Time travelling

[nsd_user663_60382]

Yesterday I was at the hospital to have my shoulder looked at. When I left, I walked through the cancer building and saw many people who had lost their hair because of treatment. Given my long history of smoking, the sight of so many people battling cancer hit home.

As soon as I got out of the building I smelled cigarette smoke coming from a car not 100 ft from the entrance to the cancer center. It was tempting to feel self-righteous, but that was tempered by the memory of me smoking in that very same parking lot less than a year ago. I almost felt like I was looking back in time. I was looking at myself at a time when even the ominous CANCER CENTER sign couldn't dissuade me from lighting up. The 4 1/2 months separating me from the guy in that car have been quite difficult at times and, frankly, a pain in the ****. But there is no question who I'd rather be right now.

[nsd_user663_61377]

Things like this are bound to hit home with you for a while to come. All part of the process of finally quitting. It would be easy for us to go on a power trip preaching to the crowds about the dangers of smoking and how bad it is. But you and I both know that its not about 'being told'; something literally has to snap in your own mindset that decides you just wont smoke anymore. Ppl could be blue in the face preaching about the dangers; millions could be spent on advert campaigns and replacement therapy promotions. Cant speak for anyone else, but anytime i saw a nicorette add on tv I just wanted to light up! (in fact I think such adds should be banned from tv and billboards). Its great that these aids are there, and its great that the info is there for those who want to read it; but like everything in this life, people dont like being told whats good or bad for them.

But well done on feeling like this. Even though its only been 4 and half months you are light years from where you were as a smoker. and yes it is insensitive of that person to be smoking away in the car just yards for the cancer unit; but as you know, as smokers, such things dont even cross the trail of thought. Its like the smell from the clothes. as smokers we were immune to it. as non smokers we are repulsed. and to think the human scent is not even an entity - its a mere chain of reactions leading to a stimulation of nerves in our brain that associate the appropriate interpretation. Can you imagine, if quitting smoking can cause such a change in something as simple as smell of clothes, with a polar opposite response, what else is happening in our brains that is now different and 'new'. Fascinating area of psychological research I should imagine!

[nsd_user663_56673]

Great post, just shows it doesn't take too long to find yourself on the other side of that great big barrier in front of you when you start a quit