I recently decided to give up smoking. I smoked for about 10 years, and have tried to quit many times. The longest time I stopped was the day I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, I managed to stay away for about a year and a half. My parents smoke, my brother smokes. I have been around it my whole life. My parents were livid when they found out I was smoking, my mother offered me $1,000 to quit one time. I said no. I said no because I knew that maybe I could have hidden it from her for a while but no amount of money was going to get me to stop. I was hooked. First drag and it was all over. I never wanted to quit. I stopped for my daughter because I knew that was the right thing to do and the guilt if I had smoked would have been a million times worse than the withdrawal. I stopped for a half dozen reasons, but I never just decided that I did not want to smoke anymore. Now, I say that I don't want to smoke anymore, but even as I write that I can imagine going outside and lighting up, and that doesn't seem so bad. But I know that all it will take is one, one cigarette and I will be right back at it.

I have always been very healthy. No major illnesses. I have my check-ups every year, and my blood pressure is on the low side of normal, and my oxygen uptake has always been really good so I have never had any health concerns that made me worried enough to seriously consider quitting. Then, I caught a cold last fall and almost two months later I was still sick. I could not hardly move without coughing. One day it dawned on me that this is what it would feel like once I got to the point where my lung capacity was actually reduced, and that was terrifying. My contemplation stage was really very short. I went from precontemplation, where I did not have a problem with being a smoker, to where I was ready to take action.

As soon as I decided that I was going to do this, I did what every smoker that I know does, when we start thinking about smoking we smoke more. It is like our bodies want to make sure they get as much nicotine as possible be for we pull the plug. I began to do research. I think the warnings on the cigarette packs are insulting, like we do not know they are bad for us. I did not need to see anymore disgusting pictures showing what happens to our lungs. I did not need someone trying to scare me into action. I needed to understand what my body was doing when I was smoking and what was happening when I took away the nicotine. There was one web site that I visited the most, http://whyquit.com/. This site had the most extensive information that I found on the actual interactions that nicotine has on the body including the process of the release of blood sugar in the body. I found out why I could eat only dinner in a day and not feel too hungry as long as I was smoking. I learned why I felt so fuzzy when I didn't have a smoke. By informing myself on how my body was functioning with and how it would be functioning without nicotine, I made it. I understood what was happening to me. When I felt fuzzy I knew I should get some sugar. I knew that when I was craving food that I didn't have to eat till I felt better, that it would take a little while and I just drank a lot of water.

I quit cold turkey. I did not wait till my pack was gone. I didn't pick some date. I just decided I was done. It took a couple of days for me to actually throw the cigarettes away, I don't know what I was waiting for. Maybe I was just waiting to see if this was really it, if I could really do it this time. But I did throw them away. I cleaned my car. I washed all my clothes. I did alter my behavior to try not to put myself in situations where I would almost certainly fail. I avoided people who smoked, and avoided places where people smoked. The smell would just about send me over the edge, now I sometimes find the smell almost pleasant. I did not tell anyone I quit. I did not want to talk about it. When people figured it out and attempted to congratulate me or talk about it, I had to tell them I appreciated it but I could not talk about it. The people who never smoked didn't understand, those who had smoked did. When you are trying to quit something that was such a huge part of your life you do not want to constantly talk about it, because talking about it just made you think about it and you would rather pretend like it was never there. I can talk about it now, but it doesn't mean I don't think about having one when I do. I have made it to my final stage.

I quit smoking seven months ago, but I will be in the maintenance stage for the rest of my life. My mother says “once a smoker, always a smoker.” She stopped for nine years. She started back again about five years ago. I know that if I was to smoke a cigarette right now that I would be back to at least a pack a day in no time. There are some days where I would love to start smoking again, and I don't know that I have the willpower to say no if someone was to offer me a smoke at one of those times.

There is one thing that I know for sure in giving up smoking, It has to be done for the person actually quitting and not for anyone or anything else. I stopped for my daughter. I stopped for my mother. I stopped because of the cost. I couldn't quit until it was for me, until I was done. The most important thing that I believe made it possible for me to actually quit this time was the information that I found. For me there is no use in trying to scare me into quitting, I know it is bad for me. That is the information that people generally give, you should quit because... but every smoker that I know knows full well that they are damaging their bodies. It is an addiction. We don't think logically about smoking. If it was a rational decision no one would be stupid enough to ever smoke. I firmly believe that the best deterrent and assistance in quitting is information, not to belittle people into quitting, but to help them through by giving them tools to cope with throwing away an enormous part of their lives and being better for it.