Buried Alive by Nicotine
Try to remember. What was it like being you? What was it like to function every morning without nicotine, to finish a meal, travel, talk on the phone, have a disagreement, start a project or take a break without putting nicotine into your body? What was it like before nicotine took control? What was it like residing inside a mind that did not want for nicotine?
One of the most fascinating aspects of drug addiction is just how quickly nearly all remaining memory of life without the external chemical are buried by high definition dopamine “aaah” memories generated by using it. It’s a common thread among all drug addicts. We’ll discuss this in more detail later but I pose this to you now. How can we claim to like or love something when we have almost no remaining memory of what life without it was like? What basis exists for honest comparison? Why be afraid of returning to a calm and quiet place where you no longer crave a chemical that today, every day, you cannot seem to get off your mind, a chemical that is a mandatory part of every day’s plan?
Why fear arriving here on Easy Street with nearly a billion comfortably recovered nicotine addicts? Is freedom of thought and action a good thing or bad? If good, then why fear life without it? How wonderful would it be to again reside inside an undisturbed mind where addiction chatter gradually becomes infrequent, then rare? Again, I ask you, “What was it like being you?” Why fear coming home? Slave to the world of “nicotine normal,” we were each provided a new identity.
brain dopamine pathways did their designed job and did it well. They left us convinced that our next nicotine fix was central to survival, as important as drinking water or eating food. I recently read disturbing comments posted by more than a hundred long-term nicotine gum addicts. One, a 36 year-old woman, wrote, “I have to say, I traded one problem for another. I chew 4 mg 24/7 and can go through 170 pieces in less than 6 days. I have been chewing Nicorette now for 12 years. If I run out for a short time my mood becomes irrational. It is costing me more money than I have.
I have chosen Nicorette over food many times.” Although the word “quitting” is part of the fabric of nicotine cessation, such thinking can unconsciously tease and play upon old nicotine use memories, making us feel as though we’ve left something of tremendous value behind. If allowed, it can tease and inflame false fears, fears born of nicotine urge and replenishment memories, durable memories whose purpose was to convince us that nicotine is vital to survival, memories that should never have been present in the first place, memories only made possible because a foreign substance entered the brain and was able to disrupt priorities.
When you think about “quitting” I hope you’ll ponder when the real “quitting” took place. The journey home is about recognizing and embracing truth. But be prepared; learning that for years we were fooled and lived a lie can invoke a host of emotions including anger. Baby steps, patience, honesty and you too will soon be entirely comfortable again engaging all aspects of life without nicotine. Contrary to deeply held beliefs that were pounded into your brain by an endless cycle of urges and rewards, you are leaving absolutely nothing of value behind. To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, “even the love in our heart, we get to bring it with us!”
One of the most fascinating aspects of drug addiction is just how quickly nearly all remaining memory of life without the external chemical are buried by high definition dopamine “aaah” memories generated by using it. It’s a common thread among all drug addicts. We’ll discuss this in more detail later but I pose this to you now. How can we claim to like or love something when we have almost no remaining memory of what life without it was like? What basis exists for honest comparison? Why be afraid of returning to a calm and quiet place where you no longer crave a chemical that today, every day, you cannot seem to get off your mind, a chemical that is a mandatory part of every day’s plan?
Why fear arriving here on Easy Street with nearly a billion comfortably recovered nicotine addicts? Is freedom of thought and action a good thing or bad? If good, then why fear life without it? How wonderful would it be to again reside inside an undisturbed mind where addiction chatter gradually becomes infrequent, then rare? Again, I ask you, “What was it like being you?” Why fear coming home? Slave to the world of “nicotine normal,” we were each provided a new identity.
brain dopamine pathways did their designed job and did it well. They left us convinced that our next nicotine fix was central to survival, as important as drinking water or eating food. I recently read disturbing comments posted by more than a hundred long-term nicotine gum addicts. One, a 36 year-old woman, wrote, “I have to say, I traded one problem for another. I chew 4 mg 24/7 and can go through 170 pieces in less than 6 days. I have been chewing Nicorette now for 12 years. If I run out for a short time my mood becomes irrational. It is costing me more money than I have.
I have chosen Nicorette over food many times.” Although the word “quitting” is part of the fabric of nicotine cessation, such thinking can unconsciously tease and play upon old nicotine use memories, making us feel as though we’ve left something of tremendous value behind. If allowed, it can tease and inflame false fears, fears born of nicotine urge and replenishment memories, durable memories whose purpose was to convince us that nicotine is vital to survival, memories that should never have been present in the first place, memories only made possible because a foreign substance entered the brain and was able to disrupt priorities.
When you think about “quitting” I hope you’ll ponder when the real “quitting” took place. The journey home is about recognizing and embracing truth. But be prepared; learning that for years we were fooled and lived a lie can invoke a host of emotions including anger. Baby steps, patience, honesty and you too will soon be entirely comfortable again engaging all aspects of life without nicotine. Contrary to deeply held beliefs that were pounded into your brain by an endless cycle of urges and rewards, you are leaving absolutely nothing of value behind. To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, “even the love in our heart, we get to bring it with us!”
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13:33:18
