No! Once that little nicotine monster is dead and your body stops craving nicotine, any remaining brainwashing will vanish and you will find that you will be both physically and mentally better equipped not only to cope with the stresses and strains of life but to enjoy the good times to the full.
There is only one danger and that is the influence of people who are still smoking. 'The other man's grass is always greener' is commonplace in many aspects of our lives and is easily understandable. Why is it in the case of smoking, where the disadvantages are so enormous as compared with even the illusory 'advantages', that ex-smokers tend to envy the smoker?
With all the brainwashing of our childhood it is quite understandable that we fall into the trap. Why is it that, once we realize what a mug's game it is and many of us manage to kick the habit, we walk straight back into the same trap? It is the influence of smokers.
It usually happens on social occasions, particularly after a meal. The smoker lights up and the exsmoker
has a pang. This is indeed a curious anomaly, particularly if you consider this piece of market
research: not only is every non-smoker in the world happy to he a non-smoker but every smoker in
the world, even with his warped, addicted, brainwashed mind suffering the delusion that he enjoys it
or it relaxes him, wishes he had never become hooked in the first place. So why do some ex-smokers
envy the smoker on these occasions? There are two reasons.
1 'Just one cigarette.' Remember; it doesn't exist. Stop seeing that isolated occasion and start
looking at it from the point of view of the smoker. You may be envying him, but he doesn't
approve of himself: He envies you. Start observing other smokers. They can be the most powerful
boost of all to help you of it. Notice how quickly the cigarette burns, how quickly the smoker has
to light up another. Notice particularly that not only is he not aware that he is smoking the
cigarette but even the lighting up appears to be automatic. Remember, he is not enjoying it;
it's just that he cannot enjoy himself without it. Particularly remember that when he leaves
your company he is going to have to go on smoking. The next morning, when he wakes up
with a chest like a cesspit, he is going to have to carry on choking himself. The next Budget
Day, the next time he has a pain in the chest, the next National No-Smoking Day, the next
time he inadvertently sees the government health warning, the next time there is a cancer
scare, the next time he is in church, on a Tube train, visiting a hospital, library, dentist,
doctor, supermarket, etc., the next time he is in the company of a non-smoker, he has to
continue this lifetime chain of paying through the nose just for the privilege of destroying
himself physically and mentally. He is facing a lifetime of filth, bad breath, stained teeth, a
lifetime of slavery, a lifetime of destroying himself, a lifetime of black shadows at the back of
his mind. And all of this is to achieve what purpose? The illusion of trying to get back to the
state he was in before he became hooked in the first place.
2 The second reason why some ex-smokers have pangs on these occasions is because the
smoker is doing something, i.e. smoking a cigarette, and the non-smoker is not, so he tends
to feel deprived. Get it clear in your mind before you start: it is not the non-smoker who is
being deprived. It is the poor smoker who is being deprived of
HEALTH
ENERGY
MONEY
CONFIDENCE
PEACE OF MIND
COURAGE
TRANQUILLITY
FREEDOM
SELF-RESPECT.
Get out of the habit of envying smokers and start seeing them as the miserable, pathetic
creatures they really are. I know: I was the world's worst. That is why you are reading this book,
and the ones who cannot face up to it, who have to go on kidding themselves, are the most pathetic
of all.
You wouldn't envy a heroin addict. Heroin kills around 100 people a year in this country.
Nicotine kills over 120,000 a year and 2.5 million a year world-wide. It's already killed more
people on this planet than all the wars of history combined. Like all drug addiction, yours won't get
better, Each year it will get worse and worse. If you don't enjoy being a smoker today, you'll enjoy it
even less tomorrow. Don't envy other smokers. Pity them. Believe me: THEY NEED YOUR PITY.