The nicotine is what keeps you connected to the ritual, but The ritual is what keeps people smoking

3 9 195

So much so,

Many believe they can't live without it.

I believe the emotional ritual we each develop is harder to let go of than the nicotine.

This is why I suggest handling quitting in two stages,

the physical addiction by breaking away from the nicotine first, and then, the ritual tied to our emotions by forming new routines that are not connected to smoking.

9 Comments

You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.

Comment

About the Author

Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.

EX Community

The nicotine is what keeps you connected to the ritual, but The ritual is what keeps people smoking