Is it time to quit smoking?

I don't know if this only a campaign that has been launched in the Seattle area or if this is a national campaign, but there is a fairly new anti-smoking campaign that seems to almost discourage quitting smoking "cold turkey". These commercials basically say that you can't quit just cold turkey. I think that's a bad message to put out there. Sure, it's easy to say that if someone could just quit cold turkey, they would, but then what about people who could quit cold turkey but haven't gotten to that point in their life or their "smoking career"? That's really discouraging for them.

Th real reason I even thought of this topic was that I'm going to Las Vegas later this afternoon until the middle of next week and I am a "retired" smoker. I officially quit a few years ago, but I still "secretly" smoked when I was out drinking up until the beginning of this year (it wasn't much of a secret to many people I drank with). When I travelled to Las Vegas (and I do so often... last year, I was in Las Vegas for no less than 5 separate trips), I always would smoke at least a little because I just liked the ability and "convenience" of being able to smoke practically everywhere I went. I liked walking through the casinos, where the air filters allowed none of the evidence to remain, puffing away happily. I've been thinking about it for a couple weeks now, and I think I'm really going to miss walking around smoking. I don't miss it here in Seattle when I drink anymore, but just the idea of being in Las Vegas and not smoking seems so foreign. I think that's my last "trigger". It used to be drinking once I'd quit the regular smoking scene and before that it was everything from boredom to meals to driving to idle hands to stress to a work break to... Anyways, I quit cold turkey and didn't have too much of a problem with it. For me, it was the fact that I'd told people far in advance of my intent to quit smoking. This worked because I wanted to save face, not look like I'd failed in my plans, and just had to go through with it because people were already proud of me in advance. There was a bit of thought to health, but it wasn't nearly as much that. After I'd quit, I surely loved not smelling like smoke, though, and that's been a huge bonus ever since, along with the financial savings! The stress and withdrawal symptoms were a nuisance but I just figured I had to tough it out. The first day, I was pacing around at work and looked frantic and highly stressed, but it was pretty cool from there. I started smoking while I drank months later, when I'd decided that my quitting had been successful and that I could smoke while I drank without smoking regularly. It was true for me. I could. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap where I then couldn't drink without smoking and that seemed harder to me to quit than the initial quitting. I think it's because I would be drunk and it's harder to reason with yourself about these things. I did the advance notice and let people know that I was quitting smoking altogether at the end of the year (2006) and so I knew people would know and ask about it so I had that same factor of accountability that helped to keep me clean, but the first few times I went out and had drinks, I was just dying for a smoke. Then, a couple months in, I just noticed one day that I didn't want a smoke while I was drinking. I was impressed that it had happened and surprised! I think that it just kind of sneaked up on me and there it was: I was done!

Ok, that was a lot about my smoking history, but what I really intended to say was that it's definitely possible to quit smoking cold turkey and I don't think that people should be dissuaded from trying.