Posted by Dave on 5/18/2009, 2:45 pm, in reply to "Re: closet smoker support "
68.11.149.9
In fact, I WAS stating my belief that seeking out and repeating activities we enjoy and therefore want to do again, bears some important similarities to addiction. Or, to put it another way, I don't think that the motivation for smoking is all that different from the motivation to do anything that we find enjoyable. I've _known_ people who will (for instance) squirm their way through a meeting in anticipation of going out for Italian food afterward.
From what I know of current research, the differences in intensities of craving for such activities is partly due to how quickly the brain is flooded with pleasure-giving chemicals, and the level of those chemicals. The quicker and more powerful the flood, the more the brain associates the activity that preceded it with pleasurable feelings. The implication, of course, is that what we call "addiction" is, like so many other things, a matter of degree. The question is less WHETHER we are "addicted" to things we enjoy, but the degree to which we associate them with pleasure--and therefore how difficult we'd find it to give up those things.
Psychologically, one of the primary means of separating "addictive" behaviors from other habitual behaviors is whether the individual persists in pursuing a behavior in the face of evidence that the behavior is destructive.
Either way, you'd be hard-pressed to find a researcher or addiction specialist who would say that "chippers" (or very light smokers) are not addicted. Not surprisingly, most chippers strongly disagree with that idea--but they'll also admit that in certain situations, and at certain times, they really feel that they would like a cigarette and that they'll feel they're missing something if they don't have one.
I agree with the researchers, but it's not as though I'm strongly invested in what a light smoker chooses to call him- or herself. As long as there's no holier-than-thou "I just like smoking, I would never be addicted to it", they can call themselves what they want. I simply call them "smokers"--same as the rest of us.
--Previous Message--
: Dave,
:
: I think you contradict yourself when you say
: that (1) anything that brings you
: satisfaction and pleasure will lead you to
: seek it out again; and (2) anyone who smokes
: is hooked no matter how long they could go
: without it. Unless you're also saying that
: occasionally enjoying our favorite foods and
: hobbies is a form of addiction.
:
: For some people, smoking is like what you
: describe with food and drink. They like it
: and therefore want to repeat the enjoyment.
: They may have no problem going without for
: hours or days or even weeks. That is far
: different from struggling to sit through
: long meetings or movies or airplane flights
: because you're itching for a smoke.
:
: In other words, frequent and intense desire
: are defining elements of addiction. The
: addicts are those who are saying, "I
: gotta have it, and gotta have it NOW."
: Or pretty close, anyway.
:
: Norm
:
: --Previous Message--
: It's probably true that for a lot of us, our
: addiction runs deeper than this, but just
: skimming the surface: Rare is the person who
: can thoroughly enjoy something and not want
: more of it, at least on occasion. Can you
: imagine deciding never to eat your favorite
: foods ever again? To give up your favorite
: hobby for good? Anything you truly like,
: that brings you satisfaction and pleasure,
: lights up the same pleasure pathways in the
: brain--leading you to seek it out again.
:
: I think that some people who have never been
: smokers assume that at some point something
: just clicks for a beginning smoker and
: wham--they're addicted. But of course that
: doesn't happen--becoming addicted to
: cigarettes is as subtle a process as
: learning to salivate on your way home on
: Friday, in anticipation of the pot roast
: that you're used to having every week on
: that day. That's why when light smokers say
: they're not hooked, the first thing I want
: to as is if they'd be willing and able to
: give it up for good, and never smoke again.
: If the answer is "no", then
: tobacco has already got its claws in them,
: no matter what they might think or how long
: they say they can go without. They just
: don't realize they're addicted yet.
:
: Dave
:
:
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