Julius Chance
How did I quit smoking
The second battle
I sat down to study the medical literature. Some doctors suggested a gradual cessation of smoking, the so-called ‘ladder’, when every week or month the number of cigarettes smoked decreases by 1 or 2. This reduced the requirement for the level of willpower on each individual day, but stretched the process of getting rid of it for almost a year, which, in my opinion, was even more problematic. In the literature, however, some successful results of that approach had been mentioned. My friend had undertaken such approach and apparently kept himself ‘on track in schedule’ for several weeks, but then ‘derailed’ due to overstressing in examination session by his explanation. As to me, I did make very week attempt by this method because doubted it from the very beginning. I ‘derailed’ after a few days.
Another advice from the doctors was that nicotine into human body needs to penetrate not from cigarettes, but through nicotine tablets that are absorbed in the mouth or from nicotine plaster adhesive to the body, from which nicotine is gradually released the body through the skin, then is carried by the bloodstream and saturates the cells. It was affirmed that such method significantly weakens the desire to smoke and, thus, increases the chances of victory over the bad habit. It was said that after a couple of months of abstinence, it would be possible to gradually reduce to zero the number of tablets taken or plasters applied. Authors assured that many people got rid of the addiction that way. As an engineer, I reckoned the idea was brilliant.
By that time I had already graduated from the university. This fact I regarded rather as favorable, because I came to the conclusion that I should defeat my addiction in a one-on-one duel, without witnesses, not telling anyone about it as it was purely my personal challenge to my personal malicious misfortune. The extra people, I thought, would only hinder me, distract me, because I had to concentrate only on myself, on my enemy, and on nothing else. As befits a young maximalist, I bought both pills and patches and boldly went into battle. The craving for a cigarette has indeed eased, but not so much that I can completely abandon the habit. I managed to reduce the number of cigarettes from one and a half packs to one, but then progress stopped, despite my perseverance and the increase in the number of pills and patches used. After spending two months in plasters, constantly sucking pills and still smoking a pack at a time, I stopped the further mockery of myself. Maybe pills and patches are unable to sufficiently or correctly saturate the cells of the body, or they saturate only a part of the cells, or not those brain cells, or tobacco contains some substances in addition to nicotine (coctinin, for example), without which the effectiveness of pure nicotine therapy is reduced? I’m not a doctor, and I won't guess. Perhaps, I once again my level of will power was not up to the barrier, that’ all.
