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Best Quit Smoking Strategy?


Dr_Evil_Mouse

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that whole wanting thing bugs me because it also lends people a reason not to quit. "I don't want to quit. I LIKE to smoke". 'liking to' gets confused with 'addicted to'.

You may want to quit, but the addiction fools yourself into thinking that you don't want to quit.

I think that's where I've always come from around the problem of addiction. These things are so woven into the body it's like trying to win at arm-wrestling yourself.

Gregory Bateson had a great piece way back when ("The Cybernetics of Self: a Theory of Alcoholism") on the psychology of AA and why it works so well as a system to help people past this problem of will by getting them to acknowledge a power higher than their own will. It boils down to the total failure of will expressed in "hitting bottom" - otherwise you're caught up in a contest of will within yourself that gets nowhere, builds up resistant pride, and allows the time and continuity for the addiction to dig itself deeper into you making it endlessly harder to get out of it.

As he saw it, someone who really gets past an addiction ends up really the wiser for it, because there aren't that many people in this culture, which puts so much stock in willpower (in that twisted, Cartesian, mind-over-body sort of way), who can see its limitations.

(I'm still waiting for any of my addictions to really pay off that way ;) .)

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i don't know.. everyone is different.. i think liking and addiction do go hand in hand.. you know liking smoking on long car drives or liking smoking after dinner, etc.

That's what I'm sayin'...isn't it? The line is fine and you like something because you are addicted. However, it isn't a genuine LIKE. Here...replace 'addicted to' for 'like'...

think liking and addiction do go hand in hand.. you know addicted to smoking on long car drives or addicted to smoking after dinner, etc.

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I've had 3 smokes since Jan.1st.

Midweek I'm doing ok. Weekends i'm struggling. }:|

My massage therapist told me that it's harder on women because when they quit smoking it's like taking them off their anti-depressent pills. All the many joys of being a woman!?!?!?

I wish I had a penis! ;)

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i met this cool cat at slammin jack after keller on friday named william i think (not smoothedshredder) he was friends with hal johnson and his crew. he'd just quit smokin 3 weeks ago and had the BEST attitude towards it. he was SOO HAPPY he was quitting smoking. was looking forward to all the shit that comes with not smoking. i don't know whether he really felt that way or was trying to trick himself, but it was AWESOME. I think saying things like "i can't smoke...booo..i'm quitting smoking this sucks" and sulking only sets one up for failure.

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You can thank Esau for the new avatar, he's far more creepier and sillier than I could ever dream of being.

**Life expectancy update**

62 more minutes added, which makes a grand total 273,820 minutes or .520966514 years deducted from my time on this miserable rock.

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I read Carr's book as well (the short version) and haven't smoked for a month. I smoked for 20 years and never tried to quit before. I agree that you need to develop the mindset of a nonsmoker. You shouldn't use will power to quit because this would indicate that you think you are missing out on something....what could you possibly missing out on anyway? It is also very important not to have the odd smoke....It just sets you back and you are more likely to fail in your attempt to quit for good. It isn't as hard as you would think, it's worth giving it a try, the sooner the better. I like being a non-smoker!

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