ARE YOU STILL SMOKING?
HERE'S HOW TO STOP

We have said all of this before. We hope it has been helpful to many. But there are a lot of people out there who have ignored the message. We hope they will take heed now.

You're in a prison (of your own making) but you have the key to your cell. You can put that key in the lock, turn it, walk out and be free forever more. Or you can stay in that prison and pay for your own destruction. You have obviously heard the message, but you haven't taken heed. You can't, or you won't. If you can't, you're seriously addicted. If you won't, you're pretty stupid. The horror stories are real; perhaps you think they don't mean you. But they do. They'll get you one way or another, sooner or later.

Women, who normally make some effort to preserve themselves, have in their quest for what they consider freedom, imposed the additional hazards of cancer and other ailments. Those who smoke during pregnancy run the risk of killing their babies. Their lips will crack the way a leaf does when it is burned. And they smell. Their hair, their crowning glory, reeks of tobacco. And, in fact, the freedom they sought has turned them into slaves.

This is a problem facing the young as well. It is obviously a grown-up thing to do, to smoke. It, they think, projects them into maturity. I understand this all too well. I have been there. Once they've got you, kid, you are theirs - for life. Your freedom is forever gone. All your money will go into tobacco, and the things that you really want and need will be forever elusive.

Tobacco smoke kills the Vitamin B in your body, which means you are perpetually short and subject to any and all of the deficiency diseases which result. It constricts the arteries which makes keeping warm a serious problem. And it also reduces sexual capacity.

I smoked for ten years, trying, off and on during that period to give it up. I knew that I would never be a free human being as long as I was tobacco dependent They had me. They had my money. And I had smoker's cough.

I was in a bad way. I knew that I had to stop. The question was how. I had been through the usual cutting down, and not buying any - you just wind up taking them from other people – and all the other methods that never worked. Neither could I just stop cold. I had heard of other people doing it but I certainly couldn't. I was an addict, and my body required it. Everything was against me.

But, if I did it – anybody can do it. Was it hard, people asked me. Oh yes, I said, it was very hard. But then I realized I hadn't stopped. When I did, it wasn't hard at all. It was surprisingly easy, smooth, and without any discomfort at any time, before, during or after. If you want to stop, I'll tell you how. If you don't, or you're not sure, just skip this part.

If you are going to stop, don't do it now while you are reading this. You are not ready. Everything is against you. You have probably made the effort to stop before – perhaps many times – and haven't. So failure is a part of your psyche and with each succeeding failure you have been prone to accept it with more equanimity. Now you don't really believe that it can actually happen.

You may in fact already have stopped once or twice or three times for long or short periods and then come back to it. If this is you, then you are probably somewhat dubious about your ability to stop permanently. But the question is, do you want to? The answer may well be No. In which case it is a problem that you will have to resolve and decide unequivocally how you want to live your life, cognisant of the consequences that will invariably result.

Choose the day and the place. Think about it. Prepare yourself mentally. It's in your hands. When the day comes, you are going to substitute something else for your tobacco habit. What is it going to be? That's up to you. What do you like? Remember, you're getting out of prison, not going into a torture chamber. This is easy. This is going to be one of your greatest achievements -one for which you will be forever pleased and very proud.

I chose Life Savers. Polo Mints will do equally well. Boiled sweets or chewing gum are okay if you are that way inclined. You choose what you feel will suit you best.

I wanted a cigarette. Instead, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my package of Life Savers, and I put one in my mouth. And I sucked on it. The process was not very much different from the cigarette performance. When I finished the Life Saver I wanted a cigarette. I reached back into my pocket and pulled out my package of Life Savers and repeated the process. While that Life Saver was in my mouth, it provided complete satisfaction, probably much more, since I wasn't inhaling large amounts of poison and burning my throat. But when it dissolved I wanted a cigarette. I had a Life Saver instead. This went on the whole day. It was a miracle. It happened the second day. And the third. I could do it. I knew I would. I was deep in battle, and I knew I was going to win the war.

After three weeks the war was over. I had won it, completely, decisively, unequivocally. I didn't want a cigarette. I had no need for it. My body no longer required or craved it. Three weeks is the usual time. It's physiological. But I still wanted my Life Savers. No, I hadn't exchanged one addiction for another. You go on sucking Life Savers, or Polo Mints, or chewing gum for some time afterwards. The length of time varies but need not cause the slightest concern. Then one day you don't want the Life Savers either - just like that. The desire is gone.

As soon as I stopped smoking I couldn't stand the smell of tobacco. I was a free person at last. It felt good; it felt marvellous. I had opened the prison door, and let myself out. I knew I would never return.

My victory over my addiction has never stopped being a source of satisfaction for me, not because it was hard to achieve but because it changed my life, kept me from being drug dependent, and from suffering the health problems that had invariably to follow.

From time to time, for years afterwards I would have nightmares that I had started smoking again. I would wake up in a cold sweat, realise that it was just a nightmare, and feel deeply relieved.

There will be people about who won't be so pleased with your victory; perhaps they had tried and failed and would like to ensnare you. But have one cigarette and you're back on to them again.

With the passage of time I find tobacco smoke increasingly offensive – as well as smokers. Don't let the still-addicted get to you.

When the addict smokes four, the passive smokers near him smoke three, according to Japanese studies; health authorities there wondered why the women who didn't smoke were dying off almost as fast as their husbands. They became aware that these women were "passive smokers", and suffered virtually the same serious consequences as their smoking husbands.

© Sidney Du Broff 2011