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Back to Basics
Back to Basics
From danl1 on 9/29/2004 2:03:26 PM
-You do not want to smoke. If you did, you wouldn't be reading this. If you did, you wouldn't have decided to quit - while you were a smoker. Any other thought can safely be considered an error, and ignored.
- You do not need to smoke. For evidence, look to the 80% or so of the population that does not smoke. Better still, look at the former smokers - and notice that there are more of them than there are smokers. Pay close attention - they are all happier, healthier, wealthier, and more sane than their smoking counterparts. Any other thought can safely be considered an error, and ignored.
- You do not like to smoke. Think of the coughing, hacking, and nausea that came with the first ones you smoked. They never changed.
- The discomfort called withdrawal is caused by smoking. If you like it, smoke more. Otherwise...
- You do not have to want to quit 'more' than you want to smoke; You don't want to smoke. This is a yes/no, before/after kind of question. You used to smoke, now you don't. This is the 'old newspaper effect.' If you read a 60-year-old newspaper, would you run into the streets yelling that the Germans have invaded France? Of course not. So why freak out when you happen to remember last week's news? Any thought that smoking isn't completely in the past can safely be considered brain-garbage, and ignored.
- I get it that you are feeling lousy. Relax and wait - change in life is never too far off. Relaxation is probably the thing you are really looking for. If the discomfort is physical, consider taking something for it. No matter the case, I sincerely recommend that you don't take the thing that caused the discomfort.
- The discomfort called withdrawal is NOT delayed by smoking. It is eliminated by relaxation, and a new episode 20 minutes on is caused by smoking at the same time. If stepping up grows tiresome, stopping the jumping-off might help.
- Whatever your situation, you already have all the skills you need to cope with it. You do not need new coping skills, you need to stop giving a tube of leaves credit for the things you've always done. You may choose to find new skills as well, but that is a separate choice.
- You may not like who you've become. That's OK, because it's not who you are. This is a severely-stressed version of you. Once the stress is gone, you will be back to the normal you. Soon after that, you will find a calmer you that can breathe easier.
- You might be surprised to learn that most non-smokers have at least tried smoking. The problem is not that they "don't get it." It's that you fell for it.
- Chemicals do not cause thoughts, cravings, or desires. Beliefs do.
- The only real difference between a smoker and a non-smoker is that the smoker believes the phrase "smoking helps." It doesn't.
- Every desire you have to smoke is born of the marriage between some incident and the belief that 'smoking helps.' Give them a divorce - we don't need their offspring. Better yet, kill off that belief. It doesn't help - not in any way, for any amount of time. If you need help believing that, just tell the folks here how useful smoking is. Then duck.
- Going back to smoking will not ease your load. You will only succeed in trading "Crap, I need to smoke" for "Crap, I need to quit." The first one is heavy, but gets lighter all the time. The second one only gets heavier.
- Smoking might be an option. Smoking is never a solution.