Junkie Thinking

[historyteach]

I posted this a few years ago, but, since we have so many newbies now, I guess it's time for a re-run!

Junkie Thinking
or
Excuses to smoke

JUNKIE THINKING: "One Puff won't hurt"

RESPONSE: "One puff will always hurt me, and it always will because I'm not a social smoker. One puff and I'll be smoking compulsively again."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I only want one."

RESPONSE: "I have never wanted only one. In fact, I want 20-30 a day every day. I want them all."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I'll just be a social smoker."

RESPONSE: "I'm a chronic, compulsive smoker, and once I smoke one I'll quickly be thinking about the next one. Social smokers can take it or leave it. That's not me."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I'm doing so well, one won't hurt me now."

RESPONSE: "The only reason I'm doing so well is because I haven't taken the first one. Yet once I do, I won't be doing well anymore. I'll be smoking again."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I'll just stop again."

RESPONSE: "Sounds easy, but who am I trying to kid? Look how long it too me to stop this time. And once I start, how long will it take before I get sick enough to face withdrawal again? In fact, when I'm back in the grip of compulsion, what guarantee do I have that I'll ever be able to stop again?"

JUNKIE THINKING: "If I slip, I'll keep trying."

RESPONSE: "If I think I can get away with one little "slip" now I'll think I can get away with another little "slip" later on."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I need one to get me through this withdrawal."

RESPONSE: "Smoking will not get me through the discomfort of not smoking. I will only get me back to smoking. One puff stops the process of withdrawal and I'll have to go through it all over again."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I miss smoking right now."

RESPONSE: "Of course I miss something I've been doing every day for most of my life. Bud do I miss the chest pain right now? Do I miss the worry, the embarrassment? I'd rather be an ex-smoker with an occasional desire to smoke, than a smoker with a constant desire to stop doing it."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I really need to smoke now, I'm so upset."

RESPONSE: "Smoking is not going to fix anything. I'll still be upset, I'll just be an upset smoker. I never have to have a cigarette. Smoking is not a need; it's a want. Once the crisis is over, I'll be relieved and grateful I'm still not smoking."

JUNKIE THINKING: "I don't care."

RESPONSE: "What is it exactly that I think that I don't care about? Can I truthfully say I don't care about chest pain? I don't care about gagging in the morning? I don't care about lung cancer? No, I care about these things very much. That's why I stopped smoking in the first place."

JUNKIE THINKING: "What difference does it make, anyway?"

RESPONSE: "It makes a difference in the way I breathe, the way my heart beats, the way I feel about myself. It makes a tremendous difference in every aspect of my physical and emotional health."

There's good food for thought in every one of these responses to the excuses we give ourselves in order to smoke.

Three of them are really speaking to me now:
"I'm doing so well, one won't hurt me now" ()
"If I slip, I'll just keep trying" (Rationalization)
and
"I'll just stop again!" (Yea, like it's so freakin' easy!)
Talk about your junkie thinking! OMG!!!
And I'm really tempted, cuz my son and his smoking g/f is staying with me for the week. It would be so easy to get one!

But, I don't *want* one.
And I remember that each craving for a smoke is when I'm attributing something positive to that sickarette. Well, there *isn't* anything positive about it at all. It stinks, it's costly, it makes me sick and so many more negative things. Isn't it funny that it's so easy to forget the 1000 negative things when we attribute something positve to a butt that doesn't, in fact, exist???
I guess that's why they call it denile, LOL!

Keep the quit and post before you puff!

Shalom!

[AliceinWndrland]

historyteach, this is fantastic! I'm going to print it out and carry it with me. I'm so mad at myself - because I did "slip" today. Day 3 and already a slip! Well, nothing to be done now but TRY again tomorrow!
This basically says everything that went on in my head earlier!! I will definitely use this in the future to combat my dumb thoughts...

[historyteach]

Alice,
Don't beat yourself up.
Just get back up on that horse again, and ride into the freedom of the sunset, smoke free!

It happens, it's not the end of the world. We are not losers until we quit quitting!

Shalom!

[AliceinWndrland]

thanks ht. I'm trying not to beat myself up, just feeling frustrated with myself. This seems to mirror where I am with a lot of things - alanon, dealing with my A father, dealing with a painful break-up that happened in march... I feel like I have the TOOLS to deal with these things, but where the "S" hits the fan, I keep going back to old ways. I need to figure out what I can do "FIRST" before I make a mistake, to try and keep myself from making that mistake. That's why I liked your list, because it very specifially said some of the things I was thinking in my head - and now I have a perfectly reasonalbe and right-on response I can go to to combat my own twisted thinking. I liked the idea of being an upset non-smoker still being better than being an upset smoker! My biggest challenge in every area seems to be PATIENCE! I just want to be quit NOW! But I am definitely climbing back up on that horse... thanks for the encouragement, I truly appreciate! Hopefully, I'll have a better report tomorrow. I did it before - went a whole year and a half... I KNOW I can do this!! I just need to use all the great tools I've found...

[tstorm08]

Thanks Historyteach! It's so true. I quit mid April. Last week I had my first slip. I just wanted to try it. I smoked 3 puffs, and got dizzy. I threw it away. But...I've been thinking about smoking since...wish I'd never gave in. Why this week? Dunno. Gotta stop thinking about it......