Originally Posted by
Morning Glory 
I've realized that smoking for me is mentally the same as eating and drinking is for my physical survival. Bottom line is survival.
It is the Addictive Voice itself which makes it appear to be the same as your physical needs for survival. It is an illusion of necessity, since obviously, many people don't smoke, and millions have quit smoking, without dying as a result.
Originally Posted by
Morning Glory I had surgery recently and couldn't have food, water, or smoke. Those are my 3 survival mechanisms. I can live without anything else. I think smoking really does play a part in my mental and emotional survival and it doesn't get replaced when I quit. My brain does not have the ability to feel any pleasure due to years of complex PTSD. I think smoking is the little bit of pleasure in my life that I can actually feel.
So it is a basic survival instinct that is as strong as hunger and thirst.
I won't question the validity of your PTSD here, Morning Glory, but there is no separation here. Your Beast itself has no PTSD, after all.
The Beast is a revisionist, and it will change the motivation for smoking, in order to conceal the real reason. In this case, it is 'borrowing' from your personality and history, and equating its own needs for survival with your own.
The Beast's survival depends on control of the "I" in your mind's eye, and this is largely achieved through its use of language. It is important to recognize such thoughts as those of the Beast -- as AV -- and not your own.