When I think of defining the typical Millennial I would usually shy away from describing a person going to the gym regularly fighting the cause of anti-smoking. In my vivid imagination, I would imagine glasses, a belly and a cigarette or vape machine. That is an unfortunate truth and is something I would love to change. I am not the first person to discuss this and the trend is growing. That’s why I decided to share my story, some of which will probably be a big surprise to my parents as I reveal things this vividly for the first time.
As a person who has been nicotine / tobacco free for almost two years now I think my experience really matters in terms of the process of quitting. My journey begins in much more psychological sense as I was very attracted as a kid to smoking due to the appeal I saw in movies. The smoker in old movies was always a very elegant man, and in most modern action movies, the action figure smoked. Even children movies weren’t spared and Cruella Devil smoked. So, I was saturated with misrepresented thoughts that elegance was bounded by smoking and that being a true man was associated by smoking. Like many smokers, it wasn’t the taste, it was how smoke rose from my mouth and nose, how I put the cigarette on, how I flicked it, how I smoked it, it was these small things that fascinated me up until I actually got addicted.
I lived in the Arab world and eventually studied my university degree in Lebanon the hub of the “hubbly bubbly” also known as the Nargila, Shisha and Argile. I got introduced to it when I was a teenager graduating from high school and it was that summer that I started doing it heavily, probably signifying my growth into a man. I think that was the core thought because I also remember how my best friend and myself bought flavored cigars to show we were finally men and no longer teenagers. Whatever it was, I moved to Beirut and got addicted to the feeling and started romanticizing smoking exactly the way addicts do saying things like: “I would love smoking that lemon mint flavor under an umbrella covered table while it is raining.” It was expensive so we did it once or twice a week. I didn’t go to the extent of buying the gear and keeping it at home. But, my body was aching I wanted nicotine. At the end of my freshmen year and right outside my dorm room, I tried it for the very first time. That luscious thing that would haunt me for the next five years, my first cigarette.
What started off as blowing smoke ended up with me smoking a pack a day for the first three years. If we were going out, I would end up with two packs for that day. Of course if you are going out, you have got to have a spare pack in your jacket just in case. Everyone was doing it, even people who fought against smoking as children were smoking. Surprisingly, I was one of those kids. I vividly remember printing smoking hazards and giving them to my cousins to give their father as to save him from being doomed (that’s how I saw it). I would have never guessed that years later I would be smoking 10x what he smoked. I was trying everything from pipe, “dokha”, cigarettes, Nargila and then a series of misfortunate events took place. The first was in my senior year of college, where I woke up in the middle of the night my head about to burst, barely breathing and I honestly thought I was dying. I had had heart palpitations and I felt them. I was drinking energy drinks, coffee, smoking cigarettes and consuming junk food like no other. It was all together a horrible combination. You think that would make me stop, but no, nothing would because I was an addict.
I was known for my chain smoking ability, and my roommate at the time criticized me for how much I was smoking. It was made worse when my best friend a chain smoker too became my roommate. We could finish a pack during a conversation, it was awful.
I eventually moved back with my parents, and even though I almost got caught multiple times (one of which I was in the quitting process and had one puff, I blamed it on an occasional cigar) I never admitted it. I had this idea in my head that I was never telling them because first of all, in our culture it is wrong to smoke in front of your parents, a thing changing constantly with millennials as many of my friends smoke with their parents. Parallel to these culturally rooted habits, I was the type of persona that is stubborn and challenging me would result in me not quitting. I wasn’t ready to be lectured about it I didn’t want this to be a challenge in my life, I knew it was wrong and I had to quit and I wanted it to be on my pace.
I eventually joined an advertising agency as a PR consultant and if you watch mad men, every bit of it is true. Our breaks were to smoke, it would be our escape just like during my college days where I escaped studying by smoking. Then I realized, it was a struggle. I watched every Youtube video out there and I came across a video by a famous talk show host called “Ahmad Al Shigary”. He was discussing how he quit after ten years of smoking, and talked about a book called “Awaken the Giant within” written by Tony Robbins ( my first introduction of him you will definitely hear his name a lot on my blog.) That is where I started my true journey of trying to quit. I would quit for months and go back with simple stress. I would find any excuse and put it on it. I found out so many things during this tedious process, the months I quit I had so much time on my hand. The months I smoked I was much lazier, I didn’t feel like doing anything. Smoking was the best procrastination tool. When I sat with friends in cafes and wasn’t smoking, I got extremely bored that I started going less. It was insane, what was this “thing” doing to me.
The year that I succeeded, several things had taken place the main of which was loosing a friend at 26 (a smoker) and my grandma at the same year. My friend’s lung & heart collapsed suddenly which eventually led to his death. While we were burying my grandma, it was the first time I saw a dead body. I loved her dearly and was shocked deeply. She had lived a long beautiful life smoke free. This is where my subconscious was starting to analyze what had just happened, young vs. old. Eventually I had anxiety attacks (will be discussed thoroughly along with depression as the Millennial plague in articles to come), which led to me trying to find what the triggers are. My brain decided it wants to avoid coming to the fate of death so soon. My smoking started to be reduced until on September 10th 2017, I decided no more. Below are some tips on how to push yourself into quitting:
- Drink a lot of grape juice (my dad always makes fresh juice in the morning and for some reason he was forcing me to drink grape every morning.) It causes extreme nausea when presented with smoke, I found this in an article later.
- Do not try to quit more than one bad habit at the same time. I learned this the hard way as I was trying to quit smoking and go on a diet.
- Gradually then cold turkey (It’s a combination). If you are doing it everyday it will be almost impossible to quit.
- Nicotine doesn’t stress relieve you, Nicotine causes the stress always remember that
- Quit coffee too, they are extremely related. Drink tea, it tastes real bad with cigarettes
- Look at bad lungs Vs. good lungs regularly
- If you are anxious or depressed, try staying away from smoking for a while, it helps (won’t cure anything but it helps) as the reduction of oxygen in your body is one of the main triggers of anxiety attacks.
- Long walks really help as stress relievers, pick that over smoking always your lungs will thank you
Weird enough, I think the real pleasure I felt, was the withdrawal symptoms. It is when you realize that nicotine is really a drug. Your whole body starts sweating, shivers increase, sleeping increases and you mostly want to just stay in your room and do nothing because all your brain can imagine is that smoke going in and out. I had to go through that about five times.
I didn’t go through most of the health reasons of why you should quit because it is all over the internet but it has to be mentioned: reducing the probability of heart attacks, lung cancer, throat cancer, better sexual functioning (Millennials, please remember this we are all still in our twenties isn’t this one of the pleasures of being alive?)
Millennials, vape isn’t any better, it took them almost 70 years to figure out the effects of smoking tobacco, so you can imagine what will be discovered with these chemicals being smoked. I tried it before quitting and I think my lungs felt more violated than while they were on tobacco. I can assure you my lungs today are much happier, I became much more sportive because transitioning into sports was an easy task after quitting. This eventually led to loosing 10Kgs of the weight I had gained during my desk work period. Now, I’ve become a smoke detector millennial, the obnoxious friend that can’t stand the smell of it, make my life easier and join my move to the better?
Photo by Sara Bakhshi
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