After several start-stops, I decided to give it another go during Rosh Hashanah with the idea that I would not bring it with me into the new year. The past few times I have quit, I have managed to stay off for 5-6 months. It feels a bit like the anti-depressant trap of “I feel better, so I’ll stop.” Or in this case, “oh, I’m not addicted anymore so it must be okay for me to have a cigarette every now and again at parties or hanging out with so-and-so,” which quickly spirals.
This Summer, I learned that I was using nicotine to self-medicate ADHD and anxiety which is a catastrophic plan since nicotine dependency and the attendant mini-withdrawals of smoking addiction massively exacerbate both conditions. I am now in the initial stages of treatment for both so I am guardedly optimistic that this quit will go better.
And yes, I have read ‘the easy way to quit smoking’! :p Great book up to a point.
I think you have to fail a few times before you realize that there is no such thing as ‘just one cigarette’. It’s a tough thing to come to terms with but I quit three years ago now and haven’t looked back
That’s so awesome! It’s really crazy how ‘it’s just one’ becomes addiction again. Which stinks because I do genuinely enjoy that ‘it’s just one’ soooo much at the absolute right moment. But that just ain’t it. In a way it’s a beautiful elaboration/object lesson of ‘On Practice’ and how a series of incremental quantitative changes eventually shifts to become a qualitative change.