It’s no secret smoking is not good for us.
Around six million people die every year from the effects of cigarette and tobacco use, and it costs the global economy more than $1 trillion annually to pay for healthcare and lost productivity linked to smoking, according to a study from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization.
Worldwide, there are an estimated 1.1 billion smokers aged 15 and up.
So why do people continue to smoke?
“I started smoking at 11,” says Iqaluit resident Emily Illnik, 62. “Because my parents were doing it, I thought, ‘Why not?’ My dad started buying me cigarettes at a young age.”
However, she has now been smoke-free since March 2011 after using cigarettes for 40 years.
“Back then, smoking was everywhere. My grandmother who lived with us would smoke while we were sleeping [in a shared room],” she recalled. “I think there’s also a lot of peer pressure [to socialize while smoking].”
Stephen Penney, a physical education teacher at Inuksuk High School, makes the same observations of his students, but has a more unusual story about how he first picked up the habit.
“Back when I was in junior high, I was totally against it. I used to be in [everyone’s] face about [smoking].”
However, he says at age 36, he had an epiphany of sorts that he was being a hypocrite. He had experimented, and “lo and behold, I loved smoking… but I just got to the point where I didn’t want to be smoking everyday.”
Penney first tried to limit his smoking to just special events or rituals, but soon found himself going through entire packs.
“It had to be all or nothing,” he said.
Illnik makes similar observations.
“Smoking goes with everything. With coffee, with a meal, with [handling stress], with drinking and socializing…it takes a lot of courage and patience to quit.”
It was her mother’s battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe and includes bronchitis and emphysema — that finally gave her the impetus to quit for good. Even then, like Penney, she struggled with cutting back, and eventually swore off entirely after getting a prescription for Champix through Iqaluit’s hospital.
According to the Government of Canada website, “Champix is a prescription medication indicated for smoking-cessation treatment in adults, in conjunction with smoking-cessation counselling.”
The medication is supposed to be taken while gradually reducing the number of cigarettes one would usually consume before giving them up entirely.
For Penney, Jan. 30 will mark his three-year anniversary of being smoke-free. Nothing particular happened on that day to incite his desire to quit. Although it took several attempts on the prescription for both Illnik and Penney to kick the habit, they finally succeeded.
“Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I just couldn’t have [a cigarette],” says Penney, who kept making exceptions for “special occasions” and then slipping into old habits. “I found each time I took the Champix, it took less time to quit.”
Willpower prevails
Once he got through the initial few weeks of a 12-week program and avoided the areas where he used to enjoy smoking, he was able to give it up entirely with no backsliding.
“I’m not going to try another one again,” he says, “because I know what will happen. I know logically if I put one [cigarette] to my lips, I’ll be back to smoking packs… three years in, I feel there’s no risk to starting again.”
For Penney, who had never experienced addiction before, “it was such a weird concept for that part of my brain. So I just switch it off and think logically.”
Illnik also relapsed several times in her attempts to finally give up an entrenched decades-long addiction, admitting that the urge remained strong, even with Champix.
On her third attempt, the hospital was reluctant to renew her prescription, but her resolve was inspired by her mother “and what she’s going through with COPD. And right then and there, that was it. And I haven’t had a cigarette since then… I’m just glad I had that last bit of willpower at the end finally, finally say ‘No more.’”
Then it was a matter of avoiding temptations.
“In the early years after I quit, there was always that urge… I had to quit doing everything,” said Illnik. “I stayed away from my friends [who smoked] for one year. Since then, I don’t care for the smell of it anymore… I don’t ever want to start again because everything stopped smelling like cigarettes and my skin regained its [natural] colour.
“I truly believe now that smoking has a lot to do with your health. I don’t get sick as often as I did when I was a smoker. I tell my friends, the more you smoke, the more you get sick. The bottom line is I’m a non-smoker today, and I value my health.”
Offering advice to people striving to finally give up cigarettes, Illnik says, “It’s one of the hardest addictions to quit because it goes with everything… I can understand people who have tried and failed, because it truly is hard. If you have to do it, try three or four times, then do it… It can be hard for some people, but I smoked for 40 years. Talk to people who have quit and listen to their successes. Encouraging each other will truly make a difference.”
Fundamentally, Illnik believes that one can only really give up smoking “mentally and physically when they’re ready… [that’s when] they can succeed. All I can say is your health will improve and I wish everyone luck. If I can help even one person [quit], that’s huge for me.”
National Non-Smoking Week runs from Jan. 21-27.