Smoking Reflection Essay
Name: Salomi Salimkhan Pathan
Student ID: 7361017
Word Count: 516 (excluding title, student information and references)
For this reflective essay, I interviewed one of my good friends, GB. He was my classmate in
junior high school. I decided to interview him as he has been through almost all the stages of the
transtheoretical model and has been successful in quitting smoking after being a chain smoker
for over 5 years. We decided to meet for the interview on a weekend last month.
At the beginning of the interview, he mentioned that he had begun smoking as an adolescent.
Primarily, peer pressure got him into this vicious circle, which later turned into an addiction.
Meanwhile, the death of a close one turned out to be an eye-opening incident for him. Listening
to the doctors explain how excessive smoking became a cause of death impacted him
intrinsically. It was at that moment that he decided to quit. He initiated his journey of quitting
with the use of nicotine gums. They did satisfy the nicotine intake that his body was used to, but
they still could not replace smoking. This made him try nicotine patches, which too failed to help
him quit. Moreover, these methods were not at all cost-efficient and made him spend even more
as he continued to buy cigarettes, which doubled the expense. After all these unsuccessful
attempts, he decided to visit his family doctor who educated him about the health risks. He
suggested GB to work on his self-control and not hang out with people who smoke while he is in
his quitting phase. He provided him with a diet chart and a sleeping schedule to improve his
health and advised him to become more physically active which would help release the body’s
natural calming chemicals (endorphins). This was the last stage of quitting for him, and he was
successful in it by staying determined and continuously not giving up no matter what.
Name: Salomi Salimkhan Pathan
Student ID: 7361017
Word Count: 516 (excluding title, student information and references)
For this reflective essay, I interviewed one of my good friends, GB. He was my classmate in
junior high school. I decided to interview him as he has been through almost all the stages of the
transtheoretical model and has been successful in quitting smoking after being a chain smoker
for over 5 years. We decided to meet for the interview on a weekend last month.
At the beginning of the interview, he mentioned that he had begun smoking as an adolescent.
Primarily, peer pressure got him into this vicious circle, which later turned into an addiction.
Meanwhile, the death of a close one turned out to be an eye-opening incident for him. Listening
to the doctors explain how excessive smoking became a cause of death impacted him
intrinsically. It was at that moment that he decided to quit. He initiated his journey of quitting
with the use of nicotine gums. They did satisfy the nicotine intake that his body was used to, but
they still could not replace smoking. This made him try nicotine patches, which too failed to help
him quit. Moreover, these methods were not at all cost-efficient and made him spend even more
as he continued to buy cigarettes, which doubled the expense. After all these unsuccessful
attempts, he decided to visit his family doctor who educated him about the health risks. He
suggested GB to work on his self-control and not hang out with people who smoke while he is in
his quitting phase. He provided him with a diet chart and a sleeping schedule to improve his
health and advised him to become more physically active which would help release the body’s
natural calming chemicals (endorphins). This was the last stage of quitting for him, and he was
successful in it by staying determined and continuously not giving up no matter what.
