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Posted by Richard Nicotine addiction is simply the most common and universally accepted reason for failure to quit smoking, which means that it is also the most common and universally accepted excuse for being unable to quit. My belief is that unless all other personal motivations to keep smoking are consciously recognized and addressed, the attempt to quit smoking will fail, and the knee-jerk reaction is to blame nicotine addiction as the sole reason for the failure. I don’t disagree with that. This thinking is common because we have been fed the message over and over and over again that the tobacco industry’s manipulation of nicotine content and delivery in cigarettes is responsible for all smokers’ addictions to smoking. The model is one of blame, and a total shifting of personal responsibility away from the “innocent” individual to an external “evil” manipulator. Whilst I have no more patience than you have with the “blame” culture and the abdication of personal responsibility, I don’t think that this is used as an excuse for failure as widely as you suggest. Many smokers blame themselves for their inability to overcome an addiction which, as they recognise, they voluntarily created for themselves. I have seen many examples of this. From the web, have a look at some of the entries in this blog (selected at random; one of the first I came across): http://www.quit.org.nz/page/blog/blog.php?viewUser=&page=9 This person does not attempt to blame anyone but herself for her predicament. She explains how she has got past the physical withdrawal on many occasions and yet been unable to resist the urge to re-start. You suggest later in your reply to me that I may be mistaken in taking at face value what smokers say about their addiction. Why, in your view, did this woman find it so difficult to stay quit? What evidence is there that it was anything other than a continuing psychological addiction to the cigarettes which she had used for a variety of purposes for years? Where can we find any hint of a subconscious pleasure in the risk and danger of smoking? […] I think that this commonly held scenario seriously underestimates the psychological sophistication of most adolescents, and also is a result of the model of seeing teens as mindless and “innocent”, and tobacco companies as “evil” predators and manipulators. I also think that it’s another outgrowth of our tendency to want to shift blame away from the personal responsibility of the user. No one ever lights up her first cigarette and takes a drag and inhales it without becoming immediately and permanently aware of the Risks and Dangers of smoking. I don’t regard teens as either mindless or innocent (having had to deal with three of my own), but I’m not sure that their motivations in trying their first cigarette are any more sophisticated than trying their first beer or their first joint. I do disagree with your assertion in bold. I would suggest rather that the first time smoker becomes immediately and permanently aware of the direct effects of smoking (such as those you describe) but I don’t see that as the same thing as “Risks and Dangers”. As I said before, that first drag may cause an unpleasant reaction but taken by itself it is neither risky nor dangerous. I don’t believe that there will be many teenage girls who, when offered their first cigarette, think: “here goes, I’m going to be taking a risk now and for the rest of my life”. The biggest risk at this stage is getting busted for smoking. […] These sound like the socially declared rationalizations of many smokers of the age group that you are describing. But the question is, can they be taken at face value? Is this the whole of the story? Since she doesn’t want to quit, if challenged, she might feel the need to rationalize her behavior to herself and to others. When questioned about the seemingly illogical decision to continue to smoke, she will undoubtedly offer up whatever justifications she imagines will fend off a critical party who is questioning her, because she probably doesn’t want to discuss it any more than is required to take the immediate focus off of her and her smoking. I would have thought that, if challenged, she wouldn’t offer up these justifications at all. She would be more likely to make some self-deprecatory remark and talk vaguely of intending to quit (even though in fact she has no such intention) in order, as you say, to take the focus off. My scenario was rather meant to suggest how she might justify her decision to herself. Again, I would have to be persuaded that there is a sound basis for inferring that enjoyment of risk and danger plays any part in her decision to continue to smoke. Continued in my reply to the second part…
on April 18, 2007, 11:24 pm, in reply to "Re: “Anne’s Choice” by Richard [1 of 2]"
Thanks, Vesperae, for such an interesting and detailed response. I will only comment on bits of it and will respond to each part separately.
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