“Stopping smoking is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I must do it 15 - 20 times a day.” Winston Churchill

Background Music is “Christ Has Something Better” Remember that when you are trying to give up tobacco.

If you have smoked, chewed, dipped, snuffed, or in anyway used tobacco and have tried or want to give it up, you know how difficult it is to do. I smoked my first cigarette when I was ten years old. It made me so sick I did not touch another one until I was sixteen years old when it only took one pack and I was addicted. I have read that nicotine addiction is harder to fight than Heroin. I do not know about that, but I do know that nicotine addiction holds onto a person in both physical addiction and personality addiction. There is a side to nicotine addiction that is almost spiritual in nature. I say almost because I do not believe the nonsense Pat Robinson talks about exorcising the tobacco demon from people. The reason I do not believe that is because the Bible says that the one who lives in the Beleiver is greater than the one who lives in the world, and I have known many believers who smoke and do not want to quit. At least they say they don’t. 

If anyone wants to give up tobacco they must understand the two sided fight they are going to be waging.  The first thing you must do is admit that your are a nicotine addict. There is no politically correct way of saying it if you really want to face who you are and what it is that is defining your life when you use nicotine. 

In the early stages, the first six months, of nicotine withdrawal, the hardest manifestation to whip is the physical addiction. The physical addiction manifests itself as an anxious emptiness in the pit of your stomach. It is a craving very similar to hunger, and it can be quieted by eating. You will not want tobacco as long as you are eating. But as soon as you’ve stopped eating your craving will return. This is the main reason people who quit tobacco usually gain a lot of weight. For this reason, I believe one must taper off of tobacco slowly in order not to eat so much extra. Tappering off will not stop you from overeating entirely, but it will help.

I believe the best way to taper off of tobacco is to check your watch each time you use it during the day and see how long it has been since your last fix. Then ask yourself, what is the longest period of time that I have routinely been forced by my circumstances to not use tobacco, such as being in a no tobacco environment for an hour or two each week. If the longest period of time you have been routinely forced by your circumstances to abstain from tobacco is longer than your normal abstention between fixes during the day your can see that you have already been practicing quitting on a routine basis - see the Winston Churchill quote at the top of the page. And you also know how nicotine deprivation feels to the addict. 

You must accept the fact that this craving is not going to go away quickly. It only dies slowly. but you can get used to it and look upon it as evidence that you are subduing the most powerful adversary you will ever face. No knight ever slew a dragon more powerful or cunning than nicotine addiction. Those who are addicted to nicotine are not only held to it by the physical addiction, but it essentially defines who they are personally. The first two times I gave up smoking I only whipped the physical addiction and neglected the personal addiction, and that is why I started smoking again - the first time after two years of abstention. I had quit smoking, but I had not stopped wanting to be a smoker. All of the acts and reactions of my live each day had been defined in the context of smoking a cigarette. You can go a long way each day on coffee and cigarettes, if you have access to them. Nicotine causes your brain to produce higher levels of endorphins. Enorphins give you a sense of well being and more of them in the brain makes you feel good about yourself and the world in general. This is going to be the hardest part about nicotine to give up. There is no other way of saying it, when you quit using nicotine you are going feel like you have lost your best friend in life most of the time. It is another reason I believe the most successful effort to quit using nicotine is to taper off.

Hard physical exercise causes the brain to release the same kinds of endorphins as nicotine, so if you are young enough and have the time and place for it, do push ups or some other strenuous physical activity when the craving for nicotine seems about to destroy your resolve. This is what I did the first time I quit smoking. I was young enough and healthy enough that I was able to stay off of nicotine for two years, and all cravings were gone. I could also do one arm push ups as long as I wanted. But the next time I gave up nicotine, I did a lot running in place because my shoulders had already started to bothering me. This time I only stayed off of them for six months, but as soon as I noticed the craving was gone, I started smoking again, reasoning that I had demonstrated I could quit anytime I wanted to do so. It is this kind of thinking that allows many who have conquered the physical addiction to nicotine to start using it again.

I do not identify this side of nicotine addiction as being a mental or psychological as others do because it is much more than a psychological addiction. It is who you are, and what you are. If you use nicotine, your image of yourself is developed around nicotine whether you believe it or not. Your every movement in you waking hours involves this image of yourself using tobacco, and when you try to quit using tobacco every movement in which you were accustomed to using tobacco will trigger the craving for it. 

I have known so many recovered alcoholics in my lifetime that were able to just quit drinking permanently but were never able to give up their cigarettes. I have known drug addicts who have given up all manner of drugs and many had no cravings at all except the desire to once again use the stuff because they loved the feeling it gave them.  But I have never known anyone who has been using even a modest amount of tobacco a day who has been able to walk away it them without a struggle. I have even heard people say that when Jesus saved them He immediately took away their craving for alcohol, but would not remove the nicotine addiction from them.

So, if you want Jesus to help you quit using tobacco, this is, I believe, the way He will do it. For example, if you are routinely going 20 minutes between fixes, on the first day you begin to quit, go for 40 minutes. Take note of the time you stop using your first fix of the day and do not use tobacco again until the 40 minutes expire. Do this for a week, praying to Jesus that He will keep your resolve strong when the urges come upon you to give up the fight. The second week go for 80 minutes between fixes, and the third week go for 160 minutes. 

In this fashion you will begin to see that when you can go for a whole day without a fix that you are progressively able to wait for longer periods of time without the urges coming upon you, but when you time is up for your next fix you will want it almost like you did when you were using tobacco every 20 minutes. Because you are able to go for a whole day without a fix does not mean you have successfully stopped, it just means that your physical and personality addiction to tobacco is being modified to accept longer periods of time between fixes. 

When you reach the point where you are waiting 3 weeks between fixes your confidence will begin to grow that you are really going to be able to kick the nicotine habit. About this time your personality habit will begin to try to convince you that you have proven your ability to control your habit and you will be tempted to begin full time use again. This is one of the most crucial times in your effort to quit because if you stop quitting, you will almost immediately begin using tobacco again at the same level as when you began to quit.

Eventually you will reach the point where you are waiting 12 weeks between fixes. When you get to this point you can either stop entirely, or go to 24 weeks before quitting entirely. When you have been off of tobacco for 2 years you will begin to notice that even the smell of tobacco is offensive to you. Remember, you once were the one causing the offense, It is perfectly permissible to make your property a no tobacco or no smoking zone, but do not infringe upon other peoples right to use the stuff in their homes, cars, etc.