Leslyr's Six Month Milestone

"Six months, half a year, and two seasons since I smoked."(EB) This is so hard for me to believe! I'd like to take a minute and give my thoughts to people coming up behind me, or people who might be struggling. To get free of this addiction, it is my belief that you have to educate yourself to the "lie" of the cigarette.

There is nothing glamorous, attractive, calming, exciting, or fun about smoking. This is a lie. You have to erase all of these notions from your head. Smoking reminds me of kidnapping. Do you remember when Patty Hearst was kidnapped many years ago? She came to love her captors, and actually robbed banks with them. This syndrome is not an uncommon one between captives and those who hold them prisoner. The captive feels grateful that he/she is alive and goes to any extent to please the captors.

Think of cigarettes - they enslave us just as surely as a kidnapper. They take over our entire lives - we cannot live for even one day without them. We must leave conversations & social situations for them; we must stand outside in all types of weather for them; we put our loved ones in jeopardy for them; we spend thousands and thousands of dollars on them, even though we know they are killing us. This is not glamour - this is a deadly lie. This is being kidnapped and enslaved.

One more example - do you remember the Wizard of Oz? The GREAT and POWERFUL Wizard of OZ? Now remember when the curtain was pulled, and the great Wizard was merely a little white haired man? Well, I submit to you that in this case, the Great and Powerful Cigarette is far more than a kindly man - it is a vile and ugly black and sick disease causing evil that was killing us. I say pull the curtain on the Great and Powerful cigarette and see it for what it is.

Next time you think you are "Dying for a Cigarette," pull that phrase apart and see it for what it really means. I am no longer "dying for a cigarette," and I am so profoundly grateful!!!

Thanks to everyone for your help, and keep kicking ash!

Lesly(leslyr)

Six months, 17 minutes and 9 seconds. 6405 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,126.82. Life saved: 3 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, 45 minutes.

Woo Hoo!

Lesly's Quit Smoking Story
Lesly's One Year Milestone
Lesly's 2 Year Smoke Free Speech
Lesly's 3 Year Milestone
Book Review - The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr

Last Updated: 3-22-2006