Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa

you think dinner, then my, whatever you drink after dinner, it could be a tea, whatever, and I always have a cigarette.

So then you have to do this exposure without dinner plus tea, no cigarette.

Okay.

And so the first few times it's going to be really awful.

It's going to feel like, oh, I just really want that.

It's that habit, that habit, but you've got to pair it.

You've got to have that, that event without the cigarette, because you then want to be able to have dinner and that thing

without the cigarette and that association starts to break break break break break and then eventually you've completely broken that association and you can easily have dinner and your tea or your whatever you're drinking coffee if you're one of those people that love coffee before bed which is crazy that used to be me but no longer um and then you're you're you're going to be able to be perfectly fine but it's a process of learning okay

Now, there is something called an extinction burst, and you have to learn to get through this extinction burst if you ever want to eliminate a bad habit.

And this extinction burst is that the behavior gets worse before it gets better.

It's stronger urges, stronger cravings.

It's your brain doing everything to recover this reward.

So initially, the urge for a cigarette, if you know the cigarette is coming, is like, yeah, it's there.

I want a cigarette, but I know I can have it, so it's fine.

I'm not desperate for a cigarette.

But when you take that cigarette away, you become desperate in that like the next day.

It's not necessarily a withdrawal like an addiction, but it's this thing of like, I'm really not having a good time.

I'm not enjoying it.

Maybe just one more time.

Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.