Probably the biggest problem with all programs designed to help the smoker quit is that they do not prepare the smoker for that sudden urge to smoke after s/he as been "abstinent" (has quit) for a while. Any of you that have managed to stop for a while (a week, a month, or longer) are familiar with the problem.
After you have stopped smoking for a while, a situation, a place, a person, or something happens, and you experience a very powerful, and often, overpowering urge to smoke. If you pick up a cigarette and smoke it, within two or three days, you are back to smoking the same number of cigarettes you were before you "stopped". Sound familiar??
The psychologists explain it this way: You figure that since you couldn't resist the urge to smoke, you are a loser anyway, so why not go ahead and smoke cause losers don't deserve the benefits of not smoking. Note that since this sudden urge can occur at any time ( even years after quitting), no drug addiction model can account for it.
The AVE problem exists for any procedure that requires you to "Quit", because there is no latitude in "Quit". Quit means "No Cigarettes-- Period"; and anything other than that is for a "Loser".
PBYS does not require you to "Quit". What you will find is that you will reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke down to zero-- of your own volition, and in your own time, and on that day when you have that sudden urge, you can go ahead smoke-- as long as you follow the rules-- i.e. Poke before you Smoke, no matter when or where it happens, without violating your promise to yourself-- and therefore you will not suffer the AVE. I believe that the fact that you can pick up that cigarete and smoke it (assuming you PBYS, of course) allows you to "pass-- i.e., not smoke it, easier than with any other method. Try PBYS and See.
