Reflections on smoke breaks: A case for positive addiction

Abstract

Consider this: Everything about the smoking habit is excellent for health and well-being. Everything, that is, except the cigarette! Taking hourly breaks, to stretch one's legs and eyes, spend time in nature, with company and breathing deep, all provide significant health benefits both mental and physical, which would partly explain the difficulty in giving up the habit (apart from the nicotine addiction). The inbuilt advantages of the smoking habit are the cues for taking such breaks, i.e., the addiction/craving, as well as when to end the break, i.e. reaching the end of the cigarette. While smoking represents a negative addiction, developing such a habit without the cigarette, could be considered a positive addiction, a concept initially proposed by William Glasser (1976), to explain how our bodies are wired to respond positively to healthy experiences, and eventually crave more once developed. This paper links the evidencefor the health benefits of each component of the smoking ritual (without the cigarette), and develops the case for all people to engage in similar rituals.