Resolutions —
How are those New Years resolutions going for you? Those grand or simple promises you made to yourself and somewhat ambitiously, to your spouse? Are they broken, or did you manage to keep one or two? Don’t worry, there’s no way of checking. But if you promised to quit smoking, and you have family, then it’s a problem.
If people depend on you, either at work or as a loved one, and you still smoke or drink alcohol to excess, then you are letting them down. Smoking contributes directly to (cancer, emphysema, COPD) or indirectly (heart disease) millions of deaths each and every year. Sorry, those are the cold shivering facts, and you cannot change them.
Smoking and drinking also ruin your skin and to a certain extent, after a while, your sense of taste and smell. Why would you want that? or tar filled lungs, or a brittle blood vessel on your heart pump; or perhaps a stiffened clogged blood vessel in your brain, leading to stroke?
Don’t make excuses, do something to stop! If you’re disabled, that’s not an excuse. PTSD, you need counseling anyway, so get it now, and stop smoking. Your loved ones want you to get better and stop smoking. Friends of smokers want you to stop. The only people who don’t want you to quit are other nicotine addicts like you, who will feel lonely in their habit and really don’t want to lose another you in their guilty habit.
Your doctor can prescribe medication to help quit. There are patches as you know, and gums. However, the most important and essential tool for your effort/battle, is the absolute conviction that you truly want this. All the above helper-items won’t work, if you don’t want it absolutely. For myself, how I quit, I became pregnant and it made no sense to harm three (twins), besides it made me sick with nausea.
You made a promise to yourself, knowing you’d be healthier, more fit and breathe more deeply if you did quit your addiction. Now is the time to be resolute, keep your promise, keep the resolution/s you made.