What's the difference between a smoker and a non-smoker?

[hwc]

  I came across this wonderful explanation of how smokers have a warped view of smoking compared to the way non-smokers see it and how quitting smoking requires changing this view of smoking.

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   The real difference between a smoker and a non-smoker is that a smoker feels a need or desire to smoke a cigarette and a non-smoker doesn’t, but why? Because non-smokers see smoking with a different frame of mind. Their view of smokers will range from: You pathetic addict, spending a fortune to choke yourself and kill yourself with that poison, to: I just cannot see why he needs to keep putting those filthy, smelly things into his mouth and setting light to them. Many smokers have the same frame of mind, but they have the additional feeling of: I want or need a cigarette.

   Now think of the heroin addict, or the ex-heroin addict that is still craving heroin. Which would you rather be: them or you? Who do you think has the correct conception of heroin addiction: the addict or you? Do you see them as people in full control, enjoying the delirious dreams that heroin induces, or do you see them as pathetic drug addicts, descending deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit that they cannot escape from?

   Provided that you are not a heroin, or ex-heroin addict, you have a considerable advantage, because your brain isn’t warped by the effects of the drug, you are able to see heroin addiction in its true light. Now start seeing yourself in the same light. Non-smokers view you just as you would view a heroin addict. They are just as correct about you as you are about the heroin addict. Accept the fact that you are already descending down this bottomless pit. Fortunately you can escape from it, but the first essential is to realise that you are in it.

   So what we are really trying to achieve is to change your frame of mind, so that you see smoking as it really is without the slightest need or desire to light one. In fact to go one stage further, so that, like me, you get a thrill every time that you realise that you no longer want or need to light one.

   Carr, Allen (1995-01-05). Allen Carr's The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently (p. 125). Arcturus Publishing. Kindle Edition. 

[Michwoman]

Great read!  Thanks!

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I've disconnected from it completely meaning, I would never even consider it.

It's not fear that keeps me from going back, it's intelligence.

I know better

🙂

[MarilynH]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful blog. .....

[hwc]

[quote]It's not fear that keeps me from going back, it's intelligence.[/quote]

Exactly.You don't beat nicotine addcition by being stronger than cigarettes. You beat it by being smarter. It's not a matter of feeling a crave and thinking, "oh, I shouldn't smoke.."

It's a matter of feeling a crave and understanding that you can only make the cravings stop by not smoking. Each crave then becomes a milestone on the journey to get where you want to be. LIke you my exact thoughts were often, "I don't do that anymore..."

[bonnie-12-28-14]

Great!!!

NOPE

[hnolan]

Puts our addiction into perspective nicely. Thanks for sharing!

[CatsRsmart]

Good stuff. Thanks. Here's my version:

Don't feed the nicodemon and he will die.

[djmurray]

It is so about mindset.  If we allow ourselves to "miss" smoking by romancing the experience (which I'm sure is exactly what heroin addicts do -- they're always trying to recapture that first high) -- then we can be quit for 20 years and our addiction will roar back to life.  We've all heard of people who have done that.  So I'm not sure it dies, but it is put to rest and when it occasionally raises its head we have no trouble smiling and saying NOPE -- I don't do that any more.

[tjanddj]

I feels so good to know that I do not want or need one. It is a thrill!