Beware the temptation to demonize tobacco, to give a personality or a purpose to your addiction - It has no agenda and can not think, "It has an IQ of zero." There is no one who lives inside of you trying to get you to smoke except you.
All of the ideas set forth in John Polito's essay lay bare the denial, the lies and the misconceptions we had and others have about why they smoke and why they can not quit. But it can be done. We have proven it. Education is the key, not creating a mythological demon that we must chastise to keep at bay or that we must slay. It is a physiological change that we must come to accept and with which we must learn to live.
On any given day, whether we are free for one day or 1000 days, we can create a craving from a thought. We only have to caress the thought and to nurture it. Often we wonder, "Why now?" and do not realize that we reacted to the thought in such a manner that encouraged it to persist and to grow. That is not the result of any demon living within us. It is an example of how much power we have over our own ability to heal or not.
Read my friends, and grow.
Joseph
2 years 6 months.