TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Johan Darmawan has been smoking since he was 17 years old. Now he is 24 and saying it is extremely hard to quit smoking despite many efforts, ranging from consuming medicines claiming to stop addiction, to chewing gums, which is believed to divert the desire to smoke.
"It was hard. I would always end up smoking again," he said. His desire to smoke especially appeared after meals. "Normally my mouth would taste very sour if I don’t smoke. If I tried to curb that craving, it only made me want to puke," he shared in a seminar of Low Level Laser Therapy some time ago.
Two weeks prior to the seminar, Johan tried the low-level laser therapy technology, and had undergone two from three packages of therapy.
"Twelve up to twenty-four hours after the therapy, I did not crave for cigarettes at all," said Johan regarding his first 60-minute therapy. In the second therapy of 30 minutes which he took three days after, the change effect in his body was not as huge as the first one. However, he admitted to already feel 'stable and clean'.
According to his testimony, the sensation in his body turned 180 degrees. When he was still addicted to cigarettes, his mouth could not stop from taking sips from cigarettes. However, after the therapy, when someone offers him a cigarette, Johan would feel that he wants to puke and cough instead.
"I have not smoked at all in the past two weeks," he emphasized.
Farmanina, a biomedical and anti-aging specialist, claimed that a smoker becomes an addict since the nicotine entering the blood will alter the brain’s chemical composition that will also automatically change the composition of hormones entering the body. One of the altered hormone composition is the dopamine or the brain compound that has the role to control pleasure or satisfaction.
"Especially since nicotine is absorbed only in seven seconds, making the altering of brain compound chemical composition extremely fast," said Farmanina. "This is what makes smokers hard to quit."
CHETA NILAWATY
