---
id: papers/withington-cigarette-last-resort-self-soothing
title: "The Cigarette as Last-Resort Self-Soothing: Enjoyment, Compulsion, and Healing in Nicotine Use"
license: CC BY 4.0   # paper is CC BY 4.0 (Zenodo record metadata, verified 2026-10-20); note is our own summary
updated: 2026-10-20
status: published
date: 2026-10-20
approved: true
approved_by: "Cole Withington, 2026-10-20 18:30 PT: \"Yes, publish all three papers\""
category: zenodo-preprint
peer_reviewed: false
attribution: "Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Source: Cole David Withington (ORCID 0009-0006-0374-4277), \"The Cigarette as Last-Resort Self-Soothing: Enjoyment, Compulsion, and Healing in Nicotine Use\", Zenodo preprint, doi:10.5281/zenodo.23506946 (CC BY 4.0)."
sources:
  - id: S1
    title: "The Cigarette as Last-Resort Self-Soothing: Enjoyment, Compulsion, and Healing in Nicotine Use"
    authors: "Cole David Withington (Portland State University; ORCID 0009-0006-0374-4277)"
    url: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23506946
    record: https://zenodo.org/records/23506946
    doi: 10.5281/zenodo.23506946
    concept_doi: 10.5281/zenodo.23408389
    posted: 2026-10-20
    accessed: 2026-10-20
    license: CC BY 4.0
---
# The Cigarette as Last-Resort Self-Soothing: Enjoyment, Compulsion, and Healing in Nicotine Use

> **Unreviewed preprint.** A theoretical paper with testable predictions and a sketched ecological momentary assessment study. No data were collected. No amount of smoking is risk-free; this is not health advice.

**Source and license:** Cole David Withington, "The Cigarette as Last-Resort Self-Soothing: Enjoyment, Compulsion, and Healing in Nicotine Use", Zenodo preprint, [doi:10.5281/zenodo.23506946](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23506946). Licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This page is an AI-assisted summary by iinventedlight, not the paper itself.

## Summary
For people whose main substance problem is nicotine, the paper treats a cigarette as a last-resort, lower-harm act of self-soothing when nothing else is available. Coping succeeds if the person heals and the smoking fades. Dependence and tolerance are taken as signs that healing didn't happen, so the person keeps chasing the first relief. The paper argues for support over stigma, by addressing boredom, loneliness and stress (Abstract; Introduction; The Account).

## When to apply
- Background on enjoyment vs compulsion in smoking, tolerance, alcohol co-use, stigma and harm reduction.
- Source of fifteen falsifiable predictions and a multi-phase EMA study design.
- Not a clinical recommendation or a safe-smoking guide.

## Key concepts
- **Healing criterion**: coping succeeds when the difficulty resolves and the smoking fades [F1].
- **Enjoyment gate / buzz test**: smoke only when it would be truly enjoyed; a remaining buzz signals compulsion [F2].
- **Problem line**: more than two or three cigarettes a day [F3].
- **"Healthy smoker"**: psychologically healthy (occasional and chosen), not a physical-health claim [F3].
- **Support over stigma** [F4].

## Facts
- id: F1
  claim: The paper's thesis is that, for people whose main substance problem is nicotine, dependence signals that healing from the original difficulty did not happen.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-10-20
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F2
  claim: The author holds that tolerance separates enjoyed from compulsive cigarettes and that enjoyment needs roughly an overnight interval to return.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-10-20
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F3
  claim: The paper states plainly that no amount of smoking is risk-free, and defines "healthy smoker" in psychological terms only.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-10-20
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F4
  claim: The paper cites CDC 2021 survey data showing higher smoking among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults and adults with diagnosed depression, and it argues that support works better than stigma.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-10-20
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
  note: The "not a gateway" and guilt ideas are the author's hypotheses, not findings.

## Related
- [Paradoxical Egoism](https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/zenodo-23506838-paradoxical-egoism.md): small self-generated acts when nothing else is available.
- [The Supreme Thought](https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/zenodo-23511078-supreme-thought.md): same author; a mental technique for refocusing.

## Review notes
- Draft written 2026-10-20. This is version 2 of concept DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23408389; the earlier version had a different title. Approved by Cole Withington 2026-10-20 and published.