by Mary J. Shomon
I started smoking at 17, and went through my twenties and into my thirties smoking 1-2 packs a day.
Ultimately, I was able to quit, in July of 1995. But quitting smoking was, truly, the most difficult thing I've ever done...and I still consider it one of my greatest accomplishments.
All those years of smoking, I didn't realize that smoking can actually trigger or worsen thyroid problems. Just a short time after I quit, I was diagnosed as hypothyroid. It's not the act of quitting smoking that brings it on, mind you...it's that years of smoking can mask the thyroid disorder -- and the thyroid symptoms just become more apparent when you stop smoking. [Important note to those looking for an excuse to start again: the thyroid problem or resulting symptoms do not go away if you start smoking again!]
I tried quitting with hypnosis, acupuncture, nicotine gum, support groups, expensive Stop Smoking programs, and nothing worked for me. But after starting to show asthma symptoms, and after getting married, I decided I HAD to quit. I worked with a therapist whose focus was on various brain wave patterns of addiction, and she hooked me up to a brain wave machine to find out which particular things had the effect in me of creating alpha (relaxing) waves. The therapist's idea was that people who are addicted to smoking are trying to change an "off" brain chemistry by "self-medicating" (perhaps not enough serotonin, etc., need the adrenaline) and that when you stop smoking, the brain starts into theta pattern, agitated, irritated, and looks for a cigarette to return to alpha relaxation. She wanted to find the other things that one can do to help get that alpha state going.
For some people, it is exercise, but it never had been for me, so I needed something else that worked. We tried a variety of different
things -- relaxation tapes, Mozart music, whale sounds, biofeedback, etc. etc. -- none of them worked, being tested on the brainwave
machine, till we found one thing that worked for me -- needlework. Yes, crocheting and sewing, of all things, put my brain waves into alpha
right away.
My M.D. prescribed a mild tranquilizer, Klonopin, and said to take one of those when things got truly wacky. I took about 5 Klonopins over a
3-4 weeks period.
In the meantime, I crocheted. . . and crocheted. . . and crocheted ... ending up with about 6 queen size granny square afghans in 4 months. Put down my
crochet hooks 10 years ago, haven't crocheted since, and haven't smoked a puff since either.
I think the thing is to find support, find that thing that helps you get your alpha state going (and don't assume it's exercise as everyone often hears, because it's not for everyone), and go at it with a vengeance.
If you think needlework might be a way for you to also quit smoking, check out one of our terrific About sites:
And if you need help, check out About.com's great Smoking Cessation site.
More on the Thyroid/Smoking Connection
For an in-depth look at smoking's connection to thyroid disease, see: Your Thyroid Up in Smoke, Cigarette Smoking's Little Known Links to Thyroid Disease
