Smoking Reasons

One reason that many smokers use is that they smoke because of stress. Stress used to be Jim's excuse. He had a job that was really stressful and he used to smoke because he said he was stressed. And that is when I simply pointed out to him whether he smokes on the weekends? Jim said yes, I still smoke on the weekend. I asked him if he still smokes when on vacation and he said yes he still smoked on vacation. Then I said him, if you still smoke on the weekends, and when you’re on vacation how can you say that you smoke because of stress? Isn’t the stress of your job gone when you’re on vacation and on the weekends?

He smoked the same amount day in and day out. It is not like on a really stressful day he had 40 cigarettes and the following non-stressful day he had five cigarettes. On the weekends, during stress or not stressed he smoked the same amount of cigarettes. So where is the stress? It is a great excuse but that is all it is - an excuse.

Article from The Australian newspaper stating that research has shown that smokers stress levels are lower when they have quit

To Relax

A lot of smokers say that smoking relaxes them. Now it's interesting because nicotine is actually a stimulant.

When you inhale nicotine it goes into your bloodstream and goes everywhere including your heart. Your heart sees nicotine as a poison and it increases your heart rate by about 12 beats per minute trying to get rid of the poison. This is why even when you haven’t smoked a cigarette in a while you may notice heart palpitations or light-headedness or dizziness, because the nicotine is a stimulant causing your heart and your body to react and try to get rid of it. Your stomach produces extra stomach acid every time you smoke cigarettes, about ½ a cup of extra acid for every 2 packs of cigarettes.

You have a powerful stimulant like nicotine and you also have other carcinogens that are stimulants. And if you add additional stimulants like caffeine or tea or coffee, you have at least three extremely powerful stimulants causing the body to be hyper excited.

Is that person relaxed? Not even close. In fact, your body is working overtime trying to get rid of all the poisons and toxins, you just put into it. So it is absolutely impossible to smoke and physically relax.

Why it can seem like it is relaxing is because of mental relaxation.

When you are stressed and you go to have a cigarette to relax you are doing three other particular things. Firstly you are removing yourself from the stressful situation. You have to 'go somewhere' to smoke. Secondly you are distracting yourself by doing another activity. Thirdly you are taking deep breaths. These three aspects are the basis of relaxation. You can do these three things just as easily without smoking.

Will Power

If you didn’t have any willpower, you wouldn’t ever get out of bed, you wouldn’t go to work, you wouldn’t make payments on a house, if you didn’t have any willpower you wouldn’t do anything. Willpower is what allows you to do the dozens of things that you do every day of your life, especially even if you don’t want to do them. And you do that because you have to, that’s what willpower is!

So actually, you do have lots of willpower. The only question is are you going to use it to quit cigarettes?

Pleasure

How many of the cigarettes that you smoke each day, do you actually enjoy? Most say 3, 4 or 5.

Well, it takes about 4 minutes to smoke a cigarette, so that’s 4 x 4, or 16 minutes of enjoyment. Now of course, it’s decreasing your health, but what is your health when you get 16 minutes of pleasure or enjoyment from smoking a cigarette. And you’re suffering with coughing and shortness of breath, hacking up mucus each morning and not being able to do all the things you want to do. And it smells and you’re spending thousands of dollars and studies show that it takes an average of 14 years (or more) off your life. So is all of that worth 16 minutes of some kind of pleasure?