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February 28, 2005

No More Sticks

Last night I smoked my last cigarette, dearest blog, (a friend of mine calls them “sticks"- short for cancer sticks) after countless half-hearted attempts to quit. And when I say half-hearted, I really mean I never meant to quit at all, perhaps I wasn’t in the right “headspace” as the hippies like to say. But I’ve also noticed that quitting smoking, like so many things in life is pretty easy once you commit to it. No, this is not an ad for commit lozenges, in fact I think the physical addiction to nicotine pales in comparison to the mental dependency, which I would classify as falsely seductive. In other words, like an evil manipulative lover, nicotine makes you believe that you can’t live without it, that you won’t be as happy, as creative, that your thoughts won’t be as inspired, ideas won’t flow as consistently. There is evidence that nicotine can actually make you “smarter” or at least stimulate your brain in certain ways, making those who are creative or sharp significantly moreso when they are “on” the nicotine. Here’s an interesting quote:

“Although nicotine is a poisonous substance that has long been used as an insecticide and rat poison, the small doses taken by smokers can cause temporary improvements in mental performance, including alertness, capacity to carry out repetitive tasks, and both accuracy and speed in an information processing test. Smoking is used by workers as an aid in tasks requiring thinking and concentration, and cigarettes can perk people up in much ths same way as a cup of coffee.”

“At low doses, nicotine stimulates the release of beta-endorphin, an opiate made by the body. Consequently, smokers fell calmer. In contrast, a high dose apparently prompts the release of noradrenaline, adrenaline and dopamine. Smokers may experienc a lift, or find themselves in the paradoxical state of being more alert and more relaxed. Nicotine has also been credited with improvements in mental performance through an increased release of two neurotransmitters involved with memory function, acetylcholine and vasopressin. These effects don’t last for long - from 15 minutes to half an hour.”

“A healthier alternative to a nicotine dependency is regular aeurobic exercise. This is a habit that, like smoking, increases the release of beta-endorphin, acetylcholine and adrenaline. The result of a good aerobic workout is that sam paradoxical state of relaxed alertness. And unlike smoking, the fitness habit won’t increase your risk of cancer and heart disease." (source)

My intuition regarding this is that by giving you a sense of euphoria, relaxation, and increased mental activity, you might feel like you are more productive than you actually are. By stimulating all kinds of activity in a very short amount of time, while probably slowing down activity after it wears off, nicotine can give you the feeling that you’ll never be quite as creative or productive if you quit. This is what I sense is at the very core of my waffling when it comes to quitting.

Add to this the fact that I am not remotely convinced that non-chronic smoking (ie, 1-2 cigarettes a day or less) has such terrible health consequences. While the common wisdom states that even a little exposure the awful carcinogens in cigarettes on a regular basis almost guarantees that you’ll die a painful death from cancer or emphysema, most of the data that we have regarding the effects of smoking are based on smoking over a pack a day and I’m sure many of the “poster children” for the ill effects of smoking smoked much more than that. Think about the way people eat in this country, with all we know about the effects of obesity (obesity is actually gaining on smoking as the leading cause of preventable death). While there may be an argument to made for the “addictive” qualities of overeating, I don’t think it functions on the level of nicotine, a chemical which goes straight to the pleasure centers of the brain.

Nor do I subscribe to the idea that smoking is just an unmitigated “bad", or anti-life per se. Again, we are trained to see smokers as having completely abandoned their health, if not being contemptuous of it. Nevermind that many smokers are in much better shape than their non-smoking counterparts, and may in fact be healthier overall. Smoking, while addictive, is also pleasurable apart from its narcotic effects, and, like its healthier but equally addictive sister-in-law coffee, a well-timed cigarette can provide a perfect lift when a nap or a full-body massage isn’t feasible.

The choice to smoke, like all choices, is contextual. How long do you want to live? Is the pleasure of smoking a few cigarettes a day for the next ten years or so worth giving up a year or two of old age (don’t ask me how I calculated that risk factor)?

My choice to quit is based on a lot of factors. Cigarettes seem to affect my throat in the short term, making sore throats and throat infections more likely. A night of heavy smoking can leave me with a “smoker’s hangover” in the morning, with the feeling that my heart is working overtime to do its thing. I don’t like the idea of smelling like smoke all the time, knowing how disagreeable that odor can be when you don’t smoke. I don’t like the way it affects my circulation, making me feel like when I’m not smoking regularly, my extremities are always too hot or too cold. And finally, the “common wisdom” about health include some attitudes that I’ve internalized to a certain extent. I see myself smoking on my lunch hour on Lexington Avenue and think, “what kind of pleasure could be worth putting poison directly into your body?".

So, dear blog, with you as my witness, I hereby declare I am done with cigarettes forever. I am as serious as cancer and as committed as a commit lozenge.

Posted by exaltron at February 28, 2005 07:57 PM

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