If you’re a smoker I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is to kick the nasty habit. Everyone I talk to about smoking cessation seems to have their own beliefs about the best way to go about things. For me, traditional nicotine replacement therapy, hypnosis and “Stop Smoking” books only prolonged the agony before my willpower collapsed and I became a smoker once again. The smoking ritual that had become an integral part of my life was something I just couldn’t stand to lose. Going to the newsagents to buy my supplies, rolling the perfect cigarette, lighting up and spending five minutes of quality time with smoking friends, how do you give up an activity that seems to define who you are. Never mind the fact that the your beloved tobacco products contain one of the most addictive compounds known to man.
For me, the mind is the battleground where your fight against nicotine really takes place, the physical addiction is really a secondary consideration. On the one hand we hate the fact that our habit is shortening our life and on the other we are experts at putting all the health worries associated with our habit to the back of our minds. We foolishly convince ourselves that either, “It’ll never happen to me”, or that we will give up smoking at some point in the future before the health problems start to manifest themselves. As long as we don’t have to confront the nicotine monster until tomorrow, life is good.
I’m still struggling with these issues if truth be told. However, slowly but surely I’m coming to terms with the fact that I won’t be a smoker forever, and being a non-smoker isn’t going to result in some bizarre mutation of my personality. I’ll still be the same person. My fiends will still see me as the same person. The transformation from one person to another is only happening in my head.
