Cutting ‘bad’ Habits and Addictions off at the Knees

Cutting ‘bad’ Habits and Addictions off at the Knees

I just went over the high points of a giant study done on smokers to find out what is going on in their brains when they think about or see images of cigarettes and even what their brains are doing when they see warning labels and pictures.

It’s fascinating to know how irrational we humans are, even though we think we’re smart and logical in our decision-making.

First, some background data before I tell you what I mean:

• On the packs of cigarettes in countries like Canada, Thailand, Australia and Brazil, they go so far as to put on cigarette packs full-color images of lung tumors, gangrenous feet and toes, open sores of mouth cancers and disintegrating teeth.
• In the US, there are some pretty straightforward warnings: “Smoking causes fatal lung cancer,” “Smoking causes emphysema,” “Smoking while pregnant causes birth defects.”
• In Europe, warnings on packs are placed inside big thick black frames that are impossible to miss.
• In Portugal, warnings are very clear: “Fumar Mata” (Smoking Kills).

Makes a difference, right?

Not one bit.

Even with graphic warnings, even though over 100 countries have spent untold billions of dollars in non-smoking campaigns, still more than 1 in 3 adult males across the globe smokes. 1 in 4 adults in North America smokes, and the healthcare costs are estimated to be over $180 billion a year.

So why is it so widespread even though it’s so obviously deadly? A major study was done to find out why by using fMRI (functional Magetic Resonance Imaging) and SST, an advanced version of the electroencephalograph. Those machines can tell us what parts of the brains are stimulated when certain pictures are seen, thoughts are thought, smells are smelled, words are heard or imagined, tastes are tasted or imagined, etc.

So, when pictures of cigarettes were shown, and conversations about cigarettes were played, and even when the warnings of death, cancer, heart disease, emphysema and lots of other conditions were shown, it actually STIMULATED the area in the smokers’ brain called the nucleus accumbens; “the craving spot”; see definition at the end of the this article.

This part of the brain is stimulated when you desire something like alcohol, tobacco, chemicals, gambling or a new pair of shoes. And when stimulated, the nucleus accumbens needs higher doses to get its fix.

So all these warnings and commercials not only don’t work to reduce the smoking habit, they actually seems to encourage the behavior! Even study participants who said that health warnings make them smoke less, got increased urges, even when looking at mutilated body parts. Wild, huh?

This is why chewing gum and drugs often don’t work to stop the smoking habit. This is why “family intervention” rarely works… why smoke-free buildings and smoke-free workplaces don’t work.

It’s interesting that, when non-smokers go through the same tests, their nucleus accumbens do not get stimulated – apparently this is because they have a different view of smoking, different motivations. Those pictures of disease gross out non-smokers, but get smokers excited, because smokers and non-smokers have entirely different self-images, completely different belief systems and attitudes about smoking. Smoking means something different to smokers compared to non-smokers.

When you think about a cigarette, for example, or about the smoke itself or the smell of it, or about other people who smoke, if you get all warm and fuzzy inside and you identify with the people and the smells make you happy, then there is little can force you to stop. But if you feel repulsed by it, there is little that can MAKE you smoke.

See the difference?

It’s not the brain that does it.

We’ll explain more in part two of this post.