Does this sound familiar – you are quitting smoking again but as withdrawal starts kicking in, the thought comes to your mind “Why am I doing this?” If you made the list you start going through it eliminating one reason after another.
You probably had the same reasons to quit as I: health, money and partner begging you to stop this filthy habit. First symptoms make these reasons seem so insignificant and inapplicable to me. You already know the result but still you start the debate.
I didn’t feel that bad, so health didn’t feel that important of a motive. Sure I regularly had flue or bronchitis and was out of breath easily, but it might have all been due to desk job and diet. I got used to the routine of regular illness and it seemed normal at the time.
Money as a motive also got destroyed quickly. Smoking did cost me as much as owning a car but it’s my money and if I choose to smoke- it’s my right. Somehow smoking became about freedom and independence.
This kind of thinking nicely worked to eliminate the last reason. My partner didn’t want me to smoke because I smelled bad and I put them in danger. For you it might also mean that you want to protect your child from smoke.
They knew what they were getting into. It’s not about me choosing smoking over loved ones. It’s about them not accepting who I was… as if cigarette was a part of “who I am”.
On average it takes seven attempts to finally quit smoking for good so it is a good chance that we both had the same conversation. 1
Nicotine addiction is a tricky thing and the one fooling you is yourself. The moment you ask yourself “why should I quit smoking” is the moment you have mentally given up.
Health, money and loved ones are very important reasons but unfortunately when the addiction starts asking to feed it they seem not that important. For full disclose I “quit smoking” I think 5 or 7 times and every time the moment I asked that question I knew that it won’t last.
Make a list of reasons why you want to quit. You might even come up with a list of reasons why you need to quit.
Lists are good to keep you on track or to do checks but if you just write them down, these reasons will be only words. My problem was that on all those failed attempts I had reasons why I was quitting but as the nicotine starvation began it seemed like a fair trade off.
I received a letter with a comment “Not cigarettes but life kills!”. That’s exactly what I was saying to myself and that’s one of the reasons why you continue smoking.
Many things are bad for you. I would ask myself why I should quit if even people who don’t smoke get diseases. I was trying to justify my smoking.
I was constantly on the look-out for stories that prove that tobacco is not that bad. Regularly news report about some old lady from Cuba or something, who lived to 110 and she smoked cigars all her life. Such stories were providing me with relief that I am not an idiot to continue puffing my life away.
I did it and you are probably doing it. That’s why the first step is to acknowledge that you are actively lying to yourself.
You are smoking because you believe that smoking has a positive function to you and that your smoking has a minimum (if any) impact on your future. You need to not only know but to actually understand the impact smoking has on your mental and physical health, that smoking doesn’t have any positive function to you.
Life is a lottery but you need to understand that every single cigarette is another ticket in your pile and the prize is a horrible disease. People do get lung cancer even without smoking but you need to understand that it’s smokers who get it 9 out of 10 times. 2
Same goes for the positive functions. Most common misconception is that smoking helps you calm down. Understand that it is not – that smoke just calmed the craving that was caused by smoking. Your smoking just feeds this circle of misery and nothing else. You are being controlled by your addiction.
You need to ask not “Why am I quitting?” but “Why am I smoking?”. Put the habit on the defensive.
Once you realize that smoking doesn’t have any positive function and actions you take now have a direct impact in the future – this will be the moment you quit your nicotine slavery for good.