Smoking Basics

 

Whenever I ask the question, ‘Why do you smoke?’.
The answer I usually get is, ‘Because I’m addicted to nicotine.’
It is true that smokers are nicotine addicts. You would be hard pressed to find anyone today who does not accept that nicotine is addictive and that smokers are addicted.

I started smoking when I was a teenager. There were many reasons. I remember the peer pressure. I remember feeling rebellious and wanting to appear “cool,” to look more mature and sophisticated. It is a bit embarrassing to realize I probably appeared only as an awkward and foolish youngster. Whatever my initial motive was, it had little or nothing to do with why I continued to smoke. If you are a long time smoker, I doubt you continue to smoke because you think it looks cool.
Soon after you began smoking, you became addicted physically. At some point after you finish one cigarette and before you light the next, the nicotine level in your body drops and you begin to experience predictable and specific symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. They are;
   1- general muscle tension
   2- shallow breathing, usually felt as anxiety or nervousness,
   3- a shift in mood or emotion; increased frustration or irritability.
   4- difficulty thinking or concentrating.
        (For a more complete list, see Symptoms)

These symptoms of nicotine withdrawal usually appear within 20 to 30 minutes after putting out a cigarette. It may be longer for someone who smokes only a few cigarettes in a day and much shorter for a chain smoker.

At first, the physical symptoms of withdrawal are so subtle they’re below your level of awareness. However, the longer you go without a dose of nicotine, the more intense these symptoms become until you are uncomfortably aware of them. When you do finally light up, inhaled nicotine is carried throughout your body within eight to twelve seconds and “withdrawal discomfort” is immediately relieved.

It is easy to see how you quickly established the association between the discomfort of withdrawal and the relief of lighting up. This is how the need/feed pattern of nicotine addiction first becomes established. To avoid experiencing any discomfort you taught yourself to anticipate and immediately recognize the most subtle of physical cues, body cues. It was then that your response became automatic. Once you had become an 'automatic' smoker, the stage was set for your nicotine addiction to spawn your smoking habit.

Have you ever lit a second cigarette because you forgot you already had one going? Most long term smokers have. That’s one example of automatic behavior. Here is another example that illustrates a part of you I call the 'autopilot'.

If you drive, can you recall a time when you had driven some distance, lost in thought, and suddenly realized you did not remember a thing about driving the past several miles? Yet you had stayed within your lane, had adjusted your speed according to traffic and road conditions, had avoided other cars, and had turned or stopped when it was necessary.
So, what part of you was driving while the conscious you wasn't paying attention? Your autopilot.
(For a less than serious look at the autopilot, see The Parable of Warren )

The same auto pilot who steers your car is also in charge of recognizing the subtle body cues that signal your lowered nicotine level. It is easy enough to identify road cues connected with steering this way or that, but what are the body cues your autopilot identified as those connected with smoking? They are the initial symptoms of nicotine withdrawal mentioned previously;
   1- general muscle tension
   2- shallow breathing, usually felt as anxiety or nervousness,
   3- a shift in mood or emotion; increased frustration or irritability.
   4- difficulty thinking or concentrating.

Interestingly, these very same cues are present whenever you are stressed, whether it's due to nicotine withdrawal, hunger, anger, boredom, loneliness, fatigue, or any other.

To begin to understand the physical nature of the smoking habit, let’s take a look at some common smoking situations. The easiest way to do this is to write out a list of 10 - 12 situations. I'll start you off with a few:
1- Hungry
2- Angry
3- Lonely/Bored
4- Tired
5- Taking a break
(add some more situations when/where you smoked)
6-
7-
8-
9-
10-
11-
12- and nicotine withdrawal.

Cognitivequitting takes as truisms two statements.
The first is:
"The majority of the cigarettes a smoker lights have little or no direct connection to nicotine addiction."
Take a look at that list, including your additions, and see if that first truism applies to you. Aside from 'nicotine withdrawal' and possibly 'first thing in the morning', if you included that, what do those situations really have to do with a nicotine addiction? The answer is that, aside from nicotine addiction and ‘first thing in the morning’ with its nicotine deficiency, there is no direct connection. There is, however, a well establish connection between our physical experience of nicotine withdrawal AND every other situation on that list.

Once more, the initial symptoms of nicotine withdrawal:
1- general muscle tension
2- shallow breathing, usually felt as anxiety or nervousness,
3- a shift in mood or emotion; increased frustration or irritability.
4- difficulty thinking or concentrating.

Go back to your list and take a look at which of those included elements of nicotine withdrawal.

Starting with the first 4:
1- Hungry included
- Abdominal discomfort, usually muscular cramps/pangs
- Difficulty concentrating as hunger increases

2- Angry included
- General muscle tension- certainly shoulders, neck, and abdomen
- Usually rapid and shallow breathing
- Anger certainly involves a shift in emotional state
-Attention is narrowly focused on the source of the anger

3- Lonely/Bored included
-A lack of physical activity resulting in some degree of muscular discomfort or stiffness
-Slouching restricts breathing, resulting in shallow breathing
-A lack of mental activity, foggy headed

4- Tired included
-muscular discomfort, weakness, lack of energy
-slow shallow breathing
- some degree of frustration or irritability due to the inability to function to par
-sluggish foggy thinking, difficulty concentrating

Once our autopilot learned to automatically associate a smoking response to the body cues that signaled nicotine withdrawal than ANY sensation that felt like withdrawal, regardless of its source, would elicit an urge to smoke. Go through the rest of your list and see if you can identify elements of nicotine withdrawal in other situations. Just think back on your own experiences as your guide.

This leads into the second Cognitivequitting truism, which states that
"Every cigarette a smoker lights is triggered by some body cue."
As you have seen from your own list, most of your smoking had little direct connection to a fluctuating nicotine level. Yet the focus of most attempts to quit is solely the chemical addiction. This is why even if a smoker succeeds in becoming nicotine free, too often they will fail to stay quit further down the line.

If you are serious about quitting and staying quit, it is time to address the smoking habit and not just the chemical addiction. Therefore, the next section, A Different Way to Quit, will lay out the two key steps in the Cognitivequitting program: Foundation Statements and the Timer Exercise.

You are going to 'show' your autopilot how to change and not just 'tell' him that he must. You're going to deal directly with the source of your smoking habit.

Next

 

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