From childhood, we were told about the terrible dangers of smoking, confirming it with medical research and facts from the lives 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 disturb even the most calm and balanced person. At this point, instead of looking at the situation from a different angle or diverting attention 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 up another cigarette, believing that it 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 cigarettes is supposed to "calm down", but because he firmly inspired this idea in himself.
fashion influence
As unfortunate as it sounds, fashion trends often make people make mistakes. So, for example, publishing a photo in a glossy magazine with the participation of a smoking model in the frame can become another surge in smoking fashion. Moreover, such fashion trends spread very quickly. Literally the next day after the publication of the magazine, it will be possible to see how many teenage girls and girls who have not used tobacco smoke before, imitating the famous model.
Transitional age
Filling the ranks of smokers at the expense of high school and college students can happen not only because of a new round of fashion. Among the common reasons why teenagers start smoking, the following are popular:
- The need for recognition from peers and the desire to be like everyone else. Adolescents' 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 as a sign of 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, mocked the vices of society in their songs, drank a lot of alcohol and behaved defiantly, to say the least.
Nicotine addiction
A smoker's addiction 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 to concentrate more quickly, etc. The difference between these types is that psychological addiction is often the reason why smokers start smoking, while physical addiction becomes its consequence - the main problem that people smoke and cannot give up this bad habit.
How to stop smoking?
Once you understand why people smoke, it is much easier to begin the process of kicking the habit. However, you have to prepare for such a step from the moral side. It is necessary to at least briefly familiarize yourself with the medical literature and deeply understand the harm that smoking brings to health, as well as to calculate how much money is spent annually on the purchase of cigarettes. After that, squeeze all your will into a fist and stop smoking.
Quit once and for all
Most ex-smokers are advised not to "reinvent the wheel", but to quit smoking suddenly and suddenly - once and for all. Having chosen this path, in no case should you succumb to weakness and think that one cigarette (or more) a day will not change anything (justifying the fact that it is still less than it used to be). Once the decision is made, there is no going back!
Cast gradually
A similar method is suitable for those who have a clear addiction to nicotine. In order to stop smoking, they must gradually reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke per day. For example, if a person smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, then you should try to reduce the number of cigarettes by at least one cigarette each day. When it comes to 2-3 cigarettes a day, you can suddenly stop smoking completely.
Lead a healthy lifestyle
Psychologists have found that smokers who start eating right and doing sports eventually get rid of this negative habit on their own. How does that happen? The secret, again, lies in self-hypnosis. Human psychology is such that when he starts eating healthy food and exercising, he involuntarily rejects unhealthy food and other obstacles that prevent him from leading a new, healthier lifestyle.
In addition, when doing many recreational exercises, a smoker will notice shortness of breath. Swimming and running are particularly illustrative examples in this regard. After unsuccessful attempts to combine smoking and exercise, a person will probably come to the decision to give up cigarettes.
Also, the following recommendations can be very helpful in the fight against addiction:
- Listening to audio files and reading books about the dangers of smoking.
- Drink enough water.
- Replacing regular cigarettes with electronic ones, which later turns out to be much easier for some people than regular ones.
- Also, when you really want to smoke, you can try replacing cigarettes with something sweet or seeds. Or take a cigarette and, without smoking, imitate the process of smoking for 10-15 minutes.
- Refusal to visit places where smoking is allowed (smoking rooms and halls in night clubs, restaurants, etc. ).
- An agreement with acquaintances not to smoke during communication.
- Placing affirmations on the walls of the house (words and pictures that carry the desired meaning) on the topic of a healthy lifestyle. For example, pictures of healthy beautiful people and pictures of smokers that cause disgust. This helps to fix in the subconscious the correct type of behavior in the fight against smoking.