Smoking

Let's begin with smoking.

I wear coveralls and a hard hat at work.  If the east pump quits and you need the west one give me a call.  If the transfer line is plugged and you want it cleared give me a call.  If you want to know what happens when you ingest smoke I am not the one you need to be calling on.

If you want to know about dopamine and neurotransmitter reactions in the brain you better call some one else.  (Google)

I have seen commericals on TV where a cute animated critter encounters some kind of smack down due to the medication that is being sold.  Well I am not selling anything and quiting smoking is not cute or pretty.

There is, however, somewhere in the brain a sterotypical secretary who is in charge of the amount of dopamine in your system.  I do not know where she sits but I know very well her duties.  She detects that dopamine levels are low and she sends a memo to the brain to smoke a cigarette.  If you step outside and have a smoke she is happy and releases some dopamine.  However, if you are in the family car tearing down the interstate and cannot light up for a couple of hours she sends memos to the anger center, the angst center, the nervous center and on and on utill she is notified that smoke is entering the lungs.  Even then sometimes she will not release the dopamine until a second smoke is lit.

You my friend are addicted.  Face it.  That is the word....addicted.

Think back to a time before the sterotypical secretary had a job in your brain.  When all the dopamine you needed was released by riding a bike down a hill or when a pretty girl smiled at you.  Then for some reason lost to time you inhaled the smoke of a cigarette and coughed your damn lungs out.  Why did you ever have the second one?

Ok so you are now a smoker.  You have you favorite Nicotine Induction Mean (NIM).  Cigarette, cigar, cigarillo whatever.  You now work for the  sterotypical secretary.  When she says jump, you jump.  Cool huh?  That sterotypical secretary is really good at her job.  She keeps the dopamine level just where she thinks it should be.  It's cold outside...tough.  It's raining outside....tough.  Your baby is about to be born...tough.  You don't really have enough money to buy you smokes....tough.  That hag is one mean cookie.

Where are we now?  You are young and you smoke.  You may think it is cool, or you may think it makes you look and act older.  Now that you are older how do think it makes you look and act?  That secretary has more of a hold on you than you realize.  The feel good hormones run through your body and you cannot any longer do certain things as well or at all.  You my have a wheeze when you breath or lack the ability to run.  You may have health problems or are scared that you may get them.  Friend, that fear is very, very real.

I said earlier that I am not the one to ask how the compounds react in the chemistry of the body but I do know that you are addicted and if you are reading this you are ready to end it.