While there are a very few people that throw their pack of cigarettes away in a rage and never smoke again, I wasn't one of them. It took me a while to get my mind set together - to get to the point that I knew I could do it. My wife Eva has also quit; this made it both more difficult and easy. Difficult because we both had to come to the point that we were ready to quit, then decide how and when we would do it. Easy because we each have a supporter in the other. If one of has a moment of weakness, the other can be strong. Still, in all, getting there was half the battle.

I have a tendency to dive into things - what my father used to call "going off halfcocked". Eva is just the opposite; she wants to know exactly how she's going to get something done. We spent a lot of time at odds because of that: I would say "let's quit tomorrow" and she'd say "good luck'. By this she meant that she wasn't ready to just up and quit. Finally, one night I said - for the umpteenth time, "Eva, we really need to quit smoking."

"I know," she said, rolling her eyes. She had become used to hearing this one from me every few days.

"No, I mean it. I've gotten to the point that I can't stand it any longer. If I don't quit these things, I'm not going to be able to look at myself in the mirror. We've been promising we'd do this for years, and that we'd do it together. I really need you to work with me to figure out how we're going to quit."

When Eva saw how serious I was, she promised to think seriously about what she needed to do to prepare to quit. After a few days, she had it figured out. "I need to take a physical step," she said, "something that outwardly demonstrates my commitment to quitting."

I suggested we look into hypnotism or acupuncture. She countered that maybe we should do both. I laughingly agreed and reached for the Yellow Pages. With in a day or two, we had found a hypnotist close-by as well as an acupuncturist. We set our appointment to be hypnotized for Monday, July 24th, and to get stuck the following evening.

Unfortunately, the hypnotism was a waste of money for Eva and I. The person we went to seemed very intent on impressing us with his credentials, telling us several stories about how he had successfully dealt with a number of trauma victims, how he had gone through several different therapies after his own traumatic ordeal and finally discovered hypnotism. He then recounted how he had come to begin this, his FOURTH career. Well, I've done a number of things to keep bread on the table, so I decided not to hold that against him. But could we go ahead and get started with this?!?

Neither Eva nor I ever felt as if we had been truly hypnotized. We both commented afterwards (over cigarettes, I might add) that we could have just sat up at any moment. Even at the end, when he talked about counting backwards to bring us out of it, each of us was able to sit up immediately and open our eyes. "Oh, is that it?"

Eva and I each had an individual session; we had been told that we had a much greater chance of success this way than if we were to do a single session for the two of us. After Eva's session, I came back into the room so that the counselor could give us a pair of handouts and get the check. We wrote a check for $180, and without so much as looking at each other, decided that it would be the last time we saw this person.

We walked downstairs to the car and immediately lit cigarettes. "Well," said Eva, "what did you think?"

"Well," I replied, raising an eyebrow and gesturing with my cigarette, "What did you think?"

We both laughed at that and inhaled deeply. I smoked most of a pack between that appointment and our acupuncture appointment the next evening. Our visit with the acupuncturist went much more smoothly. She was very kind, very professional. At first, we had a few minutes to ask her questions about the results of her cessation treatments and what she would actually do. She was very patient and assured us that she had a better than 90% success rate. Eva and I both got a good feeling from her, so we decided to begin that night with our treatments.

The doctor put us in separate rooms. I lay back on the treatment table and she inserted three needles in each ear at specific points. Then one needle between each thumb and forefinger, and one just above each wrist. Finally, one in each leg above the ankle. This last one was to help us relax, she said. She then turned on a rack of red warming lamps, turned off the main lights and left us for about twenty minutes.

When our time was up, The doctor removed all needles and placed two small patches in one ear. These patches were very small and contained a tiny needle that protruded onto a particular point. These were to help us with any cravings we might have until our next appointment. She then told us to smoke only half a pack of cigarettes per day until our next appointment.

After the next appointment, we smoked no more than 5 cigarettes per day. She suggested we buy a different brand than our usual, one that we didn't really like the taste of as much. She also said that we should only take a few drags off of a cigarette at any one sitting and then put it out. It was OK to re-light the cigarette later if we chose.

After the next appointment, we were supposed to cut down to two cigarettes, and then we'd have one final appointment, after which we were not supposed to smoke at all. Unfortunately, over the weekend, we both smoked, so we had to go back for a fifth appointment. That appointment was on Tuesday, July 25th. Eva and I agreed that we would be allowed to smoke one cigarette before going to bed that night and then would quit Wednesday.

Our acupuncturist really wants to make sure we both quit. She has promised us each a free follow-up appointment if we fall off the wagon. I would also like to point out that we had such a positive experience with her that we will be seeing her in the future for other health concerns. Few people realize the long, venerable tradition of acupuncture. While "western" medicine has only a short history of a few paltry decades, acupuncture has been used successfully for thousands of years. I'm not quite ready to use acupuncture as anesthesia for my next major surgery, but I am quite happy with the results Eva and I have had with our smoking cessation treatments.

© 2000 by Lane Baldwin

Read the Diary of a Quitter