Stop Smoking: 52 brilliant ideas to kick the habit for good
By Clive Hopwood and Peter Cross
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Stop Smoking - Clive Hopwood
CAREFUL NOW
We hope that you enjoy this book and it gives you lots of ideas and food for thought. We would like to stress that the suggestions we offer ought to be seen as a complement to rather than a replacement for the help and support that you get from your general practitioner. Why not take a copy of this book along to the surgery next time you go, and discuss the ideas with your doctor. We hope you find a way to beat the habit, but we can’t be there to stub out the cigarettes every time you experience a moment of weakness—ultimately whether you stop smoking for good is up to you. Good luck!
Copyright © The Infinite Ideas Company Limited, 2005
The rights of Peter Cross and Clive Hopwood to be identified as the authors of this book have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2005 by
The Infinite Ideas Company Limited
36 St Giles
Oxford
OX1 3LD
United Kingdom
www.infideas.com
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the publisher. Requests to the publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Infinite Ideas Limited, 36 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LD, UK, or faxed to +44 (0)1865 514777.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-904902-44-8
Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Designed and typeset by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford
Printed by TJ International, Cornwall
Brilliant ideas
Brilliant features
Introduction
1. No smoke without fire
Please feel free to smoke while you read this book.
2. Turn right off Tobacco Road
Belonging to a tribe is an important human desire. Other smokers are just the same as us and revel in their status as social pariahs.
3. A question of taste
What kind of smoker are you? Having some idea of the scale of your problem will help you form a plan of action to beat it. Answer this simple questionnaire to create a profile of you as a smoker.
4. Curse Sir Walter Raleigh
It’s history lesson time. Cue good-looking intellectual waltzing around in front of televisual landscapes (use your imagination). Let’s track back through the mists (hazy smoke?) of time and find out how it all started.
5. The seven stages of man giving up
Other smokers have given up before you and experts have plotted the phases most of them go through.
6. Imagine
Create a picture in your mind’s eye that puts you off smoking.
7. Fat is a former smoker’s issue
One advantage of smoking tobacco is that you are putting something in your mouth that won’t be translated into a higher reading next time you step on the scales.
8. Superkings?
Peer pressure when we’re young can lead to a (short) life sentence of smoking. What makes us kids think that smoking makes us look older, more good-looking and more likely to get inside somebody’s pants?
9. Smoking gun
The ill effects of smoking take a while to become apparent. They sneak up on us. By the time we notice, the habit has given us cunning ways of ignoring them or making excuses. Hasn’t it?
10. What’s your poison?
A cigarette contains over 400 toxic chemicals. Line up for your deadly dose of poisons and see just what goes inside your body every time you light up.
11. The shock of the old
Growing older is part of life. Smoking gets you there quicker than if you don’t.
12. Tobacco giants
Someone out there is getting very rich—at your expense—selling a deadly drug. Take a look at what’s in it for the giant multinationals and the governments.
13. Live fast, die young
Knowing how tobacco is marketed and sold might not help you give up, but at least you know where those barons are coming from.
14. Money makes the world go round
Cigarettes are money. Your money. Up in smoke. Taxes, life insurance, you the smoker pay through the nose for your habit. Become ill and the costs spiral. Look closely at the hidden costs of smoking.
15. Using the wrong time to do the right thing
You really want to quit, tomorrow. But then there’s that little voice in your head reminding you that tomorrow never comes.
16. Diversion ahead
Discovering ploys that help you distract yourself from cravings can prevent a relapse.
17. Suck it and see
Fancy doubling your chances of becoming an ex-smoker? There’s scientific proof that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) does just that.
18. Cold turkey
A short, sharp shock or a phased withdrawal? A case can be made either way.
19. Super drugs
Discover a drug that effectively curbs cravings and reduces withdrawals.
20. Smoke screen
This is the time the addict in you is going to start getting worried. And the time he’ll start pulling out his dirtiest tricks. A handy guide to all the subtle games the addict will play on you to get you to give up giving up. Don’t be fooled!
21. The air that we breathe
Medical science can do miracles these days. So that means I can carry on abusing my body and by the time I need it they’ll have come up with some cunning cure. So, can we measure you for your wheelchair now, sir?
22. Don’t do that, do this
The thought of cold turkey ruffles you. Nicotine patches don’t cover it. And gum just won’t stick. Why not look at some of the alternative methods that may be all you need to quit while you’re ahead (and still alive)?
23. First of the day
Every day when you wake up, cigarettes are clamouring at the front of queue, crying: FEED ME, BABY! FEED ME! You want it simple? This is it: never smoke your first cigarette of the day again and you’ve stopped forever.
24. Smokes and ladders
Some people stop and start again over the years. Although they have times when they don’t smoke, at heart they still feel like smokers.
25. Words on paper
Keep a record of your struggle to give up. It will keep you on track and provide you with a document that you can be proud of.
26. Slave to the weed
Let’s face it—we are drug addicts. But nicotine, like many other drugs, is not a simple habit to crack. It’s a collection of habits, triggered by certain events or actions in our day, each with its own battle to face.
27. Do you feel lucky, punk?
Time for a squint at the statistics. We know that smoking’s a risky business, but just how does it compare to other life-threatening activities? And how many of them would you volunteer for?
28. No respecter of reputations
Prince or pauper, millionaire or milkman, smoking ruthlessly slays its users.
29. The sweet smell of success
Sometimes stopping smoking seems impossible. It’s time to remind you that there are smokers out there who have stopped.
30. Phone a friend
Finding the right person to help you quit could be the difference between success and failure.
31. Shared air
You’re never alone with a Strand, according to the ad from the 1950s. (The ad became a cult, the brand bombed.) There are almost always people around you when you smoke. What are we doing to them when we blow out our hot air?
32. Strength in numbers
Haven’t got the willpower to go it alone? Joining a group could give you the extra resolve.
33. I want it now
Ever wondered why sound health and monetary reasons for quitting don’t spur your stopping?
34. Helping your helpers help you
Want a mate to help you quit? Here are some suggestions for your chum to take on board.
35. Ashes to ashes
It’s a dirty habit. Old dog ends, dropped ash, overflowing ashtrays, holes in your jumper. Disgusting, right? Cleaning up your act will cut down on the housework and say goodbye to yellow fingers and teeth.
36. If you can’t beat them, join them
The rest of the world is ganging up on smokers, refusing to share their space with us. Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel and join the majority.
37. Sleeping with the enemy
Become a single-issue bore; make non-smoking your new addiction. Becoming a nonsmoking guru could be your salvation.
38. This dog’s got teeth
Tobacco smoke stains your teeth. Yes, yes, we know that. You can brush your teeth clean, but you can’t brush your lungs clean. Yes, yes, we know that, too. Smoking makes your gums rot away and all your teeth fall out. Really?
39. Do you smoke after sex?
Pay attention to this one. Which would you rather give up—sex or cigarettes? Sooner or later smoking is likely to win whether you like it or not. You’ll be hard up without a hard on (yours or your partner’s). Interested? Read on!
40. Older and wiser
There isn’t a smoker alive who, if given the chance to turn back time, wouldn’t refuse that very first cigarette. Older, wiser and iller, we know better now.
41. Live long and prosper
If you die early or become disabled through smoking you’re not the only victim. Don’t want to be around for your children, watch them grow up, get married, have children? No? Then stop reading now.
42. Home, sweet home
Decorating your home is a great way to celebrate your decision to quit.
43. Bonfire of your vanities
Every smoker’s home contains an expensive collection of knick-knacks that support the habit. Serious about stopping? It’s time to break up the collection.
44. Trial separation
Time apart from your cigarette companions can help you make up your mind whether you want to stay in touch or not. Two weeks away could save your life.
45. Duty free
Holiday madness. Half-price cigarettes, and who can turn down a bargain? You can. What’s half of nothing? Nothing. That’s what you’ll spend if you don’t fall down the duty free trap. Beware of bargains.
46. Who wants to be a dead millionaire?
Play the game of a lifetime (however short that may be). A thrill-packed adventure stuffed with prizes, from the holiday of a lifetime to a brand new car of your choice. But beware the booby prizes (only for boobies who smoke).
47. Become a perverse philanthropist
You’ve tried sensible ways of giving up and you’re still puffing like there’s no tomorrow. It’s time to utilise your negative demons.
48. Don’t give up giving up
Quitting for good might seem like climbing Everest. With careful planning, Everest is climbed all the time, and sometimes without oxygen masks.
49. Busy doing nothing
There’s time on your hands. There’s an addict inside you begging you to have just one last cigarette. Stay active. Scan this handy survey of replacement activities and choose your weapons.
50. Stay stopped
Nicotine is always waiting round the next corner to ambush you, so you need to keep reminding yourself about why and how you gave up. Train yourself to become a non-smoker.
51. One can’t hurt?
One cigarette isn’t just one—it’s the first of many. As soon as you light up you’ve stepped on the old treadmill, through those revolving doors and back into bondage. One is too many: you’re an addict.
52. Dog ends
Each day you don’t smoke takes you further on the road towards reclaiming your life and your health. Check out the fantastic benefits week by week, month by month as we flag up the landmarks you will pass.
The End
Or is it a new beginning?
Brilliant features
Each chapter of this book is designed to provide you with an inspirational idea that you can read quickly and put into practice straight away.
Throughout you’ll find four features that will help you get right to the heart of the idea:
Here’s an idea for you Take it on board and give it a go—right here, right now. Get an idea of how well you’re doing so far.
Try another idea If this idea looks like a life-changer then there’s no time to lose. Try another idea will point you straight to a related tip to enhance and expand on the first.
Defining ideas Words of wisdom from masters and mistresses of the art, plus some interesting hangers-on.
How did it go? If at first you do succeed, try to hide your amazement. If, on the other hand, you don’t, then this is where you’ll find a Q and A that highlights common problems and how to get over them.
Introduction
Smoking killed both our fathers. Hardly a surprise: if you continue to smoke throughout your adult life, as they did, there’s a fifty–fifty chance that the grim reaper will take you away with a smoking-related illness or conditio. Clive’s much loved elder brother dropped dead from an aneurism aged only 55. Two of Peter’s siblings continue to smoke, so the chances of losing at least one of them this way are pretty high.
Given the devastation that smoking has had on our lives, it might seem perverse that early chapters of this book rave about smoking. In the short term at least, smokers get a number of benefits from their cigarettes: a buzz that hits the brain seven seconds after inhaling, a sense of belonging to a worldwide club, a shared graveyard humour and a feeling that you are a little more alive than sensible nonsmokers. To give this up a smoker needs to subject him or herself to a bereavement process. And to do so includes acknowledging the fun bits of this fatal attraction.
Considering that cigarette advertising has been largely outlawed in many other countries, including the UK, you might wonder why we have included a chapter on it. We do so as adverts from the past linger on years after they have been banned from billboards, cinema screens, magazines and newspapers. Tobacco barons might be evil and cynical, but they are not stupid and know how to package and market their product. They have employed the best designers and advertisers in the business. Nor have we overlooked the glamour that Hollywood gave these lethal little tubes.
Having established what people enjoy from smoking, we move onto the considerable benefits of stopping. Every smoker knows the damage this habit does, but even we were surprised to find how extensive that damage is. You know that cigarettes make your teeth yellow, but are you aware of the damage they do to your gums? You know that smoking adds a few wrinkles to your features, but did you know that recent research has found that a sixty-year-old smoker who has consumed a packet of twenty a day for forty years has the body of someone seven years older than themselves? These and other discoveries add up and are worth considering.
Mostly, however, the book is given over to ideas to help you give up, whether it’s joining a support group, using nicotine patches or other drugs, or going cold turkey. We’ve also included a chapter for someone wishing to help a smoker give up and another on finding that person.
In short, we have adopted and adapted ideas from all over the place. Our thanks in particular go to the dozens of useful and informative websites available on the internet. Just type the word ‘Tobacco’ into your search engine and behold!
The great thing about the 52 Brilliant Ideas book series is that each chapter comes with a practical task, something that you can actually do. Some, like our suggestion for smashing up your ashtrays, are enormous fun; others, like giving money to a cause you hate if you break a pledge to stop smoking, can be pretty hairy.
There are many books around offering to help you give up, but we believe our publisher’s concept is ideally suited to this subject. You will not find here a promise that if you read this book you will quit smoking, nor are we offering a one-method-suits-all approach to giving up. Every smoker is different: what works for Fred Jones in the office may not to work for Samantha Smith in the pub. Indeed, what might not have worked for Fred five years ago may now do the trick. People give up when they are ready and not a moment before. But the process can be nudged along with the suggestions, strategies and solutions you’ll find here. What we offer is a huge menu to browse over and from it you can select your own quitting cocktail.
Clive’s motivation for writing this book is that he really wants to stop. His daughter