Well, Yes...from the standpoint of this true saying:
"I'm a puff away from a pack a day!" but that doesn't mean that I have to grapple with my lifetime addiction on a daily basis other than simply to affirm my decision to LIVE Smoke FREE! The vast majority of days, my feelings about smoking, even exposed to smoke,smokers, or cigarettes is Thank God I'm no longer a prisoner of my Addiction!
I don't even grapple with that beginner's question: to smoke or not to smoke! I firmly know the answer to that question!
Honestly, once in a blue moon, I have had the experience of a memory crossing my mind followed by the thought: "A cigarette would be nice right about now!" This is an Addictive Mind thought and so weak that I easily can counterthink: "What a ridiculous thought! No way would I even truly enjoy that sickerette! What I truly enjoy is my QUIT!" I then take a long purging deep breath and relish the fact that I can!
At times I ask myself if I would decide to smoke if I had lung cancer and only days to live.... The answer to the best of my honest ability to put myself in those shoes is an emphatic NO! I CHOOSE TO DIE FREE! In all honesty, this is a very valid question for those of us with COPD/Emphysema because our chances of getting lung cancer are elevated.
I believe that when a person anticipates quitting or begins their quit journey and then finds out that addiction is for LIFE they can become discouraged, imagining that the intensity of feelings is the same throughout when in fact, there are stages of one's quit journey, as emphasized here in the EX Community.
It certainly is different once the Nicotine is out of your system as well as when you realize and recognize the vast advantages of quitting! Once you get out of NML (No Man's Land @130 days quit) the temptations are more memory than physical cravings and more abrupt and surprising than before. That's why the way in which we deal with them has to be different both in knowing that they are possible and not a sign of failure on our part as SUCCESSFUL QUITTERS and with the way in which we let go of those memories and put ourselves firmly on the Quitter's Road for LIFE! I was ashamed to admit that I was tempted Months after having quit but honesty is the BEST anti-addiction tool we have!
Am I an Addict? Yes! Do I suffer from Addiction daily? NO! I'm a PROUD EXer for LIFE!
