Imagine being at or near the peak of physical withdrawal and nicotine detox, where your brain begins working fast and hard at restoring natural neurotransmitter sensitivities now that nicotine's arrival has ended. Imagine your conscious dreams and desires of freedom doing a wonderful job at calming, suppressing and overcoming subconscious fears, craves and anxieties associated with arresting your world of chemical dependency, a world of "nicotine normal."
Now imagine taking early recovery into a smoke and smoker filled environment aimagend then commencing to drink large quantities of a mind altering and inhibition diminishing substance. What are the chances of your healing surviving?
It's what these threads are all about. Although Freedom teaches that we need not give up anything when quitting, that rule must be applied using a bit of common sense. We also teach baby steps and little bites and those principles work extremely well in helping each of us work-up to fully engaging all aspects of life. Alcohol may play a role in half of all fatal vehicle collisions here in the U.S. but it likely plays a much greater role in the death toll stemming from nicotine relapse.
Plan ahead! Break the event down into smaller doable bites. Have a coping plan ready. Have a back-up plan. Have an emergency plan. You have but one healling patient to protect and it is "you!" A host of expectations, emotions and new experiences to encounter but only one guiding principle determining whether the patient's healing lives or dies, no nicotine just one hour, challenge and day at a time, Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew! John (Gold x5)