Hello, and welcome back. In this topic, I'm gonna be talking about reduction. So what is reduction, and maybe more commonly known as cutting down and in some cases just becoming a casual smoker. So you've decided you're smoking too many cigarettes, but you're under the impression that you need to use willpower to stop completely, and that scares you. So you stay away from that. A wise choice.

Of course, you don't like the thought of using a substitute. Or you may be fearful that you will put a lot of weight on as you'll start eating more. So you reach the conclusion that you'll just cut down and reduce what you smoke and then probably just become a casual smoker instead, because well why not? The cigarettes you think bring you the most pleasure or enjoyment probably going to be when you're socializing. So maybe you're out with friends dinner, or a drink around someone's house or party. Or an event or a nice out on the town, whatever the situation may be.

So you'll only buy them and smoke them when you go to these events or these events are taking place. So in your day to day, you think I won't bother because I don't need them. Or maybe you think, well, I don't think I can just smoke casually, because I don't have much going on at the moment. So I'll just cut down the amount I have each day. So I smoked 20 a day now. And I'll drop to 15 this week 10.

Next week, five the week after, and then I probably won't even want them. So I'll go down to one a day, but only if I need it. So let's look at the method of cutting down your daily amount first. So by reducing the amount you smoke, you're actually putting along the gap between your cigarettes. So what does this do for your mental withdrawal? It is makes it worse, of course, you are now restricting yourself to only smoke so many at certain points during the day.

And by doing this, you basically ended up hot watching until you can have your next one. Or you look at the pack that you have a maybe, maybe to help yourself cut down, you put just five cigarettes in there so you can stay on track. And then you look at your pack and realize you've only got one left and it's only lunchtime. Now you have to wait until the moment you can have your last one of the day. But how are you going to make it through all that time. So again, quite a familiar situation.

You start to panic, you get frustrated, you're fearful. What are you doing so you can get your next hit? And then well until that point, you're not have any pleasure or enjoyment and anything else you do throughout the day. All because you still have the desire and the mental triggers in place. telling you that you need and want to smoke. You are in effect using a daily willpower, because you're starting over again on a daily basis.

So in some ways is worse than using the the cold turkey willpower method, you may end up using a substitute, maybe nicotine replacement or something else such as food being quite a common one. However, most people don't choose to have an apple instead of a cigarette, as the unhealthy options seem to be more appealing for craving. I as I've said previously, I want to use chocolate fudge bars. So what is eventually going to happen now, of course, you're going to give in and steadily retrain yourself to smoke more often, thus increasing the amount and before you know it, you're smoking the same if not more than you were before. So let's take a moment now to look at the casual smoker. This is quite possibly worse than daily reduction.

You say I'm on Don't smoke at social occasions. So what happens in the time between those occasions? What do you do when your mental trigger says it's time for a cigarette? Do you run off to the nearest open bar and start talking to random strangers? So you can have one? I certainly hope not.

Are you using willpower the rest of the time? Because we already know it's going to be quite a challenge. And the other problem with this is the time spent not smoking in between social events or occasions is you start to view the cigarette as something very precious. It can only be hard on an occasion and you can't survive these interactions and without it so undoubtedly you find yourself no longer looking forward to seeing your friends or whatever event it may be. But you fill your mind with the thoughts of excitement that you'll be able to smoke. So you look forward to the cigarette thinking it's all you can do to enjoy your time out.

And before you know it Telling people I'm looking forward to that dinner. I'm going to smoke that night. quite bizarre effects casual smoking can have on you Really? So let's look at non smokers for a moment. Do they struggle to get through the day evening or an event without having a cigarette in their hand? Well, no, they don't because it's not needed.

And it's all in your mind. They don't have it in their mind, and as a hobby, nonsmoker myself now I can tell you from personal experience, I don't even think about it anymore. In fact, I actually feel surprised when someone tells me that they're going for a cigarette. So I'll give you an example. I decided to become a casual smoker after I got quite ill with bronchitis. It was awful.

I was upset that I couldn't smoke, or well or breathe properly for that matter for a few weeks. This of course, meant that I was unable to smoke. Although I did give a go once or twice and hope would certainly not recommend that at all. When I was better, I was not smoking because I'd gone past what I thought was the hard bit. But as I got better and better, I thought, Oh, I could probably smoke again now, but you know what? I will take this opportunity to stop.

Yeah, well done me. Done a social event work was organized and I've never been a big drinker but I always thought that smoking went hand in hand with drinking alcohol. So I set out smoke that night because even though I'd stopped I missed it, so I thought I'd be a casual smoker. I then began to start thinking how great it would be that I could smoke again because I was giving myself permission to when that night was coming up. Now I stopped looking forward to a nice time with my friends. Just that I could smoke the precious cigarettes.

Of course the night came, I smoked. The usual happen, the light headed This smells horrible retort myself gave into the mental triggers. And very mind the mental triggers I pretty much all but gone by that point. And all in one night, I brought them all back giving me giving them what they wanted. The next day, I was a smoker again, I couldn't believe how quickly I'd gone back from being frustrated with myself for not one but two reasons. One not being able to only be a casual smoker, but that was also back in the trap of smoking all the time again.

So in summary, reduction and becoming a casual smoker doesn't help you at all. It gives you the impression that cigarettes appear to be a reward or a prize, or it makes them precious, giving them some kind of power over you that you shouldn't have given them in the first place. This is most certainly the most mentally challenging method ever tried to use to stop smoking? So just don't even go there. Now, the good news is we've shut down all those so called methods of quitting has not been good for anyone, especially not you. So, would you prefer a simple formula?

I know I certainly would. So on that note, Congratulations, you've completed this module, and I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.