Impulsivity & Self Control

            As I read through the Impulsivity & Self Control lecture slides. I came across this radio talk show that had two guest speakers Zelda Gamson and Mary Belenky. They spoke of their addiction to smoking cigarettes and how Zelda in particular was able to overcome her addiction.  When faced with an addiction, a person struggles between two internal desires if they want to quit. One desire is to stop smoking and the other desire, is to continue their addiction. Zelda knew the consequences of smoking but continued to smoke, even while pregnant. The urge to smoke caused her to try many times to quit but al attempts failed. She then thought of a plan and decided to make a deal with herself because she knew she was stuck. She told herself that if she ever smoked again, she would give away $5000 to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). She could not ever imagine herself giving away $5000 to the KKK.

             This is called the Ulysses Contract. In the previous example, Zelda was able to identify a feeling of disgust to battle her desire or craving to smoke. She wanted to win this long-term battle and this plan helped her to accomplish her goal.  She allowed her desire for smoking and her feeling of disgust to battle each other, which allowed her to quit much easier. To me it was interesting to see how she was able to think of this plan to overcome her addiction. Everyone can apply this method in one way or the other to accomplish a goal because in the long run it can be beneficial.