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Why Do People Smoke Cigarettes?

Nobody becomes a smoker as a result of willpower. In fact, it is the other way around. 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?

Nobody in his or her normal senses would do that.

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 I have 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 to making a person a smoker, chain or otherwise.

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) everyone 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 a “chicken” or “goody-two-shoes.”

Availability. Cigarettes are available everywhere and almost anybody can get them.Tthat 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 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. 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 years, what better way to express our defiance than by sporting a lighted cigarette between our fingers or lips.

Wet Paint

The moment somebody tells us not to do something, a strong urge develops in us to do the very opposite thing we were asked not to do. If you want to understand what I mean, just consider how people really want to touch and get the wet paint on their hands in spite of a big sign that says ‘wet paint’.

There are many laws which we can’t break for fear of ending up in a jail 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 intelligentenough 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. But when we see a sign that says ‘wet paint’ it is very much the same thing. The message is loud and clear that the paint is wet, and yet we have to touch and make sure.

Cigarette smoking may be dangerous to your health but just how dangerous is something that we have to convince ourselves about. The sorry fact is that unlike wet paint, we just can’t wash off the effects of smoking with water or turpentine. Nor do the effects fade over time, they just worsen. Smoking is not something that we can experiment with. 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.

  
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