The Smoking Habit: Causes, Effects, and Healthier Paths

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Introduction

Smoking is one habit that has been part of many people nowadays specially because we are living in a world where stress is part of everyone's life. Smoking not only affects the lives of adults but it is something which is now risking the health of teenagers also.

Smoking is not just an act, it's a behavioural pattern that is linked with habit formation. People who smoke are usually connected with how they feel emotionally. However, what they forget is that smoking is a harmful addiction and can lead to a number of health problems. Through this blog, let's understand the habit of smoking psychologically and how you can break free from it to live a better life.

What “Smoking Habit” Means

Smoking habit means that you are used to taking tobacco products, especially cigarettes. The word habit indicates that it is a routine and you're dependent on it. It means that your day remains unfinished if you don’t light a cigarette. This habit may be psychological where you feel a kind of escape or relief from this world. For many smokers. Smoking gives them comfort. They need it every day and that is why it leads to habit formation.

How Smoking Behaviors Develop

Smoking behaviour is not something which is developed overnight. Many people start smoking as an experiment and to see what it feels like to smoke, especially during the time of their teenage years or early adulthood. However, with time smoking becomes a pattern for them. It develops into a habit to expose their body to daily intake of nicotine, which is an addictive substance. Due to this addiction, people start believing that they can't live without smoking.

Why People Start Smoking

There is not a single reason as mentioned in various studies based on smoking habits. It could be a number of factors that lead to forming a smoking habit. These factors can be emotional or non-emotional. Many people start smoking under peer pressure while many people resort to smoking because they are feeling emotionally drained out.

Social Influences and Peer Pressure

Yet, we can say that social influences and peer pressure are the main reasons why people start smoking. When your friend smokes, even you feel the pressure to light a cigarette. You feel a part of a social group when you do the same particular activities as they are doing. In today's world, many people have made smoking a regular jazz, and people who are not smoking often feel left out.

Stress, Emotions, and Coping Mechanisms

For many people, smoking is a kind of stress reliever. It gives them emotional support. Smoking has increasingly become a coping mechanism for people who feel lonely. Keeping in view the lifestyle that we're leading nowadays it is clear how people often feel left out and they need someone's company to state their emotional state of being. In the absence of a person, people often resort to drinks and smoking as it gives them a temporary relief.

Misconceptions About Smoking

There are also many misconceptions about smoking. Some of these are:

“Smoking helps you relax.” Nicotine, which is an addictive substance, only delays your anxiety. It doesn't take away your anxiety.
“Only chain smoking is harmful, light smoking isn’t harmful.” If you are someone who occasionally smokes, then know that it is equally harmful as chain-smoking. Even smoking occasionally can lead to damages such as damage to your lungs, heart, and blood vessels.
“I can quit anytime.” Every smoker feels that they are not addicted to smoking and they can quit any time that they want. However, nicotine addiction makes quitting more complex.

How Smoking Affects the Body

Immediate Effects on Health

Smoking immediately affects your body. The effect starts within minutes when nicotine gives you a head and it increases your heart rate and constricts blood vessels by reducing oxygen flow. The toxic chemicals in a cigarette affects your lungs immediately, and that is why smoking sometimes causes coughing, throat, irritation etc.

Long-Term Risks and Chronic Conditions

While people won't see immediate effects very much concerning, there are some long-term consequences of smoking that one must know:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Lung cancer and other sorts of cancers
Heart disease, heart stroke, and Cardiac arrest
Hypertension
Reproductive issues and infertility
Low immunity
Premature aging of skin/ Dryness around mouth area

These long-term effects accumulate silently over years, impacting your health with chronic conditions that cannot be reversed.

Impact on Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Smoking impacts your mental health as it makes you anxious when you don't smoke and your mood will become irritated. You will feel emotional instability if you don't get to smoke at your particular time. You'll feel the need to smoke, even at the slightest of mood swings, or if you face fatigue. This reinforces addiction, and in no time a smoking habit is developed.

Nicotine Dependence

How Addiction Works

Nicotine is a highly addictive substance which enters your bloodstream when you smoke and it triggers the release of dopamine which is known as the feel good hormone. Over time your brain starts demanding nicotine as it feels good when the dopamine is released. This not only creates a physical dependency on smoking but also a psychological craving when you are feeling upset or stressed.

Signs of Dependence

Here are a few signs that you have a smoking dependency :

You start feeling restless or irritated when you don't get to Smoke
First thing in the morning, you feel like lighting a cigarette
It becomes psychologically impossible for you to go through stress without having a smoke
You are Smoke more than you intend to, which means that you unintentionally pull out a cigarette and light it without having a crave for it
You have already tried to quit, but have not succeeded

Why Quitting Can Feel Difficult

Quitting cigarettes is difficult because of nicotine addiction which has already altered the brain chemistry of the smoker. That is why so many times, people at a physical level want to quit, but their brain tells them a different truth! While it is difficult to quit, it is not impossible! With professional help and guidance, one can quit smoking.

Smoking and Daily Life

Effects on Energy, Focus, and Routine

Smoking has a deep effect on your energy levels, your focus and your everyday life. Smoking drains oxygen supply in your body and you may feel more fatigued. Nicotine may give you a burst of dopamine, but it only lasts for a few minutes and then your body goes into the cycle of getting it again.

Financial and Lifestyle Consequences

Cigarettes aren't cheap. Smoking proves to be expensive specially now when governments are imposing taxes on it and making the Bacco products expensive. Do you know that your monthly budget that goes into buying packs of cigarettes can be equated to the cost of your monthly gym membership or therapy sessions or travelling to nearby places?

Other than the financial consequences, there are also many lifestyle consequences that you may see. For example, having yellow teeth with regular smoking or a bad breath or a generic smoke odour from your body that may become very unattractive in a social setting.

Influence on Friends and Family

Smoking is one of those habits that doesn't only affect the smoker, but also affects the smoker's family members and friends.

Loved ones often worry about long-term health risks that cigarette smoking can cause. Hence, not only the smoker, but also people around them or influenced heavily by the habit of cigarette smoking.

Healthy Alternatives & Positive Habits

Stress-Relief Methods That Don’t Involve Smoking

There are a number of stress relief methods that you can practise instead of smoking. Here are a few of them:

Practice deep breathing to calm your nerves
Try journalling because jotting down your thoughts can give you mental clarity that you need
Listen to your favourite music to boost your mood
Go for a walk and spend some time in nature to reconnect with yourself
Practice regular meditation

These activities will help you manage your emotions without relying on smoking cigarettes. .

Physical Activities That Support Lung Health

Indulging in physical activities can support your lung health so make sure that you:

Walk or jog or do yoga practice such as Pranayam
Join swimming classes or take up swimming membership at swim clubs
Join a bicycle group as cycle also supports your cardiovascular health
Do any cardiovascular exercise such as incline walk on treadmills

Supportive Mindset and Motivational Strategies

Quitting cigarettes often requires a positive mindset. Knowing that it is good for your health to quit smoking is enough motivation required. Speak positive to yourself, affirmations about your health and having self compassion towards you are the small mindset changes that you can make.

Steps Toward Quitting

How to Prepare for Change

It requires consistent mindset preparation to quit smoking. Start by listing out reasons why you should quit. Also make sure to notice situations and circumstances where you feel like lighting a cigarette and then take out substitutes as to what you can do other than smoking to calm yourself down. Remove cigarette packs, lighters, strays from your surroundings, so you don't feel the urge to smoke by looking at these things. Another important step is to tell your friends and family that you are quitting cigarettes and ask them to support you in this endeavour.

Practical Strategies That Help (Non-Medication, Behavior-Based)

There are certain strategies that can help you eliminate the habit of smoking cigarette:

Keeping chewing gum is handy with you in your pocket instead of packs of cigarette
Drinking water whenever you have the urge to smoke
Delaying the urge by few minutes and shift your focus on something important
Avoid going to places that remind you of smoking. For example, the balcony of your office.

Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them

Managing Cravings

The first challenge that you will feel when you decide to quit cigarettes is craving to have just one. Know that there will be a Peak craving and if you overcome that you will be able to quit soon. Following techniques such as drinking water, distracting yourself with something else, chewing gum, calling a family member or friend can help you get over the wave of craving.

Dealing with Triggers

When you decide to quit, there will be triggers when you feel like having a cigarette. You should try to deal with these triggers such as avoiding going out with friends who smoke, visiting places, which indicate your mind to light a cigarette, managing your emotional triggers like stress by doing other activities, such as meditation.

Staying Consistent Over Time

Consistency is the key to make your quitting mission an accomplished mission. If you don't get the urge to smoke for a few days, it doesn't mean that you won't get the urge to smoke for the next few days. The idea is to stay consistent until you completely get over the feeling of lighting a cigarette.

Resources for Support

Counseling & Support Groups

There are a number of support groups for quitting cigarettes that you can join where you will find the like minded people who want to quit. It will not only give you motivation but also support in terms of similar people that are like you. You can also resort to counseling through therapists or addiction counselors and ask their advice by telling them you're craving patterns.

Mobile Apps for Tracking Progress

There are many quit smoking tracking apps that monitor your withdrawal symptoms and smoke free days. You can download these apps and keep tracking your achievements because seeing your progress will give you motivation to be on your track.

When to Seek Professional Help

If all of the above failed to give you desirable results, then you can seek professional help. Sometimes a person fails to control the cravings or withdrawal symptoms are so severe that it becomes physically as well as emotionally impossible for a person to quit. With the help of professionals, you can quit cigarettes in a safer way.

Conclusion

While quitting cigarettes requires a lot of work, know that every step counts. Even if you set an intention to quit today, it will give you the motivation to work on yourself so that you can give up cigarettes one day.

You are each day progressing compounds. With the right intent and a positive mindset, you can start your journey in quitting the cigarette. There are many professionals and support groups that are available to make your smoke-free future a reality.

FAQs

1. Why do people start smoking?

People start smoking just to try it out of curiosity or under peer pressure or to get relief in stressful situations. The appeal of smoking a cigarette is different in each case. Be it a teenager or a young adult or in each gender be it a man or woman. People don't realise that what they are starting as a one time thing can lead to a serious addiction and can harm their health and life.

2. How does smoking affect teenagers?

Teenagers are the most vulnerable group of people when it comes to smoking. This is because their brains are still in the developing phase so they take up addiction easily. Also with the number of smoking devices available today such as vape, it gives teenagers a lot of choice. Teenagers can ruin their lung capacity at a much younger age and can get a smoking habit easier than the rest of the age groups.

3. What are the most common health risks of smoking?

Smoking comes with a lot of health risks, such as lung cancer, heart diseases, untimely strokes, hypertension, and a number of immunity issues. It not only makes your skin look older, but also gives you infertility issues. Long-term smoking can experience many chronic illnesses and diseases that severely affect the quality of their life.

4. Why is quitting smoking so difficult?

Quitting smoking often seems to be difficult because cigarettes have nicotine which is a highly addictive substance. The brain produces short-term dopamine when you smoke a cigarette and hence your brain becomes addictive. Because of this, your brain creates a craving for smoking a cigarette and your mood begins to fluctuate without a cigarette. So, the main reason why quitting smoking is difficult is because of nicotine.

5. What are safe ways to deal with smoking cravings?

There are a number of safe ways to deal with smoking cravings, such as drinking water in large quantities, chewing gum that has flavour, controlling craving for a few minutes or replacing the craving with something else (for example, having a coffee or tea). Mindful practices such as not treating cigarettes as the only answer to stress and indulging in positive activities such as walking can prove to be really impactful when it comes to controlling smoking cravings.

Health & Beauty

Vivan Vatena

| Posted on December 30, 2018