Questions For Quitters and Prequitters

As I worked on this project I realized that people planning to quit have many questions to think about before and during the big commitment to better health. Their answers will have a great bearing upon their success and yours. So I came up with these just now.

 

Please feel free to comment in the comment section with more items of your own…and I really do thank you in advance! So here is my list of questions for quitters and pre-quitters. I’m sure it will grow somewhat over time.

Can you imagine what it feels like not to need to breathe in that stuff and could you imagine feeling like that again?

Will you have something pleasurable to  hang on if you quit smoking?

When you tried to quit in the past, what helped you and what didn’t?

Are you sure you will never smoke again if you quit?

What other healthy activities do you love besides the idea of being smoke-free?

What will be the most difficult times for you to cope with when you start quitting?

How many other bad habits have you overcome?

What made you want to begin smoking?

Are you someone who seeks self knowledge or someone who seeks interesting experiences (as if they are separate)?

How does it feel to hold on to pain?

Do you know  someone well…who has quit and what have you learned from them?

How many times have you given in to get over something?

Do you have a “Puritanical” turn of mind?

If so will it help you or hinder you in your quit-efforts?

What do you think about the concept of “freedom”?

Is there a difference between freedom for me and freedom for you?

What is “willpower” and do you think you use it in your life right now?

Who do you know right now who can help you cope with the process of quitting? 

Well, these are tough questions and if you are a serious future nonsmoker you will really be thinking about some or all of them as you move along on your path to freedom.

So if you ever need help with a personal anytime quit-coach who has been through it herself, please don’t hesitate to contact me here or at

Averayugen@mail.com

and me know how I can help you. See you there.

Smoking and Kidney Function

Well, now we know that smoking can not only damage your heart and circulatory system and lungs and skin and your whole immune system, but there is a strong negative relationship between smoking and kidney function as well. This is an important fact in an age when diabetes is increasing in the old and young alike. 

Smoking can interfere with medicines used to treat high blood pressure. Uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure is a leading cause of kidney disease.

 

Smoking slows the blood flow to vital organs like the kidneys and can worsen already existing kidney disease.

 

Smoking slows blood flow to your feet, making sores and infections harder to heal.

https://www.kidney.org/news/ekidney/may12/Smoking 

According to the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, smoking is one of the leading risk factors that can lead to end stage renal disease.

 

Smoking most always increases the heart rate and blood pressure.

 

Smoking increases production of angiotensin, a hormone produced in the kidney, resulting in fluid being retained by the body and this also contributes to increased blood pressure.

 

Smoking narrows the blood vessels in the kidneys.

 

Smoking damages the arterioles, the arterial branches.

 

Smoking contributes to the thickening and hardening of the renal arteries.

 

Smoking accelerates the general loss of kidney function.

 

Smoking increases the rick of proteinuria, the excessive amount of protein in the urine.

 

For people who have had a transplant of the kidney and have not stopped smoking, their chances of survival decreases due to the risk of cardiovascular problems.

http://www.davita.com/kidney-disease/overview/living-with-ckd/smoking-and-chronic-kidney-disease/e/4897

 

For smokers, the toxic chemical arsenic can build up over time and lead to acute tubular necrosis with acute renal failure. This is a condition in which the cells of the tubules, which carry urine to the ureters, begin to die due to lack of oxygen. This leads to acute renal failure, a  sudden loss of kidney function.

 

Test animals, according to a researcher in the National Toxicology Program,  had an increase in tumors of the renal tubules after inhaling the tobacco ingredient benzene.

 

Smokers also have a higher risk of kidney cancer due to these same toxic chemicals filtering into the kidneys and then the urine.

http://www.healthcommunities.com/quit-smoking/overview-health-effects-of-smoking.shtml

http://www.siteman.wustl.edu/ContentPage.aspx?id=4521

 

And if you have children I say STOP smoking now. You don’t want them catching a dose of kidney disease from secondhand smoke any more then you want it yourself!

 

And I know all this sounds really scary and stark, and I know I promised not to harp on medical issues too much on this website, but if you or a loved one is ill now, you will not brush this off.

 

And don’t forget, anytime you want a skilled compassionate phone coach in a donations-only service, you are invited to contact me at:

 Averayugen@mail.com

Some Funny Songs About Smoking

Well just as a comic-relief break I present you some funny songs about smoking. I hope you like them!

“Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! That Cigarette”

Now I’m a fellow with a heart of gold
With the ways of a gentleman I’ve been told
A kind of a fellow that wouldn’t even harm a flea
But if me and a certain character met
That guy that invented the cigarette
I’d murder that son of a gun in the first degreeThat ain’t that I don’t smoke myself
And I don’t reckon they’ll injure your health
I’ve smoked ’em all my life and I ain’t dead yet
But nicotine slaves are all the same
At a pheasant party or a poker game
Everythin’s gotta stop when they have that cigaretteSmoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigaretteNow at a game of chance the other night
Ol’ Dame Forson wasn’t doin’ me right
Them kings and queens just kept on comin’ round
Well I got a full and I bet it high
But my plug didn’t work on a certain guy
He just kept a risin’ and a layin’ that money down
He’s raise me and I’d raise him
I sweated blood I had to sink or swim
He finally called and he didn’t raise the bet
I said “aces is full pal how about you?”
He said “I’ll tell you in a minute or two
But I just gotta have another cigarette”Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette[guitar – steel]The other night I had a date with
The cutest gal in the fifty states
A highbred uptown social little dame
She said she loved me and it seemed to me
That things were like they oughta be
So hand in hand we strolled down Lover’s Lane
She was oh so far from a chunk of ice
And our smoochin’ party was a goin’ real nice
So help and I think I’d’ve been there yet
But I give her a hug and a little squeeze
And she said “Willie excuse me please
But I just gotta have another cigarette”
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Just gotta have another cigarette

Copyright: Willie Nelson & Tex Williams

 

“Lazy Mary”

C’ ‘na luna mezz’u mare
Mamma mia m’a maritare
Figlia mia a cu te dare
Mamma mia pensace tu
Se te piglio lu pesciaiole
Isse vai isse vene
Sempe lu pesce mane tene
Se ce ‘ncappa la fantasia
Te pesculia figghiuzza mia
Là lariulà pesce fritt’e baccalà
Uei cumpà no calamare c’eggi’accattà

C’ ‘na luna mezz’u mare
Mamma mia m’a maritare
Figlia mia a cu te dare
Mamma mia pensace tu
Se te piglio lu pulezia
Isse vai isse vene
Semp’a scuppetta mane tene
Se ce ‘ncappa la fantasia
Te scuppettea figghiuzza mia
Là lariulà pesce fritt’e baccalà
Uei cumpà ‘na scuppetta c’eggi’accattà

Lazy Mary you better get up
She answered back I am not able
Lazy Mary you better get up
We need the sheets for the table
Lazy Mary you smoke in bed
There’s only one man you should marry
My advice to you would be
Is to pay attention to me
You’d better marry a fireman
He’ll come and go, go and come

Sempe la pompa mane tene
Se ce ‘ncappa la fantasia
Te pomperia figghiuzza mia
Là lariulà pesce fritt’e baccalà
Uei cumpà ‘na pompina c’eggi’accattà
0 cummà ca m’ voglio marità
Trovame ‘na uagliotta
Ca me voglio marità
Trovame ‘na uagliotta
Ca me voglio marità
Trovame ‘na uagliotta
Ca me voglio marità
Hey!

Copyright: Lou Monte

 

Armand Dimele Speaks of Pain Addiction

Armand DiMele knew that emotional distress can morph into addiction to pain itself!

 

A life-dis-affirming feeling such as grief, fear, anger, worry or despair, can become so automatic and habitual that we don’t think we can get through our lives without it.

 

There are important reasons to get a handle on pain addiction in our lives. It cripples more of us in my opinion, than any other hangup. It is a pretty general concept too, and covers just about any screwed up person if you ask me.

 

If we don’t know how to keep free of the pain-trap of our general society….we will be hard pressed to feel pain-free (as it were) in our personal life.

 

When a person is continuously stressed by emotional pain, there are subtle changes in the body that create a dependency on stress-related chemistry and we are all starting to learn that changing habitual patterns of pain is often just as challenging as giving up nicotine, heroin or alcohol.

 

The person addicted to emotional pain literally seeks out unique or general occasions which were formerly experienced as painful to the seeker. A personal history of negative and stressful relationships might be a red-flag regarding emotionally addictive relationships.

 

For someone like this, pain and love are so close that they would actually become “welded” to each other. Pain is love and love is pain.  To love an unavailable person and to find excuses for staying in an impossible “relationship” are two classic signs that pain and love have become inter-meshed.

 

                      The Physiology of Pain Addiction

Physically speaking, the addiction is not really to an addiction to the  pain itself, but chiefly to the free-flowing chemicals called endorphins, which work as part of our pain/pleasure chemical network. Endorphins are hormone-like substances released by the body during painful moments.  They are very similar in structure and effect to the opiates, like heroin and morphine.  Endorphins are pain-killers.

 

When you bang your arm, you feel a sharp pain, immediately followed by numbness, which accompanies the anaesthetizing endorphins.  The feeling of numbness associated with endorphin release can be an almost euphoric sensation.  Joggers and bodybuilders are prime endorphin-freaks.
All strain on the body yields endorphins.  Additionally part of our daily stresses are emotional.

 

When the strain is constant, the body will fire endorphins continually, resulting in a nearly-imperceptible dulling effect.  When endorphin flooding is part of one’s habitual life, the bodily experience of life itself is numbed out. At least it’s made livable for some.  Gabor Mate talks at length about that, please see another post featuring Mate:

 

http://beautifulquitters.org/blog/2015/10/30/gabor-mate-on-early-stress-lack-of-control-and-later-addictions/

 

Many workaholics experience this to give another example, but just as in the arm-banging example, the feeling can be somewhat pleasant.
With sustained endorphin release we can still feel emotions, but only if they are intense, such as anger, rage, sorrow and fear. Those would engender continual release of endorphins, which in turn would lead to further emotional shutting-down.

 

And once habituated to this life, whatever triggered it..it is very hard to give it up.  With so much feel-good chemistry we get satiated. We settle and concede to things. It’s a shield inside the body that protects us from the knowledge that what’s behind this is the PAIN of not getting your need(s) met. That is our body’s way of telling us to please fix what’s wrong!

 

                          Changing the Pattern

Once a person is addicted to pain, breaking the habit takes great moral courage, and would almost certainly require some outer support, the personal kind.  The unconscious craving for the kind of original stresses and hurts one had… has driven this poor soul to make decisions that are based on one’s own need, and unconscious at that,  rather than the wisdom required for any satisfactory decision in life.

 

Unfortunately, emotional pain addicts do not usually have particularly supportive relationships. They somehow gravitate towards companions who will become a source of pain. They go back to the scene of the crime so to speak. They are always recapitulating something, and they might know what it is but don’t work with it. Most are unconscious of where it comes from.

Knowledgeable friends, coaches and counselors are good sources of help.  It is important that the support people understand the inherent difficulty of withdrawal from pain addiction.

 

If psychotherapy is used, it is helpful that the therapist be familiar with the chemistry of reward systems and pain and pleasure, and how that touches on pain addiction and addictions in general.

 

Dynamic interventions seem to be the most effective approaches; they might include  Gestalt therapy, the Intense-Feeling Process, and Bioenergetics.

 

Unfortunately, there’s still no organization for Pain-ists Anonymous. Non-organized people must just start caring about what  too many of us suffer from. They would best help…if they know the topic from every angle and are still in good shape according to themselves and others.

 

Acknowledgment, encouragement, patience, and nurturance are the essential tools.  Anger, criticism and incurring guilt never helped the pain addict.  It actually does the opposite.

 

Overcoming emotional pain addiction requires patience and time.  To the pain addict, a pain-free life is totally unfamiliar. There are common reports of a frightening void that yearns to be filled when the pain is no longer supreme. It is exactly like a  baby in a crib with its needs supposedly met but still it cries out…but silently.  So now the goal is to replace stress with relaxation, chaotic relationships with supportive ones, and self-deprivation with self-nurturance.

 

Armand Dimele says it might take around six months to allow the human body/mind to function without the need for constant pain. The work, however, is not as difficult as it may seem, because positive changes can be experienced all the way.  “Life is filled with color instead of grayness, joy instead of dullness. Grace replaces tension, and a person’s natural beauty unfolds, in some cases for the very first time.”

 

One of the therapies been used for defusing pain addiction… is Gestalt Therapy. But Mindfulness Meditation, done under the knowledgeable guidance, is also indicated.

 

And so please don’t forget, if you want a skilled compassionate phone coach, who is mindful of the pain behind our lives and all addictions, please contact me at  Averayugen@mail.com

The Insanely High Price of Cigarettes

 A young researcher called the convenience stores and gas stations in the highest-congestion areas in our 50 US states and came up with this chart for the lower to higher price of cigarettes. He’s been doing this for several years. He notes this is the first year in this history of this survey that prices were very high…ALL above $5. He also noted a a current 21% rise in Oklahoma prices and a 37% boost in Minnesota.

Lowest-to-Highest Price of Cigarettes

1.      Virginia (last year -$5.81), Missouri ($5.25):$5.25= -10%, +0%

2.      Tennessee ($5.89):$5.30= -10%

3.      North Dakota ($5.04):$5.33= -6%

4.      Kentucky ($4.96):$5.40= +9%

5.      Wyoming ($5.37), Idaho ($5.25):$5.41= +.01%, +3%

6.       

7.       

9.      West Virginia ($5.07):$5.43= +7%

10.  Louisiana ($5.33):$5.44= +2%

11.  North Carolina ($6.03):$5.45= -10%

12.  Alabama ($5.80):$5.51= -5%

13.  South Carolina ($5.55):$5.58= +.01%

14.  Colorado ($5.59):$5.65= +1%

15.  Oregon ($5.35):$5.69= +6%

16.  Kansas ($6.21):$5.83= -6%

17.  California ($6.77):$5.89= -13%

18.  Indiana ($5.77):$5.97= +4%

19.  Ohio ($5.88):$6.03= +3%

20.  Arkansas ($6.50):$6.07= -7%

21.  South Dakota ($6.77):$6.08= -10%

22.  Nevada ($5.50):$6.15= +12%

23.  Nebraska ($6.09):$6.23= +2%

24.  Oklahoma ($5.19), Iowa ($7.25):$6.29= +21%, -13%

25.  Florida ($6.00):$6.30= +5%

26.  Mississippi ($5.45):$6.34= +16%

27.  Delaware ($6.00):$6.35= +6%

28.  Georgia ($5.93):$6.39= +8%

29.  New Hampshire ($6.59):$6.44= -2%          

30.  Montana ($6.25):$6.46= +3%

31.  Texas ($7.24):$6.69= -8%

32.  Pennsylvania ($6.95):$6.85= -1%

33.  Utah ($6.64):$6.89= +4%

34.  Maine ($7.12):$7.37= +4%

35.  New Mexico ($6.91):$7.67= +11%

36.  Maryland ($7.93):$7.75= -2%

37.  D.C. ($7.89):$7.99= +1%

38.  Michigan ($6.95):$8.00= +15%

39.  Arizona ($9.65):$8.05= -17%

40.  Minnesota ($5.95):$8.10= +36%

41.  New Jersey ($8.55):$8.20= -4%

42.  Wisconsin ($8.11):$8.82= +9%

43.  Rhode Island ($9.56):$8.95= -6%

44.  Washington ($8.31):$9.30= +12%

45.  Connecticut ($9.30):$9.52= +2%

46.  Hawaii ($9.68):$9.55= -1%

47.  Vermont ($9.52):$9.62= +1%

48.  Alaska ($9.59):$9.79= +2%

49.  Massachusetts ($8.77):$9.95= +13%

50.  Illinois ($11.59):$11.50= -.01%

51.  New York ($14.50):$12.85= -11%

(Figures in parentheses were “last year’s” stats; final figure is net change)

http://www.theawl.com/2014/08/how-much-a-pack-of-cigarettes-costs-state-by-state

Noel Kulwin, The Awl, Aug.1, 2014

 

Personally I would like to now see a comparison between the costs of smoking itself… and corresponding rates of anti-smoking education and coaching programs also in operation. In spite of their notorious attempts to prevent it, much education work has nevertheless been funded by some of the Big Tobacco settlement money….

 

I have also spoken elsewhere on this site about that story…but really, how much would it  really cost to cut down smoking worldwide, compared to the high price of cigarettes and all the personal and social costs associated with the deadly habit of smoking?

https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/tobacco-companies-pay-big-bucks-for-anti-smoking-campaigns

 

Meanwhile, consider what the heavy smoker burns up on those smokes: $7.00 a pack, 60 packs a month, $420.00/month.

So it costs less by the carton. Still 200-350+ for a serious smoker!

Or you can talk to a serious and skilled smoking coach and become a Beautiful Quitter:

Averayugen@mail.com

A donations-only service.

1.      Darrensays:

July 23, 2015 at 20:54

There are some great posts on here, including this one. In Australia cigarette prices are even higher, with many brands selling at more than $20 a packet. I’m all for people quitting smoking, but governments extorting people’s addictions with high taxes isn’t the way to go. That’s just an excuse for revenue raising, pure and simple. It’s the same thing drug dealers do, only with cigarettes it’s considered a legal practice because it’s the government doing it.

Great website!

REPLY

1.      Avera Yugensays:

July 23, 2015 at 23:05

Twenty for a pack in Australia!!??
It’s really tragic the way people are forced for pay through the nose for being an addict, as if the world thinks they need to be punished. I absolutely disagree with this way of thinking. On the other hand, smoking tends to go down in places where the taxes are raised…enough. Personally I believe that the need for a better level of health is the only motive that will make a difference in permanently raising the quality of life for people who once practiced escapism and self-delusion.
Much appreciation for your positive input!
Warmly,
Avera 

 

4 thoughts on “The Insanely High Price of Cigarettes”

.                      

Guncel Fiyat on November 20, 2017

.           

Latest cigarette prices in Turkey.

.                    Avera Yugen on November 25, 2017

·      

Hi Guncel….I’ll let you post that article but please make it the English translation. I am shocked cigarettes cost so much in Turkey! Well I hope people see the scam on top of the scam, and work hard to get free from all addictions, which only enrich you-know-who.

 

Guncel Fiyat on June 1, 2018

.           

Hello, we also have english website. Thank you for your kind comments. Guncel Fiyat English

.           Avera Yugen on July 10, 2018

You are most welcome Guncel!