When I look back, I didn’t enjoy that part of my life but I will admit that while I was going through it I most certainly did. I’m talking about when I used to smoke cigarettes. I started when I was about 12, after my father passed and I probably wasn’t associating with the best influences in my life. I joined a gang. Hung out at a local creek and yelled (throwing rocks too), at blacks across the water just because they were different. Well, I did manage to extricate myself from all except the smoking before I went away to Patton but I digress a little.
I certainly wasn’t a heavy smoker. Probably about a pack or more a week. They were just $.35/pack but even that was a lot back then. When I got to Patton, I would buy 2 or 3 packs a weekend as I had a $2 allowance that got me those smokes, a movie (maybe) and breakfast (usually just coffee) on Sunday while I was ditching church which was mandatory (not the ditching .. just the going).
By the time I entered the service I was probably almost a 1/2 pack a day or more. I had more money and more time on my hands in the Air Force. I was also surrounded by others who openly smoked which didn’t help my habit either.
When I got out, 3 years and 1 day later, I was at a pack a day (more if I was “partying”). I know what you are thinking. By then I had stopped drinking entirely and my high of choice was mostly pot. I also tried LSD once but didn’t like the high. Mescaline I did a few times (3 or 4) and the last time I got so paranoid, I didn’t move from the car I was in for several hours while my friends enjoyed themselves at the Desert Museum.
I smoked more over the years and I would say I was at 1-2 packs a day when I finally was able to quit. How did I finally quit? The crux of this little article. Cost me $5 and about a month before I finally did it. I got a pamphlet from the American Lung Association (the $5) and though it was supposed to take less, I procrastinated.
It was simple in concept really. I was to document each time I smoked in a journal I would carry and say what my feelings were whenever I would partake. Did I like it or not. Stuff like that. I immediately stopped smoking in my car. In fact, by the end of the first week, I was down to 8-12 a day. Those were the must haves. After waking, drinking coffee, talking on the phone, eating and of course sex. Those I had to avoid as much as possible. I started breaking some of those cycles by being creative. I would hold the phone with my other hand, get up on a different side of the bed, eat at a different time and get busy right afterwards, stopped drinking coffee and didn’t have a girlfriend. Those were the tough ones and I stopped about 30 days after starting this program. That was on about my 29th birthday. Been good since.
