Smoke Alarm

Ever wondered why you're a few puffs into a fag and don't really want it; can't work out why you lit it; and want to stub it out as you've other stuff to do?

It's because lighting up the fag silenced the inner klaxon of your subconscious mind.

If you don't respond to the initial beep of a craving then the signal gets stronger and more insistent and it makes you irritable and distracted. It's just like a drug addict desperate for a fix.

The longer you ignore the alarm the louder the klaxon becomes until you light up a smoke and feel that relief, peace and relaxation as quietness is restored and you can finally concentrate on whatever you were trying to do.

Many people, some of them quite knowledgeable, will try to argue that this was your body craving nicotine and administering it by smoking will restore the calm.

In reality just lighting up the cigarette turned off the alarm, nothing in the smoke played a part.

If falling nicotine levels in our bodies triggered a response to replenish the supply then some things would be obvious:

We'd crave most when we were the longest distance from our last smoke.

Very few people wake up and light up. There's usually a morning procedure involved before the first fag.

We'd shut down a crave by consuming nicotine.

Quitters still dosed up on Nicotine still crave.

Our habit would follow a regular pattern based on nicotine's transit through the body.

Actually we smoke heavily in some situations and sporadically in others.

Don't have the wool pulled over your eyes and spoil what could be your one and only quit just because you've been fed duff information.