Shannon's Journal Discussion Thread, Vol. 5

[Shannon]

Hi @Shannon


If the root cause of having a desire/cravings to consume alcohol regularly (especially in social situations) can be traced back to fear- then what root cause can the desire to smoke everyday be traced back towards? Or the desire to consume drugs or even the excessive intake of caffeine either via coffee or through some supplement, etc

People start smoking about 98% of the time because they are afraid of not being part of the group they want to be part of (not fitting in).  The other 2% is things like afraid that their parents don't love them, so they do something they know is self destructive to try to force a display of caring.

People then discover they are addicted, and this scares them into continuing to smoke because they keep hearing how hard it is to quit, how uncomfortable, how miserable, how unpleasant... which their subconsciously happily obliges by creating for them if and when they try to quit.  The exception being people who are primarily intellectually focused, who discover they can "quit whenever they want to", so they keep stopping and starting until they can no longer "quit whenever they want to", and then they keep going out of fear of withdrawal and failure, just like the rest.

People quit smoking for one of three reasons:

1. They found a good hypnotist/NLP practitioner who erased the social hypnosis that makes it hard to quit.
2. They used a good subliminal that erases the social hypnosis that makes it hard to quit.
3. They fear the consequences of smoking more than they fear the consequences of quitting.

People drink alcohol, smoke and do recreational drugs for only two reasons: to hide from something they fear and/or to escape pain.