Many addiction treatments say that once you are an addict you will always be an addict. The only way to overcome your addiction is to admit you are powerless over the substance and only a power greater than ourselves can help us. Each and every day you need to acknowledge that you have an addiction and need to fight it. You are an ex-drinker or ex-smoker, telling everyone just how awful their habits are for them as you think about them every day.
This works for some people, as any alcoholic anonymous member will tell you. However for many others it simply places the substance firmly in the front of their minds, where they have to use willpower to resist temptation. The problem with willpower is that eventually it runs out. Resistance becomes too hard, and your resolve weakens, you take a drink or light a cigarette.
An alternative is to make your habit so unpleasant that you don’t want to do it. Scaring you out of smoking for example. This doesn’t work, take a look at the government health warnings on cigarettes. Every time a smoker picks up a pack they see horrible photos that show exactly why you shouldn’t smoke. Their loyalty to smoking overcomes the fear, and they quickly learn not to see the photos.
There is another way. Instead of fighting your smoking habit, leave it behind altogether, and join the ranks of those who have never smoked. Become indifferent to it so you no longer even think about smoking. Imagine that; no stress, no arguments with yourself, just total indifference to smoking. No having to stop yourself from smoking or worrying about how you will cope with the next craving.
This may seem a long way from a 20 or 40 a day habit. But it works. It starts with identifying what needs smoking meets. Do you feel like you need it to relax? Nicotine is actually a stimulant that releases adrenaline into your blood stream, not very relaxing at all. However, smoking involves taking deep slow breaths. It is this that relaxes you. Why not try it out; take some long slow breaths, in … and out… and see just how calming it feels. Like smoking a cigarette without the negative effects.
Many people are worried that everyday will be one long battle to smoke. Becoming a non-smoker means removing the tension from deciding whether to smoke or not. I don’t walk around all day wondering if I should start taking heroin, I’m a non-heroin user. It doesn’t even occur to me to think about it. Being a non-smoker is the same. Imagine for a moment that smoking has no hold over you at all, that you no longer have a relationship with smoking. You are not anti-smoking, that takes up too much time and energy. Smoking no longer fits you, it’s like an old pair of socks that are not fit for purpose anymore and you can just pop them in the bin.
The AA approach is once an addict always an addict, as if smoking is something that happens to. It isn’t and doesn’t have to be who you are. You were not born a smoker, though you could die one. Once you see that you are so much more than a smoker you can put it to one side, no matter how many you may have smoked or for how many years. You simply don’t see yourself as a smoker anymore, as it isn’t a part of you. It has become alien.
This may seem far from where you are now, or you may be ready to quit right away. Either way why not read my free ‘get ready to quit’ e-book and begin to see how you can become a non-smoker. You may be surprised at just how easy it is after all. Simply visit my website and leave your details, I’ll email it out to you so you can see how to become a non-smoker.