Quitting.. How Hard It Is

This is my paraphrase of what my friend has to say about smoking.  We tried to help him quit cigarettes a week ago, however that prospect of living a life not smoking was depressing, and so he hasn't quit, but has tried to cut down a lot.

He says..
Smoking cigarettes is not good.

Cigarettes are the worst because it's weird because they seriously take over your brain so it hijacks eating pathway, the addiction is hijacking your natural chemical reward system, like the same reward system as getting fed.  Your brain turns against itself, so you confuse something non vital for something that's as necessary as food.  So it's weird to be out of control of something as personal as your own urges and sense of self control and will power.  It's demoralizing...

The urge to smoke feels as strong as the urge to eat, however you do not need to smoke as you would need to eat in order to live.  You get confused about what you need and don't need, not mentally but in an 'urge' sense.  This creates guilt because it doesn't change your knowledge that cigarettes are horrible for you.

You just justify it not by anything that makes sense but by wanting it in the moment, and well you promise that you'll stop or do less, but that doesn't happen because you keep on smoking and keep on feeling guilty.  Smoking's manipulating you, controlling your actions to a certain extent.

The thought of not smoking is demoralizing, just because you have such a strong fulfillment of your addiction.
Because you can't justify it rationally but you keep doing it, which is cognitive dissonance.  Nobody likes that.

Doses of LSA helped empower his attempt at quitting, helping him see the reality of quitting.  Psychedelic drugs helped empower his own will to quit, helping this process of quitting.

How hard it is to quit:
It's surprisingly hard to fight the urges, you kind of let your thinking drop down to a less involved, withdrawn level, lowering your psychic guard against mis-perceptions so you can allow yourself to smoke.  You think less critically, allowing yourself to justify smoking on a poor justification that doesn't even make sense.  You almost just find yourself buying cigarettes or smoking, you give up to the urge of smoking, in that moment (when you want one) it's all you feel and all you think about.

"I've quit before".  It really comes down to accepting you're in a battle, every second you could possibly be smoking.  You have to recognize that and you see it as a series of battles, a war made up of battles.  If you don't see it that way, you could give up on "one" battle and find yourself smoking.