The Importance Of Psychological Preparation For Quitting Smoking

Sometimes it can be difficult to give up the cigarettes because you do not understand how important it is with psychological preparation to quit smoking. Even if your will is strong, your strategies may be weak. Maybe you are not aware of the reasons why you should quit smoking or you are not convinced about the benefits of this.

Tobacco addiction is both physical and psychological. You not only smoke out of habit, but there are also other reasons that you can not ignore. Although cigarettes are harmful, they also offer a form of well-being or relief, even if these experiences are fleeting. Therefore, one can imagine that one will lose these benefits if one stops smoking.

Nicotine is a highly addictive substance. Thus, great efforts are required to get rid of the habit of smoking. But in many cases it is also an exercise in intelligence.

It is not all about biological factors. When a person starts smoking, he develops a series of patterns and behaviors that revolve around tobacco. This means that when you stop smoking, you also have to get rid of all these behavior patterns.

A smoker’s behavioral pattern can be linked to social situations, loneliness, the flare you take after dinner, anxiety, etc. Thus, an intelligent response would be to try to avoid exposing oneself to these situations as much as possible, especially during the first days.

Why you become a smoker and why you need psychological preparation to quit smoking

Psychoanalyst Gustavo Chiozza makes an interesting analysis both of the reasons why people smoke and of the reasons for the intolerance towards smokers that is so widespread nowadays. In his view, tobacco is a kind of “spiritual food” for smokers. He believes that it does not have much to do with the smoke that penetrates the body, but rather with the fire that starts it all.

He points out that a large number of people start smoking during puberty or adolescence and that they usually do so by stealing cigarettes from their parents or other adults. In other words, smoking is initially linked to an offense. Symbolically, it is like “stealing the fire”, which Prometheus did according to Greek mythology to be equated with the gods. In adolescents, this act corresponds to entering the adult world.

This original theft and the subsequent entry into the world of adults also evokes an unconscious sense of guilt. The feeling of guilt  escalates when we see the increased intolerance towards smokers wherever we go.

As the transgression and guilt are strongly associated with the adult world , the desire to smoke becomes more intense, as is the self-destructive tendency. The consequence is that coercive acts arise and these are very difficult to free oneself from.

Why you stop smoking

To return to the previous point, anxiety, guilt and self-punishment are something that smokers usually experience. Very often this goes back to the youth, when tobacco was a symbol that announced the entry into the adult world. If this adult world was something that was rejected or that created extremely strong tensions, it makes the smoking habit a firmer root.

Finally – and this may seem somewhat absurd – people smoke to be able to say “This is me”. And when you say that, you feel guilty. Almost all smokers suffer from anxiety and guilt, which are accompanied by a calming feeling when they smoke. It is pleasant and satisfying while at the same time being self-destructive.

The reasons why you want to quit smoking are almost as important as the reasons why you smoke. If the urge to stop is seen as a condemnation, smokers will unknowingly assume that they are re-experiencing the limitations they experienced as children among adults. This is why many people fail to quit smoking. Deep down, they have the feeling of giving up their rebellion and giving up something that is of great importance in their lives.

Why psychological preparation is important to quit smoking

Experts say that around 60 percent of all smokers ever try to quit, but that only 10 percent of them succeed. In most cases, this is because an unconscious force eventually triumphs over the conscious causes of quitting smoking.

It may be a good idea to go beyond these typical smoking cessation techniques and to first find out what smoking means in your personal life. It can be especially good to remember the early times when you first got used to the habit. What circumstances prevailed in those moments? How did it feel to smoke? And how does it feel now? When do you experience the greatest desire to smoke?

Of course, tobacco addiction has a significant physical component and there are many effective aids to physiologically treat the addiction. But what is sometimes missing is the motivation to quit smoking.

By exploring what smoking means in your life, you can discover the self-destructive aspects of your smoking habits. And in this way, a greater desire to stop harming your body may emerge.