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Wednesday
November 10, 2004

On Smoking by Barbara Branden

[Editor's note - this article is reproduced with her permission from Barbara's web site, in light of the "addiction" thread currently on this board.]

In the endless conversations, essays, articles, television shows, letters to the editor, and debates about the tobacco industry versus the government, one issue is considered unarguable: that cigarettes are addictive. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (57 messages)

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 7:27am

Barbara, Thank you for caring. I will be giving this book a try. This has been troubling me for a while. How can I say that I have a sense of life then kill myself with a cigarette?

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 8:12am

Very interesting article Barbara.

I remember way back when I was at school I read a general information book about drugs.

It classed different drugs as being either physically additive or psychologically addictive.

I remember that things like alcohol, LSD and Marijuana were listed as psychologically addictive....while physically addictive were cocaine and tobacco.

Maybe nicotine needs to be re-classified as psychologically addictive drug?

The differentiation between the two is that physical addictions cause a withdrawal reaction and psychological addictions cause a psychological craving while not necessarily producing any physical withdrawal symptoms.

It seems like a fine-line between the two anyway.

I am sure different individuals have different metabolisms and react differently to stopping depending upon their histories.

By the way, I also know stories of chain-smokers who have smoked for at least 20 years suddenly just giving up and having no withdrawal symptoms.

One was my Grandfather who only quit after he started smoking three packs a day. The other was a work colleague of my Father's who was also smoking a couple of packs a day.

So, it was happening even before the book came out.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 8:28am

Barbara: I can't claim to have smoked as long and as hard as you, but I smoked a pack a day for 14 years. I tried innumerable times to quit � once for 6 months, but I relapsed when traveling by car through the States for six weeks with a buddy who smoked. However, when my daughter was born I just decided to quit � not a single pang, craving or desire. It was astounding. There was no effort of will. It just happened automatically.

I firmly believe that there is a hidden aspect of our personality that knows all about us � an advocate, ombudsman, or whatever you want to call it, that comes to our aid in times of crisis.

Sam

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 12:42pm

Dear Barbara:
When I was a kid the only decent discussion I had with my father was about smoking--he gave me a credible reason not to. Later, however, I did smoke on and off but, because of that conversation, never extensively--at most 5 a day, then later just one a day, then in my fifties only one a week and now none. And I used to take long breaks--I wouldn't smoke on trips or at conferences or just not smoke for a month. It was mainly not to let smoking become a habit. I never, ever believed in the addiction story, although I grant easily enough that different personalities will handle something like smoking differently. (The worst thing about all the talk about smoking is the one-size-fits-all analysis, as if this were a problem akin to being bashed in the head with a baseball or drinking cyanide, which pretty much have the same consequences for everyone.)
Recently I wrote a piece for an applied ethics journal, "Morality and Smoking," David Benetar, ed., Ethics for Everyday (NY: McGraw-Hill, 2001). If you wish I will email you a copy--just send me a post at TMachan@link.freedom.com.

Best, Tibor

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 7:44pm

Rather than take your anecdotal evidence as proof of that nicotine is not physically addictive, I take it as a profound and correct statement of the power of the mind when acting on clear, unambiguous premises. In my estimation, this book helped you believe and understand "all the way down" and in an unconflicted way, that smoking was harmful. With the full force of the power of your mind behind it (concious and subconcious), giving up smoking was easy. Studies have suggested that nicotine is twice as physically addictive as heroin. But there are plenty of former smokers and former heroin addicts who never touch either again, but only when they are convinced "all the way down" (i.e., in a consistent and unconflicted way). Examples of the efficiacy of unconflicted people abound--most achievers of any great success are.

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 12:25am

Interesting stuff Barbara. Efforts are underway in the UK right now to have the government institute a ban on smoking in all "public places" (which of course includes restaurants, pubs and other privately owned establishments...). As with any drug, there is surely a difference between controlled use and outright addiction. I'm no expert but based on personal research into the topic I'd guess there is something to be said for the notion that proneness to addiction differs between individuals (which I think is what Tibor is getting at above). Personally I do smoke a cigar or two on special occasions but have never felt any addictive urges. As for heavier smoking, a couple of acquaintances have actually told me that the benefit they get from the nicotine outweighs the increased risk of cancer!

MH

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 1:57am

Scott: "In my estimation, this book helped you believe and understand "all the way down" and in an unconflicted way, that smoking was harmful."

That wasn't what did it, Scott. I knew in advance that smoking was harmful; it I had had any doubts, my cigarette cough gave me continual evidence. It was more that if a man who smoked 100 cigarettes a day for years, and so many others like him, could quit without horrible withdrawal symptoms, then maybe, just maybe, smoking wasn't really an addiction. Maybe I had been brainwashed by all the talk that it was an addiction. But even then, I wasn't convinced it was non-addictive until I quit, and found it easy.

Barbara

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 1:59am

Jeffrey, I wish you great success -- which I'm certain you'll have.

Barbara

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 2:03am

Marcus: "I am sure different individuals have different metabolisms and react differently to stopping depending upon their histories."

That can't be the cause, because, with the same metabolism, I suffered intensely -- dizziness, irritability, the desire to maim or kill anyone who said he'd found it easy to stop smoking, headaches, and so on -- and didn't suffer at all after reading the Carr book.

Barbara

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 2:09am

Marcus: "Maybe nicotine needs to be re-classified as psychologically addictive drug?"

I doubt if anything is psychologically addictive unless one is convinced that it is. In a word, so long as I believed that psychologically I had to want the emotional support of a cigarette, then I did want it; once I believed that I didn't have to need it -- I didn't need it.

Barbara

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 2:14am

Matthew: "As with any drug, there is surely a difference between controlled use and outright addiction."

Apparently not much. Alan Carr reports that he has many people come to him reporting that they smoke only four or five cigarettes a day, but that they cannot stop, that they are as dependent on those cigarettes as any chain smoker. Carr suggests that it is only enormous will power that stops such people from smoking much more.

You wrote: "As for heavier smoking, a couple of acquaintances have actually told me that the benefit they get from the nicotine outweighs the increased risk of cancer!"

The one thing smokers ARE addicted to is rationalizing.

Barbara

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 2:27am

"I doubt if anything is psychologically addictive unless one is convinced that it is."

That is sort of a circular argument.

The addiction is then a part of the smoker's psychology or state of mind, which in turn dictates whether or not they can easily give up.

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 6:46am

Barbara:

Of course, you are free, as a sovereign intellect, to interpret evidence, whether anecdotal or otherwise, however you would like and conclude as you will. I hesitate that studies that concluded, over and over again, and against a powerful interest group (big tobacco) who denied it even after it was accepted as scientific fact, that nicotine is PHYSICALLY addictive, should be thrown out on the basis that some people quit smoking with no side effects.

I clarify my position as follows: the unconflicted mind is a powerful thing. The book convinced you that quitting smoking is good for you, need not come at any cost and comes at substantial benefit, and it will not be painful or cause any bad side effects. Once convinced, your mind, powerful tool that it is, made it so. Perhaps, just as your mind made any physical withdrawal symptoms magnified when you were operating from premises which suggested that quitting was painful and would cause dizziness, nausea, and irritability.

Now, I am not saying that perception is reality. I am just acknowledging the power of autosugestion.

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 6:50am

Barbara,

Thanks for the response :-)

Apparently not much. Alan Carr reports that he has many people come to him reporting that they smoke only four or five cigarettes a day, but that they cannot stop, that they are as dependent on those cigarettes as any chain smoker. Carr suggests that it is only enormous will power that stops such people from smoking much more.

Ok, I haven't read the book. Given his thesis concerning psychological addiction though, it would surely be possible for someone to choose to smoke a few a day without becoming "addicted"? (Why anyone would want to do that is a different matter of course.)

The one thing smokers ARE addicted to is rationalizing.

Hahaha!! I may politely put that to my smoker friends if the topic ever comes up again :-)

MH

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 5:35pm

Ah... then by the same token, religion is also psyphologically addictive, with the same actual results......

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 11:48pm

People may want to check out this book also : addiction is a choice by Phd, Jeffrey Schaler

and truth about addiction and recovery by stanton peele

Friday, November 12, 2004 - 1:08am

I may well try and get hold of some of these books. Though I absolutely support people's right to smoke, I suspect one or two of my smoker friends would benefit from this material :-)

Friday, November 12, 2004 - 3:02am

Hi All

I have been smoking in various amounts for 8 years. During the past three years I have consistently smoked between 5-10 cigarettes every day. Coincidentally, I choose yesterday to conclude my nicotine adventure (and in timely manner for relevance to this thread!). Today is day one cigarette free, and the only withdrawl symptom I felt was being very tired in the evening. I have attributed this to my body adjusting to the absence of a stimulant (purely speculation on my part with no other evidence of a causal relationship). The only craving I encountered was from the established habit of smoking on breaks at work. I feel confident that any "addiction" I have developed will dissolve under the application of my will. I will let you guys know more as I move on.

Dave

Saturday, November 13, 2004 - 12:45am

Scott: " Once convinced, your mind, powerful tool that it is, made it so." This may very well be so.

You say that there is much evidence that nicotine is physically addictive. Carr does not completely deny this; however, he says, it is not addictive to the extent that it causes severe withdrawal symptoms. He says that the symptoms, if any, should last only two or three days, and should only be of a severity like faint feelings of hunger. I didn't experience even that.

Dave, you say that when you stopped smoking you felt only tiredness at the end of the day, and you speculate that that was due to the absence of a stimulant. Carr points out something interesting: that we smoke when we need a stimulant, and we also smoke when we need to calm down. So which is it that smoking does for us?

I caution anyone who plans to read Carr's book not to do what I did. When it arrived from my friends, with their enthusiastic endorsement, I promptly proceeded to lose the book; I searched my whole house for it more than once, but could not find it. Several months later, I discovered it in the most logical place in my bookcase for it to be. I then found myself, for about three months, much too busy to read it; I was not, however, too busy to do a million other things that were much less important. Finally, out of sheer embarrassment at my stalling, I grabbed it, took it with me on a vacation, and finally read it.

Barbara

Saturday, November 13, 2004 - 8:05am

Miss Branden I have sent you an email, also, check out that super-hero thread you posted on.

George