Exploding the Smoking Myths

Who or what is Nitch? Nitch stands for NICOTINE ITCH and ITCH stands for Irritating Time Consuming Controlling Horrible

Myth 1: Smoking Helps People Relax

Smoking helps people relax. The ‘fact’ that cigarettes are relaxing is ingrained so deeply in our culture and psyche that at first it seems absurd to dispute this. But there is not one shred of factual evidence that supports this belief.

On the contrary, there is an ever-increasing body of evidence that shows that smoking is stressful. And that does not just mean that the hardships you have to deal with if you are a smoker, such as the expense and the damage to health are stressful. It means that smoking itself is stressful.

Key Concept Smoking is stressful, not relaxing.

However I am not suggesting for one moment that people don’t feel more relaxed after a cigarette than before it. What I am saying is that people experience cigarettes as relaxing when in fact they are stressful!

This is because Nicotine withdrawal is stressful. A cigarette ends this withdrawal.

Key Concept Cigarettes appear to be relaxing as they remove the stress that they created.

On the graph notice how the anxiety levels of the smoker rise, then drop sharply when the person smokes. This makes smoking feel satisfying. But notice that the anxiety levels for the smokers are higher all the time than those for non-smokers.

Myth 2: People enjoy smoking

What do you enjoy about a cigarette? The taste? The sensation of the smoke hitting the back of your throat? The deep breath in and the steady stream of smoke you blow out? Beautifully crafted smoke rings? The feel of it in your hand – feeling so right there?
Let’s start with taste. Can you remember your first cigarette?
That first experience of smoking is what a cigarette is really like.

Those early cigarettes represent what cigarettes truly taste like, if you don’t have nicotine addiction as a complicating factor. They taste disgusting. And cigarettes don’t change!

Key Concept Cigarettes taste disgusting – you just learn to get used to it.

Addicted smokers ‘develop a taste’ for cigarettes because over time they come to associate smoking with relief. Cigarettes are not enjoyable to smoke. All aspects of smoking are in themselves unpleasant. The taste and smell are unpleasant. The sensation of smoke entering your lungs is horrid. And the handling aspects are irrelevant. They only seem pleasant or important because you have become conditioned to associate these actions with relief.

Myth Number 3: Smoking ‘goes with’ Pleasure and Relaxation.

Cigarettes that people find most ‘pleasurable’ or enjoyable are those they smoke when they are out socially, or when they are relaxing. In these situations they are doing things that are themselves genuinely pleasurable. They may be out with friends, or at a party, or unwinding after work.

If you pair something irrelevant with something nice over and over again, the thing that you have paired with the pleasure becomes pleasurable in itself. In the situation I have just described, all the things I was doing were genuinely pleasurable and relaxing. The cigarette became associated with these pleasures till it seemed as if it was the cigarette itself that was the most important thing.

If you always smoke in situations when you are relaxing, drinking, socialising or unwinding, then the cigarette becomes associated with those pleasures, and you feel that the cigarette is a crucial part of them. When you first quit, these situations feel odd, as if there is something missing. What the research has shown, however, is that if you break the link, the conditioning fades. You will therefore find that you enjoy the genuine pleasures of those situations as much as you ever did.

Myth 4: Smoking Makes Good Times Better

People don’t enjoy things more if they can smoke – but they certainly enjoy them less if they can’t ! This is not the same thing! If you are smoking, Nitch will allow you to enjoy yourself. But he won't add anything to it.
But when you can't smoke, or if it is difficult to smoke, Nitch will make an awful fuss and prevent you from enjoying anything, or will insist that you suffer significant inconvenience to feed him. Quitting means not to have to think about Nitch, or worry about him or pander to his endless demands!

Myth 5: Smoking helps Concentration

Nonsense! This is just another cost cunningly disguised as a benefit.
In the same way that cigarettes make you stressed while pretending they are helping you feel less stressed, cigarettes destroy your ability to concentrate while pretending to improve it. Needing a smoke is an enormous distraction. Get rid of it (by smoking) and your normal ability to concentrate is temporarily restored.

Myth 6: You can’t get over an Addiction

Addiction is poorly understood and there are many misconceptions about addicts, such as ‘once an addict always an addict’.

The central feature of any addiction is so-called compulsive use. This means that people will go to great lengths to obtain the substance, and that they experience distress without it. The label addiction does not explain why a person has compulsive use. It simply describes what people do and feel.

This definition of addiction fits smokers, who make great efforts to get cigarettes and feel stressed, anxious or downright panicky without them. But it is not an explanation of smoking. The questions you need to ask yourself are Why do I have a compulsive need to smoke, Why will I go to such ridiculous lengths to get a cigarette and Why am I so miserable without my fags?

The answer can again be found in our little villain, Nitch.

If you can Ditch Nitch, you can be completely free from all desire to smoke – which means being completely free from the addiction.