Edward Wilson

Anyone who has ever spent any time in bars before smoking bans were enforced knows that drinking and smoking go together like a horse and carriage, ham and eggs, peanut butter and jelly. The reason may not be as obvious.

The combining of the two addictions has to do with alcohol and nicotine's differing affects on our nervous system. Alcohol, perhaps the best anti-anxiety medication ever discovered, is also a depressant.

Success at modifying or eliminating a behavior is best approached by studying those who have managed it on their own and emulating their accomplishments. That was the reasoning of researchers James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente who did just that, not with alcoholism specifically, but with all types of change.

The result of their work was the mapping of the change process through a series of steps: Pre-contemplation (denial); Contemplation (thinking about it); Preparation (researching and planning); Action (making the change); Maintenance (developing the supportive activities); and Termination (when the behavior is no longer a concern).