Why Can't I Just Quit?

Knowing that smoking is really bad for your health and wallet makes no difference to how much you want a cigarette. In fact the more scared you are of smoking, the more you feel you need to smoke because smoking calms you down! Smoking might be scary. But stopping is terrifying

Wanting to stop doesn’t stop you wanting to smoke. Smoking may be bad for your health and your pocket, but you still want to do it. You still desperately want to do it.

Key Concept Wanting to stop smoking does not stop you wanting to smoke! No matter how excellent your reasons for stopping are, they don’t stop you wanting to smoke the next cigarette.

 

This is why people think will power is so important. It feels like the only way to quit is to not let yourself smoke even though you desperately want to. It seems as though quitting involves gritting your teeth and toughing it out.
Some people last a day. Some even last a few weeks. At the beginning of a quit attempt the reasons for stopping may be enough to overcome your on-going desire to smoke. But what happens as time goes by?
Well you aren’t smoking anymore. So your fear and anxiety about smoking goes down. The disadvantages of smoking change from being on-going stressful experiences to mere memories. And memories simply do not have the immediacy and impact of real experiences. So your motivation for quitting begins to slide a little bit as the misery of smoking fades into memory.

Gradually fear of smoking stops being able to outweigh desire to smoke and your thinking about smoking changes totally. Instead of thinking about the bad aspects to smoking you are now consumed with thoughts of what you are missing out on.

Once you are in that sort of state of mind you will be looking for a way out. A get out clause that lets you smoke and makes that decision seem okay to you. And we are all very good at coming up with those…

• 'It's clearly not the right time for me”.
• “I'm too stressed at the moment”.
• “Things are too bad at work”.
• “My family need me to be supportive they shouldn’t be expected to put up with my misery”.
• “It's selfish of me to continue not smoking when it's affecting me so badly”
• “I owe it to my boss to smoke again so I can function properly”.

It is important to recognise that our thoughts actually change when we start to smoke again.

• Thoughts such as "I’m scared of getting ill" suddenly change to "we all die sometime".
• "I want to get fitter’ becomes ‘I can take up sport even if I smoke – balance is the key".
• "Smoking is a horrible habit’ changes to ‘smoking is intensely pleasurable".
• "I’m sick of being slave to a drug’ becomes ‘cigarettes are always there for me, they never let me down".
• "It’s embarrassing and anti social when I have to go outside and smoke’ is now seen as ‘social situations are difficult without smoking" or "smokers are more interesting people".
• "I don’t want to die young’ shifts to ‘I’d rather die young and happy than be a grumpy, miserable old git!"

Once your own mind has started rebelling against your self imposed cigarette deprivation you are on your way to smoking again.

BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!

You can be free from smoking. You just need to know how….

Free Yourself From Smoking shows you how to:

• Quit without misery and fear
• Never miss cigarettes
• Take cravings in your stride
• Feel totally confident in your ability to succeed
• Experience less stress & misery
• Increase your confidence
• Quit with a feeling of relief and freedom rather than anxiety or dread.