subject: Do Not Stop Trying To Stop [print this page] Some people prefer not to talk about the subject during the early days of stopping smoking, others prefer to have 'counselling' chats on a regular basis and continually relate to those around them, how many hours/days/months it is since they smoked their last cigarette.
In my experience the fact is that SOMETHING has to take the place of the smoking habit, because it is not just a physical addiction but also a mental addiction.
This fact was highlighted to me in a very vivid personal experience.
My husband and I bought a restaurant and bar five months after my husband had stopped smoking. When my husband stopped I had also stopped as I was desperate not to encourage him to keep smoking. However the stress of a new business, especially one we previously knew nothing about which also involved daily contact with many smokers, was to be my downfall and I started smoking again, up to 30 cigarettes a day, at the computer, in the bar etc. For the following eighteen months my husband did not once nag me to stop smoking although I knew he wanted me to. I was touched( impressed by his behaviour..).
Crunch time came one night when there was a big party in the bar and I had a few drinks, puffing away as ever. Standing next to my hubby, I muttered the immortal words, "Oh, I've definitely got to stop smoking", and he responded, "When?" Caught off guard, as I often made these remarks and he never took advantage, my response was: "Tomorrow!" That was it, I woke the next morning with a stinking hangover and the first thing I wanted to do was light up a ciggy! Omigod, I told hubby last night that I would stop and he's been so good at not nagging me for the past two years and I've never said I'll do it before so now I MUST!
The next week or so was a bit of a nightmare and being a social animal I of course, wibbled on to all and sundry about the fact that I fancied a cigarette...hubby just said, "Well you can't have one because you've stopped."
