Title: How Smoking Quit Me
Author: James J. McGill
Publisher: Book Venture Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-946955-94-4
Pages: 41
Genre: Self-Help/Education
Interviewed by: Thomas Macolino
Author Interview with James McGill
Today we are talking with James J. McGill author of “How Smoking Quit Me.”
PBR: What prompted you to write this book now, 30 years after you kicked your addiction?
Actually, the book was written in a longer and not so personal form in 1993, only 9 years after the addiction was arrested. This is the third complete re-write and I was prompted after realizing that many people are getting sick and dying because they don’t have an advocate who relates to them and tells their own success story unabridged.
PBR: Do you think your method of recovery could work for other addictions, such as drugs, alcohol, or pornography?
Yes, absolutely. What is needed here is the specifics about drugs, alcohol and porn. I can speak to alcohol because of addiction from 15 to 23 years old, not too much drugs and I don’t know anything about porn addiction. But the concept I laid out of turning the ugly mess over to a Higher Power of your understanding is the same. It’s the approach and relating to the substance (alcohol, heroin etc.; and it must be specific) that is the element that leads the person to a “OK place” to turn this over to God. That’s my point of view.
PBR: Would you say it is possible for someone who doesn’t believe in any kind of Higher Power to become free of addiction? And if so, how would be the best way to go about it?
Short answer no; who then are you going to turn to that is a higher power than the addiction? I found that most people that argue for the non-existence of God or Higher Power is either afraid of the concept or hiding something. Looking around us, the complex universe we live in didn’t just pop out of a primordial soup! I am very glad that I was a fall-away Christian and said nothing good about any religious group when I needed God most. It goes to show that the Creator laughs at the fervor for atheism and a religious structure that yields no success. I can attest He only answers faith not crisis.
PBR: What are some of the best aspects to being tobacco-free?
I could write a book on that. It is just wonderful. The best is good health and knowing that the stats for heart, pulmonary, oral and major organ health is on your side. The social aspects of not wreaking of stale tobacco is pretty good too. But a close second to health would be the freedom from being ‘owned’ by a rapacious creditor that takes and takes until there is nothing left.
PBR: Are there any parts of smoking that you miss?
No. I am a different person now that I am off of them. And I was fully different only after 3 weeks, still with withdrawals. It showed me that a dark lower spirit was gone from my life and in no way, would it be allowed back. God made sure of that.
PBR: What would you say to someone who prays to God for healing but doesn’t receive it?
I hear this all the time, I beg God for this that or the other and He won’t do it. First things first, 1) God doesn’t change, if he did it for me He’ll do it for you. Often mistaken for ‘you are not praying right’ but it really means we have evidence that God wants you healed. 2) Begging isn’t faith; the person must eradicate the unfounded idea that God is testing us by letting us suffer. That is some middle age witchcraft by some real sick minded religious types. Is it any wonder no one believes in healing? 3) Spend your time wisely and building up your will in God’s Will and stop the perpetual argument if you deserve it or not. We don’t argue, just claim that God (of YOUR understanding) means well for you. This is a matter of will power as in I will believe in the benefits my God has to offer and believe nothing else. This is where the real fight takes place, I have a multitude of people in my life that speak death into my situations. I rely on the promises I know to be true and no one gets me off of it. If I stick with it, his promises win, if not the negative defeated world we live in wins. My job is to not let that happen. This is valid for unchurched and churched alike.
PBR: Do you think it is possible for someone to be in a “right-alignment” with God and still not have their addiction taken away by God?
Absolutely not. That would mean that God condones addiction. If my proposition is correct, and I have evidence it is, then God means me well not ill. There is nothing good about addiction. It taught me nothing. It is evil and like I said before a rapacious creditor, raping its victim over and over again and pulling the life out of him/her until there is no life left. All addiction is like that. Make friends with who you understand God to be and let the chips fall where they may. I found that if God is the shot-caller the chips are in my favor. My last piece of advice; stay the course, fight the good fight of faith, run the race to win it.
