Changing
Changing
From gummer on 2/8/2008 8:20:37 AM
When you start, quitting is all about denying yourself... denying yourself cigarettes... and pleasure... and comfort... and relaxation... And the result is a mighty struggle, marked by unhappiness, and listlessness, and depression, and irritation. That makes sense. After all, who in their right mind likes to feel deprived for days on end, with the prospect of a lifetime of longing?
But don't think it will always be this way.
As you move along your quit this feeling will change. Your views on smoking will change. And suddenly you will find that by not smoking, rather than denying yourself all those good and familiar things, you are really denying yourself misery, and addiction, and cancer, and servitude, and hassle, and dependence, and disease. Once you see it this way, then quitting will no longer be difficult; it will be desirable, so desirable you will not want to smoke even if you are suffering withdrawals.
Smoking fooled you. It really did. You may not see it now, but if you do not smoke you will. Smoking stealthily crept into you and gently made you so dependent that you confused the relief of getting it when you needed it into a pleasure you were seeking voluntarily. You imbued it with all kinds of powers to relieve stress, and tedium, and fear, and boredom... when all it was doing was soothing the burning need it created in the first place... WHILE at the same time fueling that dependence even further.
This is why you cannot smoke at all if you want to quit. Because any time you do, it fuels that need that clouds your judgment and prevents you from changing your views on smoking. You need to move away from the addiction to get perspective on it. You need to be able to stand back from it and refocus in order to see it clearly. And the only way to do this is to stay away from it. But when you do, it will lose any appeal it had.
Gummer