See it for what it really is—fiction. It is ‘just one cigarette’ that gets us hooked in the first place. That ‘one’ cigarette led to the tens of thousands of others you have smoked. It is ‘just one cigarette’ to tide us over a difficult patch or on a special occasion that is the cause of failure of most of our attempts to stop. It is ‘just one cigarette’ that, when smokers think they are free, sends them back into the trap. Sometimes we smoke it just to confirm that we have indeed broken free. It tastes horrible and you question how you could have become hooked in the first place. You are convinced you could never get hooked again, but you already are. Before you know it, you’re back buying cigarettes and wondering what on earth happened. It is the thought of that one ‘special’ cigarette that often prevents smokers from even trying to stop: the first in the morning or the one after a meal. Get it firmly into your mind that there is no such thing as ‘just one cigarette’.
