I think I’ll put this Sunday morning rambling in “help to stop†rather than day 1, oh, and happy mother’s day to all you lovely mothers out there..
Let's just hope it doesn't end up in "reasons to welcome Mr Shouty"
“Knowledge is ammunitionâ€
I spent a lot of the autumn undertaking hospital visits to a sick relative. Getting stuck in the COPD ward made me realise that I really ought to try giving up the fags again. I was a serial quitter, regularly stopping for between 3 and 12 months and once for 2 years but always coming back to them.
When I got home I trawled the web, I needed to know why I couldn’t keep up a good quit. I spent days reading stuff, some real rubbish of course, some cruel exploitive stuff but also some really eye-opening information.
I’d always known how bad they were for me and what their payload could ultimately deliver but none of that told me why, as a well educated, intelligent forty-something, I sat there smoking them.
The “everyone does it†excuse was wrong. I was the sole office smoker, the sole smoker in my household and the sole smoker in the band I play in but I still smoked.
Three writers helped me, Joel Spitzer, Allen Carr and Neil Casey. Between them they erased 25 years of ignorance and showed me why I smoked and it didn’t cost me or the NHS a penny.
The last smoking advice my doctor had given me was, “you know it’ll catch up with you in the end.†Why couldn’t SHE have told me why I smoked..?
Now of course you have a dilemma. The moment you know why you smoke you also know how to stop..
In my case I stared at my laptop, fag in hand, thinking, “surely not? Have I just spent the last 25 years doing that!â€
That fag I was smoking was my last. Its 19 friends still live in my kitchen as a reminder.
Once you know why you smoke you have a simple choice and please, oh please don’t take the following the wrong way…
You either stop and feel embarrassed for all those wasted years and money…or…you don’t. However, if you don’t stop you haven’t really understood the question.
I’ve seen posts on here that said summat like, “I’ve read his book/been to his website, it didn’t work for me,†which suggests that there’s a technique involved which of course there isn’t, unless you call reading and short term recall a technique.
I was at a Christmas party talking to 2 ex-smokers. One was 25 years clean and knew why he’d smoked, the other was 15 years clean, had had a gut-wrenching quit, still fancied a fag and spent a lot of the time telling us how grateful he was that the smoking ban had reduced his temptations in the pub. What was obvious was that this chap was basically still a smoker who hadn’t smoked for 15 years and.......... that now reminds me of how I stared this post.
I know it doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you get there but “there†isn’t on the map. I spent 2 years as a non smoker and didn’t get there. This time I spent 2 days on the web and I think my feet are firmly under there’s table…!! (i've even taken my shoes off and i'm exploring the shag with my toes)
This is not a dig at anyone or their methods, i just honestly believe that you know when you've cured your addiction.
Don't be afraid to investigate the subject.
Knowledge vs willpower..?
hah..no contest.!
Happy Mother's Day mum..!