Post 2: Addictions

The chapter on addictions is extremely interesting to me. As a child I used to beg my mother to quit smoking cigarettes. I'd come home from my D.A.R.E. class filled with facts about the benefits that she could experience if she'd stop. Better sense of taste, smell, lower blood pressure, reduced chance of heart attack and / or stroke, not to mention all of the money she would save and the time that she could gain with me, her Wonderful son.



The funny thing is, after all of that time begging her to stop, I eventually grew up to be a smoker myself. Although I was fully aware of the benefits and costs that were associated with cigarettes, I chose to do it anyway. Why? The answer is part psychological, part physiological. The psychological aspect was the social acceptance that was gained, along with the immediate satisfaction that each cigarette produced. On top of that there was the genetic predisposition toward drug experimentation and addiction.