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Comment by lelanthran | Hacker News Reader

> Not being able to stop for a week shows you are an addict. But being able to stop for week doesn't really show you aren't one. Most addicts do quit for weeks or even months at a time.

Correct. "Not doing $X anymore" doesn't mean you aren't an addict. "Being able to turn on/turn off doing $X" means you aren't an addict. If you haven't had a drink in years, but having a single one means that you now cannot do without the bottle, you're still an addict.

I've always said that there's no such thing as an ex-smoker; they're smokers who haven't smoked in a long time.

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> I've always said that there's no such thing as an ex-smoker; they're smokers who haven't smoked in a long time.

This kind of absolutism may end up discouraging present-day smokers from trying to quit at all. It's also not necessarily true. Some people do go from being smokers to hating the sight/smell/thought of smoking.

I agree, but it's also worth noting sometimes the opposite can be true and it's more helpful for some people who don't want to smoke to drop the "ex-smoker" "quit" and similar language and start saying things like "I am not smoking at the moment" instead. It takes the pressure off and makes it seem like less of an all-or-nothing thing. And also means if you do mess up and have a cigarette, you've not failed, you've just had a cigarette and now you can go back to not smoking.

Not posting this to be contrarian, just on the off chance there's anyone reading this whose trying to quit and is looking for a new angle to try. If you can't quit, don't quit. Just don't smoke. This is what finally worked for me.

I used to say shit like "I'm not smoking at the moment" or "I quit every time I put one out"

I turned phrases like that into a contrarian joke to justify my addiction.

Smoked from the time I was 13 until I was 29. That was 11 years ago.

I was tempted to smoke for the dirt 2-3 years after I quit. But I've grown to despise it and being around it.

Interesting how close our timelines match up, minus the 11 years. Smoked from 14 to just before my 30th birthday, which was 6 months ago.

If I smell it in passing, it smells pretty disgusting. But if I spend the weekend at my parents (both heavy smokers), I quickly fall in love with the smell again and yearn for “one last cig”.

A big problem for me is that tobacco smoke very much smells like home - it’s what home smelled like growing up. And nothing takes you back like a strong, familiar scent.

> I've always said that there's no such thing as an ex-smoker; they're smokers who haven't smoked in a long time.

At least to their lungs they‘re not smokers anymore :)

And by that logic what will happen if they smoke one ? By your logic such people will have to stop before a certain threshold. What's the threshold ?

> If you haven't had a drink in years, but having a single one means that you now cannot do without the bottle, you're still an addict.

Note that this belief is completely at odds with that of modern psychatric medicine, and is one of the core beliefs of most 12 step programs, which are ineffective pseudoscientific systems.

"There's no such thing as an ex-Marine", so are Marines addicts?

If X implies Y, it is not necessary for Y to imply X.

"There is no such thing as an ex-FOO" does not imply that it is true for any value of FOO..

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