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By Rome Jorge, Lifestyle Editor
It is a toxin developed by plants to kill
insects and discourage other herbivores. Spilling it in its pure
form on your skin can lead to death. It only takes 40 mg to kill a
person. It is classified as an extremely deadly poison, along with
snake venom and arsenic. But millions imbibe this insecticide daily
in small doses. That’s because nicotine is addictive as well.
Nicotine, the stimulant found in cigarettes and
other tobacco products, is more toxic than cocaine and just as
addictive. But other drugs deemed dangerous, tobacco products are
legal.
Nicotine addiction is peddled by the
billion-dollar tobacco industry and promoted through movies and
books, promos, sport sponsorships and advertisements. It doesn’t
help that past generations—one’s parents, teachers, priests,
politicians and even doctors—don’t practice what they preach.
War heroes and movie icons make it look so cool. It’s the only way
to be one of the guys puffing by the balcony or the stairway. So
pervasive has smoking become that refraining from lighting up is to
be left out.
To break nicotine dependence, one must recognize
that it is an addiction reinforced by society and culture as well as
by one’s own natural habit-forming tendencies and by strong
addictive chemicals. Here are a few hard facts and practical advice
to break the addiction.
Nicotine dependence is a serious addiction that
is hard to break. Accept that quitting can temporarily make you
irritable, anxious, distracted, restless or hungry. But all those
will pass.
Don’t expect to succeed on the first try. The
typical quitter succeeds only in the 7th to 15th attempt. Learn from
each experience and persevere. In Western cultures, only 3 to 5
percent of those who attempt to quite through their will power alone
succeed. But you are better than that. It can be done.
It must be done. To fail is to die painfully and
pathetically through cancer, emphysema and other diseases caused by
smoking.
Quit cold turkey. According to the Cancer Facts
and Figures of 2003 by the American Cancer Society, of those who
successfully broke the habit of smoking, 90 percent did so by
quitting abruptly.
Find other habits to substitute for your
compulsion to smoke. Eat fruit or chew gum. To relieve stress and
anxiety, exercise, eat properly and enjoy the outdoors instead.
Surround yourself with the right people,
especially the scary ones. According to the US Surgeon General’s
Report, a physician’s advice to quit can increase success rates by
30 percent. Regular counseling and quitting programs also increased
success rates by more than 20 percent.
Be different. As with other addictions, it helps
to shun people and venues associated with your former lifestyle.
Much of smoking is through conformity and social conditioning.
Don’t be a fool for the mainstream corporate entertainment media
or the typical consumerist lifestyle.
Stinking and tasting like an ashtray isn’t
sexy. Neither are brown-stained teeth, fingertips and eyes. Also,
wheezing as a withered wraith in an agonizingly slow and painful
death isn’t pretty. If the people around you don’t mind, then
you are with the wrong lowclass crowd.
Poisoning others, especially children, with your
secondhand smoke and with the bad example you set is immoral. Your
slow suicide is burden enough on others; don’t add random
homicide, injury and drug pushing to your crimes.
Constantly remember why you need to quit. Stay
motivated.
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