Easy Way to Stop Smoking (13 page)

I had liver spots on my hands by the age of forty. In case you don't know, liver spots are those rather unsightly brown or white spots that some older people have on their face and hands. I tried to ignore them. Five years after I quit I was conducting a seminar when an attendee mentioned that when he had quit previously, his liver spots had disappeared. I had completely forgotten about mine and, to my amazement, they too had disappeared.

For as long as I could remember I would see stars if I sneezed, or stood up too quickly. If I was in a hot bath and stood up I would get dizzy, as if I was about to black out. I never related this to smoking. In fact I was convinced that everyone felt this way and that I was normal. About ten years ago an ex-smoker told me about this and it dawned on me that I no longer experienced any of these conditions related to circulation. When I was a smoker I could never get my fingers or toes warm in winter. No matter how long I spent indoors by the fire, my extremities would remain stone cold. I quit in July 1983, and have never been cold since, as my circulation bounced back remarkably after thirty-three years of abuse.

You might conclude that I am somewhat of a hypochondriac. I think I probably was when I was a smoker. One of the great scams of smoking is that we are led to believe that the cigarette gives us courage when in fact it leaves your courage, your nerve and your self-confidence shot to pieces. I was shocked when I heard my father say that he had no wish to live to be fifty. Little did I realize twenty years later I'd be saying the same. I had completely lost my
joie de vivre
. You might conclude that
this chapter has been one of necessary (or unnecessary) doom and gloom. I promise you that it is the exact opposite.

When I was a child I used to fear death. I used to think that smoking removed that fear (I know now that it doesn't, just that as a smoker you have to learn to ignore it). Smoking also gave me a new fear though: A FEAR OF LIVING!

Now my fear of dying has returned. It doesn't bother me. I realize that it only exists because I have rediscovered my love of life. I don't brood over my fear of dying any more than I did when I was a child. I'm far too busy having fun and living life to the full to dwell on it. The odds of me living until I'm a hundred are slim to none, but I'll try, and I'll enjoy every precious moment.

There were two other advantages on the health side that never occurred to me until I had stopped smoking. One was that I used to have persistent nightmares that I was being chased. I can only assume that this was triggered by the slightly empty, insecure feeling of withdrawal and then exaggerated by my sub-conscious. Now the only nightmare I ever have is that very occasionally I dream that I am smoking. This is quite a common dream among ex-smokers. Some worry that it shows a deep seated sub-conscious desire to smoke, but I think the fact that it's a nightmare shows that you are happy not to have to smoke any more.

When I described being ‘chased' every night in a dream, I originally mistakenly typed ‘chaste'. Perhaps this was just a Freudian slip, but it does lead me conveniently into the second advantage. At my seminars, when discussing the effect that smoking has on concentration, I will sometimes ask: ‘Which organ in the body has the greatest need of a good supply of blood?' The stupid grins, usually on the faces of the men in the group, would indicate that they had missed the point. However, they were absolutely right. Being a somewhat reserved Englishman, I find the subject of sex rather embarrassing, and I have
no intention of doing a miniature Kinsey report by detailing the adverse effect that smoking had on my own sex life, or on those of other ex-smokers with whom I have discussed the subject. Again, I was not aware of the impact of smoking on sex drive and performance. I had attributed my sexual prowess and activity, or rather lack of it, to advancing years.

However, if you watch natural history programs, as I do, you will be aware that the first ‘rule' of nature is survival and that the second is reproduction. Nature ensures that reproduction does not take place unless both partners are physically healthy and able to provide food, shelter and protection for the offspring. Man's ingenuity has enabled him to bend these rules somewhat; however I know for a fact that smoking causes impotence. I can also assure you that when you feel fit and healthy, you'll enjoy sex much more and more often.

The purpose of this chapter has not been to scare you into wanting to quit smoking. If scare tactics were going to work, they would have done so a long time ago. What I have attempted to do is to demonstrate that the brainwashing closes our minds to the true physical cost of smoking, and that life is so much more enjoyable without carrying this tremendous burden of fear around with you.

The effect of the brainwashing is that we tend to think like the man who, having fallen off a 100-story building is heard to say as he passes the fiftieth floor, ‘So far, so good!' We think that as we have got away with it up until now, so one more cigarette won't make the difference.

Try to see it another way: the ‘habit' is a lifetime's chain of fear, disease, misery and slavery, each cigarette creating the need for the next. When you start smoking you light a fuse. The trouble is, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THE FUSE IS. Every time you light a cigarette you are one step nearer to the bomb exploding. HOW WILL YOU KNOW IF IT'S THE NEXT ONE?

M
ost smokers are aware of the effect that the process of clogging up and depriving the body of oxygen and nutrients has on their general health. However, they are not so aware of the effect it has on their energy levels.

One of the subtleties of the smoking trap is that the effects it has on us, both mental and physical, happen so gradually that the changes are almost imperceptible to us, and we consider them to be the normal signs of getting older.

It is very similar to the effects of poor eating habits. The pot-belly appears so gradually that it causes us no alarm.

But suppose it happened overnight. You went to bed trim, not an ounce of fat and a six-pack stomach. You awoke the following morning, thirty pounds heavier, with no muscle definition and a gut that puts your plans to go to the beach on hold indefinitely. Instead of waking up feeling fully rested and full of energy, you feel miserable and lethargic. If that happened you would be panic-stricken, wondering what awful disease you
had contracted overnight. Yet the disease is the same. The fact it took twenty years to get there is irrelevant.

So it is with smoking. If I had a time machine that could transport you forward in time just three weeks to experience the mental and physical benefits of quitting, that is all I'd need to do to persuade you to quit. You would think: ‘Will I really look and feel that good?' Actually, what it really amounts to is, ‘Have I really sunk this low?' I emphasize that the benefits are not only physical; you will have tons more energy, confidence, courage and self-esteem. You'll also be more able to relax, concentrate and handle stress.

As a teenager I remember rushing around just for the hell of it. I had so much energy. It was fantastic! Then for thirty-three years I was permanently tired and lethargic. I used to struggle to drag myself out of bed in the morning, and after my evening meal it was all I could do to lie on the sofa in front of the TV. I'd be asleep within minutes. Because my father used to be the same, I thought this behavior was normal. I thought that only young kids and teenagers had energy, and that middle age started in your early twenties.

Shortly after putting out my final cigarette, the congestion that I had felt in my lungs for years disappeared along with my smoker's cough. My attacks of bronchitis and asthma stopped overnight, never to return. However something even better also happened—all the more delightful because it was so unexpected. I started waking up at seven in the morning feeling completely rested and full of energy actually wanting to exercise, jog and swim. At forty-eight I couldn't run a step or swim a stroke. My sporting activities were confined to such intensely athletic pursuits as lawn bowling and golf, for which I had to use a cart. Today, at age seventy-two I jog two to three miles a day, work out for thirty minutes in the gym and swim twenty lengths. It's great to have energy, and when you feel mentally and physically strong, it feels great to be alive.

Unfortunately I don't have a time machine, so I can't show you how you will look and feel in three week's time. However, you will instinctively know that what I'm saying is true. Grasp this wonderful opportunity and enjoy the benefits of breaking free from this unremitting, unrewarding addiction. Begin to let yourself get excited about this wonderful thing you are doing for yourself. USE YOUR IMAGINATION!

T
his is the very worst fallacy of all about smoking, and for me it ranks alongside the ending of the slavery as being the greatest benefit to quitting—not to have to go through your whole life with the permanent feeling of insecurity that smokers suffer from.

Some smokers find it difficult to believe that the cigarette actually causes that insecure, slightly panicky feeling you get when you are out late at night and realize that you're running low on cigarettes. This is because we have been brainwashed into believing that smoking relieves this feeling. But non-smokers don't ever have that feeling, so the only conclusion we can come to is that the cigarette creates it. We fall for a con trick: we acknowledge the slight boost that the cigarette gives
us by partially removing the slight feeling of emptiness and insecurity when we light up, but we conveniently forget that it was withdrawing from the previous cigarette that created those symptoms in the first place.

As a smoker the only thing we look forward to is the next opportunity to smoke, and we go out of our way to create such opportunities. This burden creates even more stress for the smoker on top of the existing stress of going through permanent nicotine withdrawal and the stress of bombarding your body with hundreds of toxic chemicals twenty times a day.

It's blatantly obvious to non-smokers that smoking is one of the
more stressful
and
least
relaxing pursuits. Even when smokers are smoking they aren't relaxed, unless they're in a situation where they can light up whenever they wish. This perhaps explains why so many smokers have problems with alcohol; they are forced to spend time in places where they are able to smoke. This attracts smokers to bars, one of the few places it is still possible (in some places) to smoke. You only need to see the smoke-filled rooms of AA meetings to appreciate the link between tobacco and alcohol. This also explains the smoker's love of casinos and bingo halls!

It is truly ironic that we look to the cigarette to relax us when in fact it creates the stress in the first place. Smoking for relaxation is like drinking bourbon to get sober.

When I finally broke free from the smoking trap I was astonished to realize that I was far more relaxed and confident as a non-smoker. Such is the brainwashing that I thought that I would never be able to relax without a cigarette. The truth is that as a smoker, I didn't know how it felt to really relax because I was in a permanent state of stress caused by smoking. And I was certain that cigarettes gave me confidence. I now realize that this was also an illusion. Because I got panicky when I couldn't smoke, I assumed that the cigarette gave me courage and confidence. It never occurred to me that non-smokers
don't have that panic feeling and they therefore don't need the artificial boost (of removing the symptoms of withdrawal created by the previous cigarette) the cigarette gives.

In the last years of my smoking, I was a nervous wreck. I refused to have a medical checkup, because I was terrified of what it would reveal. If I wanted to buy life insurance or private health coverage I insisted on a ‘no medical' product and paid far higher premiums as a result. I hated visiting hospitals, doctors and dentists. I also had a terrible fear of the future and of aging—as a smoker, I didn't feel I was entitled to a future.

I didn't relate any of this to my smoking, but when I stopped I suddenly acquired the confidence and courage to face these issues head on. Nowadays I look forward to every day. Of course, bad things happen in my life—this is the human condition—and I am subject to the normal stress and strains, but it is wonderful to have the confidence and courage to deal with them. And the improved health, energy and freedom make the good times more enjoyable too.

A
nother of the great joys of breaking free from the slavery of smoking is to be free from those sinister black shadows that lurk at the back of every smoker's mind. All smokers sense they have been trapped, and to make a bad situation tolerable, we have to close our minds to the ill-effects of smoking. For most of our lives smoking is virtually automatic, but those black shadows are always lurking in our sub-conscious minds, never very far beneath the surface.

There are many substantial advantages to becoming a happy non-smoker. Some of them are pretty obvious—vastly improved health, a much-improved financial status and ending to the slavery of smoking—but such was my fear of life without cigarettes that I was prepared to ignore these obvious advantages and search desperately for any flimsy excuse to keep smoking.

We can get very creative when looking for an excuse to smoke and I was at my most creative when I was actually supposed to be trying to quit. This creativity was triggered by the desperation that came from the fear and misery I felt by having to use willpower.