This Agony Aunt column is brought to you by the team at Health, Counselling and Wellbeing. If you have a question you would like answered email debate@aut.ac.nz and put Agony Aunt as the subject or drop it in to the Health, Counselling and Wellbeing office.
Dear Agony Aunt
I have been a smoker for five years and have tried to give up countless times. I am really worried about next semester when AUT goes smokefree. What I am going to do? I won’t have time to keep going off campus in between lectures for a smoke. Even worse what I am going to do at exam time? I almost eat cigarettes then! As if exams aren’t bad enough now I can’t even calm my nerves with a smoke. From worried smoker
Dear worried smoker
I hear what you are saying and I understand your anxiety. What is important is that you get support through what could be a difficult time. AUT does not become smoke-free until February 2012 so you have a bit of time to think about how you are going to deal with this change. Here are a few ideas:
You could do nothing and keep running off campus for a smoke but I would not recommend this option. What a pain! Mainly because your thoughts will be consumed with when, where, and if you are going to have time for your next cigarette (I know, I used to be a smoker). Have you considered trying to quit again? There is lots of help available to you. You can get online support through groups like Quitline, or if you prefer talking face to face then you could book to see a nurse at AUT Health and Counselling. It’s okay if you haven’t completely made up your mind; maybe talking to someone will help you decide on a plan of action. Both of these options are free, so you have nothing to lose. If you aren’t ready to quit completely, you could try using nicotine patches or gum to help you through the times when you can’t smoke. This is called nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). It helps to stop the onset of nicotine withdrawal symptoms (which are very unpleasant and cause many people to return to smoking) by releasing small amounts of nicotine into your bloodstream. Patches and gum will be heaps cheaper than cigarettes and will cost $3 per item for an eight week supply. Another place you will find support on campus is with the smoke-free champions and student ambassadors. They can help with your questions about the smoke-free policy and they are trained to offer support and advice to people who have chosen to quit. You will find more information about the champions and the smoke-free policy on the AUT website (www.aut.ac.nz) soon. Whatever you decide to do, good luck. And remember, there is lots of help and support available - you just need to take the first step. Support and information Quitline: www.quitline.org.nz or 0800 778 778 AUT Health, Counselling and Wellbeing City campus: (09) 921 9998 North Shore campus: (09) 921 9992
“Everything is Important”
by Vinny Francesco
www.ausm.org.nz
It was Camus who said there is only one truly important question in life and that is whether or not to commit suicide. I remember another more contemporary philosopher said that one of the important questions in life is “who’s going to clean up?” (which is strangely relevant to so many situations). We all have our own values, our own sense of what is important. Let’s explore the idea of importance a bit more. There are some who say everything is important. They say something like “well, the air and the atmosphere might not be that important, and probably the President of America is more important than the air. However, the President of America depends on the air to live and for that reason it is important”. Because everything is interdependent, everything is important. While this view considers everything of some importance, it does not consider everything of equal importance. And how about those guys who don’t think anything is important? Nihlism is commonly thought of as an attitude of meaninglessness; that existence is fundamentally meaningless. Nihlism does not state that the world is dim and bleak. Fundamentally, nihlism states that nothing is truly important. Of course we are capable of giving things importance. Nihlism says that yes this is possible, though an illusion. It’s worth noting that nihlism considers everything of equal importance. In its own strange way, by saying nothing is of importance, everything is given an equal level of importance!
By far the most common view of importance is that only some things are important, whilst other things are not at all important. This is selective importance, the sort of middle man between the two previous views. It’s easy to see why this view is so predominant, as human beings are fundamentally selective by nature. I think a good lens to look at this model of selective importance is through culture. It’s fair enough to say that western/anglo-centric cultures value wealth. Korean culture sees laziness as sinful, and holds duty as the most important virtue. Japanese people are obsessed with being polite, to the extent they don’t have the word “no”. Some cultures, such as Arabic cultures, are emphatic about honour, sometimes to the extent that life is taken in the name of honour. The ancient Egyptians were all about physical resurrection, which is why pharaohs mummified themselves in their worldly paraphernalia. In my own personal culture, I hold humour and comedy as the greatest quality. An attitude of seriousness results in suffering and negativity. Conversely, everyone loves a joker. Comedy is the best kind of intellect because sends out positive vibes and makes us feel good through laughter. So I feel (sincere) laughter is the most important thing in life, it can do nothing but good. If a picture can say a thousand words, then laughter can say 10,000 things. As usual it is best to end with a quote, so here goes: “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important” -Bertrand Russel.
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