Before you take that next “Not One Puff Ever” puff - just spend three minutes thinking about it. Seriously. Those three minutes might save your quit.
I had a dream the other night that I was writing a blog about people who had quit who were forced to take a puff. Like, ok, you’ve been quit for...however long, now I’m gonna MAKE YOU SMOKE A CIGARETTE! My God. You talk about smoking nightmares. My smoking nightmares were not much of a big deal. I smoked and....so what. I smoked. Those were my smoking dreams. I had lied to all these people and pretended I was smoke free for...however long...and then I just smoked, or just acknowledged it and no big deal. Only a couple of times have I ever had what I call a smoking nightmare where I smoked and was HORRIFIED at myself in the dream for doing so. In most of them I didn’t have a problem with smoking nor lying about it. But I awake from these dreams and in the semi-conscious state I think - did I smoke yesterday? Did I really light up a cigarette? I just don’t remember. And that’s a moment of pure panic. Of course I didn’t smoke. But - those are my smoking dreams.
But this last dream was a doozie. And there’s the question for you. Well, mostly for those who have been quit for a couple of weeks at the very least, preferably for a couple of months, certainly under a year. At your stage of the quitting process, if someone came to you and MADE YOU take a puff of a cigarette (after all you’ve done to be free, after all that emotional and physical cost, after all the study, after all the continued upkeep, after all the time put in) - how horrified would you be? In my case, knowing ALL I know about myself - the addiction and my susceptibility to such - I would do everything in my power to prevent that person from making me inhale one puff of a cigarette. That’s how dangerous I think it is for me.
How dangerous is that one puff for you? Tell us. The truth will set us free. How fragile is YOUR quit? And what are you doing to prevent any possible relapse?
Would it be easy for someone to make you take a puff of a cigarette, or would you fight them with everything you’ve got? That might kinda tell you where you are in your quitting process.
