It's all in the name

[nsd_user663_59644]

NASTY

INVASIVE

COSTLY

OVERATED

DEADLY

EVIL

MIND BLOWING

OUT DATED

NEVER

That's nicodemon. SOOOOOOOOOOO Why oh Why do I struggle so much, 8 weeks Saturday on the patch,

Hope all have good day to day

[austinlegro 11 Years Smoke Free]

...Why oh Why do I struggle so much...

You've got to remember that you're fighting a battle on two fronts and that's never a good thing.

If you're following a course of NRT that's pretty much your bond with old Nic sorted but that's not quitting smoking, that's just managing your nicotine withdrawal and it's quite a minor fight.

The key, imo, is understanding why you smoke.

Every time a smoking opportunity arrives your subconscious will prompt you to smoke. It doesn't make the blindest bit of difference whether you're sucking on an inhalator at the time or whether you've got a patch on. You will be prompted continually until you decide to light up. You don't even have to smoke, just lighting up will kill the prompt. The prompt isn't a need for nicotine, it's purely a need to smoke, to restore habitual behaviour.

The prompts don't happen when there is no smoking opportunity.

Most smokers fly (in an aeroplane) without difficulty and don't have to wake in the middle of the night to smoke a fag. Many can easily limit their consumption during the day to coincide to known break times and so on. Our bodies, accustomed to nicotine, can actually go without it for a fair time before we suffer from proper physical withdrawal.

What most people think of as withdrawal is a psychological dependency on tobacco that means that even those using NRT still wish to smoke.

A big part of quitting is striving to 'get the mind right', to, in effect, condition the brain to act as though it's asleep when it's awake, to make it think it's permanently on an aeroplane.

If you can out-stare a mental prompt that manifests itself as a physical need you're laughing and each little battle gives you better ammunition for the next one.

The craves come thick and fast in the early days but slow down due to the prompts being less regular. For example you get the morning prompt every morning whereas the lying on a beach in the sun prompt is a little less frequent!

People who quit, “just like that” aren't hit with a massive dose of willpower one day or some super inner strength, they have something more akin to a change of heart rather than a change of mind.

That change is within all of us. Some of us need to actively pursue it, to some it comes quicker than others but all long term quitters have it.

It even comes to those that chip away at it slowly.

You will struggle less.

[nsd_user663_59644]

Addiction

Thanks for replays food for thought , and great replays, shall be re reading, just so can absorb all the info, thank you,