Little experience gained as a result of five years of smoking and over 20 attempts to quit smoking. If he gives you new thoughts, then I will be happy.
I will say right away that there will be no speeches about the dangers of smoking. Myself - I have been smoking since I was 15. I smoke a pack / one and a half a day. And I am writing this post more for myself, tk. it is an attempt to sort through the experiences of five years of smoking and over 20 attempts to quit smoking. And if he pushes you to new thoughts, then I will be happy.
The most amazing discovery for myself I made when I realized that nicotine is a real drug, legal, but still a drug. But we smoke because we just like it, right?
Remember, a cigarette in a good company of friends, after a glass of beer, the first in the morning or after sex, even in the afternoon? God, what a thrill and relaxation. How wonderful it is to smoke in the sweet moments of life, drag on with sweet tobacco, like a seasoned sailor.
However, I smoke 20-30 cigarettes a day and only 1-3 a day bring such pleasure, what about others? They taste unremarkable and are smoked automatically, I go out of the house to the store, from the store, to the bus stop … and light a cigarette without hesitation.
And what about those cigarettes that were smoked during bronchitis and tonsillitis? It's painful, disgusting and gagging, nothing like smoking a cigarette after great sex.
Strange, the cigarettes are the same, but the sensations are different. And then I realized that it is not the cigarette that paints the event, but the event that paints the cigarette. So, I'm not smoking for pleasure, maybe it's just a habit?
When we try to quit the habit of smoking, we become nervous, irritable, miss a cigarette, constantly chew something to distract ourselves … Are there other such habits, the withdrawal from which is accompanied by weeks of black depression, and when you are drunk you also return to this habit? For example, you had a coat with buttons for 3 years, and now a jacket with a zipper, for the first 3 days, you may still just mechanically try to button up the buttons, but who will get depressed and nervous about this?
A habit is smoking the same brand of cigarettes, using matches or a lighter. And you can't call smoking a habit, it has nothing to do with other habits. Yes, just a cigarette is life support and support! or not…
When I have a serious meeting, an important event, an important phone call, or I just need to focus on something, I light a cigarette, calm down, and become more confident. But my non-smokers don't need it. And the most interesting thing is that if a non-smoker is given a cigarette to calm him down, then there will be no effect. Why?
This is the climax. Nicotine is incorporated into the metabolic chain of chemical elements in the body. Now, without this nicotine, substances from this chain will not be fully produced, for example, "hormones of happiness" - Endorphins.
Now, you cannot completely relax or focus without nicotine. In fact, when we smoke, we are trying to regain the state in which we arrived before the addiction to nicotine. And the saddest thing is that drugs shatter the nervous system, and even smoking a cigarette, we feel more nervous than non-smokers, besides, over time, the need for nicotine increases more and more.
Therefore, in fact, a cigarette gives nothing, neither relaxation, nor concentration, nor salvation from boredom - nothing! She only partially returns you from the state of withdrawal, to which she herself led.
And now for the good. Nicotine is a weak drug. For example, I can sleep 10 hours, and then calmly get ready, have breakfast … imagine 10-12 hours without a cigarette and I feel great. Once, during an important, 5-hour exam, I did not even think about cigarettes.
I drew conclusions for myself: I am a drug addict, covering up my addiction with excuses about pleasure, support, habit … My drug is weak and withdrawal from it is not stronger than hunger before dinner. Therefore, I will now go and smoke a couple of the last cigarettes in my life to make sure that there is nothing pleasant in them, and I will begin to recover from those 10-15 thousand cigarettes that I smoked.
