Understanding Pat: Disposition and Smoking

From the responses that we have on Pat from her boss, best friend, medical doctor, and mother, we realize that there is a lot more going on with Pat than meets the eye. Pat has had a rough life, smokes a lot, is laid back, and tends to do better in groups. I believe we may be able to attribute her behavior to her personal disposition. We see, for instance, that she wants to quit smoking. However, what is causing her to smoke?

The disposition between what everyone sees is different. Her boss sees a laidback worker that does not take her work seriously. She takes long breaks to smoke and be alone. When we look at what her mother says about her, we can see her attitude is influenced by her beliefs about dying. Therefore, she tends to be careless concerning her smoking habits. This same attitude is possible why her boss views her the way that he does. In retrospect, this may be the reason she views her attempts to stop smoking as futile. Since according to her “we are all going to die someday”.

Pat’s best friend sees a person who has had a rough life. She probably attributes Pat’s smoking habits to having such a life. She has also had a rough life and empathizes with Pat. It’s possible that she smokes as well. Having a rough life can mean that the person has a lot of stress to deal with and what other way should a person deal with that stress? The easiest way for Pat seems to be smoking. However, if she’s around her best friend and she’s not helping her to get better, she may be helping her to get worse.

We learn from Pat’s doctor that once she was in an environment that was conducive to her getting better, she started doing better. Her doctor mentions that Pat has always done better in groups and that while she was in the hospital, that she was able to complete tasks better. This differs from what her boss was saying about her. She made mention that Pat was laid back and did not seem to take her work seriously. However, we see when Pat is in a different environment, she functions differently.

I assume that when Pat had gotten out of the hospital, her stay in the hospital may have been a catalyst for her to quit smoking. If it were difficult for her, being around someone that smokes or does not discourage her from smoking would be difficult. Her best friend may be a cause for her continuing to smoke. Her mother mentions that she must have tried to quit a million times. For her to want to quit and then take on the attitude of acceptance of death is opposite of one another. She would not want to quit and then accept the fact that we are all doing to die so it doesn’t matter whether she quits or not. She finally takes the attitude that it calms her down.

I imagine that the cycle for Pat has started with her rough life. From there, she went to the hospital. She did well while she was in the hospital and got out only to not really know how to deal with stress. Therefore, she starts smoking. She lets her mother know that she wants to quit smoking, but it’s the only thing she has convinced herself of that calms her. While she is at work, she may be stressed a lot from work, which reflects on why she takes a lot of, smoke breaks since she mentioned it calms her.

As long as Pat has other people around her that encourage her, she tends to do better. I can infer that her mother and best friend probably do not encourage her by the continuation of her smoking habit. The influences around her may be the cause and may be the reason for her defeatist attitude and why she does not want to quit.