Hello,
I had a fellow tell me the other day and I quote his remark, “I don’t smoke because I am addicted to smoking, I smoke because I like it.”
I did not attempt to rebuke his statement because I know the true facts about smoking and nicotine addiction. I know because, having been a former smoker, I have been through that same ordeal and have told other people that same lie. However, at the time or times I made that same remark I was convinced that I could quit smoking any time that I wanted to quit and I only smoked because I liked it.
After having quit smoking, cold turkey, many, many years ago and beating lung cancer I recently learned, in the last ten years, the truth about nicotine addiction.
The truth is that nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to mankind. It is said to be more addictive than cocaine or heroin. Once introduced into a person’s body, either through smoking or chewing tobacco, the effects of nicotine remain for a period of up to 72 hours. Any introduction of nicotine to the body causes the addiction to reoccur. Nicotine is a greedy addiction and as a person continually smokes and reintroduces nicotine into their system the addiction becomes stronger and stronger with each puff. It usually starts out as an attempt to try smoking and it ends up as an addiction that lasts for the rest of their life.
So I ask the question, “Is a lie always a lie?” In this case I would say, “Yes it is!” The person making the statement does not realize that it is a lie because they may not know the truth and the truth is that they are indeed addicted to nicotine. They actually believe that they can quit any time that they want to, and they can if they truly want to quit, but the key is they have to WANT to quit. Until they want to quit by completely stopping the use of tobacco products they are addicted and they will continue to feed that addiction by continuing to smoke.
If someone makes that same remark to you and you have read this article then you know that they are telling you a lie and you can understand their frustration (lie) is caused by their addiction and is not directed to you personally. But the sad part is that they are lying to themselves and they don’t even know it.
There are several things that are necessary in order to quit smoking forever:
- A person has to know why they smoke. They smoke because they are addicted to nicotine and each time they smoke a cigarette they reinforce their addiction.
- A person has to want to quit, really, really want to quit smoking. They have to want to quit smoking more than they desire to continue the addiction.
- They have to realize that they can never, never ever smoke again.
The only way to break the nicotine addiction is to stop smoking and never introduce nicotine into your system again by taking another puff.
