It was weird for me to say I was addicted to smoking because to me addiction was for drugs or drinking. I guess I did not see nicotine as a drug. But this led me down a path to thinking that smoking was so much more to me than just a drug, i.e. a pleasure, a helper, a reward, a relaxer, a social aid, a friend, a diet, a time killer, a concentrator. I thought I smoked because I liked it. It was part of my character.
When I read Allen Carr I came to believe in his argument that I was smoking because I was addicted, and nothing more. To me this was freeing. I didn't need to smoke to be me. I was addicted to a powerful substance physically and by habit. And I knew that I could kick the addiction if I held out long enough and that I could still do everything fine as a nonsmoker.
I don't see myself as an addict now. I am a nonsmoker. But I would never try a puff again as I know I would reopen healed wounds and become addicted again.
