Maatwerk voor je gezondheid, natuurlijk
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An elderly man came to me with a strong desire to quit smoking. Having smoked his entire life, he knew it would easier said than done. Since every addiction arises from an underlying need, I asked him when he felt the strongest urge to smoke.
“That’s when I feel very irritable,” he said. “I smoke to suppress that feeling.”
...“What makes you feel so irritable?” I asked.
“I start feeling really irritable when people keep asking me if I can help them with this or that,” he replied.
He had spent his life as a captain and owner-engineer in the commercial shipping industry. His work ethic was not to slack off, but to always to keep going and push through. This was often fuelled by coffee and cigarettes. Rest had never seemed to be an option for him. However, now that he has stopped sailing and is approaching retirement age, he has less work and more free time.
Because he is extremely skilled and able to fix or create almost anything, many people lean on him when they need something done. In the past, saying no was out of the question, so they continued to expect his help. For him, as a captain, he saw admitting that he felt overloaded as a sign of weakness, making it almost impossible to address the root of the problem.
In reality, recognizing and expressing overload is a sign of strength—it means that you are taking good care of yourself.
Together we worked on seeing irritability as a signal of overload and an opportunity to say no, instead of reaching for a cigarette. Additionally, I saw him several other times and used ear acupuncture to help calm his nervous system.
He is making progress, setting clearer boundaries, and now smokes only three cigarettes a day—an amount he feels comfortable with.
Acupuncture can support the process of quitting smoking.