When you ask a smoker why they use cigarettes, they will almost always say because they like to smoke. However, smoking is hard because the person has to use great effort to suppress the normal body defense mechanism with each cigarette and the side effects of smoking are unpleasant. When the smoker says they like to smoke, the reality of the difficulty in smoking and the unpleasant side effects of smoking creates conflict and adds to the difficulty to quit smoking.
Smoking cigarettes is very hard to do. Not only does the smoker go through miserable months of "learning" to smoke,
but great effort has to be exerted to suppress the normal body defense mechanisms with each cigarette smoked for as long as they smoke. It never gets any easier because the body always works to resist that which is unhealthy for it. The learning process to smoke builds the Psychological Smoking Mechanism. This mechanism represses the body's normal defenses against harsh chemicals entering into delicate lungs that were only designed for clean air. Over time, this mechanism moves into the subconscious and out of conscious awareness.
The Psychological Smoking Mechanism is what keeps a person smoking, not the cigarette or even a conscious decision to smoke. The conscious decision to smoke was made between the ages of 12 and 16 during the identity crisis of puberty. After the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is created, it runs the smoking habit in contradiction to conscious thought processes. This contradiction creates conflict and the smoker attempts to ease this conflict by trying to convince themselves they like to smoke. This increases the difficulty to quit smoking.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard the smoker tries, the conflict can't be resolved because they have to overlook the intense effort to suppress their body defense mechanisms with each cigarette smoked and also, some very real and unpleasant side effects. In this article, we will look at two of the most common side effects of smoking and why they cause conflict.
The Smoker's Morning
When I was growing up, my parents were smokers. After dinner, the cigarettes came out, watching TV, the cigarettes came out, visiting friends..... well, you get the picture.
Morning was a particularly disgusting time because mom and dad had to clear out their lungs from the previous days smoking. The sound of coughing, hawking and spitting was a routine morning. Yuck. If you want to see a movie that accurately depicts the smoker's morning, watch "Cold Turkey" (1971) with Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart.
Nonsmokers also experience the need to clear out their lungs; it's called a bad cold or allergy sinus drainage. It is miserable coughing up junk or as a doctor would say, having a productive cough. We are glad to get well and be rid of the gunk coming out of our lungs, Yet, this reaction is an everyday experience for the smoker!
Coughing up gunk every morning of every day; how many smokers can claim they like this? But that is what they are doing when they say they like to smoke. This creates conflict.
The Smoker's Day is a Series of Coughs
Day after day, for the smoker, is coughing and throat clearing; there is a name for it: "smoker's cough"! Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland, was a heavy smoker and noted for his distinctive smoker's cough that preceded him wherever he went. Sadly, he died of lung cancer a few weeks after being diagnosed.
Coughing is a way of life for smokers and they unconsciously attempt to reduce coughing by shallow breathing. They are trading coughing for a lack of oxygen. Since smoking reduces oxygen anyway, the smoker is further depriving themselves of necessary oxygen.
Lack of oxygen is a miserable situation;. ask anyone who has suffered from pneumonia. Constant coughing is also unpleasant. A smoker who claims they like to smoke are saying they like a persistent cough and shallow breathing which leads to oxygen deprivation or shortness of breath. Obviously, they really don't like these things and this creates conflict.
Conclusion
The Psychological Smoking Mechanism operates at the subconscious level and enables and compels a person to smoke. To justify smoking, the person claims they like it. However, the intense effort it takes to suppress the body defenses to smoke each cigarette along with the aversive side effects of smoking, gunk coming out of the lungs every morning and a persistent cough or shortness of breath may be consciously ignored by the smoker, but are a reality. This contradiction creates a psychological conflict which in turn, strengthens the compulsion to smoke making it harder to quit smoking.
© Copyright 2010, R. Michael Stone
