[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by MaggieL
That level of interpretation of brain activity is *way* in the future.

Again, I am not completely familiar with the research, but I wonder if there is some sort of chemical imbalance created when a craving occurs, like a dopamine or serotonin surge.

You can implement "careful controls", but what will you measure? That's a rhetorical question....I'm sure there's a psych major someplace that will claim they could design a questionarie that will reveal the truth. But I just think of the term "physics envy". :-)

Having a degree in psychology, I would say you measure the intensity of a craving based on a scale of, say 1 to 5. Sure, there is the obvious possibility of flawed information. But if the study is controlled properly, and the results are determined to be statistically significant (through the use of an ANOVA), it may shed some light as to what options may be more helpful.

Nobody who's ever been a smoker would subscribe to that strategy

I am a smoker...and I suspect that the strategy is employed. Of course, I have a psychology degree and have worked in marketing, so maybe I think about it more than others.

Um...what's the longest time you've been smoke-free since starting? Because if you've never sucessfully quit, how can you know what works for you?

*thinks*

You know, I believe it is maybe a month...spring of 1997. I used Nicoderm for about 2 weeks. And it really helped take the edge off my cravings. For whatever reason, I felt I was strong enough and quit using it. 2 weeks later, I was smoking again. I used smoking as my outlet for whatever was bothering me at that point. Had I used the program properly, I believe I would be smoke-free now. Because it would have given me more time on the patch (10 weeks instead of 2), and I believe it would have given me more time to build up my willpower. At the same time, perhaps I was just not ready to quit at that point.

Cold turkey has never worked...the longest I've gone without a cigarette in that manner is 5 days...last January. The cravings became too much to ignore. I've done cold turkey too many times to count. Some times I've been more determined than others...but in most cases, there has been a strong genuine desire on my part to quit.

I'll also employ an example here:

When I was in the hospital in September, the way the nurse spoke to me: "Hey, I'm not going to give you a lecture, but you should quit b/c of your reduced lung capacity." (Or something like that...see the Cheesesteak thread for a better version.) I honestly took that to heart. He didn't belittle me, he didn't take a condescending approach, he was just straight out with me. And that's stayed with me since...and that DOES make me want to quit. And I AM trying.

Originally there was only one warning text in the US, then they realized they needed to keep rotating them or they''d become effectively invisible over time. Still, a smoker who has some desire to quit, or concern about the effects of his smoking, will sweep that kind of input under a mental carpet as quickly as possible, to resolve the cognitive dissonance. So you have to change the text (and now the gross pictures) to at least freshen the stimulus.

But those texts are getting old now. I haven't seen any new ones since they changed them...when? 10 years or so ago? And I'm not so sure that changing the pictures or texts would truly help b/c you're still using similar stimuli.