Addiction's Sneak Attack and some Predictions

Before now I've tried to quit smoking in a number of ways. I've tried cold turkey, the gradual decrease, the patch, Wellbutrin, and even Valium. The first three days were always an armed battle. My will power was on full alert and I thought of nothing but my reasons for wanting to quit. I always had a battle plan to get through them. Sometimes I would plan days doing things that I don’t associate with smoking, like going to the movies or shopping. Other times I took a retreatist approach and just slept as much as possible. Once I even did a spring cleaning on my house to keep busy.

Ultimately, I would make it through those horrible three days. I would sound my victory cheer and start to relax. But that was when the sneak attack got me. A few days or weeks into quitting I would be laughing at a radio host, talking on the phone, or relaxing in front of the TV and, without thinking about it, reach for a cigarette. My hand would stop in midair and I’d laugh at my own silliness. But then the strangest thing would happen. No matter how much I tried, I wouldn’t be able to remember why I had waged this battle in the first place. Addiction would whisper in my ear, reminding me how much I liked to smoke. It would blame everyone else for being intolerant of something that gave me pleasure. Why was I denying myself? I deserved to be happy, didn’t I?

The sneak attack got me more times than I want to count. But last night a weird thing happened. Even though I never had the three days of war because of my eCig, I was hit with those same whispers. I was playing a new video game and reached for the pack of cigarettes that would normally be to my right. I paused the game and looked at my outstretched hand, then at my eCig, and for the life of me couldn’t remember why I was doing this. The addiction whispered to me that the eCig wasn’t as good as a real Marlboro. It reminded me that I’m out of the cartridges that turned out to be my favorite from the variety I ordered with my starter kit. I wanted a cigarette. Why shouldn’t I have one?

But then, I remembered that I didn’t have any more real cigarettes in the house. I would have to take off my pajamas and put on jeans, drive to the store and make awkward small talk with the clerk while she rang up my order. This realization never would have stopped me before, but this time it was like the bubble I’d found myself in burst and addiction’s whispers disappeared like the smoke they were. I picked up my eCig and took a long, satisfying puff, then unpaused my game. A feeling of satisfaction filled me. I’d won the battle that I hadn’t even expected to fight, but that had defeated me more often than the three days of war.

Well, it has been two weeks since I was looking through the internet to find a new way to try to quit smoking and found an ad about electronic cigarettes. Tomorrow will be one week since I’ve received my V2 in the mail. And I still have to say that this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I can’t believe how simple and logical this invention is. Why didn’t someone think of it before? Or did someone and they got squashed by the Goliaths I talked about in a previous post? Why is this not on every news program? I remember when I was a kid and my dad explained to me the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Well this product is the embodiment of that quote. Someone has finally built a better cigarette and word is spreading smoker to smoker in a grass roots campaign that will bring down big tobacco once and for all.

Just for the record and for fun, I’m going to put down some predictions. I think that the eCig industry will continue to grow in leaps and bounds that could rival the growth of Facebook. The FDA and other political entities will continue to fight for about three more years. Then the movement will reach critical mass. Some innovative politician will grasp hold of the issue during his campaign and come out in favor of eCigs. He’ll say that he’s more interested in saving lives than gaining political favor with any company, no matter how powerful. The country will rally behind him without stopping to check his record to find that he rode the fence for years before placing his bet on which way public opinion would turn. He’ll be a hero and win by a landslide. Then, like lemmings, all of the other politicians will tell us that they were in favor of them all along. A harsh light will be turned on Big Tobacco and the same politicians who are now sending out statements that they support the FDA’s crusade to ban the new drug/drug delivery device will don their shiny white armor and gallop to the rescue of the American people. For the next ten years there will be talk of banning the sale of analog cigarettes (they’ll come up with their own name for them, of course). Phillip Morris will start making eCigs. Walmart will put out signs next to the no smoking symbol that says “Personal Vaporizers welcome.” California will ban the sale of analogs. Eventually, without an actual federal ban having to go into effect, smokers will be forced to go to specialty shops to purchase their cigarettes. And thirty years from now, our grandchildren will see an old movie where someone is smoking and will ask why his cigarette is leaking vapor.