by Neena Strichart
Once again, I am preparing to celebrate, big time! I may blow up balloons, strike up the band, send out Facebook announcements and drink a toast or two or three. Why all the fuss? Well, as of next week, I will be eight years smoke-free, or as I prefer to call it, I will be eight years “smober!”
Smoking had been a big part of my life since I was a young teenager. I picked up the nasty and addictive habit during my junior high school days. I know that many people blame their bad decisions on peer pressure, but I have no one to blame but myself. I was never easily influenced by my peers. I made most of my own decisions, good, bad or indifferent. However, as far as smoking goes, I’m sure I probably started smoking because my dad was rarely without a cigarette in his hand. I looked up to him and was definitely a daddy’s girl.
Through the years, I had tried to stop smoking many times. At one point I think I had stopped for over a year, but, quite honestly, I wasn’t very committed to quitting. I don’t think I really believed I’d ever be a non-smoker. It was such a part of who I was. I was a smoker and that was that. However, now, after achieving eight years of smobriety I believe that I will never pick up another cigarette.
As I have written before, in order to finally quit smoking, I needed to find the right motivation. In the past, my reasons for trying to quit were pretty much text book: cigarettes were expensive, I hated the stinky clothes and hair, I was afraid of getting lung cancer, I faced annual bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis, and, last but not least, the people around me wanted me to quit. Although those reasons were quite valid and may have been good motivation for others to quit, none of them worked for me.
Only one event in my life finally pushed me to put down those “cancer sticks,” or “coffin nails,” for good. Below is the story that I share every year to celebrate the big quit:
About nine years ago, I was told that I had periodontal disease. It was painful, and I was afraid to undergo the cutting and suturing necessary to treat the condition. Thanks to my friend Robert Quintero, I went and saw Dr. Gregg in Cerritos, who put me through some pretty intense (although nearly painless) and relatively costly laser dental/gum procedures to cure me of my dental issues. I haven’t had any problems since.
How could that be a motivator for me when something as serious as cancer was not? Well, my dear Dr. Gregg informed me that if I didn’t quit smoking I’d have to go through the whole thing again and again, and if I decided to keep smoking and not have the procedure repeated, I would probably lose my teeth. Now there’s my motivator. With the genetics in my family (I should live to be nearly 100 years old), dying doesn’t scare me, but living without teeth does. Ah, vanity. That was and still is my motivator! Thanks to support from my husband Steve, nicotine patches and a 12-step program, I did it. I am a non-smoker!
If you would like to quit smoking, my advice is to find your motivation and then call the Long Beach Health Department, Tobacco Education Program at (562) 570-7950. The folks there will provide you with a free stop-smoking guide with tips to help smokers quit and a list of Long Beach support meetings and resources.
