Why You Can't Quit the Smoking Habit

You say you want to quit smoking

You may say you want to quit smoking, you may think you want to quit smoking, you may even have tried to quit smoking. Yet, soon, your willpower gives way and you find yourself smoking again. This happens to 95% of smokers, it's not just you. It's simply how the human mind works: once a habit is learned and ingrained, it is extremely difficult to stop. Try brushing your teeth with your opposite hand tonight. It will drive you crazy! Try eating with your fork using the opposite hand that you normally use!

Electric Cigarette

This is your subconscious, who I nickname Subby for short, that thinks it is protecting you by continuing a habit that you trained it to do. Subby is programmed to protect itself against change. This is why Subby will "protect" your smoking habit, and will try to force you to continue it, and simply doesn't understand why you want to quit.

Shocking smoking reminders

Subby has a built-in alarm clock! It gives you constant repeated reminders to smoke, to remind you to do something you had earlier programmed it to do. It will remind you to smoke your cigarette every hour, same way it is tells you to brush your teeth every night. Even if you are hacking and coughing, Subby will insist you smoke, because it is not "aware" on a conscious level that it is engendering self-destructive, unhealthy behavior.

quit smoking

Once you train Subby to repeat a habit, Subby's automatic reminder mechanism controls you to stick to that habit, by creating conflict that you instinctively want to resolve. This is why you get those uncomfortable cravings, urges and feelings of anxiety when you try to stop smoking. In fact, Subby actually gives your nervous system little micro-electrical shocks to do what it wants! This is why junkies get the "shakes" - that is Subby giving you electric shocks to repeat a ritual to do drugs. But Subby is only doing its job!

It's the same with nicotine as with heroin or any other drug. Smokers are technically junkies (physical addiction) for nicotine. Nicotine is a powerful drug Subby has learned to crave. It's why Subby will give you constant and incessant little micro-electric shocks to jolt you into reaching for that cigarette to get some nicotine.

It takes more than willpower to quit smoking

Subby also responds to triggers you are not aware of called secondary cues. Let's say you always smoke a cigarette with coffee. Subby will now associate coffee with cigarettes. You go

into work, pour a cup of coffee, all of a sudden you crave a cigarette. Coffee is an automatic "invisible cue" that triggers Subby to signal you to begin a ritual process of lighting a cigarette. These powerful secondary habit cues, like coffee, eating, break time, etc. become deeply engrained in Subby, and make your smoking habit even harder to stop.

This is why you can't quit smoking cigarettes with willpower, you need to unlearn the habit the way You learned it. With all these automatic, alarm clock responses and electric shocks to force you to comply, Subby's more powerful mind can overcome your willpower to quit smoking. It will give you the shakes, urges, cravings, make you crabby and irritable, and won't let you sleep unless you light up. You need to learn to be a non-smoker.