What Does It Mean to be a Year Tobacco-Free?

[Dr_Hurt]

One thing it means after a year of not smoking is that you are much healthier than you would have been if you had continued to smoke through the past year. For a year now your red blood cells have carried oxygen to your vital organs rather than carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, cilia which sweep your respiratory system clean are functioning again, and your risk of hear attack has dropped by 50%.

Your brain has healed too. Nicotine receptors, which had focused your attention on smoking related triggers and subjected you to withdrawal symptoms, have reduced in number. No longer do cigarettes govern your actions. You may occasionally think about having a cigarette, but now the choice is yours.

One thing that being tobacco free doesn't mean is that you can now have that 'celebratory' cigarette. Don't heed the thought, "I can have just one". Unfortunately, one cigarette can re-awaken nicotine receptors and this could bring on intense urges to smoke, which could lead to a full-scale relapse. Check out "Stay An EX" for helpful tips and reminders of how to stay tobacco-free.

If you have not smoked for this past year, give yourself a pat on the back. It may have been hard at first, but it has become easier over time. You and those who love you are better off. Keep up the good work and enjoy the health benefits of being tobacco-free and consider sharing your success in the EX Community.


Dr. Richard D. Hurt is an internationally recognized expert on tobacco dependence. A native of Murray, Kentucky, he joined Mayo Clinic in 1976 and is now a Professor of Medicine at its College of Medicine. In 1988, he founded the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and since then its staff has treated over 33,000 patients for tobacco dependence. Send your questions directly to Dr. Hurt at AskTheExpert@becomeanex.org

[Christine13]

Thankyou Dr. Hurt!
A year quit is something I look forward to achieving.

[hwc]

For everyone just starting out, a year seems like an impossible dream. Mt. Everest looming over the horizon. What I found was that you just get to one month or two months, and then just keep putting one foot in front of the other and pretty soon it's four months. Then six months. Then, nine months. And, a year. By the time you start clicking off the months like that, it's not that big a deal to not smoke. The cravings are gone. And, the remaining triggers are either stragglers that just need a few more repetitions to kill off or those funny first time triggers that accompany the changes of sesaons, holidays, and stuff. Day to day is pretty easy from two months on and really easy from four months on. It's like a long car trip. After a few hours, you just get in the groove and the miles start clicking off. Same way with getting to the one year mark.

[JonesCarpeDiem]

Its Friday. Lets Party!

[maria18]

I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and hoping for the best. I'm really the only one who can make a smoke free year, but I have a great start! Hey! I started, that's really something for me!!!!




Spicecomments.com - Flowers Comments

[edith2]

The beautiful thing about quitting is it's my accomplishment. No one made me quit and no one can. In spite of the doubts I had, I chose to quit. Then I chose to stay quit. Just being able to have that choice is wonderful and I'm reaping the benefits of it. I can't lose custody of my quit. It can't be taken away from me. My quit cannot be repossessed. It cannot be robbed or stolen. I can always take comfort in the fact that my quit is at least one thing I've done right in my life.

[mlynne]

Edith, there is great truth and power in your words. I'm starting to understand that my quit isn't about money or social acceptance or even the loved ones in my life. I'm doing this because I love who I am, and believe I deserve my finest effort. This is my third attempt at quitting in the last two years, and I now see that the first two failed because I wasn't putting me first. It felt like I was being made to quit by some unseen force, and that made me both angry and sad. This time I have reached new levels of awareness, from the "I want a cigarette but I won't have one" to "I don't need a cigarette" to "I don't want to smoke" to "I don't have to smoke!" The next step will be "I don't smoke." At each level I grow more protective and proud of this quit. I have been smoke-free for 53 days because I love me more than ever before.

[Sylvia_Deitz]

Dr. Hurt...Thank you for posting those good things that will happen when we reach 1 year! I'm almost there, myself. One more month and I'll be there. If it weren't for having emphysema, I know I'd be practically as good as new. I do know that I would be a whole lot worse off by now if I had continued to smoke, so I'm so glad that I made the choice to quit 11 months ago. It wasn't easy, but I knew if I wasn't ready to die, I had to push through all the cravings and all the hard things that you go through in the beginning of a quit. Some who get diagnosed with a deadly disease just don't seem to be able to quit even though they know continuing to smoke will make them that much worse. The only way I can explain that is they must just give up and accept the fact that they are going to smoke themselves to death.

[janie5]

ONE YEAR SMOKE FREE means $110.00 less per month on my health insurance cost. Wahoooooooooo! 440 days NO SMOKE! It is a day by day effort.

[anita2]

I just started out on this Journey of not smoking, but from hearing from all of you how it will get easier is what keeps me going. I am through my first two weeks and it started to feel easier already. At least I am not constantly thinking about a cig. Thanks for making me feel normal during the hardest weeks of quitting. I always thought that I was the only one that had so much trouble. It's been 14 days now and I am not giving in or up...