But for how long? In reality it is such a short-lived good feeling - if it is even that and not an illusion in the first place. Addiction must be so clever to coax you into believing that it makes you feel good, when so much of the time it makes you feel bad - worrying about the money spent on your addictive activity, the damage done to your health, relationships, career and social life, the knocks to your self-esteem. None of us likes to feel that we are in the grip of something we cannot control. It makes us feel bad, not good.

No. It is always, ultimately, a cause of stress, not a 'magic wand' solution to what is distressing us. For instance, when you smoke your blood pressure goes up, not down. If smoking relieved stress, then smokers as a group would be less stressed than non-smokers. This is self-evidently not the case. All smoking does is to take away the temporary discomfort of wanting a nicotine top up.

When smokers stop smoking, this dis­comfort goes away permanently.

Addictive activity is an attempt to relieve distressing feelings -anxiety, anger, depression etc. -caused by innate emotional needs not being met. It's a way of not dealing with something that needs addressing, such as loneliness, boredom or unexpressed anger. It adds to stress instead of diminishing it. It is far more rewarding to confront the unmet needs in your life, and work out healthy ways to meet them, than to have double the problem - the unmet needs plus an addiction.

When you stop and think about this, of course it isn't true! Do young children need addictive substances to help them enjoy parties? Do the people who aren't indulging in these activities seem to be having less interesting conversations or be less likely to dance or join in games? It is a devious illusion that it is the substance we are taking that is enabling us to enjoy an occasion. We would have been enjoying it anyway and possibly even more so, if spared the guilt or the unpleasant physical after-effects.

One middle-aged executive, who recently came to me for help with stopping smoking, recalled an occasion when she had been invited to an important work function at a rather exclusive venue in Darling Harbor.  Knowing her tendency to smoke too much, she made the firm resolve that she wouldn't smoke at the function, as even she was appalled at the idea of turning up at the evening party already the stinking of cigarettes.  She met a few new people and really hit it off with some of them.  She thoroughly enjoyed the food (usually, with the taste of cigarettes in her mouth she didn’t really bother with food, just cigarettes and alcohol, which would heighten the alcohol’s effect on her) and had such a good time that she stayed into the evening and was reluctant to leave. 

She was surprised and bolstered by the fact that she had enjoyed herself so much without the aid of cigarettes, and on Monday morning when she was called into the COE’s office, she was delighted with the feed-back the potential clients had given about her enjoyable company.  Of course, many people do like to smoke at social occasions, they say it helps with their shyness or helps them avoid uncomfortable situations.  But does it really?  Doesn’t it just reinforce the avoidant behavior and make them more uncomfortable and less approachable?  This need not be a problem if the amount they smoke (or drink or eat) is within their control.  But when it’s out of control, then it is a problem. 

As we have already mentioned, it is a myth that smoking aids concentration, as research has shown that the opposite is true. Similarly, smoking doesn't reduce tension, although it may seem to displace it. If you are anxiously waiting for an important piece of news, smoking is no more helpful as a distraction than pacing the room or playing with worry beads.

The taste of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana initially strikes the palate as disgusting. (All children dislike such substances if they try them.) They are an acquired taste but one that adults are prepared to acquire because of the associated pleasure that they have been led to expect from them by their peers and the culture in which they were brought up. But many people who first try such substances when they are young have such an unpleasant experience that they choose never to try them again. It isn't natural to 'love the taste' of cigarettes or wine or marijuana, any more than it is natural to love the taste of household cleaning products. Similarly, while the taste of bread or chocolate or sugar may be enjoyable when taken in small amounts, it is not enjoyable when taken in excessive quantities. Binge eaters often hardly taste what they are eating at all.

Exactly. It is an illusion, a feeling, not a fact. Taking drugs actually gives people less control over their lives. The drug is pulling their strings. Their existence can, for example, become dominated by the need to be secretive, the need to find a way to finance their habit, the physical effort needed to acquire the drug and to use it, to say nothing of the guilt and the social exclusion they may eventually suffer.

One doesn't mean one or once, when addiction is talking. It means one after another or again and again.

Anything that is addictive quickly ceases to be a pleasure. One or two drinks may be a pleasure. A couple of one-hour sessions each week at the gym may be a pleasure. An occasional chocolate bar may be a pleasure. But compulsive over­indulgence is not a pleasure.