Ten Steps to Relapse

[margo]

1. "Try" to quit.

2. Idealize life without smoking.

3. Associate your daily problems and disappointments with the fact that you’re not smoking.

4. Begin to buy into the idea that you’re more miserable now than before you quit.

5. Start responding to your problems with, "If this keeps up, I’m going to smoke" then add "anyhow" then add "so why suffer anymore?".

(Alternate 3-5:
3. Associate your success with the idea that you’ve licked the nicotine habit.

4. Begin to buy into the idea that you could smoke without getting hooked again.

5. Follow-up this idea with, "I haven’t smoked in ___ days/weeks/months/years" then add "I haven’t had any cravings" then add "I could have just one").

6. Buy, borrow or steal a cigarette.

7. Find a quiet, secluded place where you can be alone with the substance to which you have attributed all power and promise for fulfillment of your needs.

8. Feel yourself calming down even before you light up, which is actually the Nicodemon ceasing to scratch at your insides as you prepare to feed the addiction.

9. Light-up and suck in all the poison you can get in that first drag, while beginning the battle against being disappointed in yourself, noticing that this fight is not half as ferocious as it was to get the nicotine.

10. Within a few hits, feel dizzy, cough a little, smell the stink, and realize you’re not going to stop smoking that cigarette, you’ll keep smoking despite the bad feelings, and wish you hadn’t given in.


Author unknown

[equus]

This is going on the back of my bathroom door!!!

[historyteach]

Yea, this one is a keeper for sure. I think I'll print it out and give it to the smoke cessation counselor!

Shalom!

[historyteach]

Important reminder...
Thanks, Margo!

Shalom!

[Russia1513]

Your help is much appreciated, allthough I don't use many tools to battle the addiction. On May 1st I will celebrate one year of being nicotine free.
I am a well-practiced quitter, having quit three times prior to this during the course of my adult life, so quitting this time did not present as much of a challenge. ONly one thing made the difference: I am now 44 years old, so the stakes are truly much higher than before, I think. The one thing that made it possible for me was the simple act of placing my right hand over my heart and reminding myself that I get only ONE of what lays underneath. When your shoes finally wear out, you buy a new pair, right? Not necessarily possible with a heart. And the heart IS the big Kahuna, in my book. It, and the brain, are what make ALL life possible.

[freak]

Thank you.

I shudder to think how many times I thought one won't hurt and gave in only to find myself caught once again.