Quitting hard but worth it

Tonight I will be smoking my last cigarette, or at least that is my plan. After visiting the IU Health Center Friday for a free quitting smoking consultation, I learned just what happens to your body when you quit.\nAfter the first day of quitting smoking, the chances of your likelihood of having a heart attack decrease. In just two days, your sense of smell and taste begin to strengthen, and in the following weeks circulation and breathing improve. Also in the first couple weeks you will most likely cough up the excess mucus that was produced in your lungs when you smoked.\nThe first three days will be the most difficult to get through. Your body will experience symptoms of nicotine withdrawal more during these three days than at any other time, and the urge to smoke will be the greatest. But if you can make it through those first days, then you are on your way. In general, the first three weeks are the most crucial; it's important to abstain from alcohol since alcohol makes the urge to smoke much greater and will impair your ability to resist smoking.\nThe big dilemma in quitting for many people is thinking they can quit at any time they want and believing they really aren't a smoker. Avoiding the label smoker is an easier way to disengage oneself from the stigma surrounding smoking, but it's just not true. \nI chose to go to the Health Center because in the past, saying I was going to quit was not enough. I needed to put actions behind my words. Simply vowing to quit smoking wasn't going to get the job done. Most people I know who don't consider themselves to be addicted can't and won't quit by the simple means of going cold turkey. The influence of other smokers combined with habits associated with smoking are just too great.\nAfter watching a program in which a 41-year-old woman discussed how she had emphysema and subsequently had no choice but to sleep in a separate bedroom from her husband, I began thinking. The thought of not being able to sleep next to my husband at the age of 41 scared me. Most of the time when I smoked, I didn't think about the negative consequences, I even made a joke out of it. I rolled my eyes at people's comments and all of the commercials for a drug-free and smoke-free partnership. Funny, if I am so smart then why was I smoking?\nI have even gone so far as to ignore completely the fact that I was coughing up phlegm for a good couple of weeks because I was smoking too much and making myself sick. I don't smoke two packs a day -- I can smoke a half pack one day and the next day, a whole pack. It's all about where I am and who I am with.\nSmoking is one of the hardest addictions to break because you just don't see the negative effects right away. It takes the average smoker six attempts to quit successfully, but I am going to keep on trying until I do.\nSo if anyone is interested in living longer and jumping on the smoke-free bandwagon or possibly throwing a friend or significant other on, too, drop me a line or go to the Health Center and set up a free consultation with a professional there. It will be worth it in the long run.