After reading an article entitled 'Cigarette Smoking and Your Health' I
lit a cigarette to calm my nerves. I smoked with concentration and pleasure
as I was sure that this would be my last cigarette. For a whole week I did not
smoke at all and during this time, my wife suffered terribly. I had all the usual
symptoms of someone giving up smoking: a bad temper and an enormous appetite.
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My friends kept on offering me cigarettes and cigars. They made no effort to hide
their amusement whenever I produced a packet of sweets from my pocket. After seven
days of this I went to a party. Everybody around me was smoking and I felt extremely
uncomfortable. When my old friend Brian urged me to accept a cigarette, it was more
than I could bear.
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I took one guiltily, lit it and smoked with satisfaction. My wife was delighted that
things had returned to normal once more. Anyway, as Brian pointed out, it is the easiest
thing in the world to give up smoking. He himself has done it lots of times!