A simple easy to follow dissertation that I hope may lead you to a complete cessation of your addiction to nicotine and cigarettes. This essay is designed to help you to make conscious decisions in your personal life that will enable you to stop smoking permanently. This will require you to show the strength to take 100% responsibility for your health, your career, your finances, your relationships, your emotions and your habits. All these things are affected by an addiction to cigarettes and cigars.
You will need to take a hard look at yourself, consciously deciding what the triggers are that compel you to smoke and then to discover what action is most likely to help you to quit permanently and for the positive personal development of your life and consequently that of your family, friends and associates.
You will learn practical ideas to make important changes in your life which when acted upon will help you to conquer your nicotine addiction and give you the confidence to face a new positive future free of nicotine and cigarettes.
Most importantly I will give you the inside information on how I quit a 25 year long habit, using simple, easy to follow thought processes which has guaranteed me a better, healthier and more personally rewarding life with an increased life expectancy and a significant increase in my standard of living. I have achieved this after several failed attempts, some of them prolonged but now my life simply cannot support cigarettes and nicotine. I rationalized why I smoked in the first place, understood its utter folly and by looking deeper at the reasons behind addiction chose a nicotine free life. A personal REALIZATION had taken place.
REASONS PEOPLE SMOKE
At this early stage in the program accept that you must identify in yourself just how you started your nicotine habit and determine what type of smoker you are.
1. THE SOCIAL SMOKER - you smoke because others around you do and because it helps you to relax in social situations and to behave with more confidence.
2. THE STRESS COPING SMOKER - you smoke to help you cope with the stresses of life - whether they occur in the workplace, at home or in personal relationships.
3. THE CHIC SMOKER - you smoke because you believe it gives you a perceived cool, savoir faire feeling, attitude or look.
4. THE SENSUAL SMOKER - you smoke because you enjoy the whole ritual of smoking and the physical sensations experienced.
Of course if you are like I once was, you may identify with more than one of these stereotypes - if you do, just recognize it and accept it.
Do not be frightened or put off the idea of quitting simply because you have seen in yourself the roots of your own nicotine addiction. Face up to it, see it for what it is but most importantly determine once you have accepted your smoking origins that these smoking characteristics are neither desirable nor positive. Keep this notion at the back of your mind throughout your reading of this tutorial. However, this understanding will not in itself stop you from smoking but I promise that at a later stage it will empower you to keep your focus and maintain your willpower, as your new nicotine free life re-emerges.
This will happen. It will happen because as your addiction to nicotine starts to wane, you will be better placed to deny your own reasons for smoking, seeing them as excuses. You will become far less tolerant of them and be able to rationalize and see them for what they are - NONSENSE.
Lets revisit these smoking stereotypes:
1. THE SOCIAL SMOKER - perhaps there was, I admit, a time when smoking in public, at social or family gatherings, in restaurants and especially in pubs, was acceptable. How times have changed. The social smoker is now considered by the general public as a nuisance. Passive smoking, whatever the true health fact and figures, is a big deal for non-smokers. Non-smokers recognize too that the social smoker in today's society is generally using nicotine as a prop - a type of social crutch to bolster self-confidence and self-esteem in the company of others. The misguided notion that a social smoker may have that they interact more easily with others with the aid of a cigarette than without is possibly true for those addicted to nicotine. But just how more empowered and self-confident would these same groups of people be once they are nicotine fee and have regained control and respect for their real selves. No more nervous lighting of cigarettes; no more panicky moments as cigarette packs run out; no more late night trips to petrol stations or all night supermarkets.
2. THE STRESS COPING SMOKER - In my experience smoking during a personal crisis or to help cope with work related or similar problems simply compounded the very problem or crisis I sought to alleviate. Any fleeting sensations of calm or relief gained from lighting up was replaced with a greater period of time avoiding a more positive response that would actually have lead to a resolution of problems or at least to a more realistic acceptance of them.
Nicotine does not help anyone to deal with stress. Between cigarettes I would fret more and
simply reach for the next fix which had the effect of avoiding the issues and aggravating any feelings of self-pity or lack of self-worth.
If you see the stress smoker stereotype in yourself admit it. Accept it. Again this realization will not in itself lead directly to you quitting but later on will enable you to sustain a commitment to long-term smoking cessation.
3. THE 'CHIC' SMOKER - If you are the type of smoker who believes that holding a cigarette in a perceived 'cool' or chic manner gives you a certain 'savoir faire' or physical attraction advantage over non smokers then think again. The 50's film star look of brooding idol complete with cigarette is a dated and pitiful look. No longer cool - and an irresponsible attitude. If you smoke for these reasons accept it. Later in this program your recognition of your 'type' will empower you to sustain a commitment to long term smoking cessation.
4. THE SENSUAL SMOKER - I recognized in myself, before I gave up, that this was my major type. I actually enjoyed the whole ritual of smoking. I liked the paraphernalia of lighters, papers, packets, matches, etc and I loved too the sensations gained from drawing on the cigarette. The feeling of calm and inner confidence that ensues is quite difficult to understand for someone who is a non-smoker.
However, it became apparent to me too that these feelings were only fleeting and were replaced quite often with an uncontrollable sense of loss and need for subsequent fixes of nicotine to sustain a positive mood. The sensuality of smoking, I realized, was just an illusion. As an ex-smoker I can now see that life without nicotine can be truly sensual for all the right reasons and not dependent upon false stimulants. This understanding has been sustained by freedom from nicotine addiction throughout my weaker moments and is a constant reminder to me to remain this way. Again, if you are predominantly this type of smoker, as I certainly was, accept it. Hold this profound knowledge that you have just gained and recall it later to help you sustain your commitment to a nicotine free life.
If you see the stress smoker stereotype in yourself own up to it. Accept it.
Again this realization will not in itself lead directly to you quitting but later on will enable you to sustain a commitment to long term cessation of smoking.
HEALTH ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS
I will keep this section short as you are almost certainly well aware of the health risks a smoker runs. However, these risks are very real and have to be faced up to so I have simply listed below some of the medically acknowledged smoking related illnesses which are:
Bladder Cancer, Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Childhood Respiratory Ailments, Diabetes, Emphysema, Gastrointestinal Cancer, Heart Disease, Infertility, Kidney Cancer, Lung Cancer, Mouth Cancer, Oesophageal Cancer, Premature Aging, Stroke, Throat Cancer.
The fact is that in order to quit smoking and stay quit requires an individual 'realization' that by stopping smoking you are actually doing something positive and beneficial that going back to smoking is simply not an option. Allen Carr in his excellent books describing the Easyway to quit echoes my own views. There is no need to use 'willpower'. Your mindset will be that in stopping smoking you are actually freeing yourself of an unnecessary evil. An easily surmountable habit that creates falsely within us the ILLUSION that our lives are worse without them and that we suffer actual pain when denied nicotine. This is simply not true.
REJECT THAT NOTION.
Once you have analyzed your own smoking stereotype you will logically come to the conclusion that your reasons for continuing to smoke are based on folly, and therein lies the secret to smoking cessation. A realization that you will actually be undertaking a better life when you quit. The so called withdrawal symptoms are of little consequence compared to the immediate improvements to your health and state of mind which result from freeing yourself of the self perpetuating pain and suffering that nicotine brings upon the smoker. Accept this new understanding and I promise that from the day you stop restarting is simply NOT an option. You have just done something incredible. The withdrawal symptoms you experience this time, though mildly irritating, will be seen for what they are - EXCUSES. Your new realization will clearly uphold your clarified mindset - 'I have been set free from nicotine addiction and my life will improve naturally and beneficially as a consequence'. Now plan your quit time - the sooner the better! Consider too a detoxification of your body and perhaps a herbal quit smoking remedy for additional support.
NICOTINE REPLACEMENT THERAPIES, HERBAL REMEDIES AND DETOXIFICATION
Do not consider nicotine replacement therapies such as patches, gums, etc as the most likely products to assist your attempt to quit. However, it is just possible that they can help in the short-term and it is here that I do disagree with Allan Carr's take on them (though I have to say that this apart I do concur with almost all the philosophies and principles of his 'Easyway' system). Yes, nicotine replacement therapy on its own will rarely lead to a complete and long lasting cessation of cigarettes. Nicotine is still being absorbed and anyone using these products is likely to balk at the realization method I am advocating.
But, by removing some of the habits associated with smoking, they might just discover a short-term healthier option, on the path to realization. Indeed as already mentioned it is unlikely that any nicotine replacement therapy will work long term for most people. However, for those in the process of absorbing the truths of nicotine addiction they do offer a more healthy temporary option. I might add, however, that I have never believed in the slow weaning process advocated by nicotine replacement therapy products any more than I believe in the slow weaning cigarette reduction process as a route to successful smoking cessation. A more sensible option in the weeks leading up to your quit day is a detox. A detox will enable you to cope better as your body's chemistry will be better balanced. Try to cut out or significantly reduce your intake of alcohol and caffeine and increase your intake of water to 2-3 litres per day. Processed foods should be reduced or cut out altogether as should sugars, animal fats and salt.
Numerous products are available that assist the detox process including some good herbal products. These assist in promoting the bio-availability of nutrients, hormones and bio-chemicals that are usually depleted by the stress of nicotine and drug withdrawal. In my opinion these types of products offer a far more supportive approach to the realization method described here than the nicotine replacement method which often seems to work at first but which ultimately in most (though not all) cases results in failure and a return to cigarettes.
Both herbal and detox products help your body to cope in natural and supportive way in the days leading up to your quit day and during the early stages after quitting. They are not a substitute for the reasoned realization that I believe must occur but are to be seen as complementary and helpful assistants.
Understand this, when you stop smoking you are immediately better off in terms of physical health, mental state, confidence, all will benefit. The weaning process dulls this effect and ultimately undermines it through its own contradictions. Use them if you must whilst convincing yourself of the methods I advocate.
TIME TO QUIT - NOW!
If you have now come to the conclusion or realization that smoking is no longer to be a part of your life congratulate yourself and pick your quit day and time. Get rid of any cigarettes, ashtrays, lighters etc. Not because they might tempt you back but because they are no longer necessary. You will be excited at the prospect of your new nicotine free life. On this day think of your new nicotine free life. On this day think less of cigarettes and more about other ways in which you can improve your health. Increase your exercise regime - walking, swimming, going to the gym, these are all ways that can add to your new sense of wellness and self respect. Continue or start a detox and revel in the fact that you have just embarked upon something unique and revolutionary - a life free of nicotine.
Remind yourself now of the primary immediate benefits:
*Immediate improvements in your health?
*Immediate improvements to your bank balance
*A greater understanding and respect for yourself
*Increased confidence in your abilities to be proactive
*The knowledge that you will never smoke again
*The delight expressed at your success by friends and family
SUMMARY
If you are looking for a miracle cure for your addiction, there isn't one and you will probably leave this article disappointed. But if you can absorb some of the cognitive thinking that I hope will convince you of the fallacy of the illusion that there are benefits to smoking then I believe you will be sufficiently empowered to cease smoking. I hope that within moments of your assimilation of my arguments you will come to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing to fear from quitting smoking. You will from the point at which you stub out that 'last' cigarette have regained control and will be embarking upon a new life immediately, free from nicotine addiction and full of excitement and new possibilities.
Remember that no willpower is required with this method. You are not trying to overcome something painful. You are not going to put yourself in a compromising position. You are not going to expose yourself to your worst fears. In fact you are doing the opposite. You are taking a positive step towards regaining control of your life.
After your final cigarette you will immediately be back in control. It was, remember, the smoking itself that encouraged your fears and demons in the first place. Remove the nicotine - immediately remove the problem. With this mindset no physical or mental symptoms will prevail as a consequence of ceasing the habit, a habit which claims over 440,000 lives every year in the USA.
Once you have absorbed these arguments I am convinced that a realization will take place for you too.
Nicotine addiction does not exist anymore for you and cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapies will be of absolutely no interest or possible use to you. Your thinking will be different. Your outlook will be liberated, positive and confident. Notions of defeatism, self-pity, personal loss or perceived pain will wane and eventually disappear as you contemplate and look forward to a healthy and rewarding life in which you have total control. Your goal of a life free of nicotine and cigarettes and a life free too of the problems they promote and endlessly compound has been realized. For you smoking is now a thing of the past.
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