Why Not Just One Cigarette?

As a person that quit smoking, I have mostly forgotten that I have ever smoked... until I see someone doing it.

I am being honest when I proclaim that I do not miss smoking at all, since it was a costly addiction that brought more stress to my life, worse health, bad smell, and a less attractive look. Why would I choose that again? Why would I want to become a slave again? 

After being clean for more than a year, I can only be grateful for having my freedom back and mostly positive things. Some of those are: temperance, feeling physically and mentally better, being able to smell and value food and drinks, more money in my bank account, and an improved sex life.

READ: Ex-Smoker

At times, though, there is a question popping up: what if I had just one?

That mostly happens when I am in company of some good friends that happen to be smokers and I am in a very good mood - a situation that could also be enhanced by alcohol, so I have to be very careful. It could be very easy to give in and think: "One will not make a difference; I am not an addict anymore."

It could also happen in a very low moment, as when my father died after this past Rosh Hashanah: everybody was doing it, so why could not I?

I cannot do it, mainly, because I am an ex-addict. I am not afraid to admit it: I may go back to smoking if I touch it again.

I know some of you will think: why is he underestimating himself?

Actually, I do not. I love myself enough to not smoke anymore. Indeed, I am not giving my power to a substance that will do its best to control me from minute one. Likewise, I am not interested on being able to control that substance: because it is not possible. In fact, it is just an illusion, in which you believe you can control tobacco. However, the true story is that tobacco is always controlling you... Unless you decide to break the pattern, and the only way is to quit forever. And that means having no more cigarettes.

Furthermore, why would I start feeding that permanent hunger that it is non-existent at present?

Lastly, I would like you to read the next excerpt from Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book:

"... Imagine having a cold sore on your face. I've got this marvelous ointment. I say to you, 'Try this stuff.' You rub the ointment on, and the sore disappears immediately. A week after it reappears.  You ask, 'Do you have any more of that ointment?' I say, 'Keep the tube. You might need it again.' You apply the ointment. Hey presto, the sore disappears again.

Every time the sore returns, it gets larger and more painful and the interval gets shorter and shorter. Eventually the sore covers your whole face and is excruciatingly painful. It is now returning every half hour.

You know that the ointment will remove it temporarily, but you are very worried. Will the sore eventually spread over your whole body? Will the interval disappear completely? You go to the doctor. He can't cure it. You try other things, but nothing helps except this marvelous ointment.

By now you are completely dependent on the ointment. You never go out without ensuring that you have a tube of the ointment with you. If you go abroad, you make sure that you take several tubes with you. Now, in addition to your worries about your health, I'm charging you $200 per tube. You have no choice but to pay me.

You then read in the medical column of your newspaper that this isn't happening just to you; many other people have been suffering from the same problem. In fact, pharmacists have discovered that the ointment doesn't actually cure the sore. All that it does is to take the sore beneath the surface of the skin. It is the ointment that has caused the sore to grow. All you have to do to get rid of the sore is to stop using the ointment. The sore will eventually disappear in due course.

Would you continue to use the ointment? ..."

Read this post in Catalan.