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Fateful morning
“I haven’t smoked since I was eighteen. When I got up in the morning, I first had to smoke. I smoked pretty much where I could, even in the military, on duty because I thought it wouldn’t last two hours.
The desire to smoke was stronger than the fear of being caught. A pack a day was the norm for me, and when I had problems or a lot of work I smoked more, although now I can tell from the outside that smoking does not solve problems or help me focus. But it looked different at the time.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Fumando
Also, I had the attitude that smoking is a huge addiction and requires a special effort of willpower to quit smoking. My wife kept saying that smoking was very harmful to children, but she thought she was too weak to overcome this addiction. I smoked alone at home with the hood on in the kitchen. I imagined that I was absorbing smoke and, in fact, all the houses, all the things and the clothes of me and my loved ones smelled of smoke. That smell is very scary, but you only understand it after leaving it ”, recalled the interlocutor.
It is true that your first attempts to quit smoking were unsuccessful. The nicotine gum offered as an alternative to tobacco caused them such nausea that they did not want to continue with this experiment. The nicotine patches were also not effective. But it worked … love for the baby.
As always, he was already going to travel quietly to the kitchen to smoke, but he was thinking of a baby sleeping outside the wall.
“I had just had a third child, so I kept thinking: my grown-ups suffered from cigarette smoke, why does this little one have to grow up in smoke? I remember waking up that morning and, as always, already preparing to travel quietly to the kitchen to smoke, but I was thinking of a baby sleeping outside the wall. And I decided not to go. I felt like I didn’t want to smoke at all. An hour later, the idea of smoking time began to spin in my mind again. But I thought about the baby again.
Without smoking like that, I had lunch and asked the family: “Don’t you notice anything?” At first, they did not understand, and when they were caught not smoking, they were very happy. Then the sports bet began: how long will I be able to smoke? I stretched into the evening and then began to think: maybe the belief that this huge addiction, which is so difficult to get rid of, was only in my head?
I didn’t smoke again the next day, that’s how a week went by. By the second week, I was already beginning to feel the smoke coming from the neighbors. That smell was pretty delicious to me, but I thought: if I didn’t smoke for a week, I could do more. So a month passed, another, and then I realized that I could not smoke at all, and the pleasant smell of smokers turned into a terrible vapor, even a terrifying idea from the fact that I had interacted with people in the past , stinking. , ”Vilmantas opened.
The man admitted that he tried to smoke several times later in the companies, just for a common ritual, but the cigarette was in very bad taste.
She was horrified to realize how she smelled earlier.
Now Vilmantas is convinced that if there is motivation, why you want to quit a harmful habit, you can bring down the mountains. And while quitters often complain that they have an inexorable urge to smoke, which they don’t always resist, the man assured her that he never felt that urge.
“I was quickly convinced that it was tasteless, unpleasant, and very odorless, so I really didn’t want to start smoking again. And grabbing a cigarette out of nervousness is self-deception because it doesn’t really solve anything. On the contrary, it makes concentration difficult. Nervous – drink coffee, it will be much less evil and still calmly think about how to solve the problem.
So I launched it very simply and easily. However, I agree that motivation is needed, so when you normally think about it, you really won’t, because smoking is a very strong ritual. However, my example shows that it is possible to quit smoking in one day.
I’ve heard the myth from others that you need to cut down on cigarettes. It does not work. You will keep shrinking, torturing yourself, but one day something will happen and you will go back to smoking the whole package. I just need to take a puff and help make a point. Forget the promises to start on Monday, after the New Year or after the birthday. The best time is now.
Photo from personal album / Vilmantas Dambrauskas
Another thing is that you will never smoke if you no longer have cigarettes in your house. I remember the panic I would have had if I had seen at night that I was already smoking the last one. So it doesn’t matter how many hours you run to the store, the newsstand or the gas station. By the way, this feeling bothered me, it seemed abnormal that this desire controls you so much. This is why I had to smoke cigarettes after I quit smoking. Maybe even now I found a package somewhere in the house. When you just have to extend your hand to reach for a cigarette, without panic, you can calmly think about whether it is worth doing it ”, advised the interlocutor.
Vilmantas still today, 12 years later, is still happy and proud of his decision and believes: no one who stops smoking will lose their coldness, toughness or style.
Non-smoking
How does smoking affect our body?
Each cigarette contains approximately 10 mg of nicotine. Nicotine is a stimulant that stimulates the nervous system and causes a mild euphoria, but it is also harmful: about 50 mg is a lethal dose.
Just 10 seconds after inhaling cigarette smoke, the body absorbs the nicotine and reaches the brain through the circulatory system. In addition, nicotine stimulates the adrenal glands and stimulates the production of these hormones epinephrine and adrenaline. These hormones speed up the heart rate and increase blood pressure, while narrowing the blood vessels. In addition, it stimulates the body to produce dopamine, a chemical compound that causes a state of satisfaction. As a result, nicotine is addictive in the long run.
Nicotine is eliminated from the body in a few hours. It can be absorbed not only through the lungs but also through other organs.
Only 30 percent. the resin is returned to the environment by exhalation. The remaining resin “sticks” to the lungs and throat.
Smoking leaves not only nicotine but also other substances in the body. Only some of them are eliminated by exhalation. Harmful chemicals in cigarettes reach every cell in the body. Smoke affects the blood, skin, lungs, heart, smell, and taste.
The bronchi and lungs contain fine hairs whose function is to clean the bronchi and lungs of harmful substances that have entered them from the air. However, smoking paralyzes these hairs for a time and can even kill them. However, when you stop smoking, these hairs work again and try to cleanse the body. It is for this reason that smokers cough so frequently, even when not smoking, as a result of the body’s attempt to cleanse itself. However, for example, the first cigarette smoked in the morning again paralyzes these hairs and the cough disappears.
Much of what we inhale when we smoke a cigarette turns into resin. Only 30 percent. These resins are returned to the environment by exhalation. The remaining resin “sticks” to the lungs and throat. This resin kills healthy lung cells. A smoker who smokes a packet a day inhales about a cup of resin into his lungs a year.
Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood because the carbon monoxide produced during the smoking process tricks the human body: it thinks it is oxygen. However, the body’s cells still need oxygen, so the heart needs to work faster to properly deliver this substance to all cells.
With constant smoking, the senses of taste and smell are slowly “awakened” as the resins coat the tongue and airways. Often times, smokers do not even realize that something is different in their body, and only after quitting do they realize what they have lost.
Also, smoking increases blood pressure by about 10-15%. This means that your risk of having a heart attack or stroke increases.
Smokers have 4 to 15 times more carbon monoxide in their blood than non-smokers. Carbon monoxide is the same substance that cars emit through mufflers. After smoking, it remains in the body for about six hours. During this time, it alters oxygen metabolism by forming a compound with hemoglobin in the blood.
The blood vessels in the skin contract when smoking and less oxygen reaches the skin. This leads to the appearance of wrinkles. Also, after years of smoking, the skin turns gray and the face begins to look tired.
Studies from Boston University have shown that men who smoke are more likely to experience erection-related problems. Of the 1,011 men studied who had erectile dysfunction, 78 percent. smoked. In addition, smoking impairs sperm quality, so quitting is recommended for those planning to have children.
Women also have something to worry about: Women who smoke heavily lose their fertility by 43 percent and reach menopause two years earlier.
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