REPOST from ClearColors Date Unknown...  This article helped me from WhyQuit.com…  Some numbers may be off, etc. but the info is spot on.  Nancy

Nicodemon’s Lies (Continued) By John R. Polito, Nicotine Cessation Educator

Our Lie:   It's too painful to quit!

The Truth:  Compared to what?  Three days of physical withdrawal (just 72 hours) in no way compares to the pain of months of chemotherapy, lung removal surgery and a two foot scar, a losing battle with throat cancer, years of trying to recover from a serious stroke, massive heart attack, or fighting for every breath through emphysema-riddled lungs, as you drag oxygen around for the balance of life.  If you're really worried about hurt, then why continue your daily destruction?

Our Lie:  If I quit, I'll just start back again. I always do.

The Truth:  You do NOT have to relapse.  We relapse because we rewrite the Law of Addiction, we forget why we quit, or we invent lies and stupid excuses, such as those that fill this page.  Your next quit can be your last, but you need to learn how to care for your recovery, while always applying the only rule that you'll ever need to obey… To NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!

Our Lie:  I'll cut down or quit and smoke just one now and then.

The Truth:  It's every addict's dream, to control the uncontrollable.  You are addicted to a substance that is five times as addictive as powdered cocaine (15% vs. 75%).  You may be strong enough to cut back, but so long as nicotine continues to arrive, you'll remain hooked, the decay will continue, and as studies suggest, even though smoking less, your health risks will remain almost unchanged.  If you were a pack-a-day nicotine smoker, and after quitting, you decide to smoke just one cigarette, you might as well get ready to smoke the other 7,300 for the year too, as full and complete relapse is virtually assured.  The Law of Addiction is simple - Just one puff of new nicotine and it's over.  Brain scans show that up to 50% of dopamine pathway receptors become occupied by nicotine within eight seconds of the first puff.  While roughly half walk away from relapse, totally convinced that they've gotten away with smoking just once, they've saturated and de-sensitized dopamine pathway receptors, and will soon find their brain begging for more.  You see, as permanent as alcoholism, once hooked we somehow stay hard-wired for relapse, for the balance of life.  Although recovery allows the brain time to heal and function normally again, the tracks of addiction remain.  We cannot cure, or kill, our disease.  Once free, we remain on probation for life.

Our Lie:  I tried quitting but my family stopped supporting me, or was giving me such a hard time, that it caused me to throw in the towel.  

The Truth:  It's a lie.  You gave up because you used your family as a cheap excuse to get your drug back.  You exaggerated everything they did or didn't do.  You were looking for any excuse.  You're the drug addict, yet you expected them to understand the weakness and thinking of a drug addict's mind.

Maybe they didn't pat you on the back as often as you wanted, but is it really fair to expect them to appreciate the magnitude, or duration, of your challenge if they've never been through chemical withdrawal themselves?  They just want you to be normal.  They don't know how to react.  Do they pat you on the back and keep reminding you, or hope and pray that the worst has already passed?

Feeling unappreciated, picking fights and creating confrontation are tools of the addict's mind that are often used, as weapons, in order to reclaim their drug.  Some know that if they inflict tremendous stress on loved ones that they may even convince their loved one to beg them to start smoking nicotine again, or better yet, to go buy their relapse cigarettes for them.  That way, they can blame their relapse on their loved one.  "They just couldn't handle my quitting." "Maybe next time!”

The lengths to which we'll go, in order to feed our wanting, are almost beyond belief.  Yes, some of us will even hurt those that love us most.  Ok, I'm going to stop!   Now I can enjoy my smokes until then!  If you've done this more than once, isn't it just more junkie head games?  This addict wants to feel good about smoking nicotine, and they've learned that, by saying that they're going to quit, they make themselves feel better, even though deep down they know that it's probably just another lie!  Unless something awakens this addict, there may never be a serious quit in their future.