Gabriele Sciti - Diary of an Ex Smoker--The Path to Liberation from Smoke

DIARY OF AN EX SMOKER

THE PATH TO LIBERATION FROM SMOKE

Gabriele Sciti

Copyright 2013 Gabriele Sciti

LIFELACE EDITIONS

It is forbidden even partial reproduction of this ebook without prior permission of the author

I began to smoke at the age of 15, as a joke or maybe to feel older, definitely not to become a slave, for life, to a damned and destructive habit. I am convinced that no smoker decides to become such in life: you want to try a new sensation, but you do not decide to become a slave to a deadly trap as smoking. Every day you inhale more than three thousand toxic substances, be sentenced by loved ones and society, have the privilege of paying thousands of euro a year to condemn oneself to an almost certain death for diseases caused by smoking: is that what a smoker wants?

With this ebook I want to show you how I stopped, how I fought day after day against this serious addiction that was ruining my life; I want you to realize that you too can try to follow in my footsteps when you are strucked by the lack of smoking and above all I want to reveal the strategy to fight the fearsome foe in each and every point.

Quitting smoking is not impossible! Trust me. Until two years ago I would have never thought it possible to spend an evening at an outdoor restaurant without enjoying, between courses, the pleasure of a cigarette. Until two years ago I would have never thought it possible to get into an argument with a friend without lighting up a cigarette soon after. The secret to quit smoking is to understand, once and for all, the truth: the cigarette does not give anything back, the cigarette generates only a need and cares for that need; smoking is just a simple, but powerful drug. I do not think you want to spend the rest of your life as drug addicts, I guess you want to live free. Follow my advice and you will realize, day after day, of how much smoke hurts you, while its absence helps.

There will be ups and downs, second thoughts, even relapse, but it is all normal, trust me. The important thing is that, in the end, you will be happy when the damned cigarette will no longer be clinging between your fingers.

In reading these pages, we will retrace together the most salient days of my path to liberation from smoking. It will be me and you, you and I in this struggle from which both will be winners.

Now, as a perfect and happy non-smoker, I will accompany you, returning to the past, to that fateful date, on 23/10/2011, when I decided to quit smoking.

I recommend you do as I did, that is to fill out a diary in which to confide every day your fears and your goals, where every day you can congratulate yourself for finally being freed from the bondage of smoking.

I cannot tell exactly what made me decide to quit smoking. Perhaps the cough that gripped me every morning and that made me cough up huge amounts of phlegm. Perhaps the lack of breath after three flights of stairs. Perhaps, more plausibly, the fear of contracting any deadly disease. We smokers always knew that smoking is harmful to our health and, sometimes, paradoxically, it is precisely this fear that leads us to smoke. We believe that the cigarette appeases the anxiety, increases concentration, and relaxes us. But I can assure you that the cigarette includes not even one of these qualities.

I have lived my whole adolescence accompanied by my trusty cigarette. Every time I had less than two or three in a package of 20, which I was smoking every day, I panicked and wondered where the closest tobacco shop was to restock. What a drama to be without a cigarette! A drama like that had the power to ruin an entire evening. It's true that sometimes we create ourselves problems to say the least ridiculous.

As the first winter weather approached I feared the usual colds and consequential bronchitis, because most cold infections that incur are due to the fact that the body, in this case the respiratory system, is severely damaged by toxins contained in the cigarette.

I was tired of everything: the illness, the always empty wallet, the reproaches of my non-smoking friends and family. On the morning of October 23, 2011 I decided to quit.

Since my nicotine addiction was very strong I decided to try to quit using a substitute therapy with transdermal patches.

I smoked 20 cigarettes a day, so my therapy had to start with a patch of 21 mg to be kept on for 24 hours.

The cigarette generates a strong addiction that is divided in two dimensions: psychological and physical. When the level of nicotine in the blood starts to drop (after about half an hour after turning off the last cigarette) you experience the annoying physical symptoms. To me, for example, I had a great loss of concentration, I felt a little "lost" and with a constantly hungry feeling. Inside I felt that the physical addiction was much stronger than the psychological.

Evaluate your addiction and then decide with which surrogates to stop with. You can also use nothing to help, but I am convinced that in the early periods

of abstinence, a replacement can help you too. Discuss this with your doctor who will advise you for the best.

23/10/2011

I woke up at seven for work as usual. I opened my first pack of nicotine patches and I applied it on one shoulder. You must be very careful not to wash with soap the area of skin where you will apply the patch, as the soap increases the absorption of nicotine thus risking poisoning.

The dose of 21 mg is suitable for a heavy smoker (at least 20 cigarettes per day). During the morning and in the afternoon I did not feel any symptoms of nicotine abstinence, but symptoms of nicotine overdose since I had light-dizziness and a bit of nausea. However, what was missing was the automation, ie smoking a cigarette during breaks at work, after sipping a coffee and after meals. I managed to fight the habit of smoking with a ploy: I changed all of my habits. After drinking coffee, during the break from work, I did not stay to talk with my colleagues but I returned immediately to the workplace and brushed my teeth because the aroma of coffee induced me to smoke, while the mint flavor toothpaste didn't give me that particular feeling. The same after lunch: I didn't sit down, as usual, on the couch reading through the newspaper and lighting up a cigarette, but I went immediately to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and then I read the newspaper lying on the bed in my room, the place where I had always set myself not to smoke.

The first day passed quietly without any particular suffering on my behalf.

25/10/2011

I was on the second day of my liberation from the damned habit. Every morning, as soon as I woke up, I removed my plaster. I must say that as soon as I opened my eyes I missed the cigarette; on the other hand, however, I could finally savor a leisurely breakfast without having to rush to smoke. I slowly understood that the cigarette was useless, that lighting a cigarette would only serve to appease the need for nicotine. The effects of cigarette were substitutable with a simple patch, and this in turn would be replaceable by chewing gum or a simple tablet. In short, the knowledge that the cigarette is a mean for nicotine started to make me understand the stupidity of such a dependency.

A good fresh chocolate brioche is not replaceable because it is a real treat for the taste buds: it does not cause needs to be met, it is not an addiction, it is simply a pleasure. We have to get our brain to learn this very important distinction: there is a huge difference between pleasure and addiction!

I realized that the cigarette was of no importance to me, it was important however to take my daily dose of nicotine, as the worst heroin addict forced to shoot up every day to get his dose.