Why Do People Smoke?

Smoke addiction has been working like an epidemic across the world and has been increasing for the last one decade. Efforts have been and are still being put in to control it but all in vain. From celebrities to common mass, everybody has been "seeking refuge" in the act of smoking. It seems it gives your mind and body strength enough to fight with sleep, hunger and also psychological barriers. Ther4e are several people and organizations who have been the trying to spread awareness regarding the baselessness of these notions but the number of smokers are rising steadily in spite of knowing that smoke causes lung cancer and various other heart and lung diseases. There are different reasons that have given a strong base to these false notions and we would find out why people smoke to overcome problems whose root and solutions both lie elsewhere and smoking cannot resolve them even one iota.

Why do people smoke for the first time?

• There are very few people who start smoking after they cross their teen age, so it is evident that it starts off as one of those activities which teenagers do either to explore something new and experimental or under peer pressure. They start it so that they can gain conformity in the group of fiends and are not cast away on the periphery. Teenagers also start it since they look at it as a sign of growing up or a part of adult behavior as they might have observed their parents doing it and find it normal. So imitation of adult behavior can also be one of the reasons of people smoking.
• Once these people start smoking it becomes an addiction and then quitting it becomes a major problem. The flashy ad that the cigarette manufacturers flaunt all over the media does not attract most of these smokers. In fact it is not even the taste that matters for them it is the psychological satisfaction that they get out of smoking that prevents them from quitting this habit. Let us have a look at the different ways it influences people psychologically.
  • Some people say that smoking provides them a way to take a break from work therefore they perceive it as an excuse to be free and take a break.
  • Some people say that they feel care free and not burdened by responsibilities when they are smoking which relieves them from most of the anxieties. What actually happens is when an individual; smokes the effect of nicotine remains for approximately ten to fifteen minutes after which they start feeling tired and stressed because of the nicotine, so they again feel like smoking and this continues. So it comes clear that perceptions associated with smoking are mostly conditioned and none of them actually have a strong ground.
  • Smoking can also be a result of oral fixation which starts right form the time when we are born. Infants start it with suckling and then when they are weaned they start thumb sucking and if you remember most of our friends or in fact some of us in school had the habit of chewing our pencils and pens and as we grow up we get fixated to cigarettes.
  • Modern psychology says that if we promise a reward for a person or ourselves, the efficiency and productivity increases. So people who smoke promise themselves a smoke, which is quick as well as rewarding for them.
  • Most people who smoke also say that they feel accompanied when they have cigarette in their hands, which can again be explained psychologically. Say suppose you have taken a break but there isn't a friend who can keep you company, what happens is you have time and energy but nothing to do so a smoke makes you feel occupied and accompanied.

So what we are fighting against is not cigarettes but our own minds which makes us believe that it is impossible for us to quit smoking but if you can be a little strong and stern, you can quit it. You can conquer your own mind, can't you?