Stop Smoking, Why Doesn't Everyone Just Give Up?

No-one becomes a smoker as a result of will power. In fact it is the other way round. Can you imagine somebody as a child making up his or her mind that when he or she grows up he or she will become a chain smoker determined to smoke at least 30 cigarettes a day?

Then why do so many people become smokers? Let us sit and think about it for a minute. Of course there are a lot of other reasons like the ones listed below but I would like to pin-point one specific reason, which I have added, at the end of the list.

Many, in fact most people become smokers as a result of an experiment. What often starts as an experiment becomes an experience and before they know it, it becomes a pattern. So let us examine some of the factors that contribute towards making a person a smoker, chain or other wise.

Peer pressure.  One bad apple is enough to make a whole barrel of apples bad. And during the age of thoughtless youth (most people develop the habit before the age of 25) every one is ready to take up a dare. So when peers compel others to take a puff, one just has to take a puff or else face the danger of being branded as “chicken”.

Availability.  Cigarettes are available every where and almost any body can get them and that is one major factor that contributes to the development of the habit. 

Aping.  Movie stars and other celebrities who smoke look so cool, and this is more than enough reason for youngsters to start smoking just to copy their matinee idol.

The Feel Good Syndrome.  Cigarettes are often identified with the “cool factor” and so it is a great way to impress others if you can delicately balance the cigarette between two of your fingers and blow up a puff of smoke while you are in your friends' circle.

Stress busters.  Cigarettes are often wrongly identified as stress busters and one of the best ways of driving away sleep. So when we see others resorting to the habit, we are tempted and even coaxed into taking a puff. If one parent smokes there is a 25% chance that the child too will grow up into a smoker. If both parents smoke, there is a 75% chance that the child will become a smoker.

Attitude.  This is a good one, but strangely enough this cause is seldom identified as one of the reasons for picking up the habit. One thing about most of us is that there is a rebellious strain in all of us. There is something in us that generates an urge to protest against existing rules and norms and during our teenage, what better way to express our defiance than by sporting a lighted cigarette between our fingers or lips.

It is not just some thing about smoking. It is a general tendency of every human being. The moment some body tells us not to do something a strong feeling develops in us to do the very thing that we were asked not to do. 

There are many laws which we can’t break for fear of ending up in a cell, but there is no such law against smoking and so it’s just one big, “it’s my life” kind of attitude that makes most youth pick up the habit.  

We are all intelligent to know what a message means. When we read the statutory warning that says, “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health” we know what it means. Even a kid knows what it means. It is not like a bolt from the blue. Ignorance is the last thing that we can connect to the habit of cigarette smoking. 

Cigarette smoking may be dangerous to health but just how dangerous is something that we have to convince ourselves about. But the sorry fact is that it isn't something that can easily be turned off, to just stop smoking. In addition the effects and addiction strenghtens over time. Smoking is not something that we can experiment with yet this is how it starts. You just can’t take a risk like smoke for a couple of years and say, “look guys, I survived.”  It is a matter of life and death.

Smoke Signals

Then you might ask, if every body knows that it is such a dangerous habit, then why do so many people still become, and continue to remain smokers. Well, the reason is because of a paradox that is involved in the habit of smoking.

If all those who smoked, kicked the bucket at the end of the month, then nobody would even think of smoking. But the paradox is that not everyone who smokes hits the grave that fast. Smoking as a habit is a slow killer. It does not paint all smokers with the same brush of death. On the other hand it is like a florist who picks a few flowers here and a few flowers there to adorn the house but at the same time leaves enough flowers on the plant so the garden does not remain bare.

The problem is that because cigarette smoke as a killer is so choosy, most smokers just keep on hoping that he or she will remain on the plant in the garden forever. In this modern age when we are all so educated and well informed, isn’t it kind of silly to leave ourselves in the hands of fate and just keep hoping that we won’t be next. The funny thing is that we do have a choice.

But there’s more to the story. The matter of choice is something that exists only in the initial stages. At that time it’s just a puff here and just a puff there, more to impress others than any thing else. But soon enough things start slipping out of our control and before we know it we just can’t do with out our daily dose of nicotine in whatever proportions we demand it.

Nicotine Is Addictive

Here is where the problem lies: addiction. The sad thing is that most people don’t realize this.

They puff away on their cigarettes and attach a lot of definitions to it. I have taken care to include some of the most popular excuses that people attach to their habit of smoking.

EXCUSE #1 - It relieves stress

It really doesn’t. Your body and mind are capable of handling a lot of stress and you do not need any alkaloid to lend external support. The fact is that once your brain is addicted to nicotine, it kind of weakens and becomes unable to handle problems. The result is that you get stressed up very fast and your brain starts demanding its doze of nicotine. When you puff away, you give it the nicotine and you feel as if your stress is relieved.

EXCUSE #2 - It drives away sleep

Sleep is a natural response of the body. Our body needs rest and it has the right to demand this rest from time to time. When you take a puff, the alkaloids go straight to your brain and interfere with the working thus confusing the brain. You might be able to ward off sleep but you are in fact interfering with the functioning of your brain, which is indeed playing with fire.

EXCUSE #3 - It perks me up

Maybe, but isn’t that a kind of external perk? Isn’t that another way of saying, I am unable to keep in high spirits by myself so I need to depend on cigarettes? Hey, look at all those little children, they are always in the highest of spirits and they do not need any alkaloids for that. You should lessen the burdens on your shoulders and take life as it comes. 

Most people wrongly think that it is only narcotic drugs that are addictive. This is a very wrong notion indeed. Nicotine too is as addictive as any narcotic. Once you get used to it, it is not going to be easy to break away from it.         

An Unfair Battle

Let’s take a moment to ponder over our bodies. They are such remarkable things. Just think of all those activities that are going on so harmoniously inside our bodies. Most of these activities and functions go on with out our own knowledge. It’s almost like a well oiled machine.

And think of the countless number of times when you have fallen ill and how this remarkable body has fought back and won the battle. Forget about giving credit to it. None of us do that. But the least we can do is lend it a helping hand.

The world we are living in is horribly polluted. And it is the body that has a colossal task of fighting off all those toxins. And here we are pulling in loads and loads of toxic smoke as many times a day as possible. The body will pull on as long as it can, and in the end, one fine day it will put its foot down and say “enough is enough, go ahead cough up and die,” and really we cannot blame it at that time.

The battle is already unfair, so the least we can do is help by not consciously contributing our own share of toxins to this body that is already waging a fierce battle in this polluted world.

I guess we have said enough about smoking, now let’s talk about what we really intended to talk about and that is how to stop smoking. But before we proceed any further, I want to give you a word of caution. It’s not going to be easy. This is an exercise that will put your nerves, your muscles and every cell in your body to the utmost level of endurance. But in the when you triumph, you will realize that it was worth it.

After all, it is a matter of life and death. And believe me you can do it once you make up your mind.