This new post is relevant especially for those who are addicts. I hope that I would be able to connect to them as this post is by an addict for an addict. "Of the people" missed the bus because of my inability to put my thoughts into this category.
I would like to invite all the smokers, alcoholics or people suffering from any other form of drug addiction to read through and tell me whether I was able to throw some form of light on this particular topic or not.
Firstly I will have to confess that I am addicted to cigarettes. I started smoking in the summers of 2004 (3rd year of my college). Before I began smoking the opinion which I had was that drinking alcohol in controlled amount is classy and cool whereas smoking cigarettes is one of the most pathetic thing to do. I simply hated it. Moreover more often than not my folks at home use to suspect "me" of smoking than my friend who had actually smoked. But with me being financially independent for the first time during my summer internship in Bangalore I started to frequent pubs 3-4 times in a week. Hence came the pressure to support my affinity towards pubs and their rocking music and atmosphere with whatever little I was earning. Within a few visits I realized that one can stay in the pub as long as one is consuming something or the other from their menu. It doesn’t matter whether one is drinking the same first for an hour. What matters is you holding on to something or the other. So as to save money and to prolong my stay to enjoy the ambiance, a simple solution was clearly visible. The solution was to bring in a pack of cigarette ...drink less…smoke a lot…and enjoy the music as long the smoke last.
Like any other addict I started off small. Now you will say that a pack of smoke on a pub day is not small. But this routine was only applicable for two months. After that it was back to simpler life of my college. There is a reason why cigarettes, alcohol etc. cause addiction. Once a person has a taste of it then these items find their own reason to ensure their consumption. So back in my college after a small break their was no reason why I needed to smoke but as a mortal I got entangled in the web of temptation woven by the white and brown stick which was always eager to be consumed. Thus the reason was simple to keep myself awake in night and to convince myself that it was the right thing to do all I had to say that it is important for my studies to stay awake and what better way to do it than to smoke away your sleep.
I have come a long way from smoking alone in my hostel room to smoking 10-12 sticks a day. In my last year of college most of my friends and batch mates had started smoking. In the absence of three fourth of my batch mates who were doing 4 year course my cigarettes were able to make their own group of friends. Now I no more had to worry about not getting a smoke. If I did not have any, their were other suicidal cigarettes with my friends who were willing to be burnt alive by not only a single owner but multiple partners at the same. Slowly and steadily these sticks were able to increase their number because I think they prefer mass suicide. All their effort ,be it changing the brain mapping of their owner or making the owner borrow for their sake, goes into ensuring the success of mass suicide concept.
With college getting over and me finally getting the financial freedom these happy go lucky form of sticks were able to ensure that they had even more friends. So now from a smoke or two a day to 5-6 smoke a day in last year of my college I was smoking 12-14 cigarettes a day. With increase in frequency I started to feel its effect on my body. The effect was negative after all against any hope. 7-8 months have passed since then and I have to experiment with amazing results.
The experiments which I keep on doing on myself tests my will power. Sometimes I do not smoke for half a day. The results are amazing. I felt energetic and good about myself with better awareness of my surroundings. So if you want to know why I haven’t quit yet. The answer is simple its hard to quit. When I go back home whether for a week or two I don’t smoke. To me I feel the people around the addict have a bigger responsibility in making an addict quit his/her habit. Its a paradox though. On one hand one expects people who are closest to the addict to support unconditionally but more often than not it is very difficult for such a person. Such a person who has suffered because of his/her closest one addiction will break down at some point of other. So rather being supportive that person may turn accusative towards the addict. It’s a very delicate balance which has to be maintained between an addict and his/her loved ones and if the addiction gets prolonged over greater period of time then the support which may help an addict stand again is doomed to be withdrawn and leave the addict on his/her own fate. My friends these words are applicable to not only a smoker but alcoholics and all other form of addicts. This is not said by me just like that but from my own life experience.
Enough have been said by others responsibility but the first and foremost onus lies on the addict him(her)self. Admitting and accepting the problem is the first step. The second is the willingness to solve the problem. I know its very hard for an addict to do so , thus the requirement for the proper support system. I also feel that the health warnings can never restrict an addict. I can go to the extent and say its always the good which an addict feel about him(her)self can only help in quitting and never these doctors advice. These kind of threats can only work with a newbie but not with a person who have been addicted to a habit for a long time.Sleeping is the best way to quit an addiction and in absence of time it gets even harder to find out a way and rectify oneself. It’s a vicious circle which takes a very hard grip on an addict and its not easy to break free from it. But one day, with each small step it is achievable. I believe that and please you also believe so.
All I want to say is that “O my fellow addicts try quitting for a day and sleep the whole day. The energy and happiness experienced is comparable to none. Do it once, do it again and I know one day I will be able to free myself from this addiction and you will be able to do the same”.
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