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I tried to go without a smoke for extended lengths of time. I hauled out my pack of butts. I chewed gum aimed at smoking cessation, and still lit up. Over the past year, I travelled on several occasions and was horrified â€" and put through my paces â€" as it was increasingly difficult to have a smoke. Over the years I tried â€" admittedâ€" ly not wholeâ€"heartedly â€" to quit. I rationed myself, lighting up to take a few puffs and then butting out, only to return and light up again. It didn‘t work. s And if one smoked, there was opportunity â€" of course, by need, to attend at the high school‘s smoking pit between classes and at lunch time, for a smoke. I fell in with the crowd. It wasn‘t of course "a need" in those days. It was some 15 years later, with smoking, as one writer recently most aptly described it, being about as popular as dealing drugs in a school yard, that I began realizing smoking had become "a need" for me. When I entered high school, many of my peers smoked. At that time it was, at least one of "the" things to do. it was over 15 years ago that I began smoking. My girlfriend and I, during long summer months, used to walk to the local variety store, buy a pack of smokes and try it out. S By ANGELA BLACKBURN Oakville Beaver Staff lanuary The Patch helps smoker quit FALL/WINTER ; CLEARANCE : \SPRING PRINT \Collection | individually priced | | Our Reg. 6.98 m \ Q" J \ Our Reg / \\ Price / MANY MORE FLYER SPECIALS ON NOW IN ALL stoRrEs! Special Selection! Assorted widths & contents Individually priced. Didn‘t these people understand CHALLIS PRINTS 150 cm wide, Our Reg. 12.98 m Te s 507 OFF Our Reg. 5.98 m ° »vf("? Special Selection! PRINTED WOOL CREPE Our Reg 26.98 m Special Selection Special Selection! 115 cm wide, Our Reg. 12.98 m CHRISTMAS Collection â€" . BOUCLE SUITING 100% POLYESTER PRINTS CA Special Selection! Huge selection â€" Individually priced Entire Stock! DRAPERY Clearance () 19.98 NNN(E STWUID )9 50 o 0 $z 50 0# 60%° QSH‘ 50% > LINENâ€"LOOK SPORTSWEAR Special Selection! 115 cm wide, Our Reg. 6.98 m It was waking up early in the momning, feeling tired and wishing I no longer smoked â€" facing the fact that I‘m getting older and winters seemed colder and my chest always felt heavy â€" if I wasn‘t hit up by every cold going, that would immeâ€" diately find my weak spot and land in my chest. Maybe too it was the realization of how addicted I was â€" something other than myself was dictating how I behaved, what I spent my money RISING COSTS Itâ€" wasn‘t .even the prohibitive cost smoking now carries. Again, personally I believe smokers who, "choose" to harm their health, despite getting addicted to an approved substance for sale, pay for the right to smoke, in spades. When I began smoking, cigarettes cost 75 cents a pack. Through the years I paid the $20, then $30 for a carton. I even paid the $45 per carton in recent years â€" I had to. When I began smoking, the substance was for sale. It still is. I wonder how many other addiction forming substances are similarly on the market for consumers? However it wasn‘t the cries of nonâ€"smokers or reports about health effects that has, hopefully, convertâ€" ed me to being a nonâ€"smoker. Personally I1‘d put a pack of cigarette smoke up against a vehicle exhaust pipe any day for the meaâ€" sure of poor health effects. There has to be perspective. _ When I complete my 10â€"week patch program I may hang up a No Smoking sign â€" with the words "No Problem" underneath. The signs displayed every where are a problem for those addicted. Certainly social, economic and health factors are involved in the decision to quit. y | 7 my need . . .the headacheâ€"and genâ€" eral unease andâ€"distraction that I was dealing with not having even a couple of puffs? I equated it with telling someone who was hungry, not to think about food or the hunger‘s accompanying headache. | OFF / \ off Our f Our Reg / \ °\,(g / Price / Price / / 7 2 free! = BUTTERICK® + VOGUE® PATTERNS, BUY 1 . »«; ». GET 115 cm wide, Our Reg. 10.98 m DOTS + DOTS â€" DoOTs! Special Selection! ) â€"60% TED stock 523â€"5469 CED Then came the time when I would think about the counting and realize it had been some weeks. I was surprised that it was as easy as it was. The patch â€" which carried the equivalent amount of nicotine that I‘d smoke in a pack a day, delivered the substance to my body without the act of smoking. By Christmas Eve, I‘d finished the first six weeks of my program. It was time to reduce the strength of my patch to half the quantity of nicotine. The Nicoderm patch system actually weans you off, first the habit, then the nicotine, over a sugâ€" gested period of 10 weeks â€" they call it 6â€"2â€"2. For the first six weeks you wear patches containing the highest nicotine dosage and you work on breaking your cigarette smoking habits. Then the nicotine is reduced and vou are weaned off. I began my crusade. I counted the hours during which I hadn‘t had a cigarette. The counting of hours turned into the counting of days. _ Two weeks! I ran for the patches. On Saturday morning â€" they said to pick a relaxed time to start â€" I fasâ€" tened my first patch on. I‘d read "The Patch‘s" accompanying mateâ€" rial â€" all the tips on how to deal with the task ahead of me. By midâ€"November, I had my annual physical scheduled with my family doctor and I took the bull by the horns. I took the money I set aside weekly for cigarettes and I made my way into the drug store, armed with a prescription for patches (I use the Nicoderm patch system). My doctor said to come back for a check and prescription renewal in two weeks. I would be finished the program in late January. on and what I chose to do. Then news articles about "The Patch" hit the papers last summer, ] thought about it. It was then that 1 FOR LIT TLE BOTTOMSI L-”â€"’â€"*i;'--‘---------------J BRAMPTON 150 West Dr., West of Bramalea City C SHERWAY 690 Evans Ave., Opposite Sherway Gard THORNHKILL 300 Steeles Ave., West of Yonge St. WESTON Hwy. 401 & Weston, Near Knob Hill Farm: WHITBY 50 Thickson Rd., South of Hwy. 2 DON MILLS 1450 Lawrence Ave. E. at Victoria Park HAMILTON 970 Upper Wentworth, Opposite Lime R MISSISSAUGA 4559 Hurontario St., corner of Eglint WE MATCH ANY PRICE. GUARANTEED! B the difficul THE OAKV E WORLD‘S BIGGEST BABY ST 1 I once again have the option of choice. Every morning when I woke up physically feeling much better than those mornings on which I used to wish I could quit, I‘m glad I took on this formidable task. â€" Hopefully I can overcome the feelings or ideas of returning to the habit that wormed its way into my very being without my true realizaâ€" tion of it, over the coming weeks, months and vears. Although I haven‘t taken up snacking in place of smoking, and chewing gumn just didn‘t cut it as the equivalent to replace my smoking habit, I now carry a package of gum with me and chomp on it when I get the urge â€" particularly while driving through this season‘s snowstorms. By the time I‘m through, I‘ve forâ€" gotten my original thought. You also have extra money in your pocket â€" I always smile inwardly when I now pass by the cigarette counter I used to stop at weekly after leaving my bank on pay day. There is extra cash to buy something extra to reinforce the decision to quit â€" but nothing will equal the benefit of the decision itself. Hats off to anyone who has quit smoking â€" especially those who did it cold turkey. For those who still want to break the habit. trv "The There was time to settle for a cup of coffee after dinner instead of the usual smoke and quickly brush my teeth. to swap m) moment for ty again. I‘m writing this now on the eve of reducing the patch strength again by half., Two more weeks and I should be able to go it alone. The habit was broken during the first six weeks â€" it was long enough to swap my smoke in a hectic rum atC BEAVEL CARRIES GUM ite Lime Ridge er of Eglinton & Hwy. 10 SEE YOUR LOCAL STORE FOR HOURS + OPEN SUNDAY ffe i piece of chewing tert OAKVILLE 290 North Service Rd., at QEW and Dorval Dr. KITCHENER 419 Fairwayâ€"Rd. South, West of Fairview Mall ST. 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