After 7 months non smoking I can confirm some stories regarding this whole quit thing...
Yes, I like to call it this quit thing because for me it is a total different “thing” that happened in my life..... Truly there is a huge improvement in taste and smell... there is a huge improvement in breathing and really the coughing almost stopped....There is better blood flow, as a male in my late 50’s I can vouch for that ...... The lungs... I can’t say but yes, they do not feel like brown paper bags set alight with heavy practice anymore.... Surely the colour of my skin improved and smoking definitely damages your teeth and that is why my Dentist told me on Saturday that he need to remove two teeth and replace with implants...(There goes all the money I saved on not smoking)
Yes....... I almost forgot that I ever smoked and the only times I am reminded is when walking around the corner and see the poor souls sucking frantically on their cigarettes to complete it in the allowed smoke break time... I do not reach for my top pocket anymore and even when I needed to light the barbeque fire I did not reach for my own but immediately asked for someone’s lighter.
The most truthful thing about smoking which we never believed is that it definitely messes with our brain...It messed up the way we enjoyed things.... Our brain tells us the only way to be happy is to take up smoking and yes we must be very aware not to try and find the lost happiness in something else like eating, gambling, alcohol and even sex. We must remember we humans are “happy animals” by nature and will always look for something interesting or fascinating.
I am very positive that a huge factor in my success so far is because I took some advice and supplemented with herbal supplements to help with the serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline release. Due to a fair amount of capsules (3 in total) I took every day I decided this year, a new year’s resolution, to ease of on the supplement and what a mistake..... Within 2 days I was feeling down and nothing interested me... This is the point where I believed what I read in some articles where it is claimed that the Dopamine pathways will take many years to heal if ever....after 15 years or longer smoking...Yup I have doubled that time +... Nobody can tell if it is able to be healed.....??
But ..yes after all I am happy....I am smoke free.... I do not smell like a tobacco barn anymore and when I cough it doesn’t sounds like mount Etna erupting.....So Stay strong and enjoy the ride !!!!!