Don't Quit--Just stop smoking!!
On the 30th of November 1979, I smoked my usual two packs of cigarettes and on the first day of December I stopped smoking and have not had a cigarette since. And, it’s been so easy sometimes I don’t believe it myself. But that is precisely why I don’t lecture people. I offer to share my experiences with them, if they bring up the subject.
Without exception, every person I have ever talked to who said they had quit smoking and then went back to it, one or more times, has admitted that they really didn’t want to stop smoking in the first place. They quit because they had to quit for a health reason (theirs’ or a relative’s) or they quit because someone else wanted them to quit!!
That someone else they quit for may be a child, a grandchild, a spouse, a parent or anyone who wanted them to quit for one reason or another; or it may be someone they don’t want to expose to second hand smoke; or it maybe a Doctor or other professional who tells them that if they continue to smoke, they are going to have a health problem.
All of the smoking cessation strategies, from the various patches, nicotine gums, hypnotism, candy, fake cigarettes, and so many other substitutes, simply do not work without making the ex-smoker miserable unless the person really wants to stop for their own good. And, as is the case with other addictions, once a smoker makes the decision that they want to stop for their own sake and not because someone else wants them to, then they stop so easily they wonder what the big deal was.
If you want to stop smoking, then just stop smoking BUT DON’T QUIT.
When you say you are going to QUIT smoking, your mind hears that and your sub-conscience says: you can never have another cigarette for the rest of your life – and that’s a long, long time. But, if you say I am not going to smoke TODAY, or for the next hour, or for the next six hours, or whatever, you mind says: I can handle that – at least I can smoke later!
In my case, I thought back to when I had seen real long movies such as War and Peace, Ben Hur, and Doctor Zhivago. I hadn’t been able to smoke during those movies and it didn’t bother me because I knew that I could go get a cigarette anytime I wanted to. I decided to use the same idea when I stopped smoking. In other words, I wouldn’t QUIT smoking, I would just STOP smoking until some time later. It’s a mind game, but it works.
I made a decision every morning to put off that first cigarette. I have been doing that, ONE-DAY AT A TIME, every morning for 28 years. In all of that time I have never once even come close to lighting up a cigarette but more important, [B][U]I have not even had the desire to.[/U][/B]
Oh yes, there is one other little mind game that helped me to stop smoking. Each morning after I make my decision to not smoke that day – I ask God to help me remember to not take that first cigarette today and to give me the strength to avoid smoking a cigarette. He does!!
Grumpy
Re: Don't Quit--Just stop smoking!!
I have been smoking for 40 years and was smoking a pack and a half a day. Now I have been using that drug and down to smoking 5 or 6 cigarettes a day in just 3 weeks. Will be done with em soon. The drug works.
