Fixating on a cigarette

[babs609]

Fixating on a Cigarette 

What happens to some people is that when they are off smoking for a certain time period they start fixating on a cigarette. By that I mean they forget all the bad cigarettes they ever smoked, they forget the ones they smoked without ever really thinking about them even at the time they were being smoked, and they start to remember and focus on one good cigarette. It may be one they smoked 20 years earlier but it was a good one and they now want one again. 

It's a common tactic for the ex-smokers to try and tell themselves that they do not really want that "good" cigarette. Well, the problem is, at that moment they really do want it. An internal debate erupts, "I want one, no I don't, one sounds great, no it doesn't, oh just one, not just one!" The problem is that if the ex-smoker's focus is on just "one" cigarette then there is no clear-cut winning side to the debate. The ex-smoker needs to change the internal discussion. 

Don't say that you don’t want one when you do, rather acknowledge the desire but ask yourself, "Do I want all the other cigarettes that go with it. Then, do I want the package deal that goes with the others? The expense, social stigma, smell, health effects, possible loss of life. Do I want to go back to smoking, full-fledged, until it cripples and kills me?" 

Stated like this it normally is not a back and forth debate. The answer will normally be, "No, I don’t want to smoke under these terms," and those are the only terms that a cigarette comes with. Normally if viewed like this the debate is over almost immediately after being pulled into focus. Again, if the focus is only one, you can drive yourself nuts throughout the entire day. If you focus on the whole package deal, you will walk away from the moment relieved to still be smoke free and sufficiently reinforced to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! 

 

 

 

 

http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/11387#.UwcE76SYa0

[BAT]

Woo Babs … Been there and done that. ...Thank goodness I have all of you going through the same thing I'm going through. It makes it a whole lot easier for me to wrap my brain around it. 

 

When I get the urge now I just try to narrow my focus on the effects that smoking a cig would have on my heart and lungs.

[El Bandito]

Hey Babs - pass me that good cigarette would you...

 

Oh wait? To have that ONE - I need to take the other 900 per month?

 

Ummm Thanks - but no thanks. They taste like crap anyway.

 

Not

One 

Puff

Ever

 

Fantastic thread ;)

[MarylandQuitter]

NOPE, we can't have just one puff, much less one cigarette.  GR8 post.  :D

[action]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

That has helped me more than you know :)

[robf]

The only good cigarettes have no tobacco and are full of that green stuff and make you giggle and obsess over the details of 70s prog rock... Not that I'm condoning casual illegal activity though.

 

That aside, the only draw I've had to smokes is the social aspect of it, almost the ritual of rolling one up (my friends and I only ever smoked rollies, which could lead me onto an entertaining story when I was in a New York bar rolling a cigarette, but that's for another day!)... But it all comes down to logically, it's a dumb thing to do, you're right, there is no 'good' cigarette.

 

I keep reminding myself when down the pub when I see swaithes of my friends getting up and going outside every 18 minutes or so to fill their lungs, pleased I'm out of that game!

[Doreensfree]

Bump

[Sirius]

Ever light a cigarette while your previously forgotten cigarette is still lit?   :wacko:

[kiwilee]

Thanks for this very important reminder!!

[Reciprocity]

How you doing Kiwilee - still pushing forward?

[Sazerac]

On 4/8/2014 at 9:43 PM, babs609 said:

Fixating on a Cigarette 

What happens to some people is that when they are off smoking for a certain time period they start fixating on a cigarette. By that I mean they forget all the bad cigarettes they ever smoked, they forget the ones they smoked without ever really thinking about them even at the time they were being smoked, and they start to remember and focus on one good cigarette. It may be one they smoked 20 years earlier but it was a good one and they now want one again. 

It's a common tactic for the ex-smokers to try and tell themselves that they do not really want that "good" cigarette. Well, the problem is, at that moment they really do want it. An internal debate erupts, "I want one, no I don't, one sounds great, no it doesn't, oh just one, not just one!" The problem is that if the ex-smoker's focus is on just "one" cigarette then there is no clear-cut winning side to the debate. The ex-smoker needs to change the internal discussion. 

Don't say that you don’t want one when you do, rather acknowledge the desire but ask yourself, "Do I want all the other cigarettes that go with it. Then, do I want the package deal that goes with the others? The expense, social stigma, smell, health effects, possible loss of life. Do I want to go back to smoking, full-fledged, until it cripples and kills me?" 

Stated like this it normally is not a back and forth debate. The answer will normally be, "No, I don’t want to smoke under these terms," and those are the only terms that a cigarette comes with. Normally if viewed like this the debate is over almost immediately after being pulled into focus. Again, if the focus is only one, you can drive yourself nuts throughout the entire day. If you focus on the whole package deal, you will walk away from the moment relieved to still be smoke free and sufficiently reinforced to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! 

 

 

 

 

http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/11387#.UwcE76SYa0

 

 

[catlover]

So true. Thank you.

[Tammy]

Yes, I agree @babs609, I'm just a day into my quit, and my brain is compartmentalized, with the yays and the nays... 

All I keep telling myself is if you can't keep a promise to yourself, what's the point of anything...