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Originally Posted by pan6467
Exactly, for years you have conciously and subconciously told your psyche that, "the best way and easiest way and perhaps the only way is to...light up."
So, now you are at odds, realisitically, rationally and by all rights you know you need to quit. BUT, your psyche is saying, "ummmm yeah, but this is how you trained me to handle this."
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Very telling and basic. I always compared smoking cigarettes to 'adult thumbsucking' and from past experience with quitting and starting up again, that was/is the case. How I handle stress is to light up. A year ago, I was a 3-pack a day smoker. I thought I'd quit, so I started using a log, writing down the times I lit up. I went down to 1-1.5 packs a day. In the last week, I didn't write the light-ups down and their frequency went way up. But I can't get past that 1.5 number even with logging and knowing what I'm doing to myself with these...
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Originally Posted by pan6467
Hence, Chantix and the Nicotrol inhaler have done away with my physical need but now I have to figure out the psyche. That can only be done when I am 100% willing to let go..... I'm not as much as I want to be, I'm not.
Now, you maybe 100%, in which case your psyche is open to retraining. It may desire to go back to the easy way, but if you see that happening and honestly are at 100% you'll work the psyche to find a better solution than to pick up.
I'm a firm believer in psycho therapy as help, maintianing someone who will work with you (a sober network, sponsor, pastor, lover, relative, friend even God or a combination). Someone you can call and know will help you at 3:30 AM.
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When I asked my doctor a while back for prescriptive help to quit, she refused, stating that first the desire must come from and start with me. She approves the logging idea since it keeps me aware and at the same time, seeing I just had one 5 minutes ago, I step back(although mornings are killer-I 'load up').
When I'm drawing, I don't light up during that time, sometimes going a couple of hours before I realize I didn't have a cig. (it's really hard just sitting here typing and not having one)
In my friend's case, while of course he doesn't toke during working hours, he smokes cigarettes as well, so either way he's filling some 'need'. And, since his job is something that is more or less 24/7, doing it at home then in an office, there are constant triggers he can't escape.
Question: Do you feel that dwelling on the 'reasons' to quit any addictive behaviors works as a trigger to keep those behaviors alive?
I 'know' what is happening, ie; I have a 'nicotine moustache, sinuses are shot, Reynaud's worsens(the only treatment for Reynauds is not smoking), heartburn worsens, breathing is compromised-all things I tell myself are reasons to stop, yet I don't...how does one reverse that? As someone who went through psychotherapy to reverse the triggers of panic attacks and psychosomatic illness, I know how to do that, but how does that work with an addiction? Can it work with addictions?