By Annette Campbell
The new year always comes loaded with hopeful resolutions but many don’t actually make it into action. Right at the top of many lists is the declaration: “I’m going to quit smoking!”
No one knows the reality of how hard it is to quit more than Sydneysider Michelle Stanger. But now that she’s succeeded, Michelle also knows first-hand how great it feels.
“I feel like a different person,” says Michelle, 42, a part-time administration manager and mother of nine-month-old son, Jack.
“I haven’t had a cigarette now for five-and-a-half years, and that was from having smoked a packet or more every day. I definitely feel so much better. I don’t have that continuous cough and wheeze, or the horrible taste in my mouth. And when I wake up in the morning I’m not exhausted.
“I will never go back — especially now that I have a baby, because I don’t want smoke around him.”
Michelle says she’d been smoking on and off, “forever”. She started at 13, quit at 19, started again at 21, and then smoked at least a packet a day until her last cigarette ever … on July 25, 1999.
“That was the day I went to a health retreat,” she explains. “I was actually going there to lose weight but I thought if I gave up smoking as well it’d be an added benefit.
“They say withdrawal symptoms usually occur on the second or third day but for me it was day four. I was a basket case! I had more of a psychological reaction and was quite distressed and miserable. I cried and slept alternately for the next 18 hours and when I woke on the morning of day five, I actually felt much better. By the end of that day I felt fantastic!
“Since then it’s been quite manageable. I still have cravings, especially during social or stressful situations. But every day it gets easier.
“One thing that’s made me stick to it is mentally rewarding myself for every day or week or month or year I haven’t smoked. Just thinking ‘well done, fantastic!’ The fear of failure also helps — who wants to go backwards?”
So you’ve made that new year’s resolution to quit smoking?
Quit Victoria has made planning your attempt easy by developing the New Year Quit Pack. It’s free and available by calling the Quitline on 131 848 or visiting their website, www.quit.org.au
“It’s full of tips and resources to help smokers cope with the tough times they might face when quitting in the holiday season,” says Quit’s executive director, Todd Harper.
“Keeping with the festive spirit, the New Year Quit Pack includes a lift-the-flap planner in the tradition of an advent calendar. The planner covers the countdown to your quit day and the weeks following. Each flap gives you information on why you are ready to quit and how to go about quitting.”
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