I’ve got an uncle who has been in the hospital for the past 2 weeks. Most of that time has been in ICU, with his breathing from a ventilator, not from his own will. It sounds like he should be getting out reasonably soon, though, as things are improving.
Now, his reason for being in the hospital originally had nothing to do with his 2 pack a day smoking habit. (not necessarily relevant, but it was an intestinal issue) However, when they x-rayed him to check out what the problem was, the x-ray revealed some interesting things. The main thing it revealed was that he only has ONE lung. One. Not two. Okay, he has a small amount of the upper lobe on the left hand side, but it never fully developed into a full lung, and is essentially non-functioning.
So Mr. 2 Pack a Day has been smoking on ONE lung. My mom has claimed (and I would love to see this in action) that there’s no way in hell he’s going to keep smoking. She’s making him quit.
Now for the question part. He’s 60 years old, and has (I assume) been smoking continuously since he was probably around 20 or so. I don’t think he’s been at 2 packs a day the whole time, but you get the picture.
Keeping in mind that for the past 2 weeks he’s had no opportunity to smoke (and thus has not ingested any more nicotine), does that give him any sort of “advantage” in the battle to quit smoking? What I mean is, that (psychological addiction aside, I’m speaking of the physical addiction) has his body had enough time to break the addiction to nicotine? I imagine he will still crave cigarettes because it’s a routine, he likes it, maybe it fills a psychological need, etc. But will his body still physically crave it? How long does it take to break that?
I realize that it’s never easy to stop smoking. But does this situation where he’s been forced to go “cold turkey” give him a slight edge?
I would think he would use that to his advantage. If I was in the hospital for 2 weeks you bet I’d try my best give it up!! It’s a hard habit to break, and he has to REALLY want to quit, no matter what… or nothiing will work. You can’t make someone quit either, it has to be their own conscious choice. But I would definitely encourage him. Being a smoker, mine is mostly psychological, that’s the hardest part of all to give up.
IANA addict so I can’t speak from that perspective but as one married to an alcoholic and grown up around smokers/alcoholics. The 2 week stay will give him some advantage but only if he wants to quit. No one, dear old mom included, is going to be able to stop him from smoking if he still wants to. He will still feel the addiction though it may be psychological at this point. According to this site, there is no more nicotine in the body after 48 hours of withdrawal. My mother and my brother’s wife have successfully quit smoking but they both admit to feeling cravings even after several years. My father has tried tio quit smoking many times, has emphysema and damage to both lungs from inhaling chemicals during a spill that occurred while he worked at American Cyanamid in NJ. He has tried the patch and gum and hypnosis and still can’t get quit for more than a couple weeks. He is a recovering alcoholic going on 20+ years now and says quitting smoking is harder.
Hope that helps.
It’s great that your concerned about your uncle, but I doubt you’ll be able to do much for him. I watched a fellow who was going into surgery to have his larynx removed (Apparently, they mark the incisions with a type of marker beforehand) puffing away merrily outside.
2 weeks is a drop in the bucket for someone who’s smoked as long as he has. You might try talking him into the Nicotine patch or something similar.
breaknrun, thanks for the link. That’s really the information I was trying to get at. I wasn’t sure how long nicotine would remain in your system and give you the cravings.
I agree with the rest of you. I’m not a smoker, but am aware of how tough it is to kick an addiction - it’s always the mental part that’s the worst.
The physical addiction has certainly been broken, but he hasn’t gotten to the hard part. He has been in the hospital, and has had no opportunity to light up. I quit smoking after 10 years (a drop in the bucket compared to your uncle) and it was the hardest thing I ever did. The physical was hard, but the psychological was nightmarish. 4 years later, and I still think about smoking almost every day.
The bottom line is if he doesn’t sincerely want to quit, he absolutely will not be able to do it. I quit because my wife got pregnant–she had to quit, and I could no longer smoke in the house. Plus, every time I smoked, she’d look at me like I was torturing a small animal. So, it became more unpleasant for me to keep smoking than it was to smoke. Suddenly, I was able to do what I had never been able to do in the past–once I really wanted to quit, I could…