Quit Cigarette Smoking~Will it Help You to Quit Smoking?

Quit Cigarette Smoking~Will it Help You to Quit Smoking?

Cutting down on cigarettes, it’s a technique that most of us will use when trying to give up smoking. It’s a good theory isn’t it, “I am preparing my mind and body for quitting cigarettes, by reducing the amount I smoke each day”. Seems to make sense, but the problem with theories is that they don’t always work when put into practice. Most of us will try this technique (including me) but I bet for 99.9% of us it didn’t lead to quitting.

Here are some reasons why.

The idea behind cutting down is to give you some control over your cravings for cigarettes.

Unfortunately when you do this, the exact opposite happens: You just give the cigarette more control than it has ever had before.

This is how it will work.

Say you usually have a cigarette every hour or so. You decide to cut it back to one every two hours, essentially halving the number of cigarettes you smoke each day.

By the time an hour is up you will want to smoke. This is the time you usually have one, but you think: “I will wait another hour.”

In stead of thinking: “Boy, aren’t I being good, I’m not smoking for another hour.” You will instead be thinking: “Boy I want a cigarette, how long to go; I need one now, cigarette, cigarette, cigarette”.

I know what it’s like when the need to have a ciggie hits you, all you can think about is lighting up. It won’t go away until you have that first puff. It is very hard to concentrate on anything else.

In this extra hour of waiting the quality and quantity of work or play may have suffered because your concentration is fixed on smoking. All you have achieved is kept smoking on the brain for a longer period.

The worst thing of all, is you have put the cigarette on a big, giant, golden pedestal.

Now, once the two hour period is up, the next cigarette you smoke is going to be one of the best you have ever smoked. You have waited and suffered, now you get your reward.

The last thing you want to do when quitting smoking is make a cigarette into a reward, but that’s what cutting down does. It makes having a cigarette a rewarding experience.

Sooner or later you will end up smoking as much as you did before you started this charade. Sure you may be strong for a few days, or maybe even a few weeks, but by keeping smoking on the brain you are sure to fail.

Because you still smoke, you have them on you at all times, temptation in your pocket. When you get stressed, or you desperately need a cigarette, are you just going to keep saying no when temptation is an arm length away? Of course not! One day you will give in, and you will tell yourself just this once. But once will turn into twice, twice into three times and before you know your back to square one.

Cutting down will never lead to quitting because even though you are waiting to have a cigarette, you still end up having a cigarette. Turning a cigarette into a reward will never lead to stopping. The only true way to quit is to not smoke, period.

Quit Cigarette Smoking~Will it Help You to Quit Smoking?