Day 22: Reporter apologises for disappearance after heroin-like withdrawal
While I was spinning around on my chair this morning with the oncoming panic that is “deadline” day I remembered that it was time once again to update the smoking blog.
The blog got a bit lax last week, a culmination of post holiday blues and catching up with my work and for this I apologise.
But stay tuned as if you’ve ever wondered what coming off heroin’s like, I can tell you.
A bout of insomnia last night resulted in my Googling the withdrawal symptoms of giving up smoking. Turns out nicotine’s as addicting as heroin.
For the record, I’m no wuss. While my colleagues may not describe me as noble, gallant or belligerent, I’m definitely not a yellow bellied toad.
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As I look through the list of withdrawal symptoms I mentally ticked off most of them including: irritability, anger, hostility, anxiety, panic, poor concentration, depression, fatigue, fearfulness, sense of loss and coughing.
This is what the newsdesk has been subjected to for the past three weeks.
Most Read
- 1 Residents complain their Ilford street now 'full of crime'
- 2 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer visits Redbridge on campaign trail
- 3 Sadiq Khan comes to Redbridge ahead of London elections
- 4 Ricardo Fuller death: Man charged with murder
- 5 Loxford and Seven Kings by-election candidates make case for your vote
- 6 Consultation launches on plans to move preschool and open excluded pupils facility at youth centre
- 7 Fire damages Ilford flats
- 8 Tributes to police officer killed in Ilford on 26th anniversary of death
- 9 Two men arrested after kidnapping in broad daylight in South Woodford
- 10 Redbridge parents' group donates more laptops to schools
I enjoyed the anger, it entertained me (if not the drivers of Redbridge) the anxiety and depression which lasted for more than a week I could have done without.
The worst thing about it was the fatigue and inability to concentrate which has been driving me to distraction.
So, some facts about nicotine according to the good people at the University of Minnesota:
• Nicotine is as addictive as heroin as a “behaviour altering agent”
• It is 1,000 times more potent that alcohol
So if you know anyone out there that is giving up, say something nice to them and keep your distance.
This is the fourth week of reporter Amanda Nunn’s blog on giving up smoking for Stoptober. Did you give up this month? Send your experiences to amanda.nunn@archant.co.uk.
