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I have a best friend who's been a steady smoker for over 15 years. He'd like to quit but his previous attempts have been discouraging failures. His good buddy quit, and his mother quit; but he enjoys smoking, dreads the process of quitting and abhors the thought of failing again. I'd love to see him stop because he's in his thirties and the habit has a very good chance of causing serious health problems, if it hasn't already. Or kill him. I've exhausted all my resources of encouragement. I have no more good will left. He knows the challenge better than anyone, and he doesn't want to hear what other people have to say about it. I really sympathize. It's the worst kind of personal challenge a person can face. It's both a habit and an addiction. And both these elements are physical. Like any behavior pattern, the smoking habit is set in neuronal connections in his brain. In a sense, he is now hardwired to smoke. Changing that would be the equivalent of establishing new, more satisfying pathways, in order to bypass the old smoking pathways. It's difficult, but it can be done. Millions of people do it every year. The addiction, on the other hand, is equally insidious. Nicotine appears to the brain as a neurotransmitter, which enters neatly into certain receptors related to satisfaction. The naturally produced neurotransmitters haven't been needed for this purpose for a long time, so his body has reduced or maybe even stopped production of them. So if he eliminates nicotine, nothing will take its place, at least until his brain begins producing the needed neurotransmitters again. While this experience varies with the individual, I'm sure quitting makes him feel miserable. Here's what I know. If he has lung problems and his doctor scares him, he will be up against the wall and have to admit he's killing himself. And he'll quit, no matter how hard it is. I wish people could look at cause and effect, see disaster coming, exercise self-discipline and step out of the way. But most people don't. They wait until they have no other choice. When it comes to your lungs, however, when you're up against the wall, most of the time it's too late.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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