The annoying truth

 I keep seeing the advertisements for all these drugs that will help you quite smoking. The side effects may kill you but you will die a non-smoker. I can not help but wonder if it is a good idea to take drugs to alter your brain chemistry. I'm no doctor but surely that is the way these drugs work. I say that because I started smoking without any drug and stopped the same way. It was a choice on my part. I alone was responsible for both actions. Despite all the efforts of the advertisers to convince me otherwise, I just quit doing something that was harmful to me. I did not introduce any other chemicals into my body to influence that decision. I did not allow myself to become persuaded that I was addicted and couldn't control myself. If I am the pharmaceutical company that is certainly the message I want you to hear. I'm having none of it. Fact is it was something I enjoyed for only one reason, ego. I started that habit as a young man in the Navy. I wanted to fit in and be one of the guys. Real sailors, the tough guys that smoke and drink and pursue other activities of questionable moral value all do that. That was an image I wanted to portray. It became a part of my m.o. Old habits die hard but that all it was, a habit. Habit can be changed without the introduction of another habit. Taking some chemicals to replace the one habit with another. It is my opinion that people are being deceived. The message should be, you can leave that habit behind. Instead the message is, you need help. How many times do we hear that message daily ? That is also the message our children are hearing. The definition of " self sufficiency " is being changed. Being self sufficient now means having the ability to buy whatever service you require. Whether that service is personal counseling or kicking a bad habit you can't do it yourself, you need help ! Our children are being taught to seek " help " for everything. They are also being taught it is wrong not to do so. It is the later that disturbs me the most. Personal accountability is not being taught, just personal responses to any action deemed negative. That is to say, once you realize you have a problem seek help with that problem. The message being, if you have a problem there is nothing you can do about it. You should seek sympathy and understanding immediately. You are now a victim of your own mentality. Buy a drug or pay a professional counselor. It's not your fault so therefore there is nothing you can do, personally, to change that. Strive to be a survivor ! That is something you can take pride in, being a survivor. Being a survivor of a hazard of your own making ? Being proud that you survived the treatment is closer to the truth. That is the reality.
 We have made remarkable advances in medicine that can not be denied. We have many drugs and treatments of tremendous benefit to mankind. These drugs and treatments do enable us to survive. It is not these drugs that I am speaking about. It is only about the ones I personally feel are being misused and wrongly prescribed. These pills to make you quit smoking. That is a personal decision and is not a medical or mental condition. It is simply a choice. There are eating disorders and treatments for that action but I know of no smoking disorder. Oh I'm addicted, phooey you have only convinced yourself of that. Well, that is what I have to say about all of that. Does it matter ? Not a bit. The bottom line in all of this is to make us all dependent. Sadly, it's working. We are all becoming dependent upon things that only money can buy. I'm no exception. As long as there is a profit to be made it will ever be so. It just bugs me that's all. Sometimes the truth is just annoying.