One of the most prevalent messages you hear from your Addictive Mind is "I'll just have one and...I'll feel better!"
The problem with that is once you've smoked that sickerette, you won't be satisfied at all! If you are a serial relapser like I was then you know I speak the truth! Pretty soon, you'll want that "just one" again! If you borrowed that "just one" you'll be borrowing that "just one more." Then your Addictive Mind says, "Look at you! You're so selfish! You're borrowing like crazy! You need to buy that person a pack to make up for it!" So, you "generously" buy that person a pack - just to make up for the ones you borrowed! Oh, and while you're there at your favorite place to buy them, it just automatically slips out of your mouth, "Marlboro Reds 100s in a hard pack, please!" Now, you could say, "Well, not really! I didn't mean it! It just stumbled out of my mouth by mistake!" but you're too embarrassed to admit it! So before you know it, you're standing in that old smoking place, doing that old smoking thing and you look up at yourself and you say, "What the he!! happened? I didn't even like that! And didn't I just quit, for crying out loud?" You look at that burning coffin nail hanging on the end of your finger and you smell the stench. You think of the horrible way your chest is constricting, the awfully familiar scratch in your throat, and imagine your genes changing right in front of your eyes so to speak. You remember all the reasons you wanted to quit,the promises you made to your loved ones, to yourself, the willpower it took to get through Day 1, Day 2, etc....You wonder how long it will be before everyone knows that you're a failure again! You feel defeating, destroyed, obliterated!
And there's only one thing to do - have another sickerette! Then convince yourself you "like to smoke!"
There's just no such thing as one - sickerettes are like wolves, they're killers that travel in packs!
Remember that there are only two good reasons to take a puff once you quit. You decide you want to go back to your old level of consumption until smoking cripples and then kills you, or, you decide you really enjoy withdrawal and you want to make it last forever. As long as neither of these options appeal to you - NOT ONE PUFF EVER!
