Are you really addicted to cigarettes and smoking?
Today I'm really on the nicodemon rampage and have the positive energy to write after a nicotine free 55 days. I guess I am being powered by righteous anger and want to do something to help my fellow man who has helped me. This is a quit smoking forum but I've learned so much recently about what my real problem is. What is my problem? Is my problem really just smoking itself? I learned this word "nicodemon" from quit smoking blogs and I think its a good way to describe the culprit who is responsible for our addiction. Finally the demon has been named. The nicodemon!!! Is this really about smoking cigarettes or our addiction to nicotine? Has the nicodemon been so subtle in his ways that we've never noticed or never tried to find out exactly who the culprit is? They put signs on cigarettes saying that smoking is bad for our health and causes this and that but who is shouting out loud about the nicodemon? Surely nicotine is bad for us too but nicodemon is sly and we can't blame everything on him, can we? Nicodemon is like an Al Capone who is responsible for murder but could only be charged with tax evasion? Why can't governments and advertising companies be forced to write about how terrible nicotine is for us and how its poisonous and responsible for getting us hooked on the cigarettes. I've not investigated this much but I'm pretty sure that cigarettes are not just tobacco leaves anymore and my guess is that the money for the large ciggy companies comes from injecting nicotine into our fags.
Of course, someone might say that we are responsible for our addiction - but then again, we aren't fully responsible if we've been ignorant, deceived or misinformed. I honestly believe that most smokers don't really know what they are doing and how they've been suckered into nicodemon's trap. We should forgive all of those who don't know about the nicodemon don't you think? Everyone says "Stop Smoking!" but who is saying "Quit nicotine and you won't smoke?" Lets hope that more people become aware of just how bad nicotine is.
This time round is so different from every other time I've tried to quit. This time round I've not quit smoking. No! I've quit nicotine!
Well said and I agree. I have been reading Allen Carr's stop smoking books and they say exactly what you have said. Thats why I have failed to quit before on previous attempts on NRT, still subjecting my body to even small amounts and eventually i've relapsed after 6 weeks of torment!!. Now 66 days nicotene free and have no real urge to smoke, i'd like one from time to time, but not enough to want to go back and have that demon laughing at me again!!
All so very true. The addiction is masked by enslaved behaviours as well.
Everyone's journey is different to getting out of the fog that is nicotine addiction. And it is a fog.
Reading the posts on this site has helped immensely- yours included.
Somewhere, someone else gives you the strength to keep going.
Ages ago, I read, I think it is whyquit.com gave some good physical notes on nicotine addiction. They were very good.
I know that coming to this site has been my saviour - I have not yet given enough back. Debts for my life back will be repaid!
Hey Gina A, thats how I feel now. I want one from time to time but not enough to want to go back and have that demon laughing at me again. I don't want to take the first nicotene product which starts the chain of horrible events. I don't want to be cheated again. Anne55 yes I am trying to unlearn these enslaved behaviours one by one. Looks like this is where I've been brainwashed to believe I need a ciggy for everything I do.
I'm grateful to everyone who has posted snippets here and there over the last few weeks. Sometimes I just needed that extra bit of ammo to justify why its better to be without smokes or any form of nicotene.
Good post and I think coining the enemy as 'nicodemon' is good. The further I get into this journey the more I realize that there is a physiological addiction (not just nicotine but also the brain's entrenched need for a circuit breaker) and a psychological addiction. The first we overcome in the first few weeks (sometimes longer) and the latter depends entirely on our personalities, our habit and our life circumstances. It is the latter that I find hardest to beat - but beat it I will. As I have said repeatedly - it is a formidable enemy no matter what we call it.
Well done on your achievement and for keeping up the battle.
I recon after the nicotine is gone some say 3 days I recon more like 6 months before the body starts working without the nicotine influence, guess that depends on how long and how much someone smoked.
but once the stuff is gone the only thing that can make me smoke is my mind, so yes its a powerful drug and does some weird sh$t to my body and brain only finding that out after 29 days nicotine free still feel dirty from the stuff yukko !!
but yeah NRT would have never worked for me for a whole pile of reasons.
so good thread and thanks for the posts and helping me stay nicotine free today :) I am super happy about that !!
IC
Dear IC,
I have a lot to say at the moment, so I'm going to say it!
I've read several people's testimonies on quitting and I think that you are right to say that it can depend on how much and how long someone smoked. I've had a problem with people threatening me legally for many years which has had a massive toll on my overall wellbeing. Finally I was dragged to the court and eventually we ended up in a mediation session where it became obvious that the legal fees probably outweighed what we were fighting over, so we all settled and decided to live and let live. Its funny how that even though this is over, I still can't get used to the fact that it is over and I sometimes still worry about it, even though its not there anymore. My brain was hard wired to live with a terrible threat over my life for several years and now that its gone I am relieved - but there are still remnants there, kinda like in the peaceful times after a storm is over where everything is fine again but things have been blown here and are not in their right place and I need time to see whats out of place, to collected the pieces and to put in the right place one by one. I think the 3 months, 6 months or however long its going to take is a great idea. Maybe I should not be so hard on myself and allow myself this amount of time to recoop to the best I can be as an ex- smoker i.e. I view the nicotene addiction as one victory and the fight against the brainwashing as another.
I had a strange dream 2 nights ago. I dreamed that I was not smoke free for more than 50 days and was somehow reversed back to 1 week by some kind of power. What a weird dream where my achievements have been rolled back and clipped short? I think this is the mind and as you say "the only thing that can make me smoke is my mind"
I think I'm a perfectly sane and reasonable person. I try to reason with people in my life and I think I'm often quite good at it but maybe I need to get better at reasoning with myself? Speaking out my thoughts or penning them down often help me reason with myself if there is no good friend around to talk to.
I am thankful for the people here and don't feel like a complete stranger.
If the government was seriously trying to stop smoking it would be prescription only, not available for the next victim to torment and label.
