A smoker since the age of 11 and self-professed ‘lifelong nicotine addict’, Glen is on a journey towards becoming both cigarette and nicotine free.
He describes the ups and downs of his quitting journey and his positive outlook for a future as a non-smoker.
Glen’s love / hate relationship with smoking began at a young age – not unusual on the Nottingham council estate he grew up on.
Like other people, Glen believed smoking was a way of ‘self-medicating’ against anxiety and dealing with mental health challenges. He didn’t realise that in fact, although nicotine provides some short-term relief, it quickly gives way to much longer and increased withdrawal symptoms, including low mood, anxiety and depression.
Nottingham is a big smoking city, we had a Players factory here, everybody smoked. One of my uncles let me have a smoke, just to try it out…I got an immediate taste for it, and I've been in love with smoking ever since, which makes my journey quite difficult and up and down. I was a pub smoker and drinker from when I was about 16, and they kind of went together on the social scene, or on the LGBTQ scene
Quit Attempts
Glen became increasingly worried about his dependence on smoking, the health risks and mounting cost. Over the years he has made several quit attempts using different methods, learning to recognise his triggers for relapse and the importance of support networks.
I got a smartwatch that monitors your oxygen saturation, but mine was regularly dropping below 90% when I was asleep, and that was a wake up call for me.
I went through a smoking cessation service and used Champix. I was warned about the side effects, especially around my mental health, I put a lot of support and security in place around that. I quit for about four years, and I think there was an event in my life, a difficult period, and I went back to smoking. It was several years before I wanted to try to quit again.
About 12 years ago I was an early adopter of vaping. When it normally gets me is holidays – I go on holiday and normally smoke a little bit.
Getting Nicotine Free
After vaping for 10 years to minimise smoking, Glen has made the decision to become completely nicotine free. He knows that going cold turkey doesn’t work for him, so is gradually reducing nicotine levels.
Although it’s challenging, bumps in the road are all part of the journey to quitting, and he is learning from the experience as he goes.
When you're doing it all the time for years, and buying juices and charging things, I’m just fed up with it. I used nicotine gum at work, I scaled my vape strengths right down, then I switched just on to the gum, and then I stopped completely. I got the timing wrong - I got nicotine free for a few weeks, then went on holiday and fancied the ‘treat smoke’. I hadn't got vapes, gum or anything else, so I ended up smoking for a week. It’s is fine, it's all part of the journey! I don't want to carry on smoking, so I'm just calling it a detour, a little bit of a wobble. I’m back on the vapes, gum at work, and I'll probably do that for a few months till I settle back in. I've gone on to really low strength vapes, so it's kind of dealing with the obsession, but not massively increasing my nicotine intake. I don't use it all the time. I put it away from me, and I deliberately got one that hasn't got a very big battery, so I really have to ration it.
What advice would I give to other smokers?
My advice really is, if you're smoking tobacco, have a go at quitting! It might take lots of attempts, it might take a long time, but it's certainly worth it.
Sometimes people start smoking again and it's like a crushing defeat, but I say in terms of your health and harm reduction, if you go back to it, come off it, it's all better than continuous smoking.
The first time I stopped smoking cigarettes it was tough, but the physical effects were evident within days. Smelling of tobacco, the wheezing, the breathlessness, it all got better so quickly,
Have a plan, use smoking cessation services if you can. There are lots of ways to do this, whether it's vaping, misting things, gum, lozenges, patches or whatever.
Bottom line, get off tobacco, then set yourself an objective to get nicotine free.