Casey Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 I wrote this for a cold turkey quit smoking facebook site of which I am a member, but I also wrote it when I was feeling rather down, in order to remind myself that I can do things for and by myself, if I only set my mind to it. It was a weird little room, had a sign over the door reading, Nicotine Addiction ... I used to live in it. For forty years. The door was locked and the key was in my pocket. Oddly enough, I shared the room with a dangerous snake (and I don't like snakes!) Even more oddly, rather than use the key in my pocket, open the door and get away, I preferred to complain how much it hurt when the snake bit me. Weird eh? Yet weirdest of all, the snake's bite was not immediately lethal; its venom was slow acting, excepting in a very small number of cases. It wouldn't kill you until the snake had bitten you one too many times, and the greatest experts couldn't tell you how many times that would take. What was known was when you got to that point, you either wasted away in great pain or, if you were lucky, simply dropped dead. In short, "The good news is, your smoking probably won't kill you. The bad news is, your smoking won't kill you, it will just make you wish it had." I was bitten up to sixty times a day, but that wasn't the worst of it. It didn't cost me my life (although it cost a fair chunk of my health) but it did cost me $25,480 per year to live in that same small room, or $490 per week. Where I live, that'd be the rent on what some Americans on here would call, "A right smart l'il house." I have lived in that small room. I moved out, three and a half years ago and I'm never going to pay the rent on it again. Damn their twelve steps, I have only two. Quit. And stay quit. Casey 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted October 10, 2015 Moderator Share Posted October 10, 2015 Casey, this is absolutely fantastic!! I love the analogy of your story and I love your two steps for any addiction!! Congratulations my friend!! Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenaissanceWoman Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Wow, the money! And if you pay for your own health insurance and/or life insurance, your premiums are higher, so the cost adds up fast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 For what it's worth, the refutation of an old chestnut I too used to trot out now and then: I used to hear this one or similar many a time, "Oh, old Fred smoked until he was ninety, had hardly ever a day off sick in his life, and died of old age, not a smoking related illness." OK. Of course we might ask how much longer Fred would have lived had he not smoked and we might also wonder how much better his quality of life might have been, but these things aside, I'll tell you a little story from history if you like. In June 1941, Germany invaded Russia with something along the lines of four million men, 3,500 tanks, 7,200 artillery pieces, 2,770 aircraft, 600,000 soft skinned vehicles and last but not least, 650,000 horses. In addition they had at least the same fanaticism as their opponents, and, lest that fail them, large quantities of what we'd nowadays call crystal meth. Smokes weren't all that abundant though, six per man per day perhaps. Hitler detested smoking, although he was fine with other drug abuse. However, in the end that didn't work either. But that's another story. With all this, the Germans expected to knock the job over in at most six months before Winter set in. Indeed it had been bruited about, "You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down!" And the rest of the world believed somewhat the same. On the 22nd of June there was indeed a mighty crash as something fell over, but it wasn't the front door, it was only the front gate. It was a long and very rough road to the front door ... The point of all this was somebody had failed to correctly calculate the Russian reserve manpower, and when the General Staff got an idea of the real Order of Battle facing them they were horrified to say the least. The Germans lost a million men in the first six months, the Russians perhaps lost two or even three times that, but they could afford it, their opponents could not. And as they say, the rest is history ... As it was with the Russian reserve manpower, so it was and is with the human lung's capabilities. Old Fred's reserves in that capacity may have been much more than the norm. That's down to chance. However, that's no longer a chance I'd care to apply to my lungs, to say nothing of other organs which might be affected by smoking. Yet that was exactly the chance calculation I applied to my lungs and other organs when I was a smoker, and it's the same calculation every smoker has to make. The lucky ones get it wrong and die quickly. The unlucky ones may well have to fight some desperate rearguard actions, and more than likely succumb anyway. Not worth it for me ... Casey 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Congratulations, Casey, for your success. But with the rate of success with twelve steppers, I'm not knocking them. Not everyone is as strong as you are, it seems. Some need a Higher Power, unfortunately, or a sponsor they can call on in times of great stress and temptation. I know I need my friends, though not in a formal twelve step program, just in life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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