I had a colleague who was an avid smoker. One day he ran out of cigarettes and was too lazy to go to the store to buy another pack.

A day passed.

He found that it was interesting that he didn't go get himself a pack of cigarettes, and really didn't want to be bothered with it, so he decided to not take the trouble to go to the store to buy them the second day.

This continued for a while, and one day he just shrugged and decided, "Eh, I might as well just quit." And he did.

He'd been smoking for years. He hadn't taken up smoking as a full time thing since he quit. He may have had a cigarette or two, maybe not. I don't know. But I do know I never saw him smoke while I knew him.

It's a true story. No 12 step programs, no higher power, just laziness, curiousity, and a decision.

I guess it's a personal decision when you boil down to it. This guy also had a tenacious resolve not to let himself be bothered by BS.

When you're sure you're sure, when you're not you're not. I drank a lot around certain friends and situations. I have been away from those friends and situations for a long time, and I just don't drink very often anymore. I wasn't an alcoholic, but I was certainly getting drunk more than was healthy for me. When I go back to those places, friends, and situations, I'll sometimes get drunk. Sometimes decide not to. It's nice to have the choice. And it's good to thoroughly exercise BOTH sides of the choice and to know them fully for what they really are. (Here I must point out that many choices have more than two sides ... and sometimes the ideas we have of this or that is really deciding upon only one thing again and again and really isn't a choice at all).

Frankly, I think belief in helplessnes, identifying oneself as permantly diseased, and with a weakness that turns into full blown hell when you give in to the slightest temptation to be a formula for lifelong tyranny. It's simply replaces one tyrant with another. That is, the addiction with the fear of the addiction and the role of an addict.

That's just my view of it. I'd cut off my arm sooner than join a 12 step program for ANY addiction I might participate in.