Did
you know how cigarettes triggers you to smoke? Here's a related explanation by Ivan
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who studied changes in behavior
in the early 1900s. One of his observations were that dogs normally
salivate just as they are given food. In one of his experiments, he
rang a bell just before he fed his dogs. Subsequently, the dogs began
to associate and link the sound of the bell with food. Soon, they
salivated even if he rang the bell without giving them any food. The
dogs had learned “The bell rings means I’m going to be fed!”.
Pavlov describes this phenomenon as "a conditioned
response".
The same "conditioned response" or association, the term we
prefer to use, occurs with you and smoking. After smoking
many, many cigarettes, your daily routine and acts become associated with
smoking and triggers the urge to smoke. For example, if you smoke
every time you drive, just getting into the car can activate associations to
smoke, as if your brain tells you,
“I’m in the car now so its time to smoke!”
Similarly, if you smoke immediately after you wake up each morning,
you mind associates smoking with waking up from sleep. Even long after
you’ve quit smoking, you may still get triggers to smoke when you
wake up.
Understanding
and dealing with these powerful associations
is one of the most important part of quitting smoking.
A similar study by B.F.
Skinner included a series of animal experiments to study how habits
are formed. Skinner found that when behavior, good or bad, is rewarded, it is more
likely to be repeated and when punished, it is
less likely to be repeated.
Just
as in Skinner's research, smokers believe that smoking rewards by
relaxing and soothing them. In addition, the close company of other
smokers may also lead them to believe that smoking rewards them with
social acceptance. Of course, there is no proof to these false
perceptions. Still, smokers continue to smoke because they believe
smoking rewards them somehow.
At
the same time, smokers who try to quit smoking receive "punishment"
through bad moods, irresistible urges and cravings. It is no wonder why
smokers find it difficult to even consider quitting smoking.
**References
Human Psychopharmacology Volume 11
Journal of Drug Issues 31(2)
BBC Homepage
Your Medical Resource
The Quit Smoking Company
Men
Health Magazine Online
