Dealing with deprivation when you stop smoking
On January 23, 2010 in Health
If it seems to you that stopping smoking has locked you up in a cell of deprivation, smoking a cigarette will be your key to freedom. Many smokers find themselves stuck with smoking, unable to stop even for the briefest time, purely in order to maintain a sense of freedom. It’s a crazy trap.
You can tell when ‘rebellious’ smokers are anticipating feeling deprived because they increase the amount they are smoking whenever they get serious about stopping, or are told to stop by a doctor. They are making sure that they don’t feel trapped and deprived even before they start worrying about how to stop smoking! These are the people who believe they ‘have to’ stop, and are already rebelling against that imagined restriction.
Many smokers make attempts to stop smoking, only to feel deprived because of their denial of choice, and then go back to smoking in order to prove, once again, that they are free to smoke: ‘Nobody can tell me what to do! I can smoke and I will! I’ll show them!’
A rebellion always means that a restriction has been imposed. You cannot rebel if you are already free.