Relapse Prevention Visualization

BEFORE you smoke it might be a good idea, to play the WHOLE relapse through. Like this...

I want to smoke...

so I get the money....

get into my car...

go to store....

buy the smokes...

unwrap the pack...

take out a smoke...

slowly lift it to my mouth (taking mental note of how it smells),...

light it....

maybe cough... 

feel dizzy...

inhale deeply to get back all I missed since I quit....

finish it on the way home...

get out of car....

decide to control how much I smoke this time....

light another as soon as I get in the house...

someone who knows I've quit calls on the phone...

so I try to blow the smoke out in a way so they  won't hear it....

now my stomach doesn't feel too good...

so I light another (takes time to get used to it again)...

someone is coming home so I open all of the windows...

light the candles...

convince myself it's my life and I can do what the heck I want...when I want...where I want.

Realize suddenly out of the blue that I have relapsed...yet again...

feel guilty....ashamed....like a loser...like a failure....

beat myself for listening to the NicoDemon's craving call...

instead of calling my nicotine sponsor, posting to the message board, or dragging my butt to a meeting...

go to these meetings and have to honestly share that I relapsed and now feel embarrassed and ashamed....

and upset cause when I quit again, I have to go through withdrawal all over again just as if I had never quit at all...

except it will be worse.

Now if you play this scenario through each time you have a craving, then by the time you are done the craving will have passed, or you will have self-talked yourself out of using nicotine...which to me seems a whole lot better then using!

Good luck to all!

Geri, Still Smober, still grateful! (geri1001)