Sunday, August 3, 2008

The One-Month-Smoking experiment

(Wow, I reached a half-century of posts last time! And I dint even know it! Ok I'm not coming up with Singapore chronicles part 2 yet cos I dont have any photos, but what I'll do is post a story from one of my college-memories.)

I referred to it as the "One-month" experiment with Tobacco. Smoking. There was a great deal of talk (and I'm sure all of you know this) that once u get addicted to smoking properly its very hard to stop it all of a sudden, and u can do it only gradually. So this guy at our college wanted to test it out. No names, sorry.

The experiment : Mr X decided to start smoking one fine day. Continuously. In chain fashion. Packs after packs per day. He would do this suddenly and continuously for one month. And then, at the end of 30 days, he would (attempt to) stop it fully! Just like that!

It was an experiment not only to test the addiction of tobacco but also the guys self-control. It was a bad idea, doing that with his own life and health. We were all critical.. What if the guy failed the expt and did get addicted?

As everyone knows, quitting smoking is hard both physically and mentally. Physically, a smoker who stops for even a day, will experience headaches, tirednes, restlessness, and even problems in going to the loo ! (courtesty : friends of mine) Mentally, its hell, really.. you cant keep your mind under control for its cravings, its just restless, and you even lose your mood and isolate yourself from friends. I think these are called the withdrawal symptoms.

I underestimated the power of tobacco myself once. The first time i tried it out I hated it and hence took an oath never to do it again. But amazingly after a few weeks i started fancying another smoke! And to be honest, the first one dint even give me a high and tasted particularly bad too! I was amazed at how tobacco had fooled me! Needless to say, I did have a few smokes after that, but it stopped with college anyways, well, I got from it what change I wanted by testing it.

The point is that Tobacco is a highly underestimated, misunderstood evil, which in my opinion is worse than alcohol but sometimes not feared as much even. No wonder its so badly common then. A recent documentary i saw rates tobacco as the number 9 most dangerous drug on the list. And it comes above Cannabis, Ecstasy and LSD ! And the worst part? Its out there still, so common, that you yourself have a passive puff sometimes..

Anyways, Good news. Because after all this, Mr.X passed the one-month Test ! He stopped smoking one fine day after 30 days ! So, well, I guess the situation is more hopeful than we think finally.

9 comments:

Mahesh Mahadevan said...

Getting a habit is a downward slide. Recovering from it is an uphill task. Come to think about it, addiction is the valley in between: a minimum. Hence, even Physics says it's difficult to quit :-P

Slightly out-of-place but vaguely relevant quote from 'The Big Bang Theory' (a sitcom, the main characters of which, are uber-nerds):
"Oh, gravity, thou art a heartless b__!"

Hari said...

Nice post! Having tried all weapons in my gambit to cut down the habits of my once-chain-smoker dad, I know enough about addiction!

Trust me, it's truly hard to stop smoking unless you've some solid determination. Heard there are drugs in the market that help you cut down. Can't confirm their veracity.

Well, my dad quit smoking, eventually after a pernicious turn-of-events... He suffered a mini-cerbral-haemorrage of sorts, and was hospitalized and in a state of limbo for over a month! Doctors sotto-voce confirmed that it was a result of smoking. By God's grace, he recovered to normal after a month and hasn't smoked ever since!

Which is why I've vowed to be a life-time non-smoker and teetotaller! :-)

Hari Vishnu said...

@mahesh
wow really nice technochali about the valley.. apt dscription :-)..

@hari
yea having a guy aroundu who is addicted to smoking gives u a clearer and worse picture of the real addiction behind smokin.. sorry to kno wat happened to ur dad.. atleast he stopped smoking :-)..

Quest said...

Hey who is the Mr. X? I was forced to be a passive smoker courtesy- "one cigarette....one cigarette gives you a high for 2 hrs.....huhhhh " :D

Abhi said...

Kudiyum valiyum thudangiyittu pinne enthu paranjaalum kaaryam illa![:D]

Hari Vishnu said...

@viajero
haha another classic malvo-dialogue made eternal eh.. nice one.. mr x.. a certain sec of IPFin our batch.. from production :-).. guessed?

Hari Vishnu said...

@abhi

hehe.. u can still hope cant u [:-)]

Wetfingers said...

dude..anything on chick front..blips in the radar?

Hari Vishnu said...

@wetfingers

blips all around man..as u wudve known the nitc high sensitivity radar is no longer usable outside cos it wud be blipping all the time :-)..

yea the ratio is pretty good here.. but gettin used to it now..