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1. buttingout2014

   

   52 posts
   Registered:
   29 Nov 2017
   30 Nov 2017

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   To truly understand your cravings, it's a good idea to look at where it all started...
   
   THE BRAINWASHING OF SMOKING:
   
   Before you ever had that first puff of a cigarette, your WELLBEING was at it's peak...
   Then, you light your first cigarette and the Smoking Monster is born.
   The Smoking Monster has a huge appetite and soon demands to be fed again, and your WELLBEING drops as you feel that empty, insecure feeling of the body's reaction to the Nicotine withdrawal...so you feed the monster again.
   There is some relief - until the Monster gets hungry again.
   And so it goes, on and on and on...
   
   Over time, the body builds-up a tolerance to the drug, so that when you smoke it only partially relieves the feeling, so you feed more stressed, more often and need to smoke more.
   No matter how much you feed the Smoking Monster, you can never reach the level of WELLBEING that you felt before you smoked.  Even at your best, you always feel more stressed and less relaxed than a non-smoker.
   In fact, prorgessively declining health, feelings of shame, digust and slavery and the constant fear of disease or death looming in the background, ensure that your feeling of WELLBEING keeps getting lower and lower.
   
   WANT PROOF??
   OK - Light up a cigarette right now, and inhale deeply six times...
   Now, describe the pleasure you're experiencing.
   Light another one as soon as you're done the first...
   Not interested???
   Why not - if it's as pleasurable as you say?
   The truth is:  It's NOT about pleasure.  it's about topping-up your Nicotine level to try to make up for the withdrawal caused by the last cigarette.
   
   
   
   "If I have just ONE, I'll be right back where I started...Desperately wishing I was where I am today."
   
   - Your QUIT buddy, Jim.
   
   
   
   

   My Mileage:
   
   My Quit Date: 1/27/2014
   Smoke-Free Days: 1403
   Cigarettes Not Smoked: 35,075
   Amount Saved: $15,433.00

   
   
   
   [Check out my Online Resources]
   
2. treepeo

   

   832 posts
   Registered:
   29 Nov 2017
   30 Nov 2017 in reply to buttingout2014

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   Holy cow, everything you just said is so true.  You are right.  There is no real pleasure involved in smoking.  We only continued to smoke to feed our addiction.  And that addiction keeps calling out to us, trying to get us to give in.
   
   One of my brothers told me that he was speaking to a friend of his one day, and as he was talking, he reached into the pocket of his shirt to get a smoke.  But he had quit smoking 10 years earlier!  So there is the addiction, and there are also habits and feelings associated with the addiction.  So it is no wonder that we all struggle so hard to quit smoking.  There is definitely a lot involved in this process.
   
   Having said that, it is truly wonderful to live life as a non-smoker.  It is worth all of the trials and tribulations along the way.
3. onyx

   

   17 posts
   Registered:
   29 Nov 2017
   04 Dec 2017

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   For the record, just the *thought* of lighting up again made me gag - a LOT!
   
   Yeah, that's the way it was... It feels good until you light up another one almost right after you put that last one out. Sometimes it wasn't too bad, others it was disgusting.
   
   Quitting isn't just about giving up the addiction. It's giving up the *habits* we have while we're a smoker. That hand to mouth one is the worst to break. 
   
   I used to chew my fingernails down into the quick, almost down to the cuticles. I stopped biting the nails about 25 or so years ago, but I'm still putting the fingernails into the mouth, as a coping mechanism. 
   
   Playing with my rings and other things were ways to cope with the transition between smoking and not smoking. I still do a lot of those behaviors today, especially if I am having a rough time or an anxiety attack. 
   
   You have to do whatever you can to break yourself of those habits, or you will never be successful in your quit. 
4. marianne, quit coach

   

   278 posts
   Registered:
   30 Nov 2017
   04 Dec 2017

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   Hello Everyone,
   
   Buttingout2014-  really like the way you described the dependency to smoke.  And highlighting the fact that, "Even at your best, you always feel more stressed and less relaxed than a non-smoker". 
   
   Treepeo- you said it- no real pleasure with smoking.  
   
   Onyx- stress in life is inevitable and necessary to find healthy means of coping.  
   
   
   Such amazing awareness you all have which helps you tremendously.  
   
   
   Keep sharing as revealing keeps the motivation that much stronger- all united, moving positively.  
   
   Marianne