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Odd: Smokers Addicted to Endorphins

by Anonymous

Cape Girardeau, Missouri
United States

My method my not be very popular, but here it is. I quit smoking while I was lifting weights. Apparently, the brain releases natural painkillers called endorphins as a response to smoke irritating the lungs, just like it does when a person's muscles are sore. I remember reading an article in a magazine about a doctor in Florida who theorized that smokers were actually addicted to their own endorphins. According to the article, this doctor's method was to damage the cartilage of the nose just a little bit with some kind of vitamin injection. Then the patient would be weened from his endorphins while his nose healed. While he found that method no more effective by itself than the other more traditional methods, results improved considerably when his method was used in conjunction with the traditional methods. As for me, I wasn't even planning to quit. I liked to smoke, so I did. But I immediately went from a pack and a half to about half a pack a day. Then I went to four cigarettes a day over a period of about a week. Then one day after finishing a pack, I decided to see how long I could go without one. That will be thirteen years ago this Valentine's Day. I smoked for exactly thirteen years. From Valentine's Day 1976 to Valentine's Day 1989.