The Definitive Book of Body Language - Barbara Pease [89]
Studies now show a clear relationship between whether an infant was breastfed and its likelihood of becoming a smoker as an adult. It was found that babies who were largely bottle-fed represent the majority of adult smokers and the heaviest smokers, while the longer a baby was breastfed, the less chance there was that it would become a smoker. It seems that breastfed babies receive comfort and bonding from the breast that is unattainable from a bottle, the consequence being that the bottle-fed babies, as adults, continue the search for comfort by sucking things. Smokers use their cigarettes for the same reason as the child who sucks his blanket or thumb.
Bottle-fed babies are three times more likely
to become smokers than breastfed babies.
Not only were smokers three times more likely to have been thumb-suckers as children, they have also been shown to be more neurotic than nonsmokers and to experience oral fixations such as sucking the arm of their glasses, nail-biting, pen-munching, lip-biting, and enough pencil-chewing to embarrass an average beaver. Clearly, many desires, including the urge to suck and feel secure, were satisfied in breastfed babies but not in bottle-fed babies.
The Two Types of Smokers
There are two basic types of smokers—addicted smokers and social smokers.
Studies show that smaller, quicker puffs on a cigarette stimulate the brain, giving a heightened level of awareness whereas longer, slower puffs act as a sedative. Addicted smokers are dependent on the sedative effects of nicotine to help them deal with stress and they take longer, deeper puffs and will also smoke alone. Social smokers usually smoke only in the presence of others or “when I have a few drinks.” This means that this smoking is a social display to create certain impressions on others. In social smoking, from the time the cigarette is lit until it's extinguished, it's being smoked for only 20 percent of the time in shorter, quicker puffs while the other 80 percent is devoted to a series of special body-language gestures and rituals.
Most social smoking is part of a social ritual.
A study conducted by Andy Parrot of the University of East London reports that 80 percent of smokers say they feel less stressed when they smoke. However, the stress levels of adult smokers are only slightly higher than those of nonsmokers anyway, and stress levels increase as the smokers develop a regular smoking habit. Parrot also found that stopping smoking actually leads to a reduction of stress. Science now shows that smoking is not an aid for mood control because nicotine dependency heightens stress levels. The supposed relaxing effect of smoking only reflects the reversal of the tension and irritability that develop during a smoker's nicotine depletion. In other words, the smoker's mood is normal during smoking, and stressed when not smoking. That means that for a smoker to feel normal, the smoker must always have a lit cigarette in his mouth! Furthermore, when smokers quit smoking, they gradually become less stressed over time. Smoking reflects the reversal effect of the tension and stress caused by the lack of nicotine in the blood.
Studies show poor moods occur during the first few weeks after quitting, but there is dramatic improvement once the nicotine is completely gone from the body, reducing craving for the drug and the stress that results from it.
Smoking is similar to hitting yourself over the head with
a hammer because, when you stop, you feel better.
Even