continued from last episode of sulking...

[keryx]

I don't have any cigarettes, either.

Although this is fine. I feel badly for those of you who have to really work to quit smoking, or who feel compelled to smoke a lot. Actually, there's a distinction made in The Tipping Point between non-smokers, serious smokers/addicts, and the light smokers like me. Gladwell calls the last "chippers" (I don't know if it's just a term he uses, or if it's common), meaning they're (genetically, he thinks) sensitive enough to nicotine to gain pleasure from it (unlike people who never smoke), but not sensitive enough to ever get addicted.

Basically, I've smoked at most a pack a week, and unless I'm completely stressed or in a very habit-triggering situation (party or club, with others smoking, driving home from work), I can do without - and I could pretty easily do without even in those circumstances. The downside is, because I can quit for a week or even several months with no major effort, I don't think I have the stake in quitting that some folk do; like I don't have to work at it, so the pleasantness of taking up smoking again always seems okay. I have a hard time imagining completely quitting because of this.

And it may be just a genetic predilection. The role of genes in behavior (if any) fascinates me.

Comments

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Actually, it sounds like he was using it in exactly that sense; the heroin users who chip have the same light-user status (and [presumptive non-addiction) that your 2-3 cigarette/day smokers do.