For up to three weeks after your last cigarette you may be subjected to withdrawal pangs. These
consist of two quite separate factors.
1 The withdrawal pangs of nicotine, that empty, insecure feeling, like a hunger, which smokers identify as a craving or something to do
with their hands.
2 The psychological trigger of certain events such as a telephone conversation.
It is the failure to understand and to differentiate between these two distinct factors that makes it
so difficult for smokers to achieve success on the Willpower Method, and it's also the reason why
many smokers who do achieve it fall into the trap again.
Although the withdrawal pangs of nicotine cause no physical pain, do not underestimate their
power. We talk of 'hunger pains' if we go without food for a day; there may be 'tummy rumblings', but
there is no physical pain. Even so, hunger is a powerful force, and we are likely to become very
irritable when deprived of food. It is similar when our body is craving nicotine. The difference is that
our body needs food hut it doesn't need poison and with the right frame of mind the withdrawal
pangs are easily overcome and disappear very quickly.
If smokers can abstain for a few days on the Willpower Method, the craving for nicotine soon
disappears. It is the second factor that causes the difficulty. The smoker has got into the habit of
relieving his withdrawal pangs at certain times or occasions, which causes an association of ideas
(e.g. 'I cannot enjoy a drink without a cigarette'). It may be easier to understand the effect with the
help of an example.
You have a car for a few years, and let's say the indicator lever is on the left of the steering column.
On your next car it is on the right (the law of sod). You know it is on the right, but for a couple of
weeks you put the windscreen wipers on whenever you want to indicate.
Stopping smoking is similar. During the early days of the withdrawal period the trigger mechanism
will operate at certain times. You will think, 'I want a cigarette.' It is essential to counter the
brainwashing right from square one, then these automatic triggers will quickly disappear. Under the
Willpower Method, because the smoker believes he is making a sacrifice, is moping about it and is
waiting for the urge to smoke to go, far from removing these trigger mechanisms he is actually
increasing them.
A common trigger is a meal, particularly one at a restaurant with friends. The ex-smoker is already
miserable because he is being deprived of his cigarette. His friends light up and he feels even more
deprived. Now he is not enjoying the meal or what should be a pleasant social occasion. Because of his
association of the cigarette with the meal and the social occasion he is now suffering a triple blow,
and the brainwashing is actually being increased. If he is resolute and can hold out long enough, he
eventually accepts his lot and gets on with his life. However, part of the brainwashing remains, and I
think the second most pathetic thing about smoking is the smoker who has given up for health or
money reasons, yet even after several years still craves a cigarette on certain occasions. He is pining
for an illusion that exists only in his mind and is needlessly torturing himself.
Even under my method responding to triggers is the most common failing. The ex-smoker tends to
regard the cigarette as a sort of placebo or sugar pill. He thinks: 'I know the cigarette does nothing
for me, but if I think it does, on certain occasions it will be a help to me.'
A sugar pill, although giving no actual physical help, can be a powerful psychological aid to relieve
genuine symptoms and is therefore a benefit. The cigarette, however, is not a sugar pill. It creates the
symptoms that it relieves and after a while ceases even to relieve these symptoms completely; the
'pill' is causing the disease, and quite apart from that it also happens to be the No. 1 killer poison in
society.
You may find it easier to understand the effect when related to non-smokers or a smoker who has
quit for several years. Take the case of a wife who loses her husband. It is quite common at such times
for a smoker, with the best intentions, to say, 'Have a cigarette. It will help calm you down.'
If the cigarette is accepted, it will not have a calming effect because the woman is not addicted to
nicotine and there are no withdrawal pangs to relieve. At best all it will do is to give her a momentary
psychological boost. As soon as the cigarette is extinguished, the original tragedy is still there. In
fact, it will be increased because the woman is now suffering withdrawal pangs, and her choice is now
either to endure them or to relieve them by smoking another cigarette and start the chain of misery.
All the cigarette will have done is to give a momentary psychological boost. The same effect could
have been achieved by offering a word of comfort or a drink. Many non-smokers and ex-smokers
have become addicted to the weed as a result of such occasions.
It is essential to counter the brainwashing right from the start. Get it quite clear in your head: you
don't need the cigarette, and you are only torturing yourself by continuing to regard it as some sort
of prop or boost. There is no need to be miserable. Cigarettes do not make meals or social occasions;
they ruin them. Remember too that the smokers at that meal are not smoking because they are
enjoying the cigarette. They are smoking because they have got to. They are drug addicts. They cannot
enjoy the meal or life without it.
Abandon the concept of the smoking habit as pleasurable in itself, Many smokers think, 'If only
there were a clean cigarette.' There are clean cigarettes. Any smoker who trios herbal cigarettes soon
finds out they are a waste of time. Get it clear in your mind that the only reason you have been
smoking is to get the nicotine. Once you have got rid of the craving for nicotine you will have no
more need to stick a cigarette in your mouth than in your ear.
Whether the pang is due to actual withdrawal symptoms (the empty feeling) or a trigger
mechanism, accept it. The physical pain is nonexistent and with the right frame of mind cigarettes
become no problem. Do not worry about withdrawal. The feeling itself isn't bad. It is the association
with wanting a cigarette and then feeling denied that is the problem.
Instead of moping about it, say to yourself, 'I know what it is. It's the withdrawal pang from nicotine.
That's what smokers suffer all their lives and that's what keeps them smoking. Non-smokers do not
suffer these pangs. It is another of the many evils of this drug. Isn't it marvelous I am purging this
evil from my body!'
In other words, for the next three weeks you will have a slight trauma inside your body, but during
those weeks, and for the rest of your life, something marvelous will be happening. You will be
ridding yourself of an awful disease. That bonus will more than outweigh the slight trauma, and you
will actually enjoy the withdrawal pangs. They will become moments of pleasure.
Think of the whole business of stopping as an exciting game. Think of the nicotine monster as a
sort of tape worm inside your stomach. You have got to starve him for three weeks, and he is going to
try to trick you into lighting a cigarette to keep him alive.
At times he will try to make you miserable. At times you will be off guard. Someone may offer
you a cigarette and you may forgot that you have stopped. There is a slight feeling of deprivation when
you remember. Be prepared for these traps in advance. Whatever the temptation, get it into your mind
that it is: only there because of the monster inside your body, and every time you resist the temptation
you have dealt another mortal blow in the battle.
Whatever you do, don't try to forget about smoking. This is one of the things that causes smokers
using the Willpower Method hours of depression. They try to get through each day hoping that
eventually they'll just forget about it.
It is like not being able to sleep. The more you worry about it, the harder it becomes.
In any event you won't be able to forget about it. For the first few days the 'little monster' will keep
reminding you, and you won't be able to avoid it; while there are still smokers and extensive cigarette
promotions about, you will have constant reminders.
The point is, you have no need to forget. Nothing bad is happening. Something marvelous is taking
place. Even if you are thinking about it a thousand times a day, SAVOUR EACH MOMENT.
REMIND YOURSELF HOW MARVELLOUS IT IS TO BE FREE AGAIN. REMIND
YOURSELF OF THE SHEER JOY OF NOT HAVING TO CHOKE YOURSELF ANY MORE.
As I have said, you will find that the pangs become moments of pleasure, and you will be surprised how
quickly you will then forget about smoking.
Whatever you do DO NOT DOUBT YOUR DECISION. Once you start to doubt, you will start to
mope, and it will get worse. Instead use the moment as a boost. If the cause is depression, remind
yourself that's what cigarettes were doing to you. If you are offered one by a friend, take pride in
saying, 'I'm happy to say I do not need them any more.' That will hurt him, but when he sees that it
isn't bothering you he will be halfway to joining you.
Remember that you had very powerful reasons for stopping in the first place. Remind yourself of the
£x,000 that one cigarette will cost you, and ask yourself whether you really want to risk those fearful
diseases. Above all, remember that the feeling is only temporary and each moment is a moment nearer
to your goal.
Some smokers fear that they will have to spend the rest of their lives reversing the 'automatic
triggers'. In other words, they believe that they will have to go through life kidding themselves that
they don't really need a cigarette by the use of psychology. This is not so. Remember that the optimist
sees the bottle as half full and the pessimist sees it as half empty. In the case of smoking, the bottle is
empty and the smoker sees it as full. It is the smoker who has been brainwashed. Once you start
telling yourself that you don't need to smoke, in a very short time you won't even need to say it
because the beautiful truth is . . . you do not need to smoke. It's the last thing you need to do; make
sure it's not the last thing you do.