Man, do you remember this hanging up in your grade school classroom? While talking to a patient about smoking today I was suddenly reminded of this image and I realized, "Damn, it worked!" Any time I was given the opportunity to smoke in life I would instantly recall this handsome fellow and any curiosity I had would quickly shrivel up. Damn you, Red cross!He's probably dead, huh?
7 comments:
Yeah!
I was a heavy smoker for ten years, starting my second year of college. I smoked my last cigarette on May 25, 1995 (So, obviously, I've been nicotine free for twelve years). I had friends in college who said they couldn't picture me without a cigarette. Now, almost all my friends have never seen me with one.
Quitting smoking was, bar none, the most difficult thing I've ever done. When it's you vs. your bloodstream, you lose (unless you've got a trick up your sleeve like Nicoderm patches, which required a prescription at that time). My doctor didn't give me the full, recommended dosage of Nicoderm, either; I started slightly lower than what I "should" have been getting according to Nicoderm's "literature" on the subject. I'm not going to argue with the sawbones because it worked, although I'll never forget the agony and the ecstasy of the first no-cig day. (I remember lying in bed at 11 that night and bursting into tears because I had made it through the day.)
The imagery of these posters "worked" until I started smoking. It's amazing how little the actual information affects you when you're a smoker. People talk about the health risks and you just sort of listen and agree and then ignore what they said. It's weird as hell.
My mantra for quitting was an early version of "been there, done that" (although I don't think that phrase was in common parlance at the time). Every time I wanted a cigarette, no matter how prosaic the situation -- standing on someone's balcony overlooking the city at sunset after the rain, with a vodka; coffee in the morning; third beer at a dive bar; just finished writing a short story; etc. I would tell myself, "You have done this. There is no reason to experience this 'nicotine moment' because you will get nothing out of it that you have not already experienced countless times, each less satisfying than the last." It worked...kind of. (I mean, it DID work; I didn't smoke; but it was a hard slog.)
The Insider is one of my favorite movies of all time, not just because of its masterful ability to somehow be about everything (Society, power, life and death, media, television, law, politics, mid-life crises, American society, etc.) but because the subject of the pure evil of tobacco and tobacco companies hits so close to home. The middle sequence where Jeffrey Wygand (Russell Crowe) drives in the police motorcade to the Alabama courtroom where a tremendous struggle ensues about allowing him/compelling him to answer one question ("Is nicotine addictive") and he's looking out the limosine window at the graveyards they're driving past, is one of the most moving and meaningful sequences I've ever seen in any movie.
Someone should build a horror story around cigarettes. Actually, someone did: Stephen King ("Quitters, Inc." from Night Shift).
Wow, it's really impressive that you were able to quit in the manner that you did, Jordan. The most effective treatment for smoking is the patch/behavioral medicine combination. I used to work at the Boston VAMC and on one of my internship rotations I ran smoking cessation groups. It was amazing because on the first day there would be 30 veterans shoved into this tiny room. We had to open all the doors and windows because the smell was overpowering. Ten weeks later there would be 1 or 2 veterans left in the group. At the time I wondered, from a cost/benefit perspective, why bother with these groups when the recidivism is so high? Yet, in the end it was worth it even if only a few benefited. It was an amazing learning experience for me because prior to that I never appreciated how vicious the habit could be. I always thought, "Meh, I could easily quit."
According to an MD friend, I'm in the 96th percentile or something. I quit once, and it held.
It's interesting to me that substance-abuse recovery communities are so heavily filled with caffeine and cigarettes. I wonder if that's still true or if it's more of a Raymond Carver cliche at this point.
Oh you're right on the money with your substance abuse/caffeine/cigarettes data. at least anecdotally tha's been my observation working here in the hospital. However you could easily argue that I'm seeing a biased sample (i.e., people who abuse substances AND smoke/drink caffeine are more likely to show up for treatment than substance abusers who don't engage in those other activities). Another weird observation, All schizophrenics appear to be smokers! Perhaps it evens out the brain chemistry?
That's interesting. I'm tempted to make a bad joke, like "The other personality just had a cigarette, not me" or something, but I realize I'm being clinically imprecise just to be funny.
I always thought that was a really nasty-looking woman in that picture. I liked to think she had a grandkid in elementary school who saw her on the wall.
That's a dude, dude!
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