Mental Fitness for Good Health

Why Quitting Smoking Doesn’t Work

- Each day, nearly 6,000 children under 18 years of age start smoking
- Nearly 2,000 will become regular smokers.
- Annually 800,000 new smokers join the ranks of the diseased.

Approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. According to the latest smoking statistics in 2001, a national survey of high school students revealed that the overall prevalence of current cigarette use was 28 percent. Nearly 20 percent of 12th graders, 12 percent of 10th graders and 5.5 percent of 8th graders smoke cigarettes daily. These statistics provided by Credible Reviews.

For more statistics on smoking in the text of smoking, I refer you to Smoking Statistics provided by the World Health Organization.

All these statistics indicate the need for people to stop smoking.  The reality is clear.  Smoking is bad for health and the health of others.

Although it is realistically and practically important to stop smoking, motivating yourself to "quit" or "stop" smoking is likely to fail for the following reasons: 

1.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking , even though smoking is bad for us, we enter a state of deprivation.  When we are in a state of deprivation, both our conscious and subconscious minds motivate us to restore the state of well-being or smoking.  Even though we deprive ourselves of something in order to reach the worthwhile goal of better health, our unconscious mind and part of our conscious mind will sabotage our efforts.

2.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking, we feel grounded or punished.  Since "not smoking" feels like a punishment, smoking becomes a reward.  Since no one likes to be punished forever, relapse is inevitable because smoking is the reward.

3.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking, we unconsciously build the desire and urge to smoke when we use our inner resources to dam up the urges inside of us.  The more we prevent the urges from finding expression in the form of smoking, the more the urges build up inside of us and eventually lead to relapse.

4.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking we often cannot depend on our logical reasoning, because our logical reasoning has been used for years to motivate us to smoke.

5.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking because of rational health concerns, we are in denial of our inner urges to smoke.  Our conscious motivation to stop smoking collides with our urges for wanting to smoke.

6.  When we "quit" or "stop" smoking by telling ourselves we want to stop smoking, we are using an archaic and unnatural motivation for learning.  Learning occurs easiest and naturally when we focus on learning something that is wanted and is self enhancing rather than looking at stopping something that is not wanted and self-defeating. 

For example, students become excited to learn how to read; not because they want to stop their illiteracy but because they want the skills and benefits that come from reading.  Achieving freedom from smoking must be conceptualized as learning new life skills rather than just ceasing smoking.

I am not writing this post to discourage you from stopping smoking.  I am not writing this post to make freedom from smoking appear impossible.  My point is to help you becoming free from smoking in a healthy, successful way and not engage in motivations and thinking that will sabotage your efforts.

If you have any questions regarding how to become free from smoking or regarding my programs for becoming free of smoking, please contact me.

Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.