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Can Kicking the Habit Be This Easy?

Updated on June 26, 2015

Leave Cigarettes Behind for Good

Quitting cigarettes is really about mind over matter.
Quitting cigarettes is really about mind over matter. | Source

They say people have to keep trying to quit.

How many times have you tried to quit?

See results

It Worked For Me

If you are struggling with quitting a bad habit like smoking, you should know that reading books about quitting smoking may help you to leave cigarettes behind without suffering dehumanizing withdrawal symptoms, cravings that are humanly impossible to ignore, and the horrible brain fog that accompanies many people's efforts to stop smoking. All you have to do is to keep an open mind and begin to explore the writings of others who have managed to quit. You are bound to find a connection with at least one, and maybe even several authors. It does help to share tips to resist the harmful nicotine cravings.

Nicotine Patches, Gum, and Prescriptions

None of them worked for me. My doctor told me to use the patches, and I did. I found two things to be true for me about the patches: They seemed to give me more nicotine than I wanted—when they actually stuck to my skin! Half the time they would just come off within a couple hours. When they did manage to stick to me, it felt like they put more nicotine in my system that I was comfortable with. It felt like they would make my heart race and I felt dizzy.

With the nicotine gum, I had the same sensation, plus a burning in my mouth. And although the package instructions said to hold the gum between my teeth and cheek, it was really hard to do this without chewing the gum. And again, the funny sensations of having too much nicotine in my system were just plain uncomfortable to me.

Then my doctor told me to use a prescription medication. This helped some, but I found that it interfered with my sleeping. I would wake up in the morning more tired than I was when I went to bed. And the prescription did not alleviate my craving to smoke. It was a battle of will, but what made me give up on the prescription was lack of sound sleep.

I have heard that these methods worked for others, but they did not work for me.

Disgusting and Filthy

Even when we are disgusted by our habit, it is still a compulsion to continue doing it.
Even when we are disgusted by our habit, it is still a compulsion to continue doing it. | Source

Why I Wanted to Stop Smoking

I had tried so many times to kick the habit that I had truly given up. Although I wanted to become a non-smoker, and truly thought about it every day, I still could not stop myself from going and buying yet another pack of cigarettes. At one point I was spending over $400.00 a month on cigarettes, and I was consuming about two packs daily.

I felt miserable. My ability to breathe deeply and clearly had gone. When I looked in the mirror, my eyes were bloodshot and glassy. I had very little energy and my clothes and my house stunk of stale cigarette smoke. I had bad breath and my skin looked dull and pasty.

And I was spending money I could not afford to spend. I hated that I was a slave to my habit. I hated the way I smelled. I hated the dirty ashtrays and slopping ashes all over everything. I hated the fact that most of my clothes had some sort of little burned holes in them from slopping hot ashes all over myself as I continued to smoke one cigarette after another.

I hated the fact that I avoided the company of my non-smoking friends, because it meant that I would have to skip the cigarettes if I wanted to go with them in their cars. I also hated the fact that I would feel compelled to go out in a blizzard to get the poison sticks when I would have much rather stayed in my warm home until the cold weather was past.

All of this and more I endured so that I could smoke yet one more day, week, month, and year.

And then I found a book by Allen Carr.

How Reading A Book Helped Me Quit Cigarettes.

I believe it was Providence that led me to that particular book. Because I had given up the hope of kicking the habit, I wasn't even looking for a way to quit when I stumbled onto the testimony of another person who had been successful with this book. I read the testimony and it sounded sincere. Yet I didn't rush out and purchase a copy of the book. However, I began to say to myself, I want to stop smoking. And as I would go about my days smoking my cigarettes, I would look at the smoke and ash at the tip of the cigarette and repeat what became my mantra: I want to stop smoking.

While I did not say that on purpose, it seemed the more I said that, the more I found it to be true. And a couple of weeks later I stumbled onto yet another person's testimony of how they, too had quit smoking after reading one of this author's books.

It was at that point that I decided to buy the book. I made my purchase online and promptly forgot all about it. I continued to puff away.

And when the book arrived in the mail, I was happily reminded that I wanted to quit. You see, I had just consumed so many cigarettes that day that I was miserable when the mail came. I had a sinus headache from smoking and had just burned a hole in yet another one of my favorite blouses.

So I pulled up a chair, filled up my coffee cup, lit another cigarette, and began reading the book. As I write this I am smiling at the memory of how happy I became after reading just a few pages. It was easy for me to see that this author knew what he was talking about. He wasn't preaching at me like so many health professionals who have never smoked and do not know what it is like to try to quit. He also was not trying to gross me out and scare me into quitting by telling me horror stories. Every smoker has seen and heard the horror stories. And when people try to manipulate a smoker that way, all it does is make them want to resist.

But I felt like the writer of that book really got what I was going through. And that was what kept me turning the pages. After reading only about 40 pages of the book, I was smiling and looking forward to having my last cigarette. I say again: I was looking forward to quitting.

That was something that had never happened before. Always before this, just the thought of never having a cigarette again would strike fear and panic into my being. My stress level would rise and that would be it. I would just go buy more cigarettes.

This time it seemed as if the reverse was happening. I was feeling excited and energized by the thought of quitting.

So, how did this happen? I cannot describe just how it happened, but for some reason the freedom of not smoking became so real for me as I read the book, that my fears disappeared. I began to remember who I was before I quit smoking and to actually believe once again that it was possible to achieve my dream of being a non-smoker again.

Of course it is more than that, and there are some very simple instructions to follow as you read the book. But you are in control of when you smoke your last cigarette, and you do not have to quit until you are ready. That was important to me. I don't like feeling like someone is forcing me to stop right this moment, or trying to trick me into using nicotine in a smokeless form. .

If you are someone who wants to stop, I highly recommend reading reading about how other people have successfully stopped smoking. There is something about reading that causes us to slow down a bit and internalize the information, and after all, both change, and inventions occur first in our minds.

Walk Away From Cigarettes to Healthy Living

Get a picture in your mind of how you will feel and what you will do when walking toward a smoke-free new you.
Get a picture in your mind of how you will feel and what you will do when walking toward a smoke-free new you. | Source

© 2014 Nancy Owens

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