Anyone who has been a long-term smoker of cigarettes and a drinker of alcohol will know the harmful effects of these non-essential items of consumption on the physical body, and I as a graduate in Pharmacology was no exception. Nonetheless, in my youth I smoked and drank quite excessively.
When I got married however in 1985 I gave up smoking altogether and only drank alcohol socially.
From the time in 1998 that I lost my job in science and was reduced to poverty, the cost of tobacco and alcohol was another factor in giving up both cigarettes and alcohol for a very long period of time in years. It got to a point that I could not then even tolerate the smell of cigarettes from passive smoking the smoke of others.
Then I became embroiled in legal proceedings that intensified and I was persecuted by the powers that be of the United Kingdom, and beyond, who were hell-bent in getting me incarcerated in a mental hospital for a third time after the 2004 and 2008 episodes, trying to get me booted out of the country, trying to make me stateless; so that a dog-fight of resistance ensued from 2016 onwards that came to a point that I was arrested by the Police on 24 November 2021 and held in a Police cell for a crime that I did not commit; held because the State authorities were increasingly frustrated having failed to lock me in mental asylum so the they wanted to give me a criminal record instead with or without actual imprisonment on a sentencing by a Court. So the struggle to survive was continuing in the United Kingdom right up till Friday, 11th March 2022; and since the Police have still not returned the desktop computer, the USB Mamory stick and mobile Phone that they seized from us on 24 November 2021 the persecution on me continues on to this day.
During this struggle for survival in liberty I was under terrible stress and from my bhakti-based devotional communications with God I had asked Him if I should take up smoking again to help me cope. He said Yes do so; so I smoked and drank alcohol again, sporadically at first, but from 3 years ago I smoked cigarettes continuously at about 12 cigarettes a day. I also drank alcohol moderately because while smoking did not ruin my thinking capacity in the battle to progress legal proceedings to a point of safety for me alcohol, even in small quantities, did affect the thinking ability of my mind.
Tobacco and alcohol were a highly toxic mix of consumption that I used as a component of the satya-advaitic research-exploration yoga that I conducted on the nature of Reality simultaneous to those legalities and mental health treatments on me being pursued in response to persecution from the State; and this quest for knowledge of the truth of this universe has just ended.
They say that experience teaches so before it is too late for my failing health so that I can live longer to fight any legal battles pending, I am declaring myself to be a non-smoker and a teetotaller today the 13 March 2022. I was never really addicted to either tobacco or alcohol so stopping again should be easy. Since I am now abandoning my discovered religion of Vishista advaita Vedanta being not interested in living an unstructured and unregulated life that it entails I can now enjoy life with my family for however many years are left for me (65 years already) this vow to change course marking a new chapter now as a retired Research Scientist/Scholar to take me forwards. I have changed my Profile Bio oni Facebook and Twitter to this effect.
Givng up tobacco was easier said than done: after 34 hours absitnence I started smoking again. Perhaps I need psychotherapy from the Medway Council No Smoking Unit. I will contact them soon,