I refuse to get hurt anymore. I quit.

I am finally trying to quit smoke.

Its been 40 days now since i've felt the killer on my lips. Some of you would think that I've already quit. Others will say, "Once a smoker, always a smoker". I would prefer to let this question flow away in apathetic silence.

I read this scribble at some random anti-smoke campaign's webpage telling how you can quit smoke better. I can recall few important points.

1- Try not planning for quitting for too long. I mean regular->milds->ultra milds. Nope. It just keeps you in the cycle. You got to understand that you are addicted to cigarettes at two seperate levels. Nicotine drive and smoke inhalation. No matter how less you smoke, you still entertain both of your addictions. It just doesnt helps. For self appraisal you may feel a little satisfied that you are doing something towards leaving smoke but you gotta see things inside out.

Suggestion is that wake up one clean sunday morning and just dont touch the cigarettes there on. Its tough. I know. But its the best way to fight it out on a long run. Its better to fight when you definitely know that you are on the other side of the line.

2- Take medical help if you can. A doctor might prescribe you nocotine gums or nicotine patches. Talking about the two levels of addiction with cigarettes, here the psychology is that you can take your time fighting one addiction till the other one silently waits till your next move. If you switch to an alternative source of nicotine then you can stay away from the smoke inhalation process and tune your body away from it (Those smoke strokes you get in those initial days of quitting can be fought better). It may take a period of two weeks to five weeks depending upon the category of smoker(mild/regular/chain) you had been.

Once you are over the urge of inhaling the smoke anymore then you can cut the nicotine supply to your blood and fight the final frontier.

3- Avoid intake of any other forms of psycho-active substance (coffee,alcohol,etc) till you feel that you are in the safe zone.

4- Spread the word. Tell every close one about your quit. It always comes as a help. Make your quitting as big as possible. Celebrate it, throw a smoke farewell party, buy a memento, tell your parents, do anything and just make it as big an occasion of your life as you can. I got myself a parting Zippo and also made Zippo funnel tattoo on my hand myself. (If you think its weird, then think about smooth killer you smoke, its equally weird. Choose a weird for your self). Cause if you succeed this quit, then someday you'll definitely look back to this quit day and smile with pride.

5- Concentration/Medidation. One of the most awesome facts of smoking is that you get those intense 10minute frames when you talk to yourself or some other friend. You spend this time stressing your thinking, infact lately you start associating Thinking with Smoke. Thoughts come to you easy when you have a cigarette in your hand. It looks very stylish too. Accepted, but realize the dependency. You watch the series 'House'? Ignoring House's dependencies for a while, there is something very amazing about the way he thinks. He would toss a ball to the wall, play with some cube, look at the running television or something else which would just keep up his concentration. You can borrow ideas from him. Find your own space where you can talk to yourself.

6- Pass time: Smoke is an awesome timepass. Smoke 10minutes now, and reduce 10minutes from future life too. One smoke, 20minutes passed. Thumbs Up!. This will sound lame to you but try it. Today you are bored so you want to pass the time, but mind it, in future even if you seem intersted you wont have an option. Your time would have already been debited by then.

7- Talk! talk a lot. Smokers are proven introverts. May be thats the basic reason why they turned to smoke in the first place. Here your friends come for your rescue. Talk the hell out of your guts.

You may be feeling inspired or may be feeling offended. It served the cause both ways. I can talk in favour and against smoke any time I want. And I'll end up convincing you with whatever the point I am making. But here I am not making any points. Its just an advice for people who are willing to quit and proposal for people who may quit in future.

'Addiction' is a term popped by the social notions. Defnitely some institution promoting tobacco usage must have proposed this idea of addiction. It makes you feel more weak and depended. It becomes an excuse for you. It becomes a reason for you to stick on. Think for yourself, question authority. Dont be a slave to a commodity. Someone's making insane money out of your insane lifestyle and is making sure that you never quit this insanity.