The easy way to quit smoking

[Mandolinrain]

Let me know when you find it, meanwhile I won’t hold my breath.

It has been MY experience that the’easy way out and through” have bad end results. 

Now Alan Carr did write a cool book called ‘THE EASYWAY TO QUIT SMOKING’ and if there is such a thing as THE EASY WAY’, pinch me please. No, kick me.

I loved the book though. I do give it alot of credit for helping me finally ‘get it’. AND THAT, I supposes was what the EASYWAY was….FOR ME. Getting it. KNOWLEDGE. Things I never knew about the addiction that gave me an AH-HA moment. THAT was what I needed.

Folks, you can search until the sun sets and rises a million times for an easy way to quit smoking but wouldn’t it just be easier to take some time and learn the WHYS of addiction? Then perhaps an inventory of how the ‘WHYS’are  keeping you hooked?

To me, anyway, THAT IS the easy way to quit smoking. Understand your enemy, prepare for the battle ahead of time then go to the front lines and pursue your quit with all the knowledge and artillery that you stored up and WIN!

Or you can keep banging your head on the wall and keep traveling the same ole mountain because I promise you….its going nowhere.

Quitting smoking is just plain hard. If it was just plain easy, there would be no use for this site.

All the aides in the world will not quit for you. Sure they may soften the blow but the blow will still come. Its the KNOWLEDGE about this addiction that will give you the BEST LASTING results, IN MY OPINION, anyway.

Understand your enemy. Look ahead at what you set yourself up for each time you put a dose of nicotine into your system no matter what source it is…nicotine is nicotine packaged in a variety of ways.

So now here comes the part where I share with you that THIS is what I needed to quit. This is what worked for me. No easy way. Even with the  knowledge, I still had to make choices.

The choices were so much more eventful though ( once I read Carrs book) because I understood the challenge of war I was going to be fighting. I was determined to go in and fight for myself. I was worth it. YOU are worth it. Learning that each time I puffed I awoke the enemy and set myself up for the next desire....priceless. Its exactly what I needed to hear to quit the head banging.

The Military has boot camp to prepare the soldiers before going to war…..you have us.

Theres many many a way to win this nicotine war. I have yet to hear an EASYWAY, but I do know from experience, the only way out is through....and a huge dose of knowledge may provide an easier path to follow.

Just a thought.

[meWisconsin]

Wonderful blog Missy.

I never read Allan Carr's book but I found this site the day I quit. The knowledge I learned from the people here helped me understand what I was fighting. That knowledge and my determination that this would be my last quit got me where I am today. Again big thanks to all the EXers I have met along the way.

Keep up the good quit.

Terry 1998 DOF 

[sweetplt]

Hi Missy Mandolinrain as always a very good thought...Hope you and hubs are taking care of each other and getting some rest...be well...Happy Wednesday ~ Colleen 457 DOF 

[Kdot1st]

Hi, I'm a newbie. Starting Day 1 again today after almost 5 days without smoking. 

There is something I'm unclear about. 

Several times I've noticed it suggested that you read up on why. I honestly don't understand why it matters why you have the addiction. You have it because tobacco is addictive & at some point you picked it up. You just do and knowing why doesn't seem important to me. Am I missing something? Not being a SA. I honestly would like to know the thoughts behind wanting/needing to understand the reason. 

Thank you

[Mandolinrain]

For me the WHY involved how my body processed the nicotine I ingested and once I understood how that alone kept me under the foot of a crave...it was easier to break free, I wish you well on your journey and welcome to the awesome community

[Daniela2016]

Powerful blog, thank you Missy, and welcome back!

And Kdot1st‌, Allan Carr's book is not so much about the Why, to me it was about the HOW.  How is this addiction keeping me in its grips, despite many efforts and quit aids I used on prior attempts, it put an image of me, the "village idiot" going through the motions which are biting into my health with every cigarette, and eventually flipped something in my brain, the "Aha" moment Mandolinrain‌ is talking about, which every quitter needs to keep their quit real.  We need to understand the addiction, so we can get the tools we need to deal with it. And the more you understand, the easier it becomes to get through the difficult moments along the way.

One can chose to ignore the knowledge, and just quit, but might find himself lost on the cloudy road to freedom.

Thanks again Missy, quitting and staying quit takes elders like you, willing to take the time to remember, and guide!

[YoungAtHeart]

Once I understood that my craving for a cigarette was actually caused by the last cigarette I smoked (the brain receptors sensitized to nicotine jonesing for their next fix), it was easier to break free of their demands.  Once I understood that these receptors had multiplied, and multiplied again during my time as a smoker, and that they died off when I abstained, it was easier to remain steadfast in my quit.  Once I understood that even just one would awaken the addiction to go again and accepted that fact, it was easier to not give in to the "just one" demand and break free of the addiction.

Know your enemy!

[YoungAtHeart]

Education about why quitting is so challenging was MY key to success.  You put it very well!

[Thomas3.20.2010]

I'm with you, Missy! Knowledge is Power - willpower doesn't work. I willingly decide to remain smoke free today! It's the only way to break down "the only way out is through!" ODAT!

[elvan]

GREAT blog, Missy.  I did not read Allen Carr's book until I had already been quit for a while.  What it did for me was to explain something I really did not know...that I was smoking less and less because my COPD was progressing.  It wasn't a conscious thing, I just could not finish a cigarette and I smoked fewer and fewer until I actually quit. I found this site and read absolutely everything I could find, I read blogs and comments and I asked for advice and I took it.  I knew these people had knowledge that I needed.  Clearly, I could not do this alone, God knows I tried over and over and over again.  I let myself down every time I went back to smoking.  This quit was different because I really did not think I was going to live through my last bout with pneumonia.  Getting up to go to the bathroom would make my heart beat so fast and so hard that I could SEE it through my clothing.  I would be short of breath and absolutely saturated in perspiration.  What a nightmare.  Guess that's what it took for this addict to pay attention.

I DO hope that you and Pete are getting some much needed rest after all of the company and the loss of Mary Lou.

Thinking of you, sending love.

Ellen

[djmurray]

Wonderful blog, Missy.  I read Carr's book on the recommendation from someone here, and it made all the difference in my quit.  I agree with Nancy Youngatheart that learning that I was simply satisfying the craving I created when I smoked the last one was very powerful.  And learning that attitude was everything helped enormously.  I had smoked heavily for 53 years.  Every other time I quit I felt deprived.  I understood from reading Carr's book that I was NOT deprived by not smoking, and I believed it when I read it.  I learned that a crave would not kill me (I know, you all thought I was smarter than that, but I swear, it FELT like it would kill me).  And when I realized that I knew that a crave was uncomfortable -- sometimes extremely uncomfortable.  But why wouldn't it be uncomfortable when I had spent more than half a century (almost 20,000 days) smoking, thinking about smoking, buying smokes, craving a smoke, etc.  It was the most entrenched habit I had ever had.  Smoking is definitely an addiction, but it is also wrapped in a million habits, and they are hard (and quite uncomfortable) to break.  The Carr book did not make quitting smoking easy for me, but it sure helped make it doable.                

[Mandolinrain]

Im pulling for you.....You can do this and we will always be here for you. So glad you're here!