Often, we smokers and vapers associate the smell of our tobacco brand or vape flavor with the sweet smell of relief. But there is no sweeter smell than the absence of that smell because it announces victory over the need for relief in the first place.
My clients often are surprised and pleased that they have gone for hours without the reminder to fulfill the need for relief. They can’t believe they would ever get to a place where the need for relief wasn’t pushing them around.
You notice I keep calling that need relief, instead of pleasure or comfort because to an addict what is pleasure or comfort is the relief from the discomfort from going without nicotine. That is the nature of addiction: discomfort of going without – relief, discomfort again– relief, and on and on, day after day. More accurately, that discomfort is the beginning of withdrawal which each addict ends by lighting up. So, the truer dynamic is withdrawal – relief, withdrawal – relief, and on and on.
This is exactly how our addiction turns our heads upside down. Let’s face it: our smokes are poison, an insecticide, that causes all our organs in our bodies to be polluted to such a degree that disease and deterioration of every kind takes hold if left un-arrested. And vapers are not spared by believing that vapes are less harmful. It is just that scientific proof hasn’t yet caught up with what is taking place in our hospitals. Just as with tobacco products, vape solutions also change the DNA in one’s mouth and throat, and contain such substances as vitamin E acetate, formaldehyde, nickel, lead, and diacetyl. Just to give one example, diacetyl is the substance that adheres popcorn to the flavorings sold in movie houses. So diacetyl is now used to adhere the flavorings to the vape solutions that are being ingested into a vaper’s lungs. Thus, some vapers are getting what is called “Popcorn Lung” because the flavoring gets stuck in the lung tissue. Safer, really?
Yet, we endow our nicotine poison with all sorts of heartfelt meaning. Our smokes are our best friend, our security blanket, they help us cope, we just aren’t “complete” without them. We make excuses and bargain with ourselves that we are going to quit at some indefinite time in the future, but just not right now. Because we don’t want to admit that we don’t know how to stop without being miserable over that discomfort we keep ending with each hit or toke that we have been carrying around for years. (What we resist, persists!)
So, the question is: How bad does it need to get before one takes action? When are we going to do our best to get off the merry-go-round? Where and when is our bottom? Usually, a bottom is something that happens to us. It is not something we seek out. But, the consequences of waiting will be much worse than they already are now. We can raise our bottom. We don’t need to wait for a doctor to tell us what we don’t want to know.
Addicts have a built-in negative attitude towards discomfort. It is what keeps us in our place. But what if I told you that it doesn’t need to be misery? That you don’t need to be in a state of deprivation while stopping, that the need for relief is just a house of cards, that you don’t need drugs, replacements, and you don’t need to have anything done to you that you can’t do yourself, and feel whole in the process? “No way!” you are probably thinking. But, “Way!” I insist. No kidding. And no transference from smoking to food. So, no weight gain.
Check out my new website Chooseavapefreelife.com and see my Foundational Video that gives you a complete outline of how this approach works. And click on the testimonials of my clients. I am happy to book a free, half-hour session with you to see which method of learning is best for you. You too deserve the sweet smell of victory!
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