[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by vesperae I think that psychological dependence is largely the result of internalizing the Identity attributes of smoking that makes it so attractive – sophistication, glamour, badness, rebelliousness, etc. – which all ultimately depend on the process of starting to smoke, and which forever implants and creates a context for the awareness of the Risks and Dangers of smoking, and the thrill (directly or indirectly) of repeatedly embracing them. Please understand that I am not suggesting that I believe that the Sublime motivation is the most important or only motivation to keep smoking. Far from it! All that I am suggesting is that I believe that it is significant enough for all smokers who take pleasure in their smoking that failing to recognize this could easily be a tremendous impediment to quitting. In order to quit, a smoker has to want to recognize and completely put behind her all of the experiences that create her cumulative internalized Identity as a smoker, which include the Sublime dimensions of the attraction to smoking that led her to start in the first place. Which is why, I believe, it is so very difficult to quit smoking, and which is why it seems very plausible that someone in Anne’s position would choose to not put the pleasures of her Identity as a smoker behind her, even though she had completely cleared the hurdle of physiological withdrawal from nicotine. I believe that it is still absolutely a choice, but a choice that is strongly influenced by a whole array of seductive pleasures that are very hard to want to put behind you and forget once you have experienced them… * * * * *v
on April 18, 2007, 3:46 am, in reply to "Re: “Anne’s Choice” by Richard [1 of 2]"
Continued from previous reply.
”You have suggested before that someone who has never been an addicted smoker can never truly appreciate how they feel.”
Absolutely. There is nothing that can give anyone the benefit of understanding the complexity of being an addicted smoker other than actually being an addicted smoker. It’s an absolutely unique and singular experience, unlike any other.
”I accept that up to a point, although I have at least some idea of it from what addicted smokers in real life and on message boards have said about it.”
You are an intelligent, sympathetic observer who has been given the benefit of what you have been told by those who are addicted to smoking, and by those who believe that they want to quit. But the picture you have of the addiction is limited by your lack of direct experience, and perhaps has been skewed by the difference between what many smokers think is going on with their addiction, and what is probably actually going on with their addiction, or at least with what they are aware of and are willing to consciously admit to non-smokers is going on with their addiction.
”Could the same be said about an addicted smoker who has no desire to quit appreciating the feelings of one who does?”
Perhaps, but I think only if that addicted smoker had an agenda or motivation of not wanting others to quit, which couldn’t be farther from my own position. I believe that smoking is only enjoyable if some part of you really wants to do it, and I am 100% in favor of anyone quitting who wants to do so, and would fully support and be happy to assist anyone who asked for my help in quitting!
”I do not suggest that the scenario which I have described is the same for all smokers; on the contrary I quite understand that everyone is different. I do suggest, however, that it is difficult to find evidence for the ‘risk and danger’ aspect being a subconscious pleasure for all but a minority of smokers, and that chemical and psychological dependence has a lot more to do with it. Which gets us back to “loss of control” and interference with genuine exercise of choice.”
Again, I think that you are perhaps attributing more responsibility to nicotine addiction than is actually involved, based on the commonly accepted “blame model” that I have suggested above.
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