Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa

Like you could withhold, but your brain's giving you all the reasons in the world why you should do it, why you could start tomorrow, why this, why that, why that, why that, why that.

So it's not even necessarily the nicotine that you need, but it's you're so embedded in this behavior, in this kind of routine that you enjoy, but you know it's not good for you.

So this extinction burst is going to, it's your brain really kind of having that quote-unquote tantrum that that toddler would be having.

Same as like with the tantrum, if you don't give in to the tantrum, the tantrum doesn't go away.

It gets really bad initially, okay?

So you've got to ride the wave of the extinction burst if you are really committed to breaking the habit.

That is the child trying to recover the reward.

That is you trying to recover that cigarette just this one last time before tomorrow.

That's you trying to be like, oh, I'll just scroll and then tomorrow I start fresh.

I'll just scroll a bit longer and tomorrow, well, tomorrow I'll do this.

This is why this whole idea of tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, it's our brains going through this extinction burst every time we try and break a bad habit.

So if you can identify that you're going to have an extinction burst and that it is

always going to be intense initially and then it fades out very quickly and like and quite dramatically so after that extinction burst you will realize that it's nowhere near as hard but the burst makes you think that it's always going to be this bad that's why we cave because we think this is fucked like

I'm a good person.

I've worked hard.

I deserve it.

I deserve it.

I deserve it.

I deserve it.

And then you give yourself a life that you don't deserve because you stack all these bad habits and then you're not happy and it's all backfired, okay?