| Case Study: How Swapping Cigarettes for E-Liquids Resulted in a Marriage16 March 2017 Growing up in a house smothered with cigarette smoke may have clogged the air with dense toxins, but it wasn’t just the walls that ended up stained with the unpleasant atmosphere. When a parent smokes, particularly when around young children and teenagers, a lot of tension can arise and hinder an otherwise pleasant family atmosphere. My father had smoked cigarettes long before I was born, and continued to do so for the duration of my childhood. Not only was I subject to breathing in harmful chemicals at a time when my body was still fragile, but also my father had to deal with the repeated frustration of trying to quit smoking, only to fall back into bad habits. Addiction is a serious matter and when conventional methods of stopping smoking didn't work, I started to worry that my dad would never quit for good. Bottom of the SlopeI’ll be honest, when I was younger it never occurred to me that my father was struggling with making the transition from being a lifetime smoker to his newer, healthier lifestyle without cigarettes. How hard could it be to keep that patch on, or continue chewing that nicotine gum? But the truth is, as I found out in later life, that the human mind doesn’t always co-operate with our attempts to achieve our goals, no matter how good our intentions are. Sometimes a little helping hand is needed, and, with the rising trend in e-cigarettes, this is exactly what my father was granted. The Uphill ClimbIt was around two years ago that my dad began vaping. He took to it quite quickly, and has typically stuck to the more traditional tobacco flavours (unlike his wife, who favours the fruitier options, with which she has managed to drop down to 0.6mg in strength). Of course, the change was gradual; I’m not going to pretend that he awoke one morning after thirty-plus years of smoking and suddenly decided he’d discovered the alternative he’d been so desperate to find. But he managed to reduce his twenty-a-day habit by slowly cutting down on the amount of cigarettes he smoked, until, several months later, he was solely using a vape. As his daughter, I feel such a great relief that his blackened lungs have at last been given a chance to breathe. The thought that his throat is no longer congested with such retch-inducing levels of catarrh fills me with delight. And for my father? Well, he’s over the moon, since he was finally able to afford the wedding he’d been planning for years. Reaching the SummitIt’s taken my father fifty years to finally be able to say that he’s actually living his life, instead of dragging his way through each day with no hope for his future. Physically he feels much fitter (and his snoring isn’t so thunderous now, which his wife tells me is a blissful bonus!) and he also finally has some spare change in his back pocket to put towards seeing the world as he’d always dreamed. In August of last year, my father married his fiancée of almost ten years after they were finally able to put the money aside to pay for the ceremony. Had he not found an alternative to his habitual cigarettes, the wedding could have never happened – a fact of which he was all too well aware. Later this year, he’s visiting London for the first time since his teenage years and he's also flying abroad for his first foreign holiday ever. And, most importantly to my father, he’s even managed to bag a pretty decent seat to see his favourite football team (the mighty Celtic) playing a home game. It certainly beats scrimping for coppers while he hacking and coughing, doesn’t it? On Top of the WorldFor three decades nothing seemed to work – it wasn't for want of effort, but simply because not every product will suit every person. Although e-liquids are not a certified aid for quitting smoking, they worked for my father. Switching from traditional cigarettes to e-liquids has definitely changed his life for the better. He’s made me proud, he’s proven he can do it, and on his horizon is a prosperous future where there is less smoke, more money, and an abundance of gratitude and achievement. I’m so pleased for you!
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