The Gollum analogy - more food for thought for the newbies

[Connie55]

I am reposting this blog post I wrote almost 5 months ago for all the newbies I see on here struggling in their early quits. I hope this helps them realize how cigarettes had enslaved them and I hope this helps them through the coming days.

"When reading Dale's blog posting about NML (no mans land) and considering how my life used to be as a smoker compared to how it is now and how I want my future to be, it occured to me that I was a lot like the creature Gollum from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

The only difference is my "precious" was cigarettes and not a gold ring. Just like Gollum obsessed over the ring, my life revolved around smoking, I was a shell of my former self (I think, because I couldn't even recognize my former self), and my health and life were fading away. And just like Gollum I was afraid to be too far away from "my precious" and would get angry when separated from it. My precious cigarettes took priority over just about everything in my life. Even as they were taking my life away. Just like Gollum. Just something to consider before you think of picking one up again.

The saying that was engraved inside the ring Gollum was so obssessed with was :

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

The cigarette will bind us forever in darkness."

[Junior7]

Thanks for the food for thought!

[Connie55]

Instead of "One Ring" we need to be mindful of the "One Cigarette" that could rule us and bind us! Everytime you see a cigarette, think about Gollum. When you see someone smoking a cigarette, imagine they are Gollum. Or the covenience store clerk selling cigarettes, imagine Gollum offering you a "precious".

[aztec]

Wow Connie!

Makes cigarettes dispicable and horrible thinking of them as Gollum

Thank you so much for the visualiztion and comparison to smokes.

[carole19]

TY for sharing...I have a simular analogy..but it is the "WIZARD of OZ"  I wrote to myself a few days after my quit.....

[Jordan-11-1-12]

I've always felt so sorry for Gollum. No one deserves that kind of torture.... Comparing it to smoking is perfect because cigarettes are just as devious and evil. Even when you have the best of intentions (like with the Ring) NO good can come of it! When I crave, I sometimes say, "Its tricksy," meaning the addiction. It really is.

[froguelady]

What a fantastic blog.  It is so very true that cigarettes will keep us chained to something that comes first, smoking.  Newbies please take this blog to heart and go forward to FREEDOM, it is a wonderful place to be.

Thank you Connie for sharing.

[bella65]

What. A bling thank you Connie I never got into them movies but what a great concept thanks for sharing