| Smoking has always been associated with a feeling. | | | | difficulties of daily life. |
| Watch practically any Hollywood film shot before 1970, | | | | This deeply rooted emotional association is very |
| and smoking is associated with glamour, prestige, and | | | | difficult to disentangle, especially if the smoker does |
| a certain worldliness otherwise denied to those without | | | | not understand the connection. This is why so many |
| a lighter and the ability to effortlessly blow smoke rings. | | | | smoking cessation programs have such a high failure |
| So why do so many people assume that smoking is | | | | rate. By focusing only on the physical addiction, and not |
| primarily a physical addiction? | | | | the underlying emotional causes of smoking, smoking |
| Smoking is instead an emotional experience, and as | | | | programs are ignoring the fundamental problem — |
| such, is impossible to quit unless the smoker is willing to | | | | and frustrating a great many people who wish to rid |
| admit how deeply smoking is bound up with feeling. For | | | | themselves of the habit. |
| some, smoking is about the control and mastery of | | | | The medical profession has long focused on the |
| one's emotions. In popular cinema, when a particularly | | | | physical side of smoking addiction, which is akin to |
| stressful event befalls the protagonist, he often takes | | | | aggressively treating the symptoms, and not the |
| the reflex action of lighting a cigarette to deal with the | | | | underlying disease as a whole. Addictions are rarely |
| situation. In real life, although the events may not be as | | | | cured by getting rid of the symptoms, but rather by |
| dramatically staged, the impulse is exactly the same. | | | | understanding what prompted the addiction in the first |
| For others, smoking is a way to elevate themselves | | | | place. Smoking is an emotional addiction. By analyzing |
| above a difficult situation. Think of any of the iconic | | | | these emotional roots, and learning how to address the |
| musicians whose cigarettes casually dangle on their | | | | feelings directly instead of using a cigarette to |
| lips. With this simple gesture, the musicians convey an | | | | circumvent the process, smokers can finally |
| attitude of invulnerability. In real life, smoking can often | | | | understand and conquer their addiction. |
| provide the smoker emotional shelter from the | | | | |