Kicking the habit
Locals recount tales of breaking up with the butts

Crushing the urge to smoke is easier said than done for some Durangoans grappling with the ‘nicodemon.’ Fortunately, for those with the will power, several programs and support systems exist to keep them on the wagon./Photo by David Halterman

by Renee Johns

We have all grappled with at tough life decisions at some point: Where to go to school, what to study while you’re there, what career path to choose and whether or not to go to the closest grocery store due to convenience or fight your way through the aisles at Wal-Mart because that can of soup is 50 cents cheaper.

One decision that some prefer to label as a “no brainer” is any decision that will ultimately be better for your health, like the decision not to stand in a lightning storm holding an umbrella or not to cross the highway on foot during rush hour – or the decision to quit smoking. For those who have never struggled with this particular addiction, it is effortless and simplistic to come to the conclusion that there is no need to quit if one never starts in the first place. After all, who in their right mind wouldn’t want to quit smoking? Why put oneself into such a precarious health situation?

But for those who have danced with the addiction, everything is not so black and white.

Directly written on a pack of cigarettes in plain English is the Surgeon General’s warning: “Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.” Nevertheless, the “quitting now” part isn’t quite so simple. According to the National Cancer Institute, side effects experienced while quitting include anxiety, irritability, increased hunger, fatigue, insomnia, lack of concentration, restlessness and nightmares. In a lot of cases, that immediately turns the “no brainer” part of quitting into “no freaking way!”

Kyle Turner, 27, has been smoking since he was 20. He says he has thought about quitting a number of times, but there always seems to be a reason to postpone it. “There is always something that justifies smoking again: ‘I’ll just have one with my drink;’ ‘I can’t quit if everyone is smoking around me;’ ‘I’m really stressed right now.’ I’ve used all of these excuses, among others, quite a few times,” Turner says.

Such “triggers” seem to be one of the toughest aspects of trying to quit. Many have reached the conclusion that they need to quit and they want to quit, but there are a number of circumstances that can send even those with the best intentions jumping off the band wagon in search of a light.

“Smoking becomes what you think of as a very good friend,” says Turner.

“I have one after a meal, during a coffee break at work, or driving in a car. These have all become perfect opportunities for me to smoke. Once I was told I didn’t have to smoke just because I could,” Turner smiles.

Of course, he notes that little gem of advice did not come from someone who used to smoke. If it were that easy, smoking would not be known as one of the toughest addictions to kick.

According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 20 percent of Colorado’s adult population smokes, with the majority reporting that they want to quit. In a statewide survey, 85 percent of Colorado’s smokers reported considering quitting with 53 percent reporting actually trying to quit. However, a paltry 3 percent reported being successful on their own.

Fortunately, nowadays, every time you turn around there seems to be a smoking cessation class opening up. There are websites, diets that claim to help curb the urge and a million different suggestions available for scrutiny. Colorado offers varied state-specific programs including Colorado QuitNet.com to give those interested in information on who can help in their community. Locally, San Juan Basin Health Department’s Lasso Tobacco Coalition offers myriad cessation programs, for youths through adults. In addition, many people have turned to nicotine replacement therapy, aka NRT, and can choose from an exciting array of everything from patches to pills to gum that taste like the inside of an ashtray.

“When I try to quit again,” says Turner “I’ll definitely use a prescription drug to help out. I think a ‘quitting buddy’ might help, too, because I would feel worse about letting them down than just starting back up.”

Thanks to the smoking ban, Durangoans wanting to smoke in public must do so outside. While the ban may have helped push some smokers who were on the fence to quit, others say the decision to quit must be theirs, and theirs only./Photo by David Halterman

Choosing a plan of action can be half the battle, according to various self-help groups, in that it reaffirms the decision to quit and keeps the primary goal at the forefront. There are a lot of different avenues for such a plan, and some may work better than others depending in the individual.

For Lauren Anderson, her path of choice was the nicotine patch. “I just kind of woke up one morning and decided I didn’t want to smoke anymore,” Anderson says. “Well, I didn’t want to call myself a smoker anymore.”

Anderson ran track in college and was an athlete her entire life. She found herself casually smoking while out with friends and then the casual turned into an every day thing. “It really snuck up on me, and before I knew it, I was having a cigarette with my cup of coffee in the morning or while I was driving on my way to work,” said Anderson.

In conjunction with the patch, Anderson also sought counseling through a cessation course a friend told her about. “I appreciated what they were trying to do, but when I found out that my counselor had never smoked, I didn’t feel like they had any idea what I was struggling with or where I was coming from” says Anderson. “I knew all of the reasons that I should quit, but actually doing it was pretty tough, and I wanted someone to be able to relate to me.”

Anderson continued with a couple more weeks of the counseling sessions but inevitably stopped going and instead turned to online support through Colorado’s Quit Net. There, she was able to talk with others who had quit or were in the process and share support and advice.

Meanwhile, Turner is still grappling with making the move. Although he’s familiar with the lure of becoming a nonsmoker, such as a longer life, white teeth, clear skin, sweet smelling breath, improved health and happiness, the prime example of why he has to quit is starting him in the face. “My grandfather is dying of lung cancer,” he says, looking down. “You can read studies and be lectured by people about how harmful smoking is over and over, but it hits a lot harder seeing it first hand.”

“My grandfather told me, ‘When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.’ A pretty simple idea, but it speaks very loudly to me.”

Yet Turner still smokes, and if that is not an indication of just how tough it can be, then nothing is. “I’m starting to get pretty angry at myself,” he says. “I don’t see myself smoking further down the road.”

And reaching the conclusion that you don’t want to continue smoking is the very first step in the right direction, says Anderson. “I was really awful to deal with,” she recalls. “I remember some of my co-workers joking around and saying ‘Stay away from Lauren, she’s quitting,’ and I felt pretty badly about my mood swings.” But people were supportive too, she says. “My biggest support system was, hands down, my family and friends,” she says. “Life doesn’t allow you stress-free time, which would be optimal for quitting. There is always going to be something that crops up – another deadline, an issue you have to deal with – so having them all pulling for me was key.”

Anderson is the first to point out, however, that once you’ve smoked, there are likely going to be moments that tempt you to reach for a cigarette, regardless of how long it’s been. “It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, and it is still difficult, so I just have to take it one day at a time,” says Anderson, who has been smoke free for about eight months after several attempts dating back over a year.

However, there are benefits of being smoke free: going up stairs without gasping for breath, enjoying that first breath of morning air, having a car that continues to smell like that vanilla pine tree, being able to smell things better … and smelling better. Nevertheless, she says there are good days and bad, and for a lot of people, some days a root canal seems more pleasant then the idea of quitting. “You just keep trying,” says Anderson. “I also had my friends tell me that I was pretty an abnormal amount of times during the day,” she smiles.

When asked if that is something that may help, Turner grinned. “Sure, why not, couldn’t hurt.”

You’re so pretty. •

Renee Johns is a newly recovering nonsmoker. For more information on smoking-cessation classes and information, call San Juan Basin Health at 247-5702 Ext. 236 or go to www.coloradoquitnet.com.