Santa Barbara
25-06-2004, 05:12
I gotta clarify this here, for myself if not the whole world. See there's a little misconception, I think, maybe a trendy affection for the concept of addiction. Here's how it works, and here's how it's fignorant.
If you smoke, it's assumed you do so because you are addicted. No one seems to think otherwise now. It's just an automatic. Not really surprising, what with DARE and "The Truth" commercials and anti-tobacco company lawsuits, etc etc etc.
On the other hand, if you drink, you're not assumed to be an alcoholic. Why not? Whats the difference? Aren't both cigarettes and alcohol addictive substances? After all why else would anyone smoke if not for addiction, neh? So why not that apply to drinking?
Because there hasn't been any anti-beer company lawsuits, the Truth commercials only have a thing against UNDERage drinking, and because they give wine at communion.
The truth is, I would bet money, and I'm not the gambling sort, on the fact that I'm not addicted to cigarettes. Here's more proof how.
I was addicted to caffeine. At first I drank cuz it was in the house all the time, in the form of soda. But then it became habit. And when I realized I didn't like it all that much and quit cold turkey, the next day I was tortured with headaches that wouldn't go away til I drank some more. I tried that a few times, actually, and always it was like that. Addiction. Eventually I managed to quit by graduating it out over a month, decreasing the amount each week so as to reduce my dependency.
Thats what it is. Dependency. Addiction is depending on the chemical in your daily life and being unable to stop whether you would want to or not. That's why addiction is so rough.
But me, I've 'quit' smoking a few times. I say 'quit' cuz I never said, "Aha, now I'll never ever smoke another cigarette again!" I just stopped doing it. Never once have I had any physical withdrawal symptoms from this. Never have I felt compelled to go out and get cigarettes so that I would be able to function. It was just about desire. Whether I wanted to smoke or not. Much like drinking, you either want to drink at any given moment, or you don't, yes? Unless you're an alcoholic, and you want it all the time.
See I do believe in addiction, I even think cigarettes can be addictive. As caffeine, and alcohol, and heroin. I just think it makes a mockery of the term if its applied whenever someone happens to light up a cigarette. The theory in my case, as its been applied to me by certain critics, is that "if you keep going back to it, you're addicted." But that doesn't make sense. I keep going back to drinking too, but I'm not an alcoholic and it would be an insult to alcoholics to try to make the case.
And in my case, the only time I've ever felt the need, felt compelled to smoke was when I was driving down south and got in a car accident. I was all shaken up, having nearly just died and all, and needed something to steady me. An emotional thing, you see. But even then I don't think that was addiction. I mean crap, I kept driving down south, was I addicted to the direction of south? It just gets ridiculous how ignorant people are and how willingly they swallow even false concepts as truth. To the point where NO ONE BELIEVES I AM NOT ADDICTED TO CIGARETTES!
See, I just LIKE to do it. I don't HAVE to; somedays I will chain smoke the whole pack, other times I can go for weeks or months without so much as thinking about lighting up. It depends on the occasion, just like so many things people do. Doesn't seem like addiction to me, not in the sense I had caffeine every day, or that alcoholics and drug addicts know it.
And thats a problem, because I still smoke, so its impossible to convince anyone I'm not addicted, because they see the fact that you do it, as proof of addiction. "If you weren't addicted, you'd stop." And then, the argument goes, anything I say to the contrary is just me justifying one's horrible, horrible "psychological addiction."
Having been physically addicted to caffeine, I scoff wholeheartedly on that there concept!
I think thats an excuse for being weak of will. Otherwise, you can start to paint it where any desire is a "psychological addiction." I mean get over yourselves and either do something or not, but don't go blaming mysterious brain disorders for the fact that you do something you don't think is entirely beneficial to you. I know what smoking does, and yes I've done it anyway, so what? Not addiction, goddammit!
I mean imagine if someone - everyone, in fact - kept insisting you were addicted to sex. Now, you like sex. And you're not gonna stop. But how then can you prove them wrong? When they're fingstupid? See I don't want to commit myself to anything like "smoker" or "non smoker," any more than I want to be a "drinker" or "teetotaller," or a "guy who has sex" versus a "guy who has sworn abstinance for all eternity." I don't feel the need to label myself that way or limit, for no real reason, all future activity.
It's annoying.
If you smoke, it's assumed you do so because you are addicted. No one seems to think otherwise now. It's just an automatic. Not really surprising, what with DARE and "The Truth" commercials and anti-tobacco company lawsuits, etc etc etc.
On the other hand, if you drink, you're not assumed to be an alcoholic. Why not? Whats the difference? Aren't both cigarettes and alcohol addictive substances? After all why else would anyone smoke if not for addiction, neh? So why not that apply to drinking?
Because there hasn't been any anti-beer company lawsuits, the Truth commercials only have a thing against UNDERage drinking, and because they give wine at communion.
The truth is, I would bet money, and I'm not the gambling sort, on the fact that I'm not addicted to cigarettes. Here's more proof how.
I was addicted to caffeine. At first I drank cuz it was in the house all the time, in the form of soda. But then it became habit. And when I realized I didn't like it all that much and quit cold turkey, the next day I was tortured with headaches that wouldn't go away til I drank some more. I tried that a few times, actually, and always it was like that. Addiction. Eventually I managed to quit by graduating it out over a month, decreasing the amount each week so as to reduce my dependency.
Thats what it is. Dependency. Addiction is depending on the chemical in your daily life and being unable to stop whether you would want to or not. That's why addiction is so rough.
But me, I've 'quit' smoking a few times. I say 'quit' cuz I never said, "Aha, now I'll never ever smoke another cigarette again!" I just stopped doing it. Never once have I had any physical withdrawal symptoms from this. Never have I felt compelled to go out and get cigarettes so that I would be able to function. It was just about desire. Whether I wanted to smoke or not. Much like drinking, you either want to drink at any given moment, or you don't, yes? Unless you're an alcoholic, and you want it all the time.
See I do believe in addiction, I even think cigarettes can be addictive. As caffeine, and alcohol, and heroin. I just think it makes a mockery of the term if its applied whenever someone happens to light up a cigarette. The theory in my case, as its been applied to me by certain critics, is that "if you keep going back to it, you're addicted." But that doesn't make sense. I keep going back to drinking too, but I'm not an alcoholic and it would be an insult to alcoholics to try to make the case.
And in my case, the only time I've ever felt the need, felt compelled to smoke was when I was driving down south and got in a car accident. I was all shaken up, having nearly just died and all, and needed something to steady me. An emotional thing, you see. But even then I don't think that was addiction. I mean crap, I kept driving down south, was I addicted to the direction of south? It just gets ridiculous how ignorant people are and how willingly they swallow even false concepts as truth. To the point where NO ONE BELIEVES I AM NOT ADDICTED TO CIGARETTES!
See, I just LIKE to do it. I don't HAVE to; somedays I will chain smoke the whole pack, other times I can go for weeks or months without so much as thinking about lighting up. It depends on the occasion, just like so many things people do. Doesn't seem like addiction to me, not in the sense I had caffeine every day, or that alcoholics and drug addicts know it.
And thats a problem, because I still smoke, so its impossible to convince anyone I'm not addicted, because they see the fact that you do it, as proof of addiction. "If you weren't addicted, you'd stop." And then, the argument goes, anything I say to the contrary is just me justifying one's horrible, horrible "psychological addiction."
Having been physically addicted to caffeine, I scoff wholeheartedly on that there concept!
I think thats an excuse for being weak of will. Otherwise, you can start to paint it where any desire is a "psychological addiction." I mean get over yourselves and either do something or not, but don't go blaming mysterious brain disorders for the fact that you do something you don't think is entirely beneficial to you. I know what smoking does, and yes I've done it anyway, so what? Not addiction, goddammit!
I mean imagine if someone - everyone, in fact - kept insisting you were addicted to sex. Now, you like sex. And you're not gonna stop. But how then can you prove them wrong? When they're fingstupid? See I don't want to commit myself to anything like "smoker" or "non smoker," any more than I want to be a "drinker" or "teetotaller," or a "guy who has sex" versus a "guy who has sworn abstinance for all eternity." I don't feel the need to label myself that way or limit, for no real reason, all future activity.
It's annoying.