Choosing to Smoke, or not.
by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD, Dip Clin Hypnotherapy
Sept 2013
It isn’t good to inhale ash
and chemicals of any kind, but that said, we have the capacity to
choose. Or do we?
Smoke tobacco, if you wish and actually enjoy it, but don’t if you smoke
just because you identify yourself as a “smoker”. Smoke from choice; don’t
smoke from habit. Is it, though, that simple? Before I untangle that question,
I’ll just diverge a little.
On television relatively recently the writer, Clive James, being
interviewed by Kerry O’Brien, said of stories that it isn’t the story that is interesting, per se, but the story
of the story. This resonates with me strongly for what we identify about
ourselves drives much of our behaviour. Thus calling oneself a smoker, or a
binge eater, or a booze artist, facilitates a routine for indulging in these
follies, because we can then say, well I’m a smoker, binge eater, booze artist,
and that’s what I am, as opposed to what I sometimes do. It’s a story of a story,
and being so, can just as easily be changed to something else.
Let me be clear here, I am not a smoker, binge eater nor boozer, but I
do know the making of stories about oneself. I have stories about me that drive
me to some extent. I am a swimmer. As such this story is as much a story about
what I do, and what I identify myself as, as a person who defines herself as “a
smoker”. My story keeps me healthy, for I love swimming, but I am no more to be
defined as a swimmer than as one who swims. I choose to swim and know that when
I don’t swim I get irritable. Perhaps, and I feel it to be inconceivable, I
could channel my love into some other pastime, but being a healthy pastime, I
see no reason to. I do have other stories of stories that drive me and they
aren’t healthy, but that’s another topic to be explored on another day.
Smoking isn’t a healthy pastime. It’s an indulgence in a toxic activity.
Toxic and addictive, and therein lies the difficulty of what constitutes a
choice.
Nicotine is the tobacco plant’s natural protection against being eaten
by insects. It is thus an insecticide. Interestingly, though, nicotine mimics the brain’s neurotransmitter
acetylcholine that controls the flow of dopamine and over 200 more
neuro-chemicals. Dopamine, among other functions, stimulates the brain’s desire
for satisfaction, thus nicotine, in playing a dopamine-like role, promotes a
desire for more of the same, more satisfaction. It creates a craving.
Understanding
this doesn’t completely explain it all: why do some people manage to smoke one
cigarette only when they feel like it, while others smoke all day, every day?
The story of the story fills out the picture, I suggest.
A
story of a story (a person who identifies themselves as “a smoker”),
establishes a neural pathway in their brain by repeating the act of smoking,
and enhances the effect of nicotine in the brain, thus accentuating both the
intention to smoke and to enable the effect of smoking to increase craving
desires. It’s both: story of story and chemical dependence (illustrating a
mind-body connection in the act of smoking) that drives the habit (apart from
the social dimensions of doing what your friends do, etc).
Others,
who enjoy a smoke occasionally, but who don’t identify themselves as a “smoker”, choose when to smoke, as
opposed to smoking because they see themselves as a “smoker” (who smokes
because that’s what smokers do). This is a state I prefer to encourage in
clients who come to see me for clinical hypnotherapy. Yes, ideally, it would be
good if they gave up smoking entirely, but why not consider the idea that it’s
possible to choose to smoke just for enjoyment, as opposed to craving a smoke
because of an addiction? Abstinence may, or may not, be ideal for many people,
and for those who have smoked many years, such an ideal state may be difficult
to attain, for the act of smoking comes with multiple social and sometimes
creative situations that are less easy to drop. I know of one man who smokes as
a way into conversation with women. I know another who smokes to enhance
cognitive acuity (focus). Nicotine,
like dopamine which it imitates, stimulates cognitive acuity as well as
craving.
How
much better it is to achieve the ability to choose what one does, as opposed to
doing things just because you feel compelled to. My interest as a
psychotherapist/clinical hypnotherapist is in enhancing a person’s
choicefulness so that they can choose what they want, as opposed to just doing
what they’ve been doing out of habit and hating themselves for it. The capacity
to choose what we enjoy best of all is what makes my job wonderful. I get to
see people who have chosen a life they love, freed from addictive,
self-perpetuating self-destructive behaviours. If smoking continues to be what they choose to do, then so be
it. But let it be a conscious choice and not just continuing a story about a
story of themselves.
Copyright @ 2013 Dr Elizabeth McCardell
Copyright @ 2013 Dr Elizabeth McCardell
