I have been smoking cigarettes for the last 13 years (since 1993). I tried to quit only once, and managed for 3 days, not much of a success. Since then I'm smoking and knowing that it is bad for my health. Even though I know that it is bad for me, I continue to smoke. It has been years that I want to remove the addiction part of smoking with no success. All these years I did not find enough will power to quit or to remove the addiction part.
Ten days ago I bumped into a regular article about an ex USA Air Force pilot that quitted smoking 20 years ago. His story did not have an immediate affect on me, actually, it seemed like another regular story of a person who quitted smoking. Probably, it is a regular story, but for me, this story pressed the right button. His story helped me to find the drive to start removing the addiction part.
Removing the addiction part of smoking means that all cigarettes attached to regular activities like morning coffee, after eating etc. should stay in the box. I decided that I want to reduce dramatically the amount of cigarettes I smoke per day with the exception of special occasions that I can smoke without counting. Currently, I am in the beginning of the process, but the important thing is that I found the will power for starting the process that was missing all these years.
My trigger is probably related to the way I percept myself. I consider myself mentally strong person (it doesn't matter if it is true) and acknowledging the fact that I am addicted to cigarettes disturbs this perception. In other words, there is a war between the completion of my perception and my addiction to cigarettes.
Anyone that wants to make a change of a habit should look for the specific thing that will provide him/her the required will power to cope with the change. This trigger is different from one person to another. This will power is much stronger than any external aids like injections, nicotine chewing gums etc'.
