First Year After I Quit Smoking

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Today marks the first Year After I Quit Smoking.

1 Year.

Heh.

Who would’ve believed it?

I know I wouldn’t have, had anyone told me I’d last this long without cigarettes in my life.

How It Started

I was 10 years old when I first had a smoke. I stole a lit cigarette off an ashtray while at a party. Back then kids could freely run around where adults openly smoked. And no one had a problem with that.

So I went in, swiped one and hurriedly ran back to my waiting friends and showed them how cool I was by taking a drag. …and doubling over, almost hacking up my lungs.

The burning pain in my chest and tears in my eyes didn’t stop me from taking another drag.

That was how it started. And I instantly became the coolest kid in the party.

The addiction grew from that to consuming 2-3 packs a day, depending on what I was doing.

It didn’t help that the types of work I went into seemed to be conducive environments for smoking. Call Centers? Yep. As a recording artist? Yep. As a writer? Hell yes.

There was even a time when I quickly went through 5 packs in a matter of 6 hours during the AcidRadio recording sessions at WombWorks!

Why’d I Quit?

Ok, so why’d I quit? Isn’t that too un-rock and roll?

Yeah. All my heroes smoked. Especially the one guitarist I truly looked up to; Slash.

Wait, what?!? Slash quit smoking?

Yeah, he apparently quit smoking in 2009. And like any good fan, I decided to quit too.

My dad, my brothers and my sister had already quit smoking at this point so I was thinking family gatherings would be awkward with me smelling of tobacco and them not. Plus kids are becoming more and more a part of my life… so… had to quit.

How’d I Do It?

I never planned for September 3, 2018 to be the start of my quitting point but it was the first full day that I didn’t have any cigarette at all.

It was just the conscious effort of not giving in to the temptations to light up.

So yeah, I quit smoking cold turkey and didn’t even realize it until midnight heading into September 4. I was listless and desperately trying to find something to smoke. I just kept telling myself it’s not worth it. I had to stop myself from going out to buy a pack.

Withdrawal Symptoms

They said you’d get sick if you quit cold turkey.

I didn’t get sick.

But I did hack up lots of phlegm after a month of not smoking. This continued for another 2 months.

I also compensated by vaping (which I also eventually quit). It was basically just a crutch. An enjoyable crutch. And after writing so many articles about vaping, I knew it was a safer alternative that could help people quit smoking. Hmmm should I open a vape shop?