Smoking All the way to the jail-house

The characteristic reaction to any "scare" or "threat" is immediate fear. If the threat can be readily and easily dealt with, then it's disposed of and the fear vanishes.

However, if there seems to be a possibility of failure in dealing with the threat, or if any action in coping with it or any reaction to it will cause discomfort or displeasure, intense feelings of mental anxiety and tension result. To avoid this, the individual deals with his fear through a process that involves rationalizing away its importance. He down plays it. He classifies it as insignificant, and ignores it. He still doesn't quit smoking!

I wondered, when I varied between desperate attempts to stop smoking and renewed puffing away of ever-increasing numbers of cigarettes each day, just how come I was acting in such ostrich-like fashion. Searching for an answer, I spoke with several friends. First I went to a clear-headed acquaintance, who is a minister.

"People shut their eyes," he said, "and hope that the bogeyman will go away. I have a niece named Suzi," he continued. "She's a charming little three-year-old, and when Suzi doesn't like something she has her own way of handling the problem. She simply clamps her eyes shut; she expects that if she doesn't see it, it's not there. Or that by the time she opens her eyes, it will have gone away."

I'm not exactly a charming three-year-old, but I must admit that on occasion my logic had been on a par with Suzi's. For example, when I saw in a news report that the death rate for heavy smokers is four times greater (from all causes) than it is for non-smokers, I reacted by lighting a cigarette. Psychologically, I suppose, I was saying to myself: "Jack, do you believe that statistic? What? You do? Well, buddy, don't. Forget it. You just go ahead and light up. You tell yourself you don't need to quit smoking! There -you didn't topple over, did you? Forget it, Jack. . .. relax!"

My minister friend insists that many of us continue to smoke because we're secretly afraid that some damage has already been done to our bodies, and that even if we stop smoking now, it wouldn't do any good. But so long as we continue to smoke, then every puff (just as long as we can puff) denies our worries. We're like the poor fellow who shouts "You can't do this to me!" all the way to the jail-house.