The Healthy Management of Reality - Stanford University

the things that cause human suffering are things that people do to themselves. Forexample, the largest number of deaths in the United States is due to smoking, anactivity that is completely unnecessary and which most people realize is hurtful totheir health. It is very hard to stop smoking once one has started and becomeaddicted to cigarettes. Therefore the wisest course of action is never to beginsmoking in the first place. Once one has begun smoking, stopping as soon aspossible is, again, the wisest course of action and the one that is most likely toprevent the most amount of suffering. Diet and exercise are other ways in whichwe affect our health. The use of alcohol can affect not only ourselves physically,but also our relationships with others and even the safety of people who arecomplete strangers to us, for example in the case of driving under the influence ofalcohol.HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 42