From childhood, we have been told about the terrible dangers of smoking, confirming this with medical research and facts from the life of smokers. But why do people smoke, not paying attention to the damage done to their health?
Where does smoking addiction come from?
Prolonged stress
A long chain of stressful situations can upset even the most calm and balanced person. At this point, instead of looking at the situation from a different angle or distracting from it with some activity, many start looking for a quick way to calm down and relax. And very often it is smoking.
Having found such a quick way to get moral satisfaction, every time during the next dispute with someone or just a serious conversation, a person lights another cigarette, believing that this will calm his nerves and be able to correctly assess the situation. The most interesting thing is that it really helps him. But not because smoking supposedly "calm" cigarettes, but because it firmly inspired this idea in itself.
fashion influence
As unfortunate as it may seem, fashion trends often make people make mistakes. So, for example, the publication of a photo shoot in a glossy magazine with the participation of a model smoking in the frame can become another wave of fashion for smoking. Moreover, such fashion trends are spreading very quickly. Literally the day after the magazine comes out, it will be possible to observe how many teenage girls and girls who previously did not use tobacco smoke, imitating the famous model.
Transitional age
Replenishment of the ranks of smokers at the expense of high school students and students could come about not just because of a new fashion round. Among the common reasons why teens start smoking, the following are also popular:
- The need for peer recognition and the desire to be like everyone else. Teenagers' fear of becoming a black sheep is sometimes so great that they are capable of many stupid things, including smoking.
- The desire, on the contrary, to stand out from the crowd.
- Protest. Sometimes young people start smoking in protest, thus opposing society and trying to show everyone their independence and independence. Think 80s rockers. They had a very characteristic pattern of behavior: they smoked cigarettes, ridiculed the vices of society in their songs, drank a lot of alcohol and behaved, to put it mildly, provocatively.
Nicotine addiction
The addiction of smokers to cigarettes can be of 2 types: physical and psychological. At the heart of physical addiction is the body's addiction to nicotine. Psychological addiction is based on a person's clear belief that smoking relaxes, calms, helps focus faster, etc. The difference between these types is that psychological addiction is often the reason why smokers start using tobacco, while physical addiction becomes the consequence - the main problem why people smoke and cannot quit this bad habit. .
How to quit smoking?
Once you understand why people smoke, it is much easier to begin the smoking cessation process. However, you need to prepare for such a step on the moral side. It is necessary to at least briefly familiarize yourself with the medical literature and thoroughly understand the harm that smoking brings to health, as well as calculate how much money is spent on the purchase of cigarettes per year. After that, take all your will in one fist and quit smoking.
Stop it once and for all
Most former smokers are advised not to "reinvent the wheel", but to quit smoking suddenly and immediately, once and for all. Having chosen this path, in no case should we succumb to weakness and think that a cigarette (or more) a day will not change anything (justifying the fact that it is even less than before). Once the decision is made, there is no going back!
Launch gradually
A similar method is suitable for those who have a clear nicotine addiction. To quit smoking, they must gradually reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke each day. For example, if a person smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, you should try to reduce the number of cigarettes by at least one piece per day. When it comes to 2-3 cigarettes a day, you can quit smoking suddenly.
Lead a healthy lifestyle
Psychologists have found that smokers who start eating right and playing sports eventually break free of this negative habit on their own. How does it happen? The secret, once again, lies in self-hypnosis. A person's psychology is such that when he starts eating healthy food and exercising, he unwittingly refuses unhealthy foods and other obstacles that prevent him from leading a new and healthier lifestyle.
Also, when doing a lot of recreational exercise, the smoker will notice shortness of breath. Swimming and running are particularly illustrative examples in this sense. After unsuccessful attempts to combine smoking and exercise, a person is likely to come to the decision to quit smoking.
In addition, the following recommendations can be of great help in the fight against addiction:
- Listen to audio files and read books on the dangers of smoking.
- Drink enough water.
- Replacing regular cigarettes with electronic ones, which later proves much easier for some than regular ones.
- Also, when you really want to smoke, you can try replacing cigarettes with something sweet or semi. Or take a cigarette and, without smoking it, mimic the process of smoking for 10-15 minutes.
- Refusal to visit places where smoking is allowed (smoking areas and lounges in discos, restaurants, etc. ).
- An agreement with acquaintances who do not smoke during communication.
- Posting affirmations on the walls of the house (words and images that carry the meaning of the desired) on the theme of a healthy lifestyle. For example, images of beautiful and healthy people and images of smokers who cause disgust. This helps to fix the right kind of behavior in the fight against smoking in the subconscious mind.