Just One Cigarette'Just one cigarette' is a myth you must get out of your mind.
It is just one cigarette that gets us started in the first place.
It is just one cigarette to tide us over a difficult patch or on a special occasion that defeats most of our attempts to stop. It is just one cigarette that, when smokers have succeeded in breaking the addiction, sends them
back into the trap. Sometimes it is just to confirm that they do not need them any more, and that one cigarette does just that. It tastes horrible and convinces the smoker he will never become hooked again, but he already is.
It is the thought of that one special cigarette that often prevents smokers from stopping. The first one in the morning or the one after a meal.
Get it firmly in your mind there is no such thing as just one cigarette. It is a chain reaction that will
last the rest of your life unless you break it.
It is the myth about the odd, special cigarette that keeps smokers moping about it when they stop.
Get into the habit of never seeing the odd cigarette or packet - it is a fantasy. Whenever you think
about smoking, see a whole filthy lifetime of spending a small fortune just for the privilege of
destroying yourself mentally and physically, a lifetime of slavery, a lifetime of bad breath.
It is a pity that there isn't something like a cigarette that, during good and bad times, we can use for
an occasional boost or pleasure. But get it clearly into your mind: the cigarette isn't it. You are stuck
with either a lifetime of misery or none at all. You wouldn't dream of taking cyanide because you liked
the taste of almonds, so stop punishing yourself with the thought of the occasional cigarette or cigar.
Ask a smoker, 'If you had the opportunity to go back to the time before you became hooked, would
you have become a smoker?' The answer is inevitably 'You have got to be joking', yet every smoker
has that choice every day of his life. Why doesn't he opt for it? The answer is fear. The fear that he
cannot stop or that life won't be the same without it.
Stop kidding yourself. You can do it. Anybody can. It's ridiculously easy.
In order to make it easy to stop smoking there are certain fundamentals to get clear in your
mind. We have already dealt with three of them up to now:
1 There is nothing to give up. There are only marvelous positive gains to achieve.
2 Never see the odd cigarette. It doesn't exist. There is only a lifetime of filth and disease,
3 There is nothing different about you. Any smoker can find it easy to stop.
Many smokers believe that they are confirmed smokers or have addictive personalities. I
promise you there is no such thing. No one needs to smoke before they become hooked on the
drug. It is the drug that hooks you and not the nature of your character or personality. That is the
effect of these drugs, they make you believe that you have an addictive personality. However, it is
essential that you remove this belief, because if you believe that yo u are dependent on nicotine,
you will be, even after the little nicotine monster inside your body is dead. It is essential to
remove all of the brainwashing.