Cognitive Quit Smoking

6 Responses to “Things humans do to themselves”

1. Wilma Renita Says:
   October 16th, 2004 at 9:04 pm

   Phil,
   I just had to say, this really sums it all up, what it’s like to be a smoker
   and to quit smoking:
   “Tonight I ‘want’ a cigarette. Now I ‘know’ that is patently untrue. Now -
   how can I simultaneously want something and not want something? Easy. The
   answer is to have been a smoker. ‘Do you want a cigarette?’ Yes. ‘Do you
   want to be a smoker?’ No.
   Ok we’ll try again. ‘Do you want to be a smoker?’ No. ‘Do you want a
   cigarette?’ Yes. ”
   Couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks for the chuckle.
   Amber

2. Raleigh Missy Says:
   October 17th, 2004 at 11:55 pm

   Hi Phil,
   It’s good to hear from you again. Congrats on your 2+ months quit.

   Yes it is one of the wonderful parts. It’s a freedom of self that a
   smoker can’t experience.
   Interesting that phenomena isn’t it? You no longer have a chemical
   addiction creating the need/feed cycle, yet you had an urge for a
   cigarette. Why? What specific physical sensations were you experiencing
   that were interpreted as an urge to smoke? Did you feel tat way before you
   began drinking?
   That sounds awfully permanent, and terminal. Personally, I don’t
   consider myself a nicotine addict any longer, at least not by my definition
   of addiction (the body’s need to maintain a particular level of a chemical
   in order to prevent the onset of discomfort when the level of that chemical
   drops). There are a few others here who might argue the validity of the
   
   statement that “we are all addicts”. But whether or not we are, it really
   doesn’t have a lot of effect in terms of us quitting and becoming
   comfortably quit.
   By engaging in dangerous behavior like ‘tasting’ a cig? Why did you
   think you where “supposed” to do that? I’m afraid this went right over
   my head. Phil, please explain
   Steve

3. Emory Lowe Says:
   October 19th, 2004 at 8:56 am

   Hi Steve,
   At 6+ years’ quit, you’re probably a tad more rational than I am The
   first couple of months for a quitter has got to be an emotional
   roller-coaster ride. By and by, I’m feeling pretty good. I’ve had times of
   absolute euphoria since I stopped.
   I’ll work backwards.
   By engaging in dangerous behavior like ‘tasting’ a cig? Why did you
   think you where “supposed” to do that? I’m afraid this went right over
   my head. Phil, please explain
   This was a light-hearted throwaway that was meant to work on many levels
   including ‘if you don’t take any risks in life you lead less of a life’ and,
   not least, your ‘name’, Steve. I fear it ended up meaning nothing
   whatsoever. When we speak, the process is so real-time instantaneous that
   we often cannot predict how any given sentence will end. Posting’s a bit
   like that, ‘cept no-one gets the chance to interrupt. You post when you
   
   feel driven to. I suppose it was a jocular attempt to explain my reckless
   action.
   The ‘tasting’ was important for me because it closed a chapter. I am not
   recommending it or decrying it. It taught me the distinction between the
   cartoon cigarette my mind remembers and the reality of the noxious tube.
   They are VERY different.
   That sounds awfully permanent, and terminal. Personally, I don’t
   consider myself a nicotine addict any longer, at least not by my definition
   of addiction (the body’s need to maintain a particular level of a chemical
   in order to prevent the onset of discomfort when the level of that chemical
   drops). There are a few others here who might argue the validity of the
   statement that “we are all addicts”. But whether or not we are, it really
   doesn’t have a lot of effect in terms of us quitting and becoming
   comfortably quit.
   Ok - that’s pretty negative and gloomy, I guess, but I didn’t really mean it
   to be and I certainly didn’t want to offend anyone. It’s only since I
   stopped smoking that I’ve been doing research into the pharmacology of
   smoking - (natch - smokers don’t want to know this stuff) - and this
   statement reflects my sadness and dismay at the tobacco industry and the
   millions of hoodwinked people. For me, knowing that I was literally
   addicted to a chemical helped me to cope with the quit. How about ‘For we
   have all been … but now we have escaped.’?
   Interesting that phenomena isn’t it? You no longer have a chemical
   addiction creating the need/feed cycle, yet you had an urge for a
   cigarette. Why?
   Deep thought. It’s a common experience. It seems to me to be a memory of
   self-gratification. I had a salesman in my house two weeks ago (I didn’t
   buy anything). In conversation, it emerged that he had stopped smoking for
   three years and then had a smoke on Christmas Day - womph - back in the
   tarpit. Back on 2 packs a day. These stories are rife. The closest I can
   get at the moment, perhaps, is that it’s like having an urge for apple pie
   or a steak sandwich. Wow - I could murder a steak. (But it’s no tragedy if
   you don’t get one.) And it isn’t that bad if you never eat it again.
   A lovely vignette during the first week of my quit. The first week in June
   I was in France, on holiday with my family and I’d just had a birthday. We
   were sitting in a cafe waiting for our lunch. Sitting nearby, a beautiful
   young girl with long blonde hair and a short, white dress was lighting up a
   long cigarette. She looked the picture of sophistication that our culture
   brainwashes us with - Bogart and Bacall and all that. Why do they always
   give the wounded man a cigarette? Anyway, lunch arrived and I watched this
   lady in bewilderment wondering what conclusion I was to draw from this
   tableau. Twenty minutes later she lit up again. And again. The Disney
   princess became a horrowshow harpy - the perfect epitome of the biggest
   con-trick played by humankind upon humankind. “Happy Birthday, Phil”, I
   said.
   

4. Raleigh Missy Says:
   October 20th, 2004 at 2:39 am

   Hi Phil,
   There’s no question that the first several months of a quit are a time of
   emotional chaos. However, turbulent emotions do coexist, or at least
   alternately exist, with rational thought. Your post is an example as are
   the posts of many others who are riding out recovery yet post the most
   wonderfully logical and timely emails. I remember plodding along early in
   my quit only to suddenly realize once more that “I’m not smoking.” and be
   filled with the same euphoria you’re experiencing. I envy you the
   experience of that degree of joy. It’s one of the up sides of the first
   several months.
   As for being a daredevil, that’s really a misnomer where it’s applied to
   me. I’m the most conservative person you’ll ever meet when it comes to
   taking chances with important things. Sometimes life forces an instance of
   risk taking, but if it were up to me, I never would. If the group of
   people who quit with me had chosen the name ‘chicken shits’, it would
   
   certainly have been more appropriate, in my case, than daredevil. I’m the
   one who advocates cutting down on caffeine and sugar to minimize the
   physical ups and downs that are perceived as stress which can too easily be
   interpreted as an urge to smoke. I’m the one who advocates avoiding risky
   smoking situations initially if you’re not reasonably sure you can think
   your way through. Walk away from anger and those who set it up. Don’t test
   yourself, the risk that you’ll only be setting up a precedent for the next
   taste, test, or slip is too great. Don’t rock your boat. Don’t be a
   daredevil They sure are. I quite agree that there are chapters to be closed and
   that it’s usually easier to close them when the illusions have been dispelled.
   We all certainly have been addicted. For myself, I make an effort not
   to dwell on the actions of a tobacco industry who not only knew that
   nicotine was both addictive and deadly, but was actively engaged in making
   it more addictive. Further, that industry, knowing it’s ‘user base’ was
   going to die prematurely, went out of it’s way to recruit children to
   replace those who would die. What I find the most incomprehensible of all
   is that, in America, it appears that CEOs or major corporations who were
   aware that ‘books were being cooked’ may soon be sent to prison yet CEOs of
   tobacco companies, who lied under oath haven’t been strung up from a
   convenient tree. I guess it’s ok to addict people and kill them but it’s
   not ok to mess with their money. Like I said, I try not to dwell on it,
   it just really pisses me off.
   You’re absolutely correct that smokers don’t want to know about their
   smoking. It’s amazing how many quitters don’t want to know either. If
   you’re interested in the pharmacology of smoking, check a book called
   ‘Smoking - The Artificial Passion’ by David Krogh. It’s an older book so
   you might find it in a public library. I know it’s available an Amazon.com.
   Can’t argue with that, it is a memory of self-gratification, a means to
   find relief. But it might also be more than a memory. It might also be a
   current association. Equating it to an urge for pie or a steak makes me
   nervous. My concern is that maybe this mechanism by which we/you connected
   smoking to some sensation is still functional, albeit only of “I can take
   it or leave it” strength. Are you developing ABC thinking so that it
   really is nothing more than a ‘take it or leave it’ and you’re choosing to
   leave it? Maybe I’m worrying a bit much, but that smoking association can
   come back around at us and suddenly, just like that salesman, we’re back to
   our old smoking habit.
   I enjoy your posts Phil, would love to read more of them.
   Steve

5. Emory Lowe Says:
   October 25th, 2004 at 2:39 am

   Hi Steve,
   You said…
   “Equating it to an urge for pie or a steak makes me
   nervous. My concern is that maybe this mechanism by which we/you connected
   smoking to some sensation is still functional, albeit only of “I can take
   it or leave it” strength. Are you developing ABC thinking so that it
   really is nothing more than a ‘take it or leave it’ and you’re choosing to
   leave it?”
   On reflection, it seems to me that my whole approach to smoking over the
   past six months has been a cognitive one. Before I quit in earnest almost 3
   months ago, I started to ‘play’ with my habit. In particular I cut out the
   ’special’ cigarettes. The smoke after a meal, the smoke when you get up,
   the cigs that go with the booze. Over a few days I cut these key smokes
   completely. If I went out for a beer, my cigarettes stayed at home. And it
   all felt fine. This, it seems to me, is a cognitive approach. ‘I’m having
   
   an urge… What do I WANT to do about it? Satisfy it in the old way? Or
   adopt a more rational approach?’ I was still smoking of course but it made
   me realise I had some control over my habit.
   Then came giving up - with Allen Carr. Again in retrospect a cognitive
   approach. You examine all your reasons for smoking and expose them all as
   illusion. You are escaping from a nightmare rather than giving up a
   pleasure. Smoking carries no benefits. None whatsoever. Zilch. Its
   perceived therapeutic actions only have resonance and meaning within a
   nicotine addiction. You smoke because you’re addicted and because the
   culture brainwashes you.
   Prisoner about to be shot by the firing squad - last request? Cigarette.
   Soldiers wounded in war. Hey, let’s give them a cigarette - that’ll cheer
   them up. Happy? In love? I’ll light two of the precious things so that we
   can puff away together. In the UK we get adverts for a small cigar called
   Hamlet - I’m not sure if you have these in the States. The theme is always
   some unmitigated disaster - your hot-air balloon develops a leak mid-flight,
   for example - so you light up a cigar. Sweet music plays and you are
   blissed out. They are very clever.
   After my last cigarette at the Allen Carr clinic, the counsellor gave us 20
   minutes of ‘mild hypnotherapy’. I don’t consciously recall all of it but I
   remember one key part. It’s never just one cigarette. If you’re tempted to
   light up and you do so then you are literally, unambiguously saying ‘I want
   to go back to a lifetime of smoking’. It’s not one - it’s thousands and
   thousands and thousands.
   The first few days into the quit, this last turned itself (in my mind) into
   a graphic picture of two paths ahead of me. One path was light, bright,
   airy and full of hope. The other was dark, stinky, and so very, very,
   dreadfully sad. And there are only two paths since you can only have no
   cigarettes or lots - no shades of grey here! So which one should I take?
   Then I stumbled across you lot. I’ve since realised that my vision of the
   two paths is a cognitive foundation statement (or very much like one). If
   smoking enters my mind, that vision of the dark path with those thousands of
   unsmoked cigarettes accompanies it. The immediacy of the reality of the
   danger is further compounded by my memory of that daredevil taste of a
   friend’s cigarette (much to your horror…).
   So your ‘take it or leave it’ is my dark path, light path, I guess. My ABCs
   seem to have grown organically without my having to specify them. Is this
   dangerous? I don’t feel at risk because of the strength of that foundation
   statement. Interested to know what you think.
   My remembered pleasure is an illusion, since the only pleasure (I now know)
   was the relief of deprivation symptoms. But it’s still a remembered
   pleasure. So I have to deal with it cognitively - there’s no other way.
   Was I just lucky to adopt a cognitive approach, and get a handle on a way to
   defeat the habit? Or is the cognitive approach the ONLY WAY - i.e. I
   wouldn’t be here typing this 3 months into the quit if I hadn’t adopted a
   cognitive approach. In the UK they reckon 30% of smokers are trying to quit
   at any one time - and out of those 30%, only 10% are successful. I bet the
   90% who fail use no cognitive techniques - and then what are you left with?
   Willpower? How long can you keep this torture up? You want one but you
   mustn’t have one. That causes stress. How do you respond to stress? No
   you can’t have one. That causes stress. And so on until you light up and
   weep.
   I heard the other day about a man who went to a hypnotist to stop smoking.
   (This is a ‘friend of a friend’ story so might be apocryphal.) Afterwards,
   not only did he not smoke but he was 100% sure he had never smoked in his
   life. Maybe he took it too literally ‘You do not smoke’. Now this isn’t
   cognitive quitting at all - what happens if he starts thinking ‘I wonder
   what those cigarette things taste like?’ Phil

6. Raleigh Missy Says:
   October 28th, 2004 at 6:22 am

   Hi Phil,

   Recently there were a few posts that touched on the fact those who were
   working up to a quit and were putting forth an effort to be aware of their
   physical sensations around specific events found they were consequently
   smoking fewer cigarettes. In the same sense, some who have already quit
   often find that simply being aware that there is always a choice will often
   be able to control their urges and behaviors.
   From what you’ve said regarding your awareness of choices you’re making
   as to how you’ll respond in certain situations, I’d say that your quit is
   certainly cognitive in nature. As far as ‘risk’ is concerned, I think that
   as long as you maintain that awareness, you’ll continue to make choices
   that are in keeping with your foundation statements/beliefs. However, this
   is exactly the area where I’d suggest caution, and maybe some consideration
   of additional effort, specifically regarding the maintenance of that
   
   necessary awareness. I’m not going to say that if you, or anyone else,
   eases up on being aware or vigilant that you, or they, are going to slip or
   relapse. But the danger does seem to increase dramatically when we are
   either less aware or have gotten far enough down the quit road that we
   begin to be a bit comfortable or routine in the way we get through our day.
   Cognitive quitting is really comprised of two parts: 1- the basic
   understanding of the mechanics of our smoking behavior and some foundation
   statements, and 2- the ABC exercises (which become ABC thinking) that will
   create new automatic, nonsmoking, responses.
   Many of those who have been cognitively quit for a while have posted
   about experiences where they didn’t even think of cigarettes in connection
   to what was happening at the time. They’ve done their ABCs which retrained
   their Warren to respond effectively, automatically, and nonsmokingly (is
   that a word?). Phil, I think you’ve got things well in hand at this stage
   of your quit. I hope you’ll consider working on some ABCs in order to
   guarantee that you’ll move into that comfort zone where persistent
   awareness is no longer necessary.
   Steve

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