I quit smoking at the age of 22. It counts as one of the best things I ever did. I was a pretty heavy smoker–about a pack and a half of Marlboro a day. Back then smoking was permissible in all kinds of places it isn’t today, so one could puff incessantly. My quitting was just one part of an over all effort I made beginning in about 1978 to improve my life.
I wanted to have things: a more glamorous life style, a nice house, fashionable clothes, a snazzy car, etc. Once I made the connection between the kind of daily decisions I made, and the course my life was taking, I could see that being a smoker was holding me back. The kind of people I wanted to be around did not usually smoke. Smoking had to go. The problem was, I was thoroughly addicted.
Quitting cold turkey was a disaster, so I weaned myself off the cancer stick by switching to lower and lower tar and nicotine brands: Marlboro Light > Merits > Carltons. I smoked Carltons for about a year. Then one day, I’d just had enough and stopped. I remember being mid cigarette, stubbing it out in an ash tray and that was that. I remember craving them for about three days. After that, I was comforted by second hand smoke for awhile, but eventually I became disgusted by that. I didn’t have to deal with it much though as my new friends didn’t smoke and so it went.
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