It started as teenage fun. Joe was about 14 or 15 years old when he started smoking. Now it has been more than 30 years or so. Having smoked most of his life, Joe had almost given up on trying quitting but retirement brought about a stark reality. Doctors encouraged Joe to quit, offering this advice:-
“As you know you are going to retire. It is difficult to maintain the same pleasant life a lot longer without withdrawal. Otherwise, you will have to face deterioration in your health. It will be such that you won't be enjoying what you're retired to enjoy.”
Joe is an avid cyclist and he wanted to maintain this lifestyle in retirement and while Joe had tried to quit smoking before, this time was different. It was his idea and he wanted to quit. It wasn't his wife's idea or his family's idea or his doctor's idea because it had always been their idea and they’d always urged him to quit. But this was his idea.
Role of a clinic
He received support from a rehabilitation clinic. The clinic made him feel like that was home. He was pleased as they weren't going to judge him. There was help but there wasn't judgement and he thinks that the clinic has it right with that.
Medical staff at the clinic also offered hands-on advice for daily living to keep the nicotine urge at bay. They were able to give him some tips and some clues about how to make it a little bit easier?
For example, breaking up his routines doesn't get out of the routine. It was advised to not do the same thing at the same time through the day because those routines for him include cigarettes. In the end, he finally achieved his goal of abstinence.
Overview
As per nicotine and tobacco research, on average a 15 years reduction in life expectancy has been noticed due to tobacco use. On the other hand, there are positive impacts on current and future health due to smoking cessation. It is also an interesting fact that quitting at around the age of 50 gained almost 3 years of life expectancy when compared to continuing smokers.
If you're a young person like 40 years old:-
i. Do you want to add ten years to your life?
ii. Do you want to avoid all of the ill health effects including
· Chronic
· Lung disease
· Heart disease
· Lung cancer
The answer in two words is “quit smoking”. We know that all of those diseases are intimately associated with smoking and that if people stop at a young age they'll avoid all of them.
Though quitting is not that simple. There should be some planning and then you have to stick with the same. That plan should include some counselling and behavioural therapy and medications that will reduce withdrawal and help in abstinence.
You can also know addiction rehabilitation secrets from here:
You can also read the following books to learn the skill of getting rid of addiction:-
In the end, let’s see this amazing video to save us from Alcohol use disorder.
