Ambivalence About Quitting
Thoughts of smoking are common when we quit smoking and begin the process of healing from nicotine addiction. Your mind can feel like it's turning itself inside out trying to convince you to have just one cigarette. Don't let it throw you; this is a normal part nicotine withdrawal.
There is an interesting conversation taking place at the About.com Smoking Cessation support forum right now regarding the ambivalence we might feel about quitting once we stub that last cigarette out:
From the_dickster: "Ambivalence: The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea; A state of uncertainty or indecisiveness.
"The object is smoking. I don't think that being ambivalent is a good thing, and yet I have been feeling that for a couple of days now. The cravings are better, I sometimes feel like a non-smoker, yet I think that I could smoke again. I don't want to go through the first week again, as it was miserable, and yet I think that tiime makes you forget. The question is, does time also make you forget that you were a smoker? I have 30+ years of smoking behind me, and a lot of associations. It is said that it takes 3 weeks to change a habit, is this true for smoking? I need to not be ambivalent, so I need your input!"
- Ambivalence 10 Days In -- Forum Discussion
As smokers, we often think of lighting up as an enjoyable pastime. Cigarettes offer comfort, entertainment and companionship -- or so we think. At the same time, we relate smoking cessation to feelings of pain, misery and sacrifice, and for most of us, these opposing feelings exist and are reinforced on a subconscious level. They're below the surface of our thoughts, and the result is that we adopt unhealthy and inaccurate beliefs as facts of life when in reality they are only our distorted perceptions of the truth.
There are two important steps involved in recovery from nicotine addiction: physical and psychological, or body and mind. Physical recovery, while intense, is over within a relatively short period of time. Psychological recovery from nicotine addiction is achieved bit by bit as we learn new ways to cope than don't involve smoking. Understanding this distinction and gaining wisdom about the mind games the habit of smoking puts us through helps us win over nicotine addiction, once and for all.
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