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One of the toughest tasks facing the new President when he steps into the White House is quitting the cigarettes. A former smoker advises him to wait six weeks
Jump to full article: Times Of London (uk), 2009-01-19
Author: Emma Mahony
Intro: This time tomorrow, chances are that Barack Obama will be puffing away outside the White House, resembling all the other banished smokers in the Western world. . . .
Having just passed the six-week mark myself, stupidly without the help of nicotine patches or gum, I had dark days when I believed that I was losing my marbles. I knew that nicotine takes only 48 hours to leave the body, but what I hadn't bargained for were the intense psychological effects of stopping smoking.
On this, my ninth attempt (two pregnancies, three Easy-Way-To-Stop-Smoking courses, one reflexology course, one acupuncture ear needle, two hypnotherapy sessions), I was doing battle with what the psychologists call my "smoking identity". For those who thought that smoking was only about nicotine addiction, prepare to enter the murky world of behavioural psychology.
. . .
Despite the lavish claims made by many stop-smoking clinics, the figure for smokers who successfully quit in any given year is a lowly 3 per cent, according to Professor Robert West, of Cancer Research.
One place that bucks the trend of these figures is the Maudsley Hospital, in Camberwell, South London, which offers psychological as well as pharmacological support. . . .
"You need to eliminate the connections - the first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink," President-elect Obama said in an interview with a US health magazine. Let's all hope he can take his own advice and can come in from the cold soon.
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