Are you weak if you cannot quit smoking? -
I have tried a ciggarette or two during my life and have a cigar once a blue moon. I have never felt an addiction or the need for tobacco. I can say the same for many people I know, but some people I know cannot quit. Is this a weakness or are they just fooling themselves and don-t really want to quit?
Hey, Good questions. I hope I can shed a little light.
-As a smoker, all your emotions are medicated with a nicotine packed cigarette: you relax with nicotine; you laugh with nicotine, weep with nicotine, digest with nicotine. You smoke to pass the time, to ready yourself for a crisis, calm yourself after one, even (ironically) to catch your breath during a difficult task. You began your day by dosing with nicotine, your drug of choice (perhaps one among others), and ended it the same way. No wonder that, suddenly deprived of all that, your mind and body go wonky for a little while.-
It takes about 30 days for something to become habit. Once in a blue moon smokers don-t have the consistency of hourly cigarettes to touch the realm of addiction.
The addiction to Nicotine is often out of the body after 7 days of quitting. Yes the nicotine addiction is VERY strong to a smoker trying to quit, but those effects last about a week. The habit is the crunch. Think of something you do everyday as a routine. It can also be seen as habit.
I smoked for 20 years, I quit just over a year ago. Even to this day when I SEE someone smoking I crave hard. Instantly my mind goes into, -You want one, just imagine how good it will feel- my heart races, I get excited, and start wanting one. Then I walk past the person and get a whiff, and think, Thank goodness I quit. How horrible that smell is, did I smell like that? Am I going to get cancer now for smoking so long?
So if you want to know what it feels like, just for the heck of it...
Take something you consume and absolutely love. Chocolate, coffee, tea, if you do par take in those pleasures, it-s perfect, but again remember this could go with anything. Even wine, do you drink wine?
Pick your drug of choice it could be anything like I said. The point is now pick a day, lets say Monday, and starting Monday, you can NEVER have another drink, taste, lick. Never. Never have a chocolate cookie, or hot chocolate, or a piece of chocolate cake. Ever. See how long you can make it before you break down and have one.
After setting your mind to it, and achieving some sort of goal by quitting your dirty pleasure, you MAY see what it-s like to be addicted to cigarettes. The difference being, you don-t really have to. (Smokers do need to quit sadly..)
The analogy is loose in the sense that wine - chocolate, etc are not -bad- for you. So the fear of health problems are low. So the need to quit having those items would be fruitless, but the point is the psychology behind it. When your brain finally realized after a week or two that never means never. It hits home pretty hard and you start to talk yourself out of it. (Imagine if you took my challenge, and two weeks from now you come across a hershy kiss in the drawer... no one would know that you ate it, but again, never means never. Would you be albe to not eat it??)
It gets scary when your -crutch to almost every part of your day- gets taken away FOREVER.
If you can stop eating chocolate for a year, without sneaking a bite at all, Kudos to you for having strong willpower. Honestly though I doubt many people could take on that challenge and be true to it for the long haul. Thank goodness chocolate isn-t bad for you right.
Now the next time you have a friend trying to quit, and they fall off the band wagon, just think of how hard this really is for them and support them. The mental chaos that goes on in the mind of a smoker that has slipped is something you will -thankfully- never have to experience due to your lack of having a cigarette addition, but remember, just because you don-t understand it, doesn-t mean the people trying are weak, or ignorant to wanting to quit. It simply means you don-t understand what it-s really like to deal with an addiction.
Good luck with the challenge if you choose.
Graham
I-m in the throws of my own quit, 2 weeks today, and I always joked how Nicotine was a cruel mistress. After reading this answer I see how right I was. Cigarettes have been there with me through everything, highs and lows. Pretty amazing insight.
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There-s truth on both sides, I-m afraid. Nicotine is more physically addicting than heroin. The body adapts to the poison, and when it-s taken away, the body craves the poison as though a vital body chamical necessary for its survival is missing.
Then again, I know people who-ve quit cold-turkey. It can be done.
But it takes a certain type of individual with a lot of determination and discipline and a lot of self-will energy. -Strength vs. weakness- may be oversimplifying.
No, it has nothing to do with weakness. Nicotine is addictive... as addictive as heroin. And heroin addicts get to go to rehab, while smokers have to continue with their daily lives. Not to mention, that cigarettes are available in about every corner shop. People who quit smoking (even with things like the patch, nicotine gum and other aids) often suffer from depression, aches and pains, nightmares, the shakes, severe headaches, barking, hacking cough, difficulty in breathing and so many other symptons, it is no wonder so many people fail to quit.
Good news is that it can be done. If someone can-t quit cold turkey, they can talk to their doctor about other options... there are so many ways to quit these days, that it is easier than it was years ago.
No you are not weak you are addicted