Looking For Comfort in a Cigarette(repost)

Looking for comfort. This is one of the biggest reasons that can make a person's quit fail. I know from experience, that this was the reason that made me give away many quits in my day. It's amazing how I used to look for comfort in the very thing that I was trying to free myself from. Why did I do this? Was it simply because I was a nicotine addict? While I can't deny that I was (still am) a nicotine addict. This irrational thinking was also caused by something else. I was also brainwashed. I was still under the illusion that smoking did something for me. I was under the spell of thinking that on some level, cigarettes helped relieve my stress, that they helped me to cope with my emotions, and that they made me feel better. The problem was, these junkie thoughts were only re enforced every time I tried to quit smoking, because everytime I quit: 1. I felt more stress 2. My emotions felt up and down 3. Withdrawal made me uncomfortable. It wasn't until I educated myself,stop smoking now, that I realized that smoking didn't help me with any of those things that I mentioned. As a matter of fact they created these problems. The only thing smoking could do was relieve withdrawal. A withdrawal that the previous cigarette created. That's all it could do! It is a one trick dog! But what a trick it was! It kept me addicted for 21 years. 12 of them with me saying daily that I hated smoking. This is the cruel trick that cigarettes play on smokers. They create an illusion that we want to smoke, by taking away and giving back just enough to make us think we need them. This illusion causes smokers to focus on the relief that the cigarette gave them and causes them to quickly forget that it was the previous cigarette that created the anxiety in the first place. Being in the grip of addiction makes a smoker terrible at math, because if we could have just added 2+2 together. We would have realized this obvious, simple equation. Think about when you smoked. What did you feel? The more a smoker smokes, the more nothing seems to happen. All it does it bring the smoker back to a temporary feeling of inner peace. This is the cruel trick. It is a false sense of accomplishment, because even though a cigarette causes a smoker to take two steps back. The smoker only focus's on the one step forward that came from relieving withdrawal. A withdrawal that shouldn't have been there in the first place. The sooner a person quitting is at peace with the fact that they no longer need cigarettes. That they see smoking as a lie. The quicker they will find comfort. Comfort does come from getting past withdrawals, craves and thoughts, but understand,stop smoking, it also comes from something else. Comfort also comes when you quit fighting yourself. By reading and educating yourself here. You will break this illusion of smoking. You'll erase the misconceptions you have about smoking. This will help you quit fighting yourself. For the new quitter. Breaking the illusion of smoking, might not stop withdrawal or craves and thoughts. What it will do is change how you deal with them. Understand that smoking doesn't do anything FOR you. It only does TO YOU! It takes away your choices. It takes away your freedom. It takes away your confidence. It takes away your hard earned money. It takes away your health and it may very well take away your life! Do not look for comfort in the very thing that you are freeing yourself from, because there is none! You didn't like smoking when you quit and nothing will change if you decided to smoke one now. Look at all your past quits and you'll see that you don't even have to take my word for it. There is no comfort in cigarettes. Only addiction and misery. The only thing that will change is the fact that you were on the other side of the fence with addicition. The freedom side. By tasting freedom, it only makes smoking that cigarette taste that much more bitter. I cannot stress this part enough. Quitting is not forever! Trust me it is not. Yes when we first quit, we go through withdrawal. The withdrawal turns into craves. Those craves turn into thoughts and eventually those thoughts will turn into memories. Craves do not last forever!! The only people who have craves forever, are people that don't quit smoking. The beautiful part of quitting is that you now have a choice! Keep choosing FREEDOM!!! NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!!!Eric