Hello, and welcome to this topic on substitutes. In this video, I'm going to be talking about what substitutes are, and why they just don't work. So first, let's look at what substitutes actually are. substitutes can also be referred to in the medical world as NRT, which stands for nicotine replacement therapy. This includes your vapes, your E cigs, your patches, your gum pills, anything else that delivers nicotine into your bloodstream. Essentially substituting, switching, swapping, the addictive part of the cigarette smoking is also marketed as being a healthier option, because you're taking in less toxins and then using another method.

Now, if you try to quit in the past, you may have used some of these systems before. The most commonly used these days is the vape. I'm quite amazed about vapes. They're so popular And a fully dominating the industry all on their own. They've also managed to project everyone how wonderful they are as an alternative, and that they're the answer to anyone wanting to stop or start. I can't tell you the number of people I speak to, who have never even smoked in their lives or even want to, but took up vaping Why?

Well, the answer really does elude me really. Those people end up putting themselves in the same situation as you and other smokers, being addicted to nicotine and incorporating this into their lives. Now, I could go on all day about it, but I will. I developed the simple formula because I do really like to keep things simple. So I will simply make my point about all substitutes. You are addicted to the nicotine drug.

How you take this drug is through a cigarette. A dirty, foul smelling poisonous, expensive Stick. Now you want to stop taking this drug. And as you now know, the physical withdrawal from nicotine is barely if at all noticeable. You conditioned and built up a series of mental triggers in your mind. So that appropriate or random moments it tells you it's time for a cigarette.

So why would you say okay, I'm going to quit my addiction to nicotine. And how I'm going to do this, I'm going to switch to a vape or an e cig, or I'll start chewing the gum or I'll use patches or I'll take a pill. So what you're saying is I will continue with my nicotine addiction, but I'll switch or substitute it for another delivery system that's a bit more appealing than an actual cigarette itself. So what is really happening here is you've just swapped it for something else and not removed it from your life in any way, shape or form. You can tell yourself what you like. It's better for me this way.

I'm just a nonsmoker that still takes nicotine So you're still caught in the addiction. And in fact, what you will find is that people who switch to these methods end up smoking again eventually anyway. However, they start again now and end up doing both. So instead of switching or substituting you end up with a whole new addiction, you sell mental triggers and condition yourself to use it. Most common of all with this is to use a substitute to get that nicotine hit when you're in a situation when you can't smoke, such as on an aeroplane. Maybe you'd have an e cig or some gum with you, to stop you from having that panic or feel deprived as much as you did before.

But what have you just done? You've not only substituted, you've increased the amount of nicotine you take in, because now you're doing both and filling in the gaps between when you're having a cigarette. The worst substitute you can use and many people fall into this trap is Food. Instead of having a cigarette, you have a suite or a chocolate bar. I remember when I tried to stop only using willpower, I said, I'm not going to use patches or any of those other things. I'm just going to stop them whenever I got a craving, I had a chocolate bar.

Well, if you want me to be really specific, I had a chocolate fudge bar. Now as you can imagine, my waistline grew quite rapidly. And what do you think my thought was there? Wow, smoking really helped me stay thinner. I think I need to start again, I'm going to need a whole new wardrobe. It wasn't until years later when I discovered the simple formula that I realized what I'd done during that quit attempt.

I had substituted without even realizing it. I have another example for you. A friend of mine decided stop smoking. And instead of a cigarette every time they wanted one to have a lollipop instead. Well, you can imagine what happened there. This person did start again within a few weeks of stopping.

But at that point, they also had quite a large sugar addiction. So in between smoking a cigarette, or when they couldn't have one, they'd have a lollipop. Once again, the waistline grew, and the addictions continued. So I do feel I've made my point quite strongly on this subject. If you do go to the doctor and say, I want to stop smoking, they'll say great, good for you. Try this patch.

If that doesn't work, come see me. It doesn't, you go back, try this gum. And that doesn't work. And you keep going back, but they keep treating the physical part of your addiction, not the mental desire and conditioning, all those triggers that you put in place when you first taught yourself to smoke. That is why these methods have such a low success rate and lead to an additional or bigger addiction than before. So I certainly hope at this point, I've convinced Issue enough to stay away from substitutes in all forms.

So just to sum up, I've covered what substitutes are and why they don't work confirmed, you are the only treating the physical symptoms, not the mental. So you should be able to clearly see now why there is no need to use them. Now we've knocked substitutes on the head, and we can move on to the next one, which is one of the most difficult ways to stop. So I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now.