Thumble and Doc2Quit4good- i agree with everything you said and understand why. I haven't concisely in 1 place answered the 3 questions. I've done it over a course of different posts, texts etc. but it needs to be done in the proper format and I'll post it here.
pky1520- Appreciate the support and the PM. Nicotine is nasty addiction and the guys going through it understand better than anyone how difficult it can be to be quit. Not just to quit but these guys know what it's like to BE QUIT.
The Law of Addiction is simple: we chose to use and abuse this substance and now we are forever bound to it. It's our choice daily to either be subdued by this poisonous weed or whether to make a conscious decision to not cower to it's power by keeping it out of our body.
The stories and examples of this are a few key strokes away. You can't 'beat' an addiction in the sense that if you don't abuse it for 'x' amount of days then it can be used without repercussions- nicotine is hardwired into our brains and bodies and it's those nicotine pathways that are never going away- ever. Everyday we stay quit those pathways are getting buried and overgrown by our quit but you suck down any nicotine and it's like a lighting an inferno that immediately burns all that quit away and those nicotine pathways are full blown again and all those nicotine receptors are now back to begging for the fuel (nicotine).
If you hate what you are going through now then understand that if you ever make the very poor choice of saying "what's one going to do" or "fuck it" just know that you'll be dealing with trying to rebuild a quit and you are going to go through that same shit you are now.
The only control we have over this is our choice to either abstain or be abused.
Not buying your bullshit that you are regurgitating.
I don't believe that we are "forever bound" by addiction.
I believe we are forever free and only when you chose to use do you impede on your freedom. Once you do that you have to get your freedom back. Not the other way around...you can't be forever bound by something you never had.
You need to change your line of thinking. Addiction is definitely real as I personally have lived it. But I also an close to 4 years free and have to come to realize that I was born into this world FREE and THAT is my natural state and what I am truly bound by.
Choosing to poison yourself and voiding that freedom is the anamoly and something you can absolutely break free from, completely.
You can't unlearn freedom but you can unlearn addiction...PERMANENTLY.
THAT'S the attitude you need to have. Otherwise your not quitting. You're just biding time until you fail again.
This isn't even debatable. It's like saying you aren't going to die one day. You are going to die. Can you make life choices to help prolong your life? Yes, and quitting nicotine would be a big one of those.
Diesel, I think we are talking about two different things. I am (obviously poorly) trying to convey how anyone that used nicotine and is now quit is 'one bad decision away' based on the Law of Addiction. I believe you are talking about how we have freedom through choices.
I don't disagree that I need to think differently- I wouldn't have said fuck it and sucked down a cancer stick after consciously choosing not to abuse nicotine for 350 days. There's no debating I'm fucked up in the mind when it comes to nicotine. There's no doubt that it is a powerful motherfucker and it takes patience and time to distance yourself from being an abuser to being a strong non-user.
That's why I'm reading about nicotine addiction. I've had an issue with believing I'm addicted. I hate the word addiction. So I'm educating myself on it and posting it in this intro. I AM NOT BY ANY MEANS SAYING IT'S OK TO USE NICOTINE. It's not.
Understanding addiction might not help some because it messes with the belief of "breaking free" or that you can "unlearn addiction".
The fact is your body and mind cannot. You cannot undo what you did. You can choose to make better choices by choosing not to poison yourself but you cannot change the fact that you are and will forever be addicted to nicotine. Hence the word bound in the sense you will forever be susceptible to full on abuser if you ever choose to use again. 1 year, 4 years, 25 years quit- it doesn't fucking matter, your body will not forget. The freedom comes from a choice- I don't disagree with that at all.
The fact that we have abused nicotine means we are tied (bound) to that addiction forever. If we hadn't abused it, then yes, you cannot be bound to something you've never had but that isn't the case here.
Was really just trying to talk about the second fundamental principle.. "..once established we cannot cure or kill an addiction but only arrest it.." That might mean different things to different people but to me that means this addiction is living within my body and if I don't want to be sucking on the teat of the nic bitch then I can never ever use/abuse nicotine again. I am certainly free to make the choice not to use nicotine. I wouldn't be here otherwise.
The 'freedom' comes from making a conscious decision not to use nicotine.
Believe what you need to in order to stay quit but anyone that abused nicotine, those receptors to nicotine will forever be there.
The bullshit I'm regurgitating is from the Law of Addicition:
"Mastering it requires acceptance of three fundamental principles: (1) that dependency upon using nicotine is true chemical addiction, captivating the same brain dopamine reward pathways as alcoholism, cocaine or heroin addiction; (2) that once established we cannot cure or kill an addiction but only arrest it; and (3) that once arrested, regardless of how long we have remained nicotine free, that just one hit of nicotine will create a high degree of probability of a full relapse."
I do like that train of thought Diesel and I do picture myself being forever free of using nicotine by making the right choices but not because it isn't still lurking.
If you believe that addiction is gone from your body then shouldn't read the following.
For anyone else that wants a better understanding of how addiction works, here's more on the subject:
http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/116#.VzKcr2NGJPN
