Wheezing, reduced lung capacity and trouble in breathing had plagued smoker Lynn Ely for several years. Then she decided to kick the habit and go cold turkey.
The 33-year-old Capetonian had managed to make it through her teens without succumbing to nicotine. But at age 22, boredom kicked in and Ely took up the habit.
“It was the beginning of the end,” she says.
Her body’s only reprieve was when she had a cold, and smoking became nearly impossible. In 2008, after eight years of puffing away, she decided to kick the habit after she had recovered from a cold.
Her main motivation, probably, was her partner – a non-smoker.
In November it will be four years since she last lit a cigarette.
Within four months of quitting, she started feeling better. Her wheeze had disappeared, she started breathing properly and her lung capacity had improved.
There have been times, when under pressure at work, she has felt tempted to light up a smoke.
But on all these occasions, she’s managed to resist by finding a distraction.
She says she won’t be reaching for a cigarette again.
“Now I get annoyed with people who smoke. People who quit are always worse and are on their high horses,” laughs Ely.
She is among scores of former smokers who turned to the cold turkey method in order to quit.
The National Council Against Smoking says this method has the best long-term success.
Council director Peter Ucko says success rates differ from person to person. “The most successful way is making the spontaneous decision to go cold turkey.”
He concedes that some prescription drugs, patches and devices do help. But it’s up to the smoker to commit to the decision and make the effort to give up the habit.
Ucko says “trying” to quit gives smokers an excuse or permission to fail on that attempt. The goalposts will keep shifting, but it’s important that quitters stick to their resolve.
Once the decision is made, the non-smoker is advised to discuss it with their families, friends and colleagues. Support is important. If people know you’ve stopped, they’re less likely to offer you cigarettes.
But, Ucko warns, some smokers may actively try to discourage the quitter.
Ucko also advises people to drink plenty of water, as this helps flush the nicotine from the system.
When experiencing a craving, delay the decision to smoke, he says. If the craving starts at 2pm, decide to have a cigarette at 2.15pm. By then the craving will have passed, said Ucko.
While people know that stopping the habit does save money, it’s usually an unseen saving.
The council advises people have a jar in a visible spot in the house. Each morning, put your cigarette money in the jar.
On reaching work, Ucko says the new non-smoker should tell themselves they can’t buy cigarettes because their allotted money is at home, in the jar.
At the end of the week the jar should contain around R200. Some of this money could be spent on family members. “Thank them for helping you get through the week,” says Ucko.
The council estimates between five and seven million South Africans older than 15 smoke.
Many young adults start smoking at the age of 20, while they attend university.
However, by the age of 29, Ucko explains that many in that age group have grown up and become sensible adults and decide to quit.
While going cold turkey and battling the withdrawal is one option, other programmes target other areas of smoking.
Dr Charles Nel, chief executive of the Allen Carr programme in SA, says addiction to smoking is 5 percent physical and 95 percent psychological.
According to the Allen Carr website, the programme removes the psychological addiction to nicotine or the need or desire to smoke.
Nel says he believes that no pills can fix the psychological addiction to smoking.
Nel points out that smokers can sleep for eight hours, or be on a plane for 14 hours and not smoke without a problem.
He says the programme does not believe that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) helps smokers to stop smoking for the same reason that alcohol replacement therapy does not work for the treatment of alcoholism.
Independent published success rates for NRT after 12 months are less than 10 percent.
Pharmacists in Cape Town told the Cape Argus that while nicotine replacement therapies were useful, the only drug that seemed to work was Champix, a prescription drug taken over six months.
They said the over-the-counter products, including herbal remedies, had not been that effective in helping people stop smoking.
Kicking a dirty habit for a trip overseas
Vanity, economics and health appear to be the main motivators for a Cape Town woman who quit smoking.
Marelise van der Merwe, 31, quit twice. She started in her teens and kicked the habit for the first time when she was 25.
“I looked in the mirror and saw grey skin. I had a smoker’s cough. I was 25 but felt like I was 90,” said Van der Merwe.
The first time, quitting was easy and accidental. She had run out of cigarettes in the evening and was late for work the following day so could not stop to buy any. After making it through the day without smoking, Van der Merwe thought it a good time to quit.
She immediately started investing her cigarette money into unit trusts. After a few years, she had saved enough money to put down a deposit on her flat, spending money for a trip to Malaysia, and to fund a two-month hike through Spain last year.
But towards the end of last year she lapsed. This time around, Van der Merwe tried using nicotine patches and other aids, but says none of these worked.
Her doctor eventually prescribed a drug and she’s not had a cigarette since the end of February.
By September, she will have saved R20 000. Her next smoke-free stop is Portugal. - Esther Lewis
When the habit is too hard to break
For many smokers, giving up the habit is easier said than done.
Russell Ely, 28, has tried at least four times to quit his habit. He started smoking in Grade 8 because “everyone was doing it”.
That didn’t last long, and he managed to kick the habit for the rest of high school. When he went on to study at a technikon, he started again.
Ely now smokes an average of 30 cigarettes a day. He smokes four on his 20km journey to work and four on the way home. The bulk of his smoking takes place at work and this is largely due to stress, he says.
On his off days, however, Ely manages to keep the number of cigarettes he smokes down to three a day.
His motivation for quitting is his one-year-old son. He doesn’t want to expose him to second-hand smoke.
For the past two months Ely has tried natural aids to stop. “It does help on my days off. But I still smoke about 30 on other days,” he says.
Mukesh Maharajh picked up his first cigarette at the tender age of six. “There were always cigarettes lying around the house. So I picked one up and started smoking,” says Maharajh.
Forty years later, he hasn’t been able to quit. But this is not for lack of trying. Each week, Maharajh tells himself he’ll break the cycle.
Each week he puffs on his “last” cigarette.
Each week he quits for no more than two hours.
Habit makes him reach for his cigarettes and continue the cycle. He’s never tried the patches, chewing gum or other aids created for quitting. He feels that going cold turkey is the best approach.
After 40 years of smoking, Maharajh claims that he is “as fit as a fiddle”. So neither health nor the rising cost of the habit is a deterrent for him, he says. His reason for wanting to stop has more to do with other people than himself.
“My smoking irritates other people. My girlfriend hates it,” he says. So Maharajh will try again this weekend. - Esther lewis
Here are several ways to quit your nicotine habit
* Electronic cigarettes have been on the market for several years as an alternative to tobacco use.
The Food and Drug Administration of the US, however, warned consumers in 2009 that the products may not be safe. On its website, the FDA said the e-cigarettes may contain ingredients that are “known to be toxic to humans, and may contain other ingredients that may not be safe”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also weighed in, saying there was no evidence to back claims that the e-cigarettes were a proven, safe, replacement therapy.
The WHO did not consider the product a legitimate therapy.
* Prescription drugs do not contain any nicotine, but drugs block nicotine from reaching receptors in the brain associated with cravings.
* Natural products, which can be purchased from pharmacies, claim to reduce cravings, detox the body, and boost energy.
* Nicotine Replacement Therapy makes use of chewing gum or patches which release nicotine into the system. This method helps smokers gradually reduce dependence on nicotine. - Cape Argus