine can lead to withdrawal symptoms, such as:
-Dizziness
-Headache
-Fatigue
-Depression
-Increased appetite
-Trouble sleeping
-Irritability, restlessness, and difficulty concentrating
-Strong urges to smoke

Physically, your body is reacting to the lack of nicotine. Psychologically, your mind is struggling to give up the habit of smoking." (From http://oralhealth.deltadental.com/Adult/OralHabits/22,21258)

During my effort to quit I have experienced all of these symptoms to varying degrees. The worst one is several nights my cigarette cravings have kept me awake into the early morning hours. I hope that any person who has never experienced nicotine addiction, and the struggle of trying to kick the habit, can understand and appreciate how hard it is to quit, and that all of the withdrawl symptoms above do occur.

The E-Cigarette

Throughout my efforts to quit, I have been constantly doing research trying to find new alternatives that are out there to help smokers quit for good. During my research, I came across a very interesting product that has become a popular alternative to traditional cigarette smoking: the electronic cigarette. Above is a picture of an electronic cigarette "kit."

I had never heard of an electronic cigarette before, and I have no idea if it truly does work the way it is advertised, but I won't deny this product caught my interest. Once again, I have no idea if the following claims are supported by any truth, but electronic cigarette distributors state the following as the main advantages of their product:

- Electronic cigarettes are a much healthier alternative to traditional smoking because while they deliver the smoker the desired nicotine, E-cigarettes do not contain any of the dangerous chemicals and toxins of regular cigarettes, such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other carcinogens that do the must to damage a smokers lungs and heart. Electronic cigarettes contain water, nicotine and propylene glycol.
- Electronic cigarettes are significantly cheaper than regular cigarettes. A "cartridge" of E-cigs (which is the equivalent of around 1.5 packs of regular cigarettes) is only $3, wheras depending where you are this would cost $6-10 buying regular cigarettes.
- Electronic cigarettes create no second hand smoke. This creates many advantages. It makes for a greener planet and also works to eliminate the health hazards caused by second hand smoke, while also allowing the smoker to smoke anywhere they please.

These are the main advantages distributors of E-cigs claim their product offers. Of course I am very skeptical of the true effectivness of E-cigs, but after looking into the product a bit more, I won't lie I am becoming increasingly tempted to at least try them, just to see what they are like. For anyone interested in E-cigs, I found the best website concerning this new product to be: http://greensmoke.com/

The Beer Problem

I am still a smoker despite my profound efforts to change this. While I am still indulging in this deadly habit, I have made alot of progress since I last posted in September. It has become clear to me that quitting cigarettes, at least for me personally, is going to have to be a gradual process. I simply don't possess the personal willpower to go cold turkey. It is unfortunate, but I have been forced to realize that this is simply the way it is, and I am going to have to take a gradual approach to quitting.

As I said, I have made alot of progress over the course of my effort. Primarily, I no longer purchase packs of cigarettes. Anyone who has ever smoked knows what a big step it is. When you are a smoker and you buy packs regularly, you are smoking all the time, because they are always only as far away as your pocket. And when you run out, you go to the nearest gas station or convenience store to re-up. This becomes habitual, and this is how daily cigarette routines come into play. The regular and constant avaliability of cigarettes is obviously what fuels the habit. So I stopped. For anyone not familar with cigarette prices these days, it is brutal on anyones wallet. The cheapest pack of cigarettes in Rhode Island today is a little over seven dollars. For anyone smoking a pack a day (given they elect to smoke the cheapest, lowest quality brand of cigarettes offered), they are spending $50 a week > $200 a month > $2,400 a year. $2,400 a year spent on something that significantly contributes to an earlier death. Wow. These statistics alone were enough to make me realize that I had to stop spending money on packs of cigarettes, both for my health and my finances.

This has done alot for me. By no longer purchasing packs of cigarettes, I have gone from smoking probably an average of 60 cigarettes a week, to somewhere between 5-20, depending on how much beer I drink in that given week.

And this brings me to what I like to call the Beer problem. I am twenty years old, almost of legal drinking age in the United States, and I am not ashamed to say that I love to drink beer. I do not have a drinking problem, I am im complete control of my drinking, but come weekends when all school work assignments are finished, by 8 o'clock you will find me with a cold Keystone Light in hand, ready to embark for an epic, wild night of recreational drinking within the college utopia that is the Eastward Look neighborhood of Narragansett Rhode Island. And that is a pattern of behaviour that is not going to change during my remaining two years of true youth here at URI.

But this is when I smoke, alot. Anyone who has regularly smoked cigarettes and drank beer in their life know that nicotine and cold beer go together like peanut butter and jelly. With a stomach full of beer there is nothing more I want than a tasty Marlboro, and it is an urge I rarely, if ever maintain the willpower to resist in my less than sober state of mind. As I said, I have made alot of progress in controlling my urges over the course of the past month. When I'm sober, I have noticed a marked decrease in my urges and need for a cigarette at any given time during the day. I am even able to go a full day, even two, without having one, wheras a month ago I rarely went 2 hours without having a cigarette. But when beer comes into the picture, all bets are off. It is truly a curse how much I like beer and cigarettes together. I find this to be the main problem between me and completely stopping quitting cigarettes, and I am at a juncture. A juncture that I call the Beer problem.

Updates on Quitting/Hypnosis Technique

Well, it has been well over a month since I have posted about my battle to quit smoking cigarettes, and I am not happy to say that it was not a good month. At this time, I am still a smoker. In my most recent post I discussed my next approach would be attending the free hypnosis methods offered by URI health services as an aid to quitting smoking. The fact that this was free was extremely intriguing to me, and I also thought it would be an interesting experience. It was; but in the end it did not kick my habit. For anyone wondering exactly what hypnosis is, here is a good definition I found online:

"Hypnosis is concentrated relaxation. In other words, hypnotism allows a person to relax, while focusing on a particular problem or desired result. It's not just relaxing or falling asleep. During hypnotherapy, you relax your mind and body, moving past the guard of your conscious mind, to the subconscious mind. Your conscious mind constantly edits and grades and judges your thoughts and inputs. Your subconscious mind is a sponge waiting to absorb whatever you give it. Your subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between reality and imagination. Therefore, if you can get past the locked gates of your conscious mind to your subconscious mind, you can feed the subconscious "imagined reality." So if you can imagine yourself as a non-smoker, your subconscious mind will accept that as reality.
By reprogramming your subconscious mind you can change your actual behavior. Hypnosis is the key to removing the barrier your conscious mind places in front of you, and reaching the subconscious." (Quote from http://www.quitsmoking.com/hypnosis/index.htm)

I visited the clinic and there were about 8-10 other students in the room. There was a woman in the room who started us with some simple, breathing excercises and soothing words. We were all seated on comfortable floors and eventually lied down. After about 10 minutes, I found myself in an extremely relaxed state, but unfortunantley felt I was about to fall asleep. I won't lie, during the half hour session, I believe I may have fallen asleep for about 10-15 minutes, because I don't really remember hearing or thinking about anything for a solid chunk of the time. I'm not sure if this was me in a hypnotized state, or me in an asleep state. After about 7-10 minutes of lulling us into this weird, relaxed, sedated state, the woman in the room put on an audio CD, which featured calm, relaxing music. Soon a voice came on and spoke in half minute intervals about how cigarettes were not necessary to deal with stress. After this point I don't really remember anything that was said on the CD, and I believe this is around the time in the session where I either fell asleep or fell into a deeply hypnotized state. The next thing Iremember is slowly coming to, with the lights slowly being turned on, and the woman from the beginning telling us to slowly wake up as the session had come to a close.

Upon completion of the session, I was fascinated to see if what had just happened would actually help me quit smoking. I was skeptical coming into the session about the power of hypnosis but was truly impressed at the sedated state of deep and profound relaxation I was lulled into so quickly during this session, and was curious to see if it had any impact upon my subconcious.

Concerning quitting smoking, the hypnosis did not really help me. It helped for a short period of time, I believe after the session I did not have a cigarette for 2 or 3 days, but I still had the intense cravings for them, and relapsed once again. I do believe however that for a person with stronger willpower than myself, hypnosis could be a significant aid in quitting smoking, as I can now personally attest to the power it holds in alleviating stress and putting a person into a state of create relaxation. But if you are, like I was, seeking a cure-all approach to kicking the nasty habit of cigarette smoking, hypnosis is not the answer.