Read this article on smoking and the brain: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marina-picciotto/smoking-in-movies-think-smoking-looks_b_810561.html
Summarize the article. What are your thoughts on this piece? What is most interesting to you? Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn? How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article? What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
I thought the piece was short, but yet very informative. I enjoyed reading it. The most interesting part to me was when the article said that ‘smoking prevents wounds from healing and is a major reason for poor outcomes of surgery or fractures’. I found that very interesting because I did not know that information prior to reading it, so I decided to learn more about it. I learned that wound healing is slowed by the constriction of blood vessels by the nicotine in tobacco. Nicotine also contributes to increased platelet adhesiveness which, because of the increased tendency to stick together, increases the risk of thrombotic occlusion, or the development of blood clots.
My understanding of the various brain structures discussed in chapter 3 helped me to better understand why quitting smoking can be so difficult. From chapter 3 I learned that the ‘Nucleus Accumbens’ plays a critical role in the experience of pleasure from naturally occurring reinforces, such as drugs that contribute to addictions. It generates a ‘liking’ reaction to different incoming sensations, such as smoking. Also from chapter 3 I learned that if a person goes about their everyday activity and encounters expected circumstances, then their hippocampus functions in an “okay” checking mode. If the opposite occurs, then the hippocampus activates the septo-hippocampal circuit, generating an anxiety-ridden motivation state that takes over behavior. If a person is exhibiting that sort of behavior then they may turn to anti-anxiety drugs, such as alcohol or cigarettes, to help them return to a ‘happy’ state-of-mind. Learning all of this information has helped me to understand that people are most likely going to face many more situations in which they are motivated to smoke than situations in which they are motivated to end a habit that they have used thousands of times to help cope with stress, for pleasure, to pass time, and for many other reasons.
I thought the piece was short, but yet very informative. I enjoyed reading it. The most interesting part to me was when the article said that ‘smoking prevents wounds from healing and is a major reason for poor outcomes of surgery or fractures’. I found that very interesting because I did not know that information prior to reading it, so I decided to learn more about it. I learned that wound healing is slowed by the constriction of blood vessels by the nicotine in tobacco. Nicotine also contributes to increased platelet adhesiveness which, because of the increased tendency to stick together, increases the risk of thrombotic occlusion, or the development of blood clots.
My understanding of the various brain structures discussed in chapter 3 helped me to better understand why quitting smoking can be so difficult. From chapter 3 I learned that the ‘Nucleus Accumbens’ plays a critical role in the experience of pleasure from naturally occurring reinforces, such as drugs that contribute to addictions. It generates a ‘liking’ reaction to different incoming sensations, such as smoking. Also from chapter 3 I learned that if a person goes about their everyday activity and encounters expected circumstances, then their hippocampus functions in an “okay” checking mode. If the opposite occurs, then the hippocampus activates the septo-hippocampal circuit, generating an anxiety-ridden motivation state that takes over behavior. If a person is exhibiting that sort of behavior then they may turn to anti-anxiety drugs, such as alcohol or cigarettes, to help them return to a ‘happy’ state-of-mind. Learning all of this information has helped me to understand that people are most likely going to face many more situations in which they are motivated to smoke than situations in which they are motivated to end a habit that they have used thousands of times to help cope with stress, for pleasure, to pass time, and for many other reasons.
This article cited several different studies that found viewing people smoking in a movie makes the action of smoking more attractive to our brains. This means people who have quit smoking may begin again if they see someone smoking in a show because their brain attributes positive outcomes with the action. In addition, the article states that ex-smokers or those trying to quit have a lot going against them already and seeing their old behavioral patterns just encourages them to begin those behaviors again and relapse.
A part of me agrees with this article because it contains many sources from reputable areas, in addition, the article also has research evidence that backs up it’s supposition. The research says that seeing the actions of smoking affects the brain in such a way that that action is viewed positively and worth doing. This is why I am in support of the article.
The most interesting aspect of the article is that there are studies like this even going on. I like to think that our greatest research minds are pursuing endeavors like curing cancer and the like. However, through this article I am now reminded that addiction can be a debilitating thing is many lives. If helping people with smoking addiction can be as easy as removing a stimulus from movies, then why not do it?
By investigating further I found out that when people smoke, the nicotine influences the body to raise the person’s heart rate, which causes adrenaline shock. In addition, the body also slows down breathing to accommodate for the adrenaline. This gives people who smoke that energized and relaxed feeling they look for. Found on http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/nicotine/a/nicotineeffects.htm
This understanding fits with what I learned in chapter three because in the chapter the limbic system was viewed as something that helps us determine what we either do or don’t want to do. By understanding that when nicotine enters our bodies and brains it causes it to have an adrenaline response (fight or flight), we can connect smoking to addiction and the behavior of smoking because it affects parts of our limbic system. As we begin to crave the adrenaline rush, what our limbic system is remembering is that in the past it felt good and therefore reaches out for a cigarette when they are around next time.
Unfortunately, this teaches me that quitting has to be pretty difficult. Essentially people who smoke have to re-educate their brain and forget the good feelings associated with smoking. However, that is easier said than done. As I said earlier, if removing a stimulus from movies makes quitting and staying free of smoking easier, then why not do it?
We all have heard that smoking is a bad habit, turns out it really is! What is it about smoking that draws people into it, how about actors and actresses. Young children see these people as idols and look up to them. When they see actors/actresses smoking they think that it’s super cool! Since their idol is smoking for a role in a movie they just HAVE to do it too so they can be cool like them. What about adults? According to the article, seeing someone smoke in a movie can cause an ex-smoker’s old habits to kick in. Watching someone else smoke can spike the part of the brain that activates addictions/old habits. This could cause an ex-smoker to become a smoker once again. Alright, so we know smoking is bad, but how bad? In the reading, it states that smoking can cause wounds not to heal and reduces the outcomes of surgery. So what about the death rate? Smoking is the number one leading cause of preventable deaths. That’s higher than AIDS, suicide and murder altogether! That’s about 443,000 deaths every year.
I found this article very interesting and informative. The first and most surprising is the fact the seven different CEO’s of the tobacco industry said, as quoted “I believe nicotine is not addictive.” That was even in front of Congress. I don’t get how someone can say that when the studies show that nicotine IS addictive. The other part that jumped out at me was the statistics. In America 20% of Americas smoke, I figured that to be higher. What I really didn’t expect was that half of those will try to quit, but only 5% will actually quit. I really thought that it would be more than 5%, that’s a small amount! It seems that these days there are a lot of people that are quitting; I think that’s why I found it surprising.
I’d like to know more about what else smoking can do to the brain. I checked out this website and found something pretty interesting. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090623090400.htm This site mainly focuses on NNK. NNK is one of the common things you’ll find in tobacco. This drug attacks the brains immune cells. The cells are called Microglia, and what it does is destroy the weak or unhealthy cells in the brain. When the NNK comes into play it turns the Microglia around and starts to destroy the good healthy cells.
The article on smoking and the brain taught me that even though a person has quit smoking, that it’s still in the back of their mind and can come out at any time. It also taught me that seeing is also doing, in a way. It explained that watching people smoke in the movie is like doing it yourself. You take a drag when they do. This proves that it takes a lot of motivation to quit smoking and to stay that way.
The basis of this article is on the ideas that even though most people in general know that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health there are still a lot of smokers. There have been multiple studies on the negative effects of smoking tobacco and also the addictive nature of nicotine. Something that is still somewhat of a mystery is why so many people still smoke and specifically why certain people can’t stop, even when they try. I thought that it was interesting to read the study about brain activation in smokers versus non-smokers. The study showed that if nicotine-deprived smokers were presented with smoking images they had more dopamine reward activity than non-smokers. This seems to follow the logic that if someone is addicted to a drug, nicotine, that visual cues to that behavior will trigger some sort needing or wanting response to that image, in this case dopamine activation. I thought one of the most interesting things about this article was the idea that cigarettes being present in movies will have a substantial impact on those watching. I think there are two separate distinctions to make here; those who are/were smokers and children who have not smoked at all watching a movie which contains smoking. It makes perfect sense to me that someone who has smoked for a long time will have these physical movements that go along with smoking a cigarette and they are deeply ingrained into their brain. This is a basic case for positive reinforcement, when smoking is a positive thing. Seeing someone on screen performing these acts will trigger similar brain areas that are activated when the actual person smokes. What interested me even more is the idea that showing cigarette smoking in movies will have a profound impact on children. I read a couple articles that argue for the idea that smoking should be dramatically reduced for the benefit of children. While I agree that tobacco companies should not target children during their marketing campaigns, e.g. Joe Camel, I think that censoring movies is another issue. Film making is an art form in every aspect and should be treated as such. If there are bans on what can be shown in movies it is an infringement on our freedom of speech. If smoking in movies should be banned there won’t be a stop to what is removed. We probably shouldn’t have any drugs at all, either illegal or legal (prescription, alcohol, tobacco), all guns should be taken out and any act of violence, we probably shouldn’t swear either because that will affect the kids, there are a lot of car accidents so maybe we shouldn’t have cars in movies either. Children are going to find ways of doing whatever we tell them not too and have done this for centuries; taking smoking out of movies is not going to change that. Besides, all the sex, violence, language, and drugs that used to be exclusive to movies are all over television now. I think that reading this article makes you think about some of the more long-term effects of drugs such as nicotine on the brain. Some people want to stop smoking so bad that they would spend loads of money on different treatments. Yet, some still end up smoking, which makes me think that the effects of drugs such as nicotine may do a lot more than simply block dopamine reuptake or active the release of more neurotransmitters. Long-term tolerances may be an important factor also. Articles read:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042183
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67I4MG20100819
http://www.child-psych.org/2009/04/teen-smoking-does-watching-movie-stars.html
This article has to deal with smoking and the ways it affects and controls our brain. For a relatively short article, it gives us a great deal of information on the addictive behaviors associated with smoking, both psychological and physical.
The most interesting aspects of this article have to do with the statistics associated with smoking. The article states that smoking causes about 443,000 deaths pers year, which is more than AIDS, illegal drugs, alcohol use, car accidents, suicides and murders combined. That is a scary statistic and one that should deter people from smoking, but for some reason doesn’t.
The aspect of the article that I chose to learn more about was smoking’s effect on the healing process. According to http://smoking.ygoy.com/does-smoking-delay-wound-healing/ there are multiple negative effects that smoking has on the healing process. First and foremost, smoking constricts blood vessels, and smaller blood vessels will cause the healing process to be much slower because less blood is flowing to the wound or injured area. The reason that this is important is because blood carries oxygen, nutrients and other healing agents that are necessary in the healing process. Some other problems that smoking can cause in the healing process stated in the this article include: smoking causes infection in the wound, smoking is linked to higher rates of blood clots, smoking can cause skin grafts to not hold and stitches to come apart, thus causing scaring. This article proves with science that smoking does indeed slow the healing process.
The information in chapter 3 helps me to better understand this article because it opened my eyes and helped me to realize that some of our motivation and emotions are involuntary. Chapter 3 talks about “wanting” and “liking” when it comes to addiction. Smoking and nicotine in particular can trigger these motivational states. Smelling smoke or simply seeing other people smoke can trigger one or both of these motivational states, thus contributing to the difficulty in quitting.
In reading the chapter and both articles it just reinforces my idea that quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things someone can attempt to do. But what it helped me realize that I previously didn’t know was that although someone may be 100% committed to quitting, their brain can without their approval or knowledge send neurotransmitters that change someone’s motivational state, and might cause them to have an urge for a cigarette and/or other addictive drugs. Making it very difficult for someone to quit smoking.
Summary
Smokers and nonsmokers both know that smoking is not healthy. The article discusses the negative health consequences, the addictive properties of nicotine, and the research that claims 50% of smokers who try to quit, resume smoking within one year. The newest research shows that the physical act of smoking causes long-term changes in the brain. These long-term changes are easily triggered and even the simple act of watching someone smoking on TV will cause the desire to smoke again.
Thoughts
I am just amazed that in 1994 the tobacco companies all got together and testified to Congress that nicotine is not addictive, even after the surgeon general in 1988 said nicotine is as addictive as heroin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQUNk5meJHs). I think we took a huge step by banning smoking in public places, which helps keep smokers from relapsing. As for banning smoking on TV, I don’t see how having an actor/actress smoking makes or breaks a movie or TV show. Would it change my opinion of the movie/show if the character smoked or didn’t smoke? That’s why I think all shows can get away with not having any of their characters smoke. But I also agree with freedom of speech and expression and think that if smoking is displayed, it should have a different rating or a disclaimer, like violent or graphic shows have. This way ex-smokers will be aware that smoking will be shown and they can judge if they should watch it.
Most interesting
I thought the main point of the article was most interesting. I have heard that smokers who have quit are unable to do activities they once did as smokers (because they associate smoking with the activity) and are unable to be near a current smoker without the desire to smoke again. But it was very interesting to learn that the trigger is in the brain and that visual stimulation is a trigger for relapse. It is also interesting to know that these triggers can occur long after smoking cessation.
Learn more about
I wanted to learn more about the “medications that can decrease brain responses to images that remind ex-smokers of their cigarettes”. I specifically chose Chantix because it is the most common smoking cessation pill that I have heard about. Chantix is also known as varenicline and it is labeled to the layperson as a smoking cessation agent. It took some digging, but I found that its official drug class is an acetylcholine agonist (http://www.drugs.com/pro/chantix.html). The agonist properties don’t allow nicotine to bind with receptors and activate the dopamine system. I was also interested in the clinical trials for Chantix. To sum up the studies, only 50% of patients taking Chantix for 12 weeks versus the placebo stopped smoking during the trials. Those who had quit for one week before the end of the trial were then divided into another 12 weeks of Chanitx or placebo, and the results found that only approximately 50% of those who were still on Chantix had maintained abstinence from smoking. While these statistics are better than any other forms of smoking cessation therapies, the relapse rate is still extremely high.
How understanding Chapter 3 helped understand article
Learning about the brain structures and the role of dopamine as the reward center helps understand why people become addicted to nicotine. I hear many people say they hate the taste of cigarettes and I wonder why they continue to smoke. Knowing nicotine stimulates reward centers of the brain makes me realize that even though smokers know it harms their body, it somehow feels good to them at the time to smoke and then makes them want more.
Motivation to quit smoking
All of this information makes it clear that someone has to have extremely high levels of motivation to quit smoking and continue for long periods of time (maybe the rest of their life). It must also be frustrating to have two motivations competing against each other within the body. The body is motivated to continue smoking to feel good (dopamine reward), while the body may be suffering from lung disease and be motivated to not put these bad chemicals in their body anymore to be able to survive.
The Smoking blog
This article is about how smoking shown in movies activates the brain area linked to addictions or habits based on the recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. This study shows that just by watching characters in a movie smoke, a smoker or a previous smoker’s brain will be activated in the sensory areas responsible for the “wanting” aspect of behavior. This may help us understand how 50% of all smokers try to quit each year with little success because smoking is an addiction.
Chapter three identifies repeated usage of a product such as cigarettes, produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This is through the nucleus accumbens where dopamine stimulation or the “wanting” can last for years. This “wanting” that occurs just before the reward of nicotine addiction is based on sensory pleasure and that is probably why only 5% of smokers actually quit and that is sadly interesting.
I wanted to learn more about the activating aspect in smoking that “cues” the behavior of smoking so I clicked on the activating brain areas linked to addiction statement where I learned that fMRI supports this research. This identifies a strong signal in reward circuits known to be activated in addictions. These areas are the amygdale, the hippocampus VTA and thalamus regions where “wanting” or rewards are activated.
Based on my understanding of concepts from chapter three, I can make connections that help me understand this article based on “wanting” rather than “liking” in behavior. Most smokers I know seem to “need” a cigarette but they do not necessarily “like” smoking. I think most smokers would like to quit smoking because the rewards are minimal, and the few rewards such as calming or relaxing cannot be logically rationed (comparatively) in the choice to go back to smoking. Maybe there is a study of brain activity stimulated in parasympathetic system to support the relaxing or calming effects of smoking?
This article discusses the ways in which movies contribute to smoking behavior in individuals. According to this, when people see movie characters smoking, it triggers an area of the brain and makes them want to mimic the behavior. The article suggests that this is both an issue for past smokers, as well as young people who may be influenced by the movie to start the habit. It also talks about the difficulties for people to quit smoking once they are addicted.
I completely understand that movies can be influencing in some ways. Product placement in movies, TV, etc would not be as popular and expensive as it is if it did not work. However, I looked for an article that talks about movies influencing other addictive behaviors. I started with caffeine. Does watching a character in a movie drink a soda make people watching want to drink one? Nothing came up in my search for this. Obviously, branding does have an effect (I see someone drinking a coke, therefore when I want a pop I reach for a coke), however it does not seem like it’s the movie that made me thirsty for a pop. Alcohol, on the other hand, did come up in my search to see if movies influence drinking. The only thing that I really ran across was underage drinking (http://alcoholism.about.com/od/prevention/a/bldart06116.htm).However, when adults that occasionally drink see a character drinking it does not necessarily make them want to. This too seems to be the case for smoking. Is it just that movies influence underage smoking and drinking, or possibly heavy addicts as well? At what point do we decide to take these things out of movies? It seems unrealistic to take out every negative behavior in movies. There would be no drinking, smoking, drug use, murder, sex, violence, etc. So fine, people might not be as influenced to do these things but what would we learn then either? I think it the main concern is underage use of these substances; we should stop focusing on the media for everything and maybe focus on parenting styles. It’s time we put responsibility into someone else’s hands other than the media. (However, I must note that on the contrary, I do not care for violent video games, and do feel that the research on this showing that it does cause aggression/anger is significant enough to look at. So maybe I’m a hypocrite).
I did find the statistics presented on how smoking affects people to be interesting. While none of these really came as a surprise it is interesting to take a look at them. For example, I was well aware that smoking causes many preventable diseases and many deaths every year; however, I was not aware that it affects our body’s ability to heal wounds. The statistics about people’s ability to successfully quit was also interesting. The article noted that even with multiple therapies, over 50% of people relapse. This to me suggests that smoking as a bigger effect on the brain than we typically think. We know that it is addictive (just like other drugs) but clearly there is a deep-rooted reason that people are not able to quit even when they want to.
This taps into people’s motivation to quit. Often times, people will want to quit for their general health or for their families but usually this is not enough. There are countless reasons why someone would want to quit but usually they do not do so successfully. Is there a way to motivate people to quit smoking? I think that educating people on its effects has helped (in comparison to when people did not realize it was bad for them), however, people still smoke regardless of the education. This I think is how this article relates to chapter 3. The chapter talks about brain areas that are affected by motivation/behaviors. There is a brief section that talks about how the areas and how they are affected by drugs/medication or substances. Looking at how smoking affects areas of the brain to make us go against what we know is the better choice is very interestinghttp://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/nicotine4.htm).
Summarize the article.
The article is about how watching movies which include actors/actresses who smoke activates certain brain areas that are linked to addiction as well as activating other brain areas which compel the body movements smokers make such as reaching for a cigarette and bringing it up to their mouth. A new study has suggested that watching movies in which people smoke may make these aforementioned areas of the brain more active. If these areas are activated, relapse can occur.
What are your thoughts on this piece? /What is most interesting to you?
Everyone, smokers and nonsmokers alike, know that smoking is bad for you and can have serious health consequences. I think it’s important that people know and understand that tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the majority of countries. The majority of the population also knows that nicotine is the addictive ingredient found in cigarettes. I thought it was pretty interesting that researcher had been looking into whether or not watching smoking behaviors in movies would have an effect on the person watching the movie. I agree with the article in that when kids see their favorite, or not so favorite, actors and actresses smoking in movies it increases the likelihood of those kids wanting to start smoking. Something else I found quite interesting was that CEO’s from seven different tobacco companies testified before Congress stating that “I believe nicotine is not addictive.” That’s a bunch of BS and they knew it. They just wanted to make a quick buck. The statement about how smoking prevents wounds from healing and is a reason some surgeries don’t go very well was very surprising. I’ve never heard of smoking preventing the healing of wounds before, but after some thought it does make sense. The different types of ‘therapies’ offered to help people quit smoking were also very interesting. I chose to learn more about telephone helplines, or “quitlines” where can call in and talk to ‘experts’ who can help them through the process of quitting smoking. Through my research, I was able to find an Iowa quitline (https://www.quitlineiowa.org/default.aspx). This site offers a free, combined telephone and online program people can enroll in. The telephone program is called 1-800-QUIT NOW which gives people access to the online program called QuitLogix after they enroll. After enrolling in the program, free nicotine patches, gum, and lozenges (which are basically medicated candies) to assist in the process of quitting smoking. The site includes multiple links to various sources of information about the health consequences of smoking tobacco, a smoking calculator to calculate how much money you’ve spend on cigarettes, nicotine addiction, nicotine replacement therapy, secondhand smoke, and success stories from people who have enrolled and succeeded in this program.
Overall, I thought the article was pretty interesting and informative although it was a bit short.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article?
Reading Chapter 3 before reading this article helped me understand how and why quitting smoking is such a difficult thing to do. Once you’re addicted to the nicotine, your body and brain understands it as being a pleasurable experience when nicotine enters your body. Our bodies are going to want to continue to do things that are pleasurable, such as smoking. I’ve been after my dad to quit smoking for YEARS and he’s tried pretty much every patch, pill, and gum out there without success. He says he wants to quit because he knows how bad it is for him, but he admits in the same breath that even if he stops smoking there will always be that little devil in his head telling him to pick up a cigarette one more time. Now that I have information on another way people have found success in quitting (quitlines) I might just bring that up to him, although he’ll probably dismiss the concept outright because he hates computers and hates talking on the phone (he’d rather talk in person). My cousin also tried to quit smoking awhile back and was almost finished using the patch when he ended up in the hospital with swollen hands that looked like bear paws. He had had an allergic reaction of sorts to the medication in the patch which caused his hands to swell up. He was freaking out the entire time and the first thing he did when he got release from the hospital was have a cigarette. Needless to say he still smokes from time to time but not as much as he used to.
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
I think people can decide that they are very motivated to quit smoking but at the same time they understand that quitting is such a long, grueling process with a not-so-low rate of relapse. I think if people find a way to ‘convince’ their body and their brain that they don’t need nicotine anymore to have the same effect, they will be successful in quitting (at least for a little bit).
This article discusses new findings from a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience that 1) people who smoke are motivated in part by areas of the brain that are linked to addiction and 2) watching movies in which people smoke cause those areas of the brain to activate. The researchers who conducted this study suggest that when those areas of the brain are activated it may cause ex-smokers to want to smoke again. Further, the brain areas that are linked to physical aspects of smoking (i.e., reaching for a cigarette or the action of lifting the cigarette to your mouth for a drag) may be activated as you watch movies that include people smoking in them. The purpose of this study was to help shed some light on reasons why smokers who quit or want to quit continue to relapse despite taking advantage of many of the resources we currently have to aide in quitting smoking.
I really thought this article was interesting and, being a ex-smoker, I can really relate to the findings. I was never sure why but seeing people in movies smoke always makes me want to have a cigarette. Especially watching them light their cigarette and take that first drag which is usually deep and exaggerated. I think that better ways to overcome nicotine addiction need to be found and I have quit several times and relapsed so I know that staying a non-smoker is very, very hard to do. Many of the techniques we use to “cure” nicotine addiction are just temporary fixes.
I found another article that discussed how studying brain scans can show which smokers are likely to benefit from which cessation technique by finding the signature of their cravings. For example, some smokers are far more sensitive to visual cues and the areas of the brain involved with motivation and reward are activated when smokers who have abstained from cigarettes for a period of time are shown pictures of people smoking. In essence, their cravings get stronger when they view pictures of people smoking. This corresponds with the information I read in the original article assignment and it also corresponds with the reading assignment in Chapter 3. We learned that the addicted brain becomes hypersensitive to dopamine stimulation and that to take the pleasure out of smoking some market medicine is created to take away that pleasure that smokers feel. However, even if you take away the “liking” that goes with nicotine addiction, visual cues can still generate the “wanting” that goes hand in hand with smoking addiction.
All of the information teaches that smoking is a multi-part monster. Finding out what motivates each part of the addiction (i.e., liking nicotine, wanting to smoke when you see someone else smoke) is important to understand so that when people quit smoking they can do it successfully with far less relapses.
Summarize the article.
This article talks about how difficult it is to quit smoking and how easy it is to pick the habit back up after quitting. The article specifically discussed the consequences of watching people smoke on television. We know that this can show kids that smoking is cool and make them want to start. However, recent research is now showing that it activates areas in the brain that may cause ex-smokers to start smoking again. The article also said that smoking is the cause of 443,000 deaths each year, and that in 1994, seven tobacco CEO’s said that they didn’t believe nicotine was addictive. The article also discussed possible ways to assist smokers in quitting such as telephone help lines, cognitive behavioral therapy, nicotine patches or gums, or medicines to decrease brain responses to cigarettes.
What are your thoughts on this piece?
I didn’t realize that there was so much going on in the brain that helps support this addiction and that something as small as seeing someone smoke on television could quickly cause a relapse. I thought this piece was very informational and added in a lot of statistics that helped support their opinion. I think information like this needs to be made more widely published and more needs to be done to prevent smoking on television or in movies. It is obviously not worth it if it comes with all of these consequences.
What is most interesting to you?
The part that was most interesting to me was the fact that seven tobacco CEO’s said that they believe nicotine is not addictive in 1994. I felt like this was a well known fact at this point in time, and this seemed crazy that they were willing to testify to this.
Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn?
I looked up the transcript from the Congressional hearing where the CEO’s stated that nicotine is not addictive. The hearing began by Representative Waxman stating that half a million people are killed each year by cigarettes, and three thousand children begin smoking each day. This Representative also said that other companies are held to certain standards and not allowed to cause any harm to consumers. However, tobacco companies are not held to this standard. Many of the CEO’s claimed that there is now little to no tobacco in their products compared to what used to be in there. One of the CEO’s, Mr. Tisch, was the sole believer that cigarettes do not cause cancer or death, but he stood firmly by this. The seven CEO’s then stated at the end that they do not believe nicotine is addictive.
I think this is absurd that they were willing to say all of this under oath. Many of their stories about how much nicotine was in the products were contradictory. They would start off my saying there is no nicotine and end by saying they had good filters to keep most of the nicotine from going in the body. I was surprised that people were trying to be this naïve so recently.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article?
Before reading chapter three, I didn’t see the strong connection between the brain and motivation. Addiction would be a strong motivation, and it is also very present in the brain. The chapter helped me to see that motivation and addiction are not just surface desires, but they also impact the brain causing it to become a requirement. I also was able to understand which areas of the brain may be affected and how this would happen.
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
This information taught me that the motivation to quit smoking has to be incredibly strong for it to actually be successful. Most smokers will be more motivated by their next cigarette than quitting smoking, which will cause them to continue smoking. It also taught me that it may be best to employ outside ways to assist in quitting rather than just trying to quit cold turkey. Addiction is present in the brain and suddenly quitting would be a huge change. There are strategies now and helpful tips such as those pointed out in the article that could help people to be more successful in quitting.
This article discusses nicotine addiction. This addiction is more than just a psychological addiction, it is in fact physiological. The article brings up that, movies that show people smoking can cause an individual to relapse. This is true. In my biopsychology class we spent a lot of time discussing on how the brain becomes dependent on the nicotine. Nicotine is also one of the most addictive drugs. When an individual sees the specific movements of bringing the cigarette to one’s mouth and inhaling it activates the brain much more intensely for an ex-smoker rather than a nonsmoker. This often times can cause a relapse. The article continues on with statistics for mortality rates for smoking, the percentage of people who try to quit and those that actually succeed. I think that it is well known that smoking is bad and the horrific effects that it can have on an individual’s body. It is really strange that CEO’s of tobacco industry were denying that fact that nicotine is highly addictive. With all the facts and data we have today it would be laughable for them the make that statement today.
What I find to be interesting is the actual activity that takes place in the brain which leads to the addiction. In one video I found a representative from the Brookhaven Lab explains that the drugs that are abused cause a decrease in activity in the dopamine system. She states that drug addicts have an under stimulated reward system (dopamine system) and continue taking drugs to compensate. When she explained the these drugs decrease in activity in the dopamine system I thought about the section in chapter three where the unexpected reward releases greater amount of dopamine. This drug that you take for the first time results in a dopamine release which may be unexpected therefore releasing more dopamine. You now continue to seek this great reward by continuing the use of the drug. Other behaviors that used to be rewarding are not quite as rewarding as the intake of the drug. Simple behaviors that would have in the past activated your brain and released dopamine are now somewhat deactivated. By looking at a PET scan we are able to see that see that the brain of a drug addict is less stimulated than an individual without a drug dependence.
Both the article and the short video I watched are directly related to chapter 3. It is necessary to understand the reward system of the brain and how the different structures of the brain play a key role in addiction. I have a better understanding of emotion by reading about the brain and the different circumstances where motivation and the brain go hand in hand especially with addiction.
I found this article to be an interesting new take on the constant battle to get people to stop smoking. Needless to say, I felt as though I had heard everything there is to know about the dangers of smoking. As a person who has struggled with smoking for awhile now, these articles are always interesting to me and I'm always interested to see what the non-J.E.L. people have to say. Though I have quit rather recently, I still come in contact with stimuli that bring on the urge as if I hadn't quit at all. This article intrigued me for two reasons. After reading chapter three in our textbook, I have a greater understanding of the biological aspects of motivation. The authors of this article claim that seeing smoking in movies activates receptors that emit smoking behavior, often causing relapse in ex-smokers. I also enjoyed this piece because it truly is hard for me to watch someone smoke on TV, and now I understand why.
This article leaves the reader with a question: Why do smokers relapse? While research is limited on this, it is no doubt a hot topic among specialists. This is a topic that interests me as well. After doing further research, I found some more information on this topic. Data suggests that 60-90% of smokers relapse within a year. Smokers are often harsh on themselves because they feel like they've failed themselves and everyone around them. Smokers were more likely to relapse if they drank more than six cups of coffee a day and/or five alcoholic beverages. When smokers quit, they are told to lay off of both of these, even when it feels like coffee and beer are the only things that can help.
Upon reading this article, I had the impression that relapse was almost entirely conscious processes that took place that caused the behavior. There are many environmental factors that trigger a craving for me and I often thought this was the toughest part of quitting. After reading the article and chapter however, I have realized much of my smoking behavior is unconscious and as I continue to remain clean, I need to take these biological factors in mind as well.
The article on smoking discussed how addicting smoking is, how difficult it is to quit, and how easy it can be to relapse. It was deducted in the article that yes, smoking is bad for you and a bad habit. However, there is a new study out that talks about how a person smoking in a movie can cause a relapse or a desire for a cigarette. This is due to an activation of the brain area linked to addiction. The physical movement of smoking a cigarette is so well learned that watching it makes those brain areas more active. The American Lung Association as well as the CDC are concerned that movies with smoking them will lead people to think that it is cool and lead kids to begin smoking especially underage. Nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive (despite what the companies state). Due to the low percentage of successful smokers who quit, there are a wide variety of treatment to help quit: "quitlines," cognitive behavioral therapy, nicotine replacement therapies (patch, gum, etc), or medicine that decreases brain response to "smoking" images.
What are your thoughts on this piece?
This piece gave me a lot of insight on the different aspects of smoking. My dad was a smoker when he was younger and has tried to quit numerous times since I was born. There have been long periods of time where he has not smoked; however, he just seems to relapse due to some stimulus. The current temptation he's surrounded with is the fact that the majority of his co-workers smoke. He doesn't like me to know about his difficulty because of my opinion on smoking. I now know that it is more than just willpower to quit smoking. The brain is very much involved in this process, and the brain is something you cannot control.
What is most interesting to you?
There were two things that interested me. First, I could not believe the statistics for deaths. 443,000 deaths per year were because of smoking in the U.S. "According to the CDC, that's more deaths each year than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined." That is just crazy! My jaw dropped when I read that. The other piece of information that interested me were the number of different treatments available. I knew about the medicines and the nicotine replacement therapies, but that was all.
Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn?
I wanted to learn more about the types of nicotine replacement therapies to quit smoking. One thing I've heard a little about was the electronic cigarette and wanted to learn more about that. In an article from the New York Times, the e-cigarettes were discussed in detail and I learned quite a bit about them. They are a battery-powered cigarette that gives an odorless dose of nicotine and flavoring without tar or additives, and produced a vapor that looks just like smoke. These flavors can come in tobacco, menthol, or cherry at the current state. However, I found out that they have not been tested by the FDA for safety, so they are not being sold in stores. A person must either purchase them online or at a mall kiosk at a steep price. Researchers are not sure if the liquid that is used to produce the vapor is safe to inhale either. However, there is a bill going through Congress right now to hopefully be passed to have the FDA test these cigarettes. For the time being, people are still able to use them and because they do not emit smoke or carcinogens, a person is able to smoke them inside.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article?
The concepts from chapter 3 helped immensely. It explained to me how much the brain is involved in motivation and which parts are involved in what behaviors. It also taught me about addiction and the brain's role. Chapter 3 also showed me a lot about rewards and how they play a role in a person's decisions, especially with addiction.
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
All of this information has taught me that the process to quit smoking is a lot more complex (being involved with the brain and all). It has also taught me that it is not just about willpower when it comes to quitting. I now understand why it has been so hard for my dad to completely quit smoking.
Summarize the Article –
The article is written about the effect that movies have on someone’s brain that could cause them to start smoking or have a relapse back into their smoking habit. It also talks about the chance smokers have to quit smoking and how many will fail even with help. The article also calls out the tobacco company CEOs who claim that smoking isn’t addictive. The information in this article makes it clear that this is not the case and that even an ex-smoker can still relapse into their former habit.
What are your thoughts on this piece?
After reading the article, my first thought was that the seven CEOs of the tobacco companies weren’t very nice people to say the least. It is amazing to me how they can act naïve about smoking when it has caused so many people’s lives to be short lived. Also, I thought that whoever gave the CEOs their information should be fired. Another thought that arose was that if seeing people smoking on TV and in movies makes people want to smoke and relapse would it be possible to use these same industries to get the viewers to find smoking revolting? If this were possible it would be a big step in helping the 50% of people who want to quit smoking every year quit for good.
What is most interesting to me?
The part of the article that was interesting to me is that smoking prevents wounds from healing and is a major reason for poor outcomes on of surgery and fractures. I’ve known multiple smokers who have broken bones and have taken an excessive amount of time to heal. Even today after years of time to heal and constant smoking they are not fully recovered. A good question to ask these people would be if they knew that smoking was inhibiting the healing process would they quit?
Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn?
The aspect of the article that I decided to learn more about is what the tobacco industry is doing about their CEOs’ claims that their products are not addictive. I found that the tobacco industry is not only still finding new ways to market their products as safe but are even going as far as creating cigarettes that have sweet tastes to hide the normally bad taste of smoking. These are obviously designed to attract new smokers who won’t be exposed to the harsh taste of the former flavor. They are designing special cigarettes to target different demographics to maximize the effectiveness of their new marketing techniques.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article?
My understanding of the concepts from chapter 3 allows me to understand this article because of the limbic system. The effect that smoking has on the limbic system is a good explanation for how a person becomes addicted to it. The first time a person smokes a cigarette they could have a great relaxing feeling that causes the release of dopamine. From that point on that person’s hippocampus associates the relaxing feeling with smoking and leads to repetition of the act.
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
The information in the article has taught me that my previous belief that all a person had to do to quit was put their mind to it could be wrong. It may take much more then that as the article has said that it is not just an addiction it is a habit that has formed over the duration of time that said person has smoked. If we can find a way to use the media to broadcast smoking as revolting in the same way that it has been shown in the past as attractive it could be much easier for smokers to quit.
http://dpi.state.wi.us/sspw/pdf/tobrjrgoodcitizen.pdf
This is the link I used for my research
Summary
“Smoking in Movies: Why Your Brain Thinks It’s Cool” provides information on links between the bad habit of smoking and how the brain is involved in the continuance of a known unhealthy habit. A study was done showing how watching others smoke activates the parts of the brain that send the message for one to reach for a cigarette, put it to their mouth, and take a drag. This helps to explain why even people who have been seemingly successful at quitting will smoke again after watching others smoke or simply by performing the same physical action of smoking. The article went on to explain how smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. and how tobacco industries claim that nicotine is not addictive. Of adult smokers within the U.S., 50% of them try to quit smoking each year but only 5% are actually successful.
Thought
I have many thoughts on this subject as my Dad and Step-Mom are on a continuous rollercoaster of smoking and quitting, smoking and quitting. They are currently smoking. I believe part of the reason is because the couple that they are friends with come over every weekend and smoke as well. I think that the tobacco industries claiming to believe that nicotine is not addictive is a hideous excuse to hide behind in order for them to feel morally “OK” about how they make a living by placing entire responsibility on their loyal consumers instead of their product.
Interesting to me
What I learned
I learned that simply watching someone else do a physical action that used to be an old habit can reactivate parts in the brain that create that action to want to do it again.
From chapter three
Many basic concepts from chapter three can be incorporated within this article. Because smoking is addictive it releases dopamine and creates a good feeling to the smoker. The article also proves how we are sometimes unaware of being motivated do so something and how we cannot separate our motivation from the environment.
Motivation to quit smoking
All this information about obtaining and keeping the motivation to quit smoking taught me that it is hard for smokers to stop and in order to do so they would not only need help such as the patch, but would basically need to make a complete life change by surrounding themselves with non smokers in order to not see the physical action of smoking so their brain would be less likely to be more active in those parts as it was when they smoked.
This article talked mostly about the effects of smoking, and I realized that pretty much everything I had been taught about the bad side of smoking was true. It really is addicting, but I also learned more about why it was addicting and some of the background information to what causes smokers to keep smoking. There were two main things in this article that really stood out to me. One of them being that there are more smoking related deaths each year than there are of AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle deaths, suicides, and murders combined. That just amazes me! Not only that, but smoking is the most preventable death out of all of those listed. Another thing that really stood out to me was the fact that smoking prevents wounds from healing, and it’s one of the major reasons for poor outcomes in surgery or fractures. This was really surprising to me.
After reading this article, I went back and looked over Chapter 3 to see if I could relate the two topics together. The part in the book which describes the Limbic System really stood out to me. The Limbic System is the part of the brain that receives sensory stimulation like sights, smells and tastes that activate our emotional reactions. So, by seeing a cigarette or smelling smoke, a smoker’s Limbic System would be stimulated and cause an emotional reaction leading them to want a cigarette. I also related this article to the section in the book that talks about “addictions”. Having an addiction (to nicotine for instance) produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This means that the nicotine messes with dopamine stimulation to a greater degree than naturally occurring rewards. One of the reasons you will become addicted to nicotine is because it causes dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization and this can last for years (why it’s also so hard to quit).
This article and all of the reading taught me that it really is hard to quit smoking, and there is much more behind it than people tend to think. So many times, I feel like we are judgemental towards smokers and wonder why they “don’t just quit!” But it is much harder than we can think. There are a lot of different things going on inside someone to make them addicted and crave cigarettes. I think it’s important to remember that when talking about smokers…or any drug addiction really.
This article talks about how when we see smoking in movies it triggers the brain areas that drive the body movements a smoker makes every day when smoking a cigarette. The physical habit of reaching for a cigarette and lighting it is considered to be a learned behavior. So the article is saying that just watching a movie where people are smoking can lead to young people wanting to try smoking. The movies also make smoking look cool. The article also says that people who are trying to quit or have already quit are more likely to relapse just by watching people in movies smoke. We now know that smoking leads to deadly diseases. It is the leading preventable cause of death in many countries today.
I find smoking to be absolutely disgusting so I agree with this article. If not having people smoke in movies will help more people to quit or prevent more people from starting to smoke I don’t think that it should be allowed in movies.
I guess I don’t really understand how just seeing someone in a movie smoking can motivate someone enough to go out and buy a pack of cigarettes and start smoking when they have never smoked before. I know that the movies may make smoking look cool, but we all know how harmful it is to anyone’s health. After doing some additional research on this topic the research is astounding. Teens that see their favorite movie star smoking in a movie are up to sixteen times more likely to want to try and start smoking. Smoking in movies also contributes to around forty percent of adolescents who start smoking. After reading chapter 3 this does make more sense to me. The body sends out messages to the brain that make a person want or need to do certain things.
What this information says to me about the motivation to quit smoking is that it really depends on the person and how much of certain hormones they have in their brain. It would also depend on how often the person that is trying to quit smoking is exposed to the idea of smoking a cigarette. When someone who is trying to quit smoking sees or smells someone else smoking they are going to want to smoke. It is just like when someone was to go on diet. Since their body is craving those certain nutrients they are going to want certain foods when they see or think about them. The same thing happens with smoking. People get pleasure out of smoking and this a reason why it is so hard to quit smoking.
http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/01/24/movies-and-the-smoking-brain/
This article talked about the addiction of smoking. It mentioned that certain parts of the brain are linked to addiction and even though people know it’s a very unhealthy habit they continue to smoke. I really like the last sentence in the article (“This new study shows that our bodies' combined response to the content of cigarette smoke and the physical act of smoking leads to changes in brain activity that can drive the urge to smoke long after that successful New Year's resolution to quit.”) because it acknowledges the addictive power of cigarettes.
The most interesting part of this article was that watching people smoke in movies activates parts of the brain that are involved in the physical motions associated with smoking. This could motivate someone to smoke. I can link this with chapter 3 by saying that the environmental event of seeing the smoking in the movie triggers some biochemical agent that stimulates those specific parts of the brain which create the desire or motivation to smoke.
I decided to look for more information on how seeing someone smoke (even in a movie) can affect you. I found a website that compared it to dancing. Dancers report that their legs jerk while watching others dance because their body wants to dance and they are so conditioned to dance that the mind just wants to make them dance. The part of the brain that causes this is the action observation network or AON. When you see an action that you are trained to do, your AON prepares your body for that action. When comparing smokers’ and nonsmokers’ AON activation during a movie with smoking, the smokers’ AON activation was much higher than the nonsmokers.
I like this site because it provides a greater explanation for that specific topic. What I found interesting but was not talked about was that the nonsmokers still had AON activation even though it was less significant than the smokers. So does this mean that a nonsmoker can be motivated to smoke by seeing smoking in movies? This question has been at hand for a long time and I think we might have the answer. I don’t have the answer because I would need specifics about the AON like how much activation does it take in order to motivate someone to make those movements. I think if that is examined, we will be able to answer that question. I looked for information on this but couldn’t find any. Hopefully there is some out there.
The article, "Smoking in Movies, Why Your Brain Thinks Its Cool", looks in to some of the cues that would motivate cigarette use. It states that when seeing the action of smoking a cigarette, there are parts of the brain that are activated that are linked to addiction. Aside from the actual addictive, nicotine, the actual motions and actions of smoking can become a physical habit. The article suggests that these are the reasons behind the suggestive nature of cigarettes in movies.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the article was the facts and statistics on how many people smoke and how many smokers try to stop but many are unsuccessful. I would want to learn more about what type of treatment plans are the most effective in helping an individual stop smoking. I looked more into the helplines that were mentioned in the article. The article actually provided a link with more information.
http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/nw/2007/112907quitline.html
Overall, the program was effective, but the costs proved to be rather expensive.
After learning about the continued high prevalence of smokers in the U.S, it has become apparent that we need to learn more about the biological factors of addiction. Like stated in Ch. 3 drug users interfere with their dopamine reward system, so if more is used to re-stabilize this reward system then maybe greater interventions can be created.
With all of this information, it is obvious that there are many factors of addiction and the more information that is learned about each factor the greater the help can be provided. By helping the biological side, this can help ease the withdrawal phase and by treating the psychological aspect the individual can learn more about the motives behind their behaviors. Controlling for the social factor can be the hardest and this is what the article is speaking of.
The article was very interesting. The very first paragraph spoke about merely watching people in movies smoke "makes brain areas responsible for those movements more active, which could contribute to relapse." Although I'm sure for some people watching other people smoke may make them think smoking is "cool" but I can't really think you can generalize that to all people. When the article said that 20 percent of americans are smokers I had to wonder what qualifys someone as a smoker? Smoking a few times or buying 3 packs a day. I guess I feel like we are paraded a number of times each day about smoking, and in the end people are going to do what they are going to do. I think people's motivations can outweigh the things we as individuals can do to help or stop certain things. There will always be certain people we can tell a million times not to do someting but they are still going to go ahead and do it. And I can understand that movies might glamorize smoking but what about all the other things that happen in movies. On television and in movies they glamorize all types of crazy things but does that mean I'm gonna try rob a bank, or become a vigilante? Probably not. And although we can have certain things taken off movies and television, we just cannot regulate everything. It also makes me consider people who motivated to just be rebels. Some people want to do everything society tells us not to. I think the motivation to quit smoking is a hard and tricky thing to conquer. Its not something personally I want to every have to manage. I think having smoking not allowed in restaurants and campus etc. has made a huge impact on likelihood of smoking.
So this article is mainly about how viewing someone smoking may cause a relapse in someone who is trying to quit smoking. I thought this article is right in its theory that watching someone smoke will increase the likelihood of a relapse. I do not, however, like how it was focused on movies or other types of media. A short list of all the things that would make much more sense if they were band from movies: violence, illegal drugs, sex. I even suspect that watching a movie with a lot of smoking in it won’t affect a smoker or a nonsmoker. Even if I think the whole movie smoking relapse thing is a bit sketchy, I have to admit that it was the most interesting thing in the article. After reading this article, I would like to know more about the possible studies down with cigarettes and movies. I found out that three different links said the same thing. That smoking in movies does have a positive correlation on smoking in adolescents. From chapter three, I learned that different brain areas affect motivation and addictions. So this article was relatively easy to understand. From his article, I have learned that it is extremely hard to quit smoking.
Granted, this article isn't quite a research article and doesn't tell about the study behind it, but it does give some important statistics and background information on the habits and psychological thinking of habitual smokers. The article explains how smoking causes an addiction and that addictive tendency is activated in the brain when such things as someone smoking in the movies is shown. Basically, it is just the physical movement of putting a cigarette to the mouth that triggers an activation in the brain of smokers or ex-smokers. It also makes it appear to kids and young adults that smoking is "cool."
I think this was a good article, but i'm used to reading research articles so I would've liked to have read up on the study itself. It was interesting to read that it prevents wounds from healing and I would like to read more up on that. When it comes to learning something new, it was hard to believe that more people die from smoking than from AIDs, illegal drugs, alcohol, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
When it comes to motivation to quit smoking, all smokers want to quit, but it takes a lot of motivation and the relapse rate is very high that it could discourage people from trying to quit. Plus, there aren't many therapies out there to help quitters and there hasn't been any 100% proven approaches that work.
In regards to Chapter 3, I can relate smoking to release of dopamine. Seeing someone smoking on the television can trigger a dopamine release and the craving for a cigarette as a reward or to create pleasure. Smokers view cigarettes as a reinforcer and for them it's a necessity.
This article discusses the effects smoking seen in cinema has on its viewers. Research suggests that even so much as watching someone smoke on the big screen can activate areas in the brain that can lead someone that has kicked the habit to relapse. I was shocked to learn that more deaths each year are attributed to smoking than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. I am amazed that it is still such a prominent problem in this country with the obvious common knowledge that smoking is extremely harmful. Not knowing anyone who smokes (thankfully), I was interested in finding out why people start smoking to begin with. The article I found on www.helpwithsmoking.com said that most people begin smoking in their early or mid teens and the main reasons had to do with fitting in. Once they get started, they find it isn't so easy to stop. Reading about dopamine, addictions, and the difference between liking and wanting in chapter 3 helped me understand why people continue to smoke even if they understand that it is harmful to them. All this information taught me that even though a person might be highly motivated to quit smoking, there are some uncontrollable biological responses that can hinder a person from completely quitting smoking and never going back.
Link to the additional article I read:
http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/why-people-smoke.php
This article discusses the effects smoking seen in cinema has on its viewers. Research suggests that even so much as watching someone smoke on the big screen can activate areas in the brain that can lead someone that has kicked the habit to relapse. I was shocked to learn that more deaths each year are attributed to smoking than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. I am amazed that it is still such a prominent problem in this country with the obvious common knowledge that smoking is extremely harmful. Not knowing anyone who smokes (thankfully), I was interested in finding out why people start smoking to begin with. The article I found on www.helpwithsmoking.com said that most people begin smoking in their early or mid teens and the main reasons had to do with fitting in. Once they get started, they find it isn't so easy to stop. Reading about dopamine, addictions, and the difference between liking and wanting in chapter 3 helped me understand why people continue to smoke even if they understand that it is harmful to them. All this information taught me that even though a person might be highly motivated to quit smoking, there are some uncontrollable biological responses that can hinder a person from completely quitting smoking and never going back.
Link to the additional article I read:
http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/why-people-smoke.php
The article is about the brain structures that point to smoking being a bad habit that is hard to kick. It also suggests that former smokers can be triggered to begin smoking again because of product (cigarette) placement in film and other media. I find it quite interesting that it is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries. According to the CDC website, tobacco beats out HIV, drug and alcohol use, automobile collisions, suicide, and homicide combined. That's a lot of being the greatest cause of death. I think that those who plan or try to quit smoking, the motivation lies in the knowledge of the detriments of using tobacco products as well as a desire to be healthy or live a long life. While the drug effect causes a dopamine release, the activity has serious health risks. Chapter 3 discusses the physiological reasons and chemical processes associated with motivation. The release of dopamine is a good explanation for why a person would smoke. The threat of disease and death triggers the brain structures that go with avoidance motivation, making a smoker feel that quitting is a good idea.
Summarize the article:
The article starts off by stating that smoking is not only to blame on addiction but more to blame on habit forming movies that show smokers. The article gives us some statistics that show us that 10% of people try to quit smoking every year and only .5% succeed!!
We do know that nicotine in cigarettes is addicting but we still have a long ways to go before we can help the majority of people quit smoking for good.
What do you think of this piece?
I agree a lot with this article. It is true that so many people try to quit but very few succeed and there is a long way to go before they can help most of the people who have the desire to quit, actually quit.
What is interesting to you?
It is interesting to me, thought, that just simply watching someone smoke can help you get addicted to smoking. It makes me wonder what else we get an addiction to simply by watching TV.
Choose one aspect of the article you want to learn more about:
I want to know some more statistics on smoking.
What did you learn?
The most surprising statistic I learned was that 80,000 kids start smoking every day worldwide! I also learned that one in ten adults is killed from a smoking related death and if the smoking trend continues by the year 2013 it will go down to every one in six adults. I was glad to hear that smoking is falling in developed nations, but disappointing to hear that it is on the rise in under developed nations.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article?
Learning about dopamine and addictions helped me better understand the article and also understand why its so hard to quit smoking and so easy to get addicted to it.
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?
In my opinion this article states that motivation to quit smoking is not enough. There is more going on in the brain that we are not aware of and things we still dont understand, and until we understand everything that goes on in the brain, we will not be able to help most people who have the motivation and desire to quit smoking.
This article discusses that not only does the addictive nicotine keep people smoking, but that watching people smoke also has a similar effect of making people want to smoke. Even people who have already quit smoking are more likely to start the habit again after watching someone smoke. Why is that? The article says that when the brain sees the action of picking up and lighting a cigarette, certain areas are activated and lead to a desire to smoke.
I find these findings pretty fascinating because it shows that it’s not just the highly addictive nicotine that keeps people hooked. The brain has learned (and gotten used to) the behavior of smoking and so it makes sense that those areas would be active while watching those behaviors. I found that very interesting so I looked for more information and although there wasn’t much, I found a couple articles that discussed the same topic. These articles talked about the same study that The Huffington Post did but they told more details about the study. 17 smokers and 17 non-smokers watched a movie with many smoking scenes while connected to a fMRI. As stated before, certain parts of the smoker’s break were activated. The smokers that had the most activity in those areas reported high cravings for cigarettes after the movie was over.
This is a perfect example of how the brain and other chemicals in the body work together in every situation. It directly relates to chapter three and the three principles. 1. Specific brain structures generate specific motivations: the part in the brain that is activated by watching someone smoke makes a smoker motivated to smoke. 2. Biochemical agents stimulate specific brain structures: although the article didn’t discuss neurotransmitters/hormones, it’s very possible that dopamine was released when the smoker saw someone smoking which activated the related area in the brain. 3. Day-to-day events stir biochemical agents into action: watching someone smoke is the event that stirs the biochemical agents.
All of this information makes it easier to understand why people have such a hard time quitting smoking. It’s a constant cycle in your body of the desire to smoke that you’re fighting. I think the hardest part of quitting isn’t actually quitting but avoiding a relapse. It takes much more than just simply saying you’re going to quit. You have to prepare yourself mentally and physically to deal with the addiction after you’ve already quit.
When we speak of addiction to smoke,we have to consider that is perhaps the most addictive drug there is, five times more addictive than heroin because of the ease with which enters the brain and triggers a sensation of pleasure that leads to dependency physical and psychological of cigarretes.For me is a crushing sentence in the article, But with multiple events Therapies, More Than 50 Percent of ex-smokers relapse to smoking still Within a year.
So from our point of view the questions is, ¿what is the motivation that drives a person to leave forever the snuff? There is probably no definitive answer, but in my opinion the most powerful motivation is intrinsic motivation, beyond the avoidance of cancer or other diseases that drives someone to leave the snuff is the desire to achieve a goal by the simple fact of being able to do it as a challenge, a simple act of self-improvement.
This article is about the act of smoking and how it is addictive in different forms. Of course we have all heard a cigarette’s contents are addictive, but the act itself of holding the cigarette can activate areas of the brain. So, if a person is trying to quit and simply sees another person smoking whether in person or on television, it is activating that area of their brain, signaling the urge to smoke. This can just be another trigger for a struggling addict. Personally, I can see how this is a huge problem for many people. I would support a change to stop smoking in movies. There is no need for it, it already gives off impressions to children that is “cool” to smoke and now we realize it is harmful to an addict. These are two huge negative results from smoking in movies, that can be avoided. To me, it is interesting that the act of seeing someone else reach for a cigarette would trigger an area of the brain to signal an urge to smoke. I am not a smoker so it is interesting to me in that sense because I do not know what it would be like to struggle with such urges.
The aspect I wanted to know more about was the use of nicotine patches. A nicotine patch delivers a controlled amount of nicotine to ease the withdrawal effects. It is understandable though that many will not succeed if a behavioral therapy is not used in combination. Overall, I learned the act of smoking is addictive itself. Now it seems logical after reading our chapter and learning about the related ideas of motivation. Makes me wonder why even after hearing all the negative statistics related to smoking and death, why that doesn’t motivate some to quit? But then again, being constantly surrounding by triggers would be very difficult.
Basically watching people smoke even in movies triggers the brain of smokers to crave ciggarettes which is repotedly associated with relapses which may be why only 5% of quitters are succeful. In biopsychology we learned about this same concept with Heroin and they had a former user watch a video of someone shooting up and he actually began to display the signs of someone who was going to shoot up he began to sweat as his body was preparing for the drug, even though he was not using any heroin at the time, I can even say I use to smoke cigarettes and after I quit I still get the temptation to smoke when I see others smoking even if its just on TV
What are your thoughts on this piece? I completly believe it
What is most interesting to you? The fact that they are trying to ban the images of people smoking in movies
Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn? I looked up information on smoking triggers http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/find-your-smoking-triggers?page=2 They explained a couple of the common ones such as driving and drinking and explained how to cope with the triggers and identify them and also pointed out its good to sperate certain things like having a coffee and a smoke.
How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article? That the brain is sometimes much stonger than extrisic motivators and a persons concious motivators
What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking? That it is much more complex than just wanting to quit and that you cant just stop and never relapse
This article states common beliefs about smoking and then discusses these thoughts. One perception is that it is easy to quit smoking if you have enough willpower. It presents the findings from a study published by the Journal of Neuroscience that links seeing visual images of smoking to certain areas in the brain believed to be partially responsible for addictive behavior. It also mentions that “…Everyone knows smoking is bad for you.” They state that it is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries.
I find it interesting to think about smokers and their “willpower”. I have never smoked enough to become addicted and have not smoked for a few years. I find that people can do great things if given the proper motivation. If someone was presented with $100 dollars for every day that they did not smoke for the rest of their lives, do you think only 50% of smokers would try to quit? What if that number was $1000? What if it costs $100 for a single cigarette? If you were not motivated by money, then your reward could go to the charity of your choice. What about negative motivation. If you smoke than (insert something bad) would happen to someone you care about. While smoking and tobacco is addictive, there are other things that are addictive in the world. We have support groups for alcohol, sex, eating, pornography, gambling, and other behaviors. Is smoking that much different? Nicotine changes your body and is a chemical, but so do alcohol, drugs, and caffeine. 5% of smokers have quit smoking, yet 45% of people cannot? What is special about those 5%? Are they able to avoid watching all movies that have smoking in them? Can they hold their breath and close their eyes when they are around people that are smoking?
Understanding that everyone is built genetically different, certain people are more susceptible to additive behaviors than others, but the fact that 45% are more susceptive seems a bit excessive.
Chpater 3 deals with wanting and liking. It uses scientific terms to discuss the physiology behind what causes addiction and why it is so difficult stop smoking. However this is also true for any other type of addiction as well. People can consciously make their body release chemicals and neurotransmitters in their brain just like external chemicals can. Exercise is one example. Your body physically changes when you exercise. The human brain is different when exercising or shortly after compared to watching T.V. I feel like there are ways to counteract the nicotine and become “addicted” to something else that is good for you or in the very least, that does not harm you.
I found this information in the article informative and presented in a logical way. It will be interesting to see the results of further research around this topic.
A new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience shows that in addition to activating brain areas linked to addiction, watching movies in which people smoke activates brain areas that drive the body movements a smoker makes while puffing on a cigarette. The physical habit of reaching for a cigarette and moving it up for a drag is learned so well that watching people smoke in the movies makes brain areas responsible for those movements more active, which could contribute to relapse. The article talks about how we all know smoking is bad and that the nicotine in cigarettes makes them addictive, but we still have a long way to go before we know how to help smokers who want to quit. I feel that this article refers to a study, but it is far from scientific. However, it does a good job of pointing out many sides of tobacco use. I was curious about the medications that can decrease brain responses to images that remind ex-smokers of their cigarettes. I read a little about Bupropion. I would be curious about residual effects of the drug if it alters brain chemicals. Reading chapter 3 made me think about the fact that the dependency on nicotine would affect areas of the brain and motivation. Lack of nicotine would likely effect a biochemical agent or neurotransmitter such as dopamine which would affect a specific brain structure and leave you motivated to smoke again. Possibly the pleasure center of the brain would be hijacked to the point where it is not merely a simple choice or decision to stop smoking. This article suggests that you have to treat both the physical addiction and the habit in order to help a person stop smoking. Teaching an addict the negative effects of a drug or telling them to have better will power are not effective. Many studies suggest that treating the physical addiction combined with a behavioral therapy is most effective for long term cessation.