I Quit Smoking 25 Times

1) Most of the people who are reading this article are smokers.

2) Most have tried to quit smoking, 1, 3, or maybe even, 25 times!

3) Most really do want to quit smoking and maintain a smoke-free lifestyle.

The words above contain the answer to a time in your life, when the struggle to attain a smoke-free lifestyle will become a reality. What are they?

Simple, the words are -maintain a smoke-free lifestyle.

Anyone can quit smoking. Hell, anyone can quit anything. The answer is not in the quitting, my friend. The answer is in maintaining a smoke-free life.

How do I know this? We all like stories, don't we? Here is mine.

I started smoking at the ripe old age of 13. At that time cigarettes cost 25 cents and a person could buy the smoke blasts from heaven at the neighborhood vending machine. My friends and I all learned to inhale that glorious smoke together.

The Surgeon General's Report on smoking had been released in 1964, but most people didn't really pay much attention to the report then. Even, when the commercials went off TV, there were still not too many people rushing out to try to stop smoking. It just was not at the forefront of the public mind. There were too many other issues to pay attention to. Like a war called Vietnam, and the Civil Rights Movement. But, time marches on.

Throughout the years several events appeared in my life to promote a non-smoking period. My two pregnancies precluded two of these periods. Even though, I loved the smoke, I knew it wasn't good for my babies. So, they went to the side until my kids were out and up.

I would always want to quit. Especially, as I got into my mid-thirties. More and more information was available everywhere about all the dangers, and how much it could hurt you and those around you.

I remember quitting and then starting again when my best friend and I were having coffee together. I thought then that if I really wanted to stay off the stick I would probably have to stay away from her for awhile. Then I went to the Seventh Day Adventist Program. This religious group has many different things that they believe are not in line with a clean and healthy life. Smoking is one of them. In order to help the world, they promote a smoking cessation clinic. It worked for awhile. But, it was mostly built on fear. They showed the lung of a person who had never smoked and the lung of one who had. Then they had a man come in who had smoked and had had his voice box removed. There were a variety of other devices they used. This worked for me - for awhile. Fear doesn't usually work.

There were many, many different times and many, many different approaches I used throughout the years.

Then, in my late forties, I began to arrive at the emergency room with irregular heartbeat, some times over 260 beats a minute. They stopped my heart twice to get it back in line. A paramedic thought it would be helpful to show me the EKG with the flat line to let me know what lengths they had to go to, in order to calm me down.

Now, things were getting a little more serious.

I found that now I could quit for 6 months to 1 year, even two years at a time. I would slip up, and then stop again. Now, I have not smoked for 5 years.

That's the way I view it. I may smoke again. But, I will forgive myself for that, and I will get up on the horse again. Maintaining a smoke -free lifestyle has been a part of my life for a long time. Quitting has not.