Stopping Smoking – Do You Need Help To Stop Smoking
A great many people see all kinds of things in life in terms of things that they ‘have to’ or ‘can’t’ do, so stopping smoking becomes just one more thing they approach with this attitude.
‘Can’t’ and ‘have to’ are frequently misused in everyday thought and speech. For example, you might say: ‘I can’t have dinner with you tonight.’ This, of course, does not usually mean that you’re physically incapable or forbidden. It simply means you have another engagement that you prefer to keep.
Often, this choice of words doesn’t create much of a problem. In fact, many people get lots of things accomplished by believing that they have no choice but to do them. When it comes to stopping smoking, however, your choice of words – and therefore the way you think – can make the difference between failure and success because of the intolerable problem of feeling deprived and those nicotine withdrawal symptoms.
If you are the sort of person who says ‘I have to’ and ‘I can’t’ a lot, you will need to work hard to alter your way of thinking. And if you do this with smoking, the overall benefit can affect many other areas of your life as well. Freedom feels good!
Own Your Choices and You Take Control
Feeling deprived indicates that you are not taking full responsibility for your own actions. If you really are locked up without cigarettes, your jailer is responsible for the fact that you are not smoking – not you.
It’s an error we are all susceptible to, because in each of us there remains the little child we once were, the record in our memories of a time when we really weren’t responsible for ourselves. When you try to stop smoking, by telling yourself ‘You are not allowed to smoke!’ the child in you becomes actively rebellious.
Becoming psychologically responsible is something we all do by degrees. It is the process of coming to recognize that you are the creator of what you think, feel and do. And it is you and you alone who determines whether you smoke or stop smoking now!
Do You Need Help To Stop Smoking
You might be the kind of person who has difficulty in doing that because you have a strong tendency to blame others, refusing to see your own part in any of the situations in your life. Whether you are smoking or stopping smoking, you see it as just one more thing that makes you a victim of circumstance.
So when you stop smoking cigarettes, you subconsciously blame others and project your anger on to the people around you – family, friends or complete strangers.
Some end up believing they are really very angry people and that smoking is the only thing that keeps their anger under wraps. It certainly can seem that way if you don’t understand what’s really going on.
If this seems to apply to you, all you need to do is remember that stopping smoking is your choice, and that nobody else has done this to you. You may feel angry and resentful when you stop, but it’s because you have forgotten about your freedom of choice. All you need to do is remind yourself, and perhaps join a help to stop smoking support group.
By the way, if you are stopping smoking purely because of someone else, my advice to you is: don’t.
Stopping Smoking - Dealing With Your Cigarette Addiction