Most people who smoke or vape have already tried to stop and failed. They cannot understand how they can be so successful in many other areas of their lives - good to their families and community, trustworthy, and solid in their endeavors – yet when it comes to getting free from nicotine it appears they are “wimps”.
Smokers and vapers truly wish they could get free, but since they had a miserable experience in their attempt(s) to stop, they are resigned not try again. They say things like, “It wasn’t the right time. I didn’t really want to stop. I like to smoke and I am not ready to quit.” So they put off stopping until some indefinite time in the future.
What are those methods they failed at? You name it! Most of them are programs or products that promise to take away the discomfort of stopping. They are wishing for magic in any form that will rescue them from going through withdrawal. Thus, the appeal of such things as hypnosis, patches, pills and other forms of nicotine plus all forms of substitution. And for some people, it seems to work, at least for awhile. But unfortunately, there is no magic pill or product that will take away the urges to smoke indefinitely, unless it offers another form of nicotine. So where is the recovery from nicotine in that?
Most approaches establish the premise that discomfort is bad and to be avoided at all cost. But that premise itself is a problem. Why? Because withdrawal is uncomfortable and inevitable. So these methods are merely reinforcing that it is wise to run from their urges to smoke, which only makes their discomfort worse. They are not equipping smokers and vapers with any skills for dealing with them or facing them.
Now I get it, no one wants to be uncomfortable, including me. But we simply cannot medicate our way out of withdrawal and emerge free and clear. “Wake me when it’s over!” Thats what we all want. But that is not the way withdrawal works. And that is what we do not even want to understand! What a conundrum!
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