Jonah Lehrer has a fascinating post up on his blog, The Frontal Cortex, about schizophrenia and smoking. In short, those with schizophrenia experience a lessening of their symptoms by smoking cigarettes.

Given the recent hypotheses on the genetic connections between schizophrenia and bipolar, I wonder if it’s any wonder that I’m so damnably addicted to nicotine. I’ve quit smoking for several months but have still needed the nicotine to function (patches and gum). I don’t know whether I’ll ever truly be off nicotine – it does me a lot of good. Regulates my mood, calms me down, allows me to focus. I suppose I’ll be chewing this gum for a long time. (By the way, the coated Nicorette mint is the best, and most expensive unfortunately.) Recently, I got some free gum from the New York State Smoking Cessation program and it was crap. I had no idea there was such bad gum out there.

The first time I tried the gum, it was a revelation. Suddenly, I could smoke anywhere! But after months and months of popping that shit in my mouth, I grew tired of it and actually picked up smoking again. Massively ironic that I’d replace minty goodness with tar and chemicals, but there you go.

Today I’m back with the coated minty goodness.