Especially here in Asia, it’s common to hear how smoking is good for stress. Men, particularly, face stress in their lives which needs a remedy. Tobacco, though not intrinsically healthy, at least helps to assuage that greater health threat; stress. Or so the logic goes.
Well, smoking does greatly reduce stress, if you are a nicotine addict overdue a nicotine fix. If one of the significant sources of your stress is chemical withdrawal then, yes, a cigarette will greatly alleviate that.
But if you are a never-smoker who has reached an unsusceptible age, and if you are currently experiencing stress, then neither the nicotine nor the ritual will offer you much relief. That’s because there’s nothing inherent to this one drug that “cures”.
I write this as a caffeine addict, of course (and some-time smoker). I know how that first brew of the day isn’t going to make me feel special; it’s going to help me feel normal. I know that headache pills contain caffeine, not because caffeine is a remedy for head pain, but because the most common cause of headaches is caffeine withdrawal.
Attaching ourselves to a drug train like this is a pretty silly thing to do. And that’s why mature adults rarely take up new drug habits. But…
Maybe you’ve seen the residue on the concrete stairs of your apartment block. Maybe you’ve encountered one outside a subway station. Small, furry and brown; in poor light, you could mistake one for a small mouse.
Or maybe, like me, you didn’t notice them until you encountered one yourself. I’m talking about betel nut [槟榔].
I bought myself a black packet after first noticing them littering the ground and then displayed in a mom & pop c-store. I loved the crammed Chinese characters on the surface, like a newspaper printed in gold on matt black. The package cost more than I expected; dearer than candy. I still didn’t know what it was.
And inside that glittery bag, together with the small black bags of betel nut, there was another bag, a red bag, containing one of my favourite varieties of tea!
Yes, despite this brand boasting of its origins in Hunan, here was a sachet of Yunnan Dianhong tea, not the best but… anyway! And what’s that Tencent Video logo doing on the packaging?
I’d tried betel nut once in India as part of a preparation called “pan”, mixed with cardamom and fennel seeds. This is different, so saturated in sugar and menthol that one senses a great effort to disguise the natural taste. That’s a pity for someone curious like me.
There is a numbing sensation and perhaps mild stimulation. I’m tempted to say there’s nothing here to bring me back for more; neither the artificial taste nor the sensation especially excited me. But this does, evidently, become habit-forming for some people.
Yesterday, I saw a car dashboard strewn with packets of this same brand. And I’ve started hearing of people unable to concentrate without chewing these bark-like lockets into furry balls. Perhaps they’re just more stressed than me.
I’m guessing the red tea is a “healthy” counterbalance to the addictive substance, added to placate critics. Just a guess.
Anyway, it must be better than smoking, right?
