Back when I was sixteen and I started smoking socially, I didn't necessarily think it was a great idea, but I wasn't thinking about the future consequences either. In fact, looking back I wasn't putting a lot of thought into much at all, especially my future (that would've been so un-cool).
Fast forward seven years and several tax hikes later, smoking has become a little old and to be honest a LOT less socially accepted. I wanted to stop smoking not only because of the price but also for my health. I wasn't really that concerned about lung cancer or emphysema like the sick pictures in the ciggy packs tell us we should be afraid of, because frankly as a 23 year old N.Z male, I'm invincible. I was more worried about the immediate effects like the way it made me feel at times lethargic, short of breath and overall just unhealthy.
Like most smokers I tried giving up on my own but ultimately failed, it wasn't until I went to my doctor for help that I started to make progress. After hearing good things about it, I asked my G.P about Champix, which is basically a pill you take every day as treatment to nicotine addiction. As Champix is a Government subsidised product, there are few conditions to getting a prescription, one being you have to of tried at least two other types of nicotine replacements i.e. patches and/or gum. The other condition is that you're only allowed to try Champix once a year, so if you're not serious about giving up it's probably not for you. After about a week of taking the pills I was already noticing a difference and had pretty much cut down to about 1 cigarette every couple of days. There are a few side-effects; personally it made me feel a little nauseous at times but hey, so did smoking. That was about 4 months ago and besides the odd sneaky puff of a friend's cig after a few beers, I'm virtually smoke free. I'd have to say the biggest difference this time though is my mind set, I just don't have that want to smoke like I did before and I feel so much better for it.