5 Truths About Smoking That Will Help You Quit for Good
The mental shift that helped me free myself from a 15-year nicotine addiction painlessly
I used to love smoking, like really love it.
When I was happy, I would smoke. When I was under stress, I would smoke. Just bored? Smoke. I was treating nicotine as a clutch that could help me through anything.
Of course, I knew that smoking was bad for my health. Every smoker knows that. But still, it was my little pleasure and I would not let anybody take it away from me. Like most smokers, I completely numbed the pain I was inflicting on my body and my mind. I always woke up tired. I couldn’t run 300 feet without being out of breath. I was constantly worried that I wouldn’t have enough cigarettes left and I would buy 2 or 3 packs at once “just to be safe”. I’m really bad at planning, but that I could plan.
But then something changed. I started seeing smoking for the bad habit it really was, and I was suddenly okay with the idea of quitting. I wasn’t so scared anymore, and I stopped seeing it as this big sacrifice that would make life less enjoyable or as a loss of freedom. The process of quitting was actually very smooth and painless.
