The Great American Smoke Out?

Well today is the “Great American Smoke Out”.  How many times in the past have users of all forms of nicotine used this great idea as an excuse to “try” to quit? How many people are going to be standing in line today at the local pharmacy with a box of Nicorette Gum or Nicoderm CQ in their hand? How many smokers are going to grab a tin of skoal in the c-store line instead of their brand of smokes? How many folks are going to dump out their cope and grab some swisher sweets “for a while”?

I’ve spent a bit of time this morning looking at some articles about this yearly phenomena.  All of the articles I’ve looked at identify the addiction as being to a single evil, nicotine.  It is absolutely amazing when I look back at my addiction to nicotine how many times I changed my method of ingestion and said I was “quitting”.  I’ve never tried to kid myself about a beer vs. a Captain and ginger being different.  But I allowed some separation between all of those forms of nic.  I could answer “I am” to all of those questions I’ve listed above at one point in my life.  I hate that honesty forces me to write that I have an addiction, but I do and that’s helped me be free from that addiction.

When it comes to NRT, (gum, patch, etc.) there are people that have gone to school longer and make more money than I do that say it helps.  I can’t in good conscience tell anyone that they shouldn’t believe that.  But what I can say  it that if you find yourself relying on that piece of gum to make you feel better, you’re not healing.  If you’re still on the first stage of the patch a week after you should have stepped down, you’ve simply changed your delivery.  There is no little blue pill that is going to make quitting easy so don’t look for it.

If you think I’m going to say anything remotely positive about changing the method of delivery from smokes to dip, dip to stogies, or whatever, you’ve wasted the last 4 or 5 minutes of your life, because you’re not ready to quit.  It’s just plain dumb to think that success has any chance in that method.  If you’re choosing a dip over a smoke, you are still playing Russian Roulette with 5 rounds in a 6 shooter.  It’s just a matter of time.

I hope everyone joins me and all of the other great quitters at QSXtreme in the great American NIC AWAY everyday! Accountability and support are some very helpful things to have when you have decided that enough is enough and want to break away from the addiction to nicotine.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member 11×4