Well, I don’t smoke or have any other chemical addictions, so I can’t claim to begin to understand. I do fully support the decision to quit though. I respect anyone that can quit, I have disgust for anyone that doesn’t try.
Three stories may or may not help:
First story: I once had a student who was an alcoholic, smoked pot, was addicted to cocaine, heroine, and possibly meth, and smoked cigarettes. After he started training, he started quitting his bad habits one by one. He says that heroine was pretty hard, but unquestionably it was hardest to quit smoking.
He kicked his habits by working his butt off. He said that sometimes the only thing that kept him from lapsing was the fact that he was too tired to get up. For me to say he worked hard at kung fu would be an understatement. He was an inspiration. I think about him every time I don’t feel like training.
Second story: Also, my father-in-law has smoked for well over 30 years. A couple of years ago he quit. Six months later, for some reason he started up again. I can’t even begin to understand why. Why, after six months, would you start up again? I think it is actually harder for him to quit now that he has been defeated once already.
Last story: When I was in the military, I had a close friend who smoked. We met in basic training. Somehow he managed to maintain his smoking habit all the way through basic training. All in all, I spent about 2 years with this guy. He smoked like a chimney the whole time. Generally, he and I were the two fastest runners wherever we went. We were running 2 miles in the low end of the 10-11 minute range.
When we would run the 2-mile test, he would generally stay about 30-50 feet in front of me. No matter what I did, I couldn’t catch him. It made me mad that he smoked like he did, and I still couldn’t catch him. About 1/4 mile from the finish line, he would stop, pull over, and vomit. I would run right past him. Then, he would wipe his chin and sprint to the finish line just in front of me - every time, about once a month for 2 years. I never did beat him.
He’s dying from lung cancer now at the age of 32.
-Brent