You are absolutely right @Pilgrim... but please examine your thoughts about the that first "exciting" cigarette you had. Was it really that exciting? Did you love the taste of the hot air burning your lungs? Did you really love the feel as you probably wanted to gag a bit after that first puff? Did it really feel like a lot of fun? Probably not. The nature of the addiction is that our brains trick us into believing that a cigarette was responsble for creating this imaginary exciting pleasure. That' really the brain distorting the truth. It is false evidince that appears real. You are doing amazging in our quit but I offer abit of advice. Please re-examine that belief you have about the excitement of smoking a ciggie. Its a form of romancing the smoke which can be the cause of a future relapse my friend..... the next frontier for you to overcome in your quit process is to overcome this false thinking. This is what is needed now for you to maintain a long term quit.
Keep up the good work.... you are doing aweseome.
@Pilgrim ... give this a read. From an old mentor of mine in Quitnet.... he responded to me when I was in the midst of glamorizing and romancing a cigarette.....
RE: Dangerous Thinking----Help
From danl1 on 9/21/2004 8:56:09 AM
No buttkicking for you today, because weakness is not the problem.
Never was, really.
The only problem you have - or ever did - is that you believe that smoking has a way to improve your life. It does not, and the last 107 days have proven that to you if you'll only pay attention to the lessons.
Chances are you are "romancing the smoke" - remembering it to be an enjoyable thing to smoke. IT'S NOT. The things you were doing while smoking - say, relaxing or socializing - were good things, but the cigarette did not enhance that experience at all.
Take a moment to remember the first cigarette you ever smoked, carefully, fully, and honestly. Nasty, Gross, Dizzying, and Nauseating. I've never met anyone who honestly said differently.
Cigarettes never changed. They always were and still are perfectly horrible things. It's only a mistaken perception - one that nicotine helped form - that has you believing that they are any good. It was the things surrounding smoking that were 'good', and cigarettes only stole credit in your mind. It is an error.
Stop believing and you will end the desires/urges/cravings. That's the only way they can form.