Smokers trying to quit the habit can reduce their cravings with the right kind of thinking about the consequences of their addiction, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists at the Yale School of Medicine say thinking about the long-term effects of smoking can amp up the activity in the brain responsible for rational thought, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Saturday.
Research with smokers found that thinking about the long-term consequences decreased activity in the striatum -- the area of the brain responsible for drug cravings and reward-seeking behavior --while increasing activity in the area associated with rational thought, the prefrontal cortex.
In other words, training yourself to think about long-term consequences, instead of short-term satisfactions, can help you control cravings, they said.
"Think about how a food commercial works, when you see a picture of a hot stack of pancakes," Hedy Kober, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale, says. "People immediately think 'That looks so good.' They think about the immediate sensual experience. It's the same with cigarettes.
"Craving is like a wave; it comes up and it gets really intense and goes away even if you don't do anything," Kober says. "But if smokers are taught what they can do in the moment, they can have control."
via Study: Smokers can 'out-think' cravings - UPI.com.
Perhaps this will help if you are trying to quit smoking and need some rational assistance:
1 comment:
"Think about how a food commercial works, when you see a picture of a hot stack of pancakes,"
hmm... possibly slightly more on target than he thinks.
That's exactly the long term consequences that I'm thinking of, that prevent me and started me smoking in the first place.
Food, is one of the most addictive drugs known to man, and is one of the biggest killers with far worse health consequences than smoking.
When I'm being rational, Amphetamines (in very small doses) sort me out a treat.
Unfortunately we don't live in a rational world, where rational people govern, and rational science is performed within the health sector.
We live in a world where we told, that there's no such thing as 'absolute truth' and that all kinds of weird and wonderful things may exist, because no one knows. A world where science is as 'easy' to doubt as the next mans religion.
I did give up smoking, until those with wisdom put me on medication to lower my dopamine levels, for over five years, with disastrous consequences. (30 a day and 19.5 stone and many other horrors)
Recent research has shown that those on neuroleptic drugs have life expectancies 25 years below average and the disabling side effects of both anti-depressant drugs and benzodiazepines are well documented. Psychiatry must acknowledge the harmful effect of these drugs and actively work to limit the harm they can cause.
They could have potentially shortened my life by 1/3rd
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