During my six-month stay in Adelaide (Australia) last year, I was struck by the fact that more women (as compared with men) smoke in public. While in the US more and more smokers are kicking this addiction. In India an increasing number of women are lighting up. Why? The typical response of all women: Tension! Men don’t give a clear answer!
(Last year, a WHO study revealed that nearly two-thirds of the world’s smokers live in 10 countries led by China, which accounts for nearly 30 percent, and India with about 10 percent. They are followed by Indonesia, Russia, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey. See details here…)
The Independent has an interesting article on the subject. “Smoking is at least as addictive as heroin, cocaine or alcohol. It’s the nicotine, a chemical that is less harmful than caffeine, that creates the dependence. But the method of delivery is also part of the addiction.
“The tobacco industry has invested heavily to make the smoke easier to inhale, speeding the nicotine into the bloodstream to hit the brain in around seven seconds. As well as being more harmful and creating greater dependency, this also ensures that other nicotine products – patches, gums and sprays – simply don’t hit the spot.
“Once delivered to the brain, a range of brain receptors are able to use the nicotine to help stimulate production of dopamine, the brain chemical that plays a part in making us feel pleasure. ‘As the effect wears off, you need another cigarette to stave off withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, nervousness, agitation and depression,’ explains Professor Britton.
” ‘What people experience as pleasure or relaxing is really the sensation of going from feeling really crappy to just about normal,’ he says. The brain learns to tolerate nicotine quite quickly, and there are different degrees of addiction, depending on the age you start smoking, how many cigarettes you smoke, and how deeply you inhale.
“Nicotine is undoubtedly a mood-altering drug, and according to clinical psychologist and author Oliver James, has antidepressant properties, ‘probably many times more effective than Prozac’. Back in 2005, he claimed that 80 per cent of smokers are actually self-medicating for depression when they smoke.
“Having a cigarette, he said, is the only way ‘people who find socialising difficult can enjoy company, or those who are easily irritated or shamed can ease negative, paranoid or depressive ideas’.
“Among those diagnosed with a depression or anxiety disorder, around half smoke. The figure is even higher for schizophrenics (around 80 per cent) and those with psychosis living in institutions (70 per cent).” More here…
Photo above courtesy Tom Kelly/Getty.
And here’s poem: “The Last Cigarette”.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.