I went to the Alan Carr stop smoking clinic and as a part of the therapy and if you don’t stop they give money back, ( so any of you don’t manage to stop ) it’s worth a shot, sadly I am one of these people that can’t seem to get hypnotised 
but I still took home some truths, Anyways, I want to share my experience and what I learnt with you all as it may help you,. They made it clear during the 4 hour session that smoking is actually a mental addiction not physical. it does not actually hurt you stopping like heroin for an example it’s a mind game and that is what makes it much powerful drug then heroin, crazy to think that stuff we stick in our gobs day in day or one the most highly addictive drugs on this planet and one of the hardest to break! Scientifically proven.
Nicotine is very powerful and no other drug can create two feelings at the same time, it can make you happy and it can make you depressed! if we had of known back in the day and the shop keeper said to you " if you buy this pack of cigs it will make you so happy and relaxed" the next day the shop keeper said " if you buy this packet of cigs it will make you depressed and will cause short tempers to ensure you have another" you simply would not do it and that is the trap we are in now!
A harsh fact, if you took out the nicotine from pack of cigs and injected the pure liquid nicotine straight into your blood stream, it would kill you out right! a horrible shocking thought to consider. the reason it does not kill us and keeps us hooked is that its absorbed through chemicals and inhaled THEN soaked into the blood and evaporates within 20 mins max! Hence the constant cravings.
I also learned in this session that, the nicotine is so powerful it actually changes the way you think, it can actually cause you to think negative thoughts to feel down so you automatically light up for a fix! it also dampens your high moments, when we get excited we go straight for a cig, to again claim down, this is where the brain thinks it needs calming and the only way to do that is though a cig and if we don’t have them, we get agitated and our moods change!!! Think about it, crazy I know but this is the most powerful drug on the planet remembers. Think about times where you got stressed for no reason? We all do it this is why, it’s the drug!!
Take away all the smoking related deaths, i have personally saw my gran die of smoking related illness ( lung cancer ) my mum has COPD and in using inhalers to breath for 48 years of smoke, she had her lungs tested and they are of a 90 year old!! Bad isn’t it but this was still not enough to get me off them, this shows just how powerful this shit is!!!
ok so it’s not 100% proven that smoking will kills us but we all know it does not help and contributes a lot, I look at it like walking on the M25 your risking your life by getting hit by a car at 70 or as some crazy people like to drive more like 100 MPH anyways, you may not get hit by a car and killed but you may not!! What you are doing is increasing your chances to crazy levels of being killed instead of walking on a quiet road in a country somewhere, where you decrease your chances by a good 80 %
As the therapist told me, it is simple and easy to stop it does not hurt you! It won’t kill you! Nicotine starts to leave the body after 20 mins and no traces what so ever in 48 hours!! How can giving up something you hate be a bad thing? How can you crave something that more than likely will kill you, why should it be hard to give up something you really don’t like? It should be the opposite!
When you feel light headed, or a bit sick, or a bit agitated, enjoy the feeling, what you are feeling is life coming back to you, feeling them slight withdrawal your freeing yourself of years of abuse! It is a mind drug and simply switching that around in your brain is easy. The easiest most painful way to stop is 1, don’t have one and 2, forget it move on! Just say I don’t smoke and smile, your mind will soon adapt.
A key thing to remember is you are not quitting as you’re not quitting or changing your life or routine the only thing you’re not doing is not sticking a cig in your gob! still go to the pub, still go outside with the smokers on your break, still go outside with the smokers down the pub never ever change your routine, if you do you will feel like you’re giving something up or missing out when you’re not! if you start to change the routine you’re in this is part your brain feels its missing something.
You could argue well why don’t you do this Derek? As I said, I need help with the mental side, I stopped for 4 months using this and not once did I crave or miss smoking, I ended up back on them with alcohol which is another story all together which I will tell you, this is my down fall every single time Alcohol when I get so drunk I have one and then bang its back, I understand what it up against now, I understand what I need to do and I intend to do this, I am not scared anymore of not smoking and not scared what I am going to miss out, I am not scared of thinking " I have a meal, I have a wine, I need a fag during work" I don’t need a bloody fag and I will enjoy not having one at these time as I don’t want a shitty little stick controlling me and I certainly don’t want to pay£8.00 for the pleasure of being warped.
Alcohol, it’s true that whoever drinks alcohol may increase their intake of cigs me? I can get through about 40 on a night out or dinner party, I love the whole not smoking in bars as I get to go outside and mingle with others and I find it more sociable lol.. Anyways take away alcohol do you seriously think you could smoke 40 plus the 10-15 you had during the day totally 50-60 fags in one day? I would physically throw up! I only smoke 20 a day max, the reason we do this is alcohol numbs you and you are able to withstand it! So next time you’re drinking and have a minute craving (that’s all they last for) just push it from your mind.
Keep going out side with smokers if that’s what you enjoy you don’t need to stick one in your gob to so******e any crazy thing nicotine has us believe.
Like the smell I love the smell of fresh cigarette it calms me ( probably a childhood thing from mother lol ) any ways I love the smell of petrol too at the garage but I am not going to drink it!! Think of cigs this way, end of the day what’s in petrol is what’s in cigs after all, again it’s not like you will drink petrol? If so why smoke ?
The government are saying how dangerous the drug is which is true but if it’s that bad why is it not illegal? I tell you why, money!! They rake in about 15 billion a year in cigs and I strongly believe, these nicotine replacement patches, gum anything nicotine related is a very bad thing! Why do you want to stay on something that you’re trying to get away from? Think about it, your addicted to Nicotine not the fag you are not addicted to the cig, your addicted to the shit in it that controls you. Why do you want to stay on that? It’s all about money the longer your addicted to nicotine the longer your will fund the governments tax. There is no way in hell they want everyone to stop as where will they get the 15 billion from? They want us to stay addicted; the amounts of people I know who have used some sort of nicotine replacement only to buy a pack of fags, they doubling their cost! Not to mention patches are expensive.
The extremely harsh reality of this is, we are all drug addicts and drug abusers, I bet you have never thought of yourself a drug addict have you ? well we are, nicotine is a powerful drug more addictive than heroin which puts us in the same category as them. The beauty of Nicotine and the only beauty is, it’s out our system in hours and we don’t suffer the horrendous effects like heroin ( thank god )
But yes once reality hits home it’s a shocker, I never thought of myself as a drug addict and I don’t want to be one, so as above you can stop this, by A, just don’t have one and B forget it, that simple.
Derek
I stopped smoking yesterday
Not smoking and not caring
This is on whyquit.com-kinda harsh!
