Quitting cigarettes is a different experience for everyone, but most who leave the habit behind tend to agree that the result is extremely positive.
“I felt so much better [after quitting],” said Fort Liard resident Genevieve McLeod. “I wasn’t getting sick as much and noticed my breathing improved greatly.”
McLeod, a mother of five, smoked for 25 years before she finally quit in 2020, motivated by a desire to improve her health for her family.
“The cravings were tough,” she admitted, but she managed to control them by changing her routine and by reminding herself how she would feel if she gave surrendered to impulse and lit up.
“One helpful tip was telling myself, having a cigarette right now would taste like licking an ashtray and make me feel sick,” she said.
Debra Buggins, a former smoker from Hay River, also experienced improvements to her health after quitting smoking.
She started the habit in the mid-’70s, and after faltering on her first attempt to quit, she succeeded the second time she tried, in 2006.
“One morning I was laying in bed and I was coughing so bad,” she said. “I was thinking about going outside for a cigarette, and I felt like I wanted to puke when I thought about it, so I said, OK, I quit. I just quit.”
Like McLeod, Buggins admitted quitting was challenging, but found her own ways of dealing with the cravings that would “come and go.”
“If I got a craving, I pictured my lungs so full of smoke that I was gasping for air and I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “The craving would go away.
“I realized after I quit smoking how much of it is up in our thoughts, in our head, and what we tell ourselves,” she added.
Other benefits
Quitting smoking also has major financial upside.
Buggins saved so much money when she quit that she was soon able to buy herself a new laptop, and estimates that her partner, who smokes about a pack a day, spends close to $700 a month on the habit.
Jennifer Vital, a former smoker from Nahanni Butte, also noticed immediate improvements to her financial situation when she gave up cigarettes after nearly six years.
“I quit because I got pregnant,” she said.
“I save so much more money now,” she added, noting that she smoked about a pack a day, and that a pack of cigarettes now costs around $25 in her community.
Like McLeod and Buggins, Vital experienced significant health benefits after stubbing out her final cigarette.
“I feel a lot better,” she said. “I have a lot more energy.”
While Vital, McLeod and Buggins all had different experiences quitting cigarettes, all three encouraged anybody who is considering doing the same to go for it.
“It’s never too late,” said Vital.
“Just stick with it, even if you slip” added McLeod.
Buggins, a community wellness worker who has lots of experience working with people struggling with addictions, also emphasized the importance of getting support.
Help is available
There are many resources available for people who want to quit smoking, including a new tobacco cessation program helmed by the GNWT’s Department of Health and Social Services (HSS).
The program is “not complicated,” according to nurse and facilitator Dale Matheson, and is currently available in Yellowknife, Ndilo, Dettah, Fort Resolution and Lutsel K’e with “a bit of outreach” available for some other communities.
Those who are interested in trying the program need only contact their primary care provider, who will then contact Matheson to set up an appointment. After a consultation, patients will be provided with a “quit kit,” along with the medication CHAMPIX, or nicotine replacement tools like patches, inhalers and gum, depending on their needs and preferences.
HSS “worked tirelessly” to put the program together, according to Matheson, and it has already had a very positive impact.
Since May 2023, she has seen 70 people. 28.6 per cent of those individuals have quit smoking, 31.4 per cent have “reduced” their tobacco use, and 45 per cent aren’t responding, “which means they aren’t ready,” she said.
There is a significant need for this kind of programming in the NWT.
According to Matheson, the latest survey data available, from 2018, revealed that 33 per cent of residents age 15 or over used tobacco, and 51 per cent of people who identified as Indigenous people did so.
“It’s a huge problem,” she said. “Smoking tobacco causes millions of deaths in Canada a year.”
“It’s not good or bad that you smoke, it’s just stupid,” she said. “The cost, the health concerns, the cancers, the chronic lung disease…
“We all understand it and know it, but the addiction is a beast, and the effects of tobacco, you won’t always see them until you’re 50 or 60, then you can’t breathe and you’re on oxygen. It’s quite a dismal outcome, and if you think about it, it’s all preventable.”