The Little Blue Book

The argument about the harmful effects of smoking is settled and long behind us – smoking does awful things to our bodies. Full stop. The financial and health burden smokers carry can also do awful things to their loved ones. Yet, while smoking rates have fallen across most developed countries, people continue to smoke. The fact that they do this, despite strong evidence that this activity is pointing them to a very uncomfortable premature death, has most to do with the strong addictive qualities of the drug nicotine. This drug, which passes easily through the blood-brain barrier producing a quick ‘feel good’ flush of dopamine, is both physiologically and psychologically addictive. Most smokers, the overwhelming majority, become strongly addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes. For the manufacturers of cigarettes, this dependence shackles their customers with golden handcuffs – every cigarette drives corporate profits as surely as it drives the addiction. But few smokers would not wish to be free of the financial bind of their nicotine addiction. And, likewise, very few smokers would wish their addiction and its harmful effects on their children. Yet, so powerful is the dependence, that’s what they do. For smokers, the compulsion to smoke, like every addiction, is a consequence of repeated small failures of control. Nicotine takes control until they them-selves find the strength to change or find the help they need to break free. But the road to freedom can be a hard one; addiction to nicotine is one of the toughest addictions to break. SMOKING If you’re a smoker, maybe it’s time to re-examine things. Have a look at how much you’re spending on cigarettes and the financial pressures it adds to your life. Imagine a life without the compulsion of always thinking about the next cigarette. RECOGNISING DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND OTHER DISORDERS 74