Smoke and mirrors
▶ If you are hoping to stop smoking this year, e-cigarettes are not the answer, says Liz Cookman. Here’s are some alternative ways to break the habit
There has almost never been a better time to give up smoking. It’s the start of a new year – that beautiful time when people still believe this really could be the year they finally stop (insert thing you really don’t want to do here). The recent introduction of a 100 per cent “sin tax”, topped up with another 5 per cent VAT, has sent prices soaring. And Prince Harry – did anyone know he smoked? – has reportedly quit in a statement of devotion to his wife-to-be, meaning you officially don’t love your partner if you don’t give up, too.
As if anyone didn’t know by now, smoking is not very good for you. One in 10 deaths in the UAE is linked to smoking, and the figures are rising. According to one report, 30,000 people a year are predicted to get lung cancer in the Middle East by 2020. A Dubai clinic recently reported that it has seen a fourfold increase in the number of couples looking for IVF treatment, thanks to lifestyle factors such as smoking. So it is not just a good time to give up, in fact – it could be vital to your continued existence.
The problem with addiction, however, is that even though you know something is terrible for you, you tend to carry on – because it’s a habit, because it makes your brain’s pleasure centres light up like mobile phones at a Coldplay concert, or because it becomes part of your identity. And let’s face it, it’s very easy to indulge in the UAE. While ever-larger swaths of public and commercial space have been claimed from smokers in many other countries, here, it’s not just normal to smoke inside bars and on restaurant terraces, it’s so common as to be almost compulsory.
According to an Abu Dhabi representative of the Federal National Council at a meeting in November last year, 21 per cent of the UAE population are smokers and 15 per cent of them are under 18. One survey found that it is not uncommon for children as young as 9 to have tried smoking.
For western expats, despite price hikes, it’s still a relatively cheap place to smoke, when compared to the United Kingdom, United States or Europe. The temptation doesn’t just stop at cigarettes, either: how about a puff of apple and mint shisha to go with your coffee? A go on a medwakh? With the Government determined to get people clean, there are countless options available to help you rid yourself of the habit. There are now 14 smoking cessation clinics across the UAE, offering nicotine replacement therapy and psychological support. Hypnotherapy centres such as UAE Hypnosis – which is offering 30 per cent off programmes until the end of January – can help reprogramme your mind and a host of other non-medical quitting aids are widely available, such as acupuncture and yoga. Alan Carr’s “magic” stop-smoking books continue to be popular, too, including his original 1985 The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. They help people to tap into and interrupt problematic ways of thinking. And for those who like to be reminded of how well they’re doing, there are dozens of apps to track your progress and offer encouragement.
Evidence that vaping helps people break their nicotine dependency long-term is, so far, anecdotal. While it can be a key tool in the fight against smoking, Dr Samah Ahmed, a pulmonology specialist at Burjeel Medical Centre, told The
National last year that it should be used “only as a last resort”, and that it only works if you set a goal end date. What it offers is a transition, and the chance to give up without giving up. It is a way to break the habit while not breaking the habit at all.
E-cigarettes are not available for sale in the UAE although it is not illegal to own and use one in private spaces. During my own brief foray into vapeland, there were headaches with equipment, with vapes requiring a whole arsenal of elements, chargers and liquids to keep going. There were literal headaches, too – you’re inhaling nicotine mixed with sugar and chemicals. And to get the same satisfaction levels as proper cigarettes, I was vaping endlessly, developing a habit so compulsive that when I did fall off the wagon again, I ended up smoking far more than I ever had before.
Quitting smoking is about finding what works for you. For me, the only thing that works is willpower. I’m about to hit 20 weeks without a cigarette. Last time I gave up, I lasted for threeand-a-half years until a whirlwind of stress sent me spiralling into the “oh, go on then, just one” trap. Everyone wants to hear there’s a magic formula or a failure-proof technique, but one day I just stopped. I ran out of cigarettes before a long meeting, and decided to see how long I could go without one. Quite a while, it turns out.
For me, vaping, patches, drugs are just a new crutch – my mum is five years on the gum, and counting. Going cold turkey rips the plaster off quickly: there are a few painful days, but as you feel better and better, each day gets easier. You have to be ready, though. Really, really, really ready. I have to get to the point where I see cigarettes as gross, where the guilt of picturing my heavy-blackened lungs and my narrowed arteries weighs heavily, and I no longer feel like smoking makes me look movie-star cool.
So here’s my advice: don’t jump too soon, as the subsequent feelings of failure could no doubt be excuse enough to disappear under a smokey comfort blanket. Do whatever it takes to make you feel like a grubby addict: look at before and after pictures online – this is one time that no one can begrudge you using the Daily
Mail website; read the previously mentioned Alan Carr book; sit in places so thick with smoke that your eyes water and even your skin smells.
Remember, also, that non-smokers are people, too – and not only will this realisation help with the inevitable anxiety that surrounds the prospect of becoming one of them, but they can also become one of your greatest tools in the battle to give up. Hang out with them, and they will have no problem making you feel like a social pariah whenever you light up.
With further smoking bans in the UAE potentially in the pipeline – McGettigan’s in the Hilton Dubai announced last month that it is to be designated non-smoking – and with Dh2,000 fines for smoking (including e-cigarettes) in public places such as shopping malls now in force, make sure that you’re not the last sad smoker at the party.
For those who like to be reminded of how well they are doing, there are dozens of apps to help track your progress