malaqueta:
I do believe that you will find that you have come to the right place. Welcome to the Stop Smoking Center...Yes there are a million reasons not to seek cessation and I too have been down many of those roads. Smoking is a devil of an addiction that gets you even when you think that you are being vigilant. As you have already found out, there is a chemical affinity between nicotine and alcohol. I could not allow myself a drink until I had been quit for six months.
I found that the road to cessation is both a spiritual and very material journey. The more knowledge that you have about the addiction, the greater is your opportunity for success. For instance, it is good to understand that nicotine has the ability to mask itself as the neurotransmitter that acts as the body's gate keeper for dopamine. This substance serves to bring up our moods and gives us a sense of well being. So in essence, when we smoke we are in fact self medicating. There is an old saying that goes something like this "One cannot walk the path until one becomes the path".
A good way to work on "becoming the path" is to understand the physiology of the addiction.
There is also a spiritual aspect to the journey that should not be overlooked. The bird of cessation needs two wings if it is to get aloft. Once we get a ways down the path, we come to realize that smoking is such a deep addiction that it adheres to our very self. Leaving a part of you behind can be a difficult task. But in the doing of it, you will come to know yourself in a very profound way. You will learn to fly without the aid of a cigarette. To do so takes patience, time and a great deal of self observation. But I found the effort to be extremely rewarding in terms of realizing a greater sense of self worth.
Come here often, rant if need me, console others or just read and learn. All three are part and parcel of the cessation journey...
stay well
nonic
As you progress
