So I’m quitting smoking again. I’ve now been a smoker for 20 of my near 36 years, and enough is enough. Also, they quit distributing my brand in the US, so my favorite smokes are now unavailable. I started the QuitSmart program at work yesterday. The idea is wean me off of smokes over the next two weeks by smoking successively crappier cigarettes until my quit date. Starting Monday I’m on Camel Ultra Lights, the following Monday I go to Carlton Ultra. By the end of that week I’ll probably be glad to quit, Carltons are nasty.
The biggest problem I always run into is not the physical addiction, which is a bitch at first but always subsides, but the social addiction. Having smoked since the age of 16, I don’t know how to not smoke.
Smokers find one another and are more likely to start talking to one another because you know, right off the bat, that you have something in common. You share a vice, you are, in many places, the unwanted other, and there is camaraderie in that. My social network at work spans many different departments because I smoke, which can be helpful when you need to get something done. When you go to a party or a bar, and there are mostly people you don’t know, you can always talk to the people who smoke. Young or old, male or female, straight or gay, conservative or liberal, you share at least that one thing, you are part of a community sharing a common experience.
On the other end of the social spectrum is the alone time. Have to walk 20 blocks? Have a smoke. Stuck at the airport for awhile? Have a smoke. Someone in the group at work said they like to walk around their apartment complex at night to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. Do that with a smoke and you have a purpose, do it without and you’re a creepy guy sulking in the bushes.
All of this leads me to an open question for all my 3 non-smoking readers. What the hell do you do with yourselves? Are you all creepy night sulkers who only know the people in your row of cubes at work? Do you find yourselves sitting at your desks for 10 hours at a stretch because you have no reason to get up? Do you sit at parties and stare into your drink, not knowing if the guy next to you loves fly-fishing as much as you? Do you ever feel that sense of community and shared experience?
I’m starting to wonder if I can even communicate what it’s like to a non-smoker, looking over the above it all looks like shit, so if you are a smoker and would like to add your two cents, please do.
