So you’re interested in taking up smoking. Inhaling the smoke from finely cut tobacco leaves and then stuffed into thin paper straws with all the additives sounds like a good idea.
It’s not like this hobby will make you an individual unique and cool like the tobacco companies want you to think. It turns out that about 100,000 kids start smoking every single day and according to the World Health Organization about one third of the mail global adult population smokes.
They say that by the year 2030 one and six people will die from smoking. A cigarette cuts at least five minutes from your life when you smoke it, that’s about the time it takes to inhale all that chemically goodness. But is smoking all that bad? Are there any positive aspects of this lifestyle choice right? Maybe you like to watch smoke rising through the air disappearing into the atmosphere? Maybe you had a cool uncle who smoked cigarettes around you when you were growing up and it brings back all the memories of your lost childhood? Smoking and nicotine give you a buzz and combining alcohol and nicotine enhance those effects even further. But is that enough to start puffing?
The consequences of smoking are numerous. It is clear with a little digging and research that the negative outcomes smoking outweigh any positive benefits. Take a look at just five consequences of smoking. Think about these if you’re considering taking up this habit with the help of drug rehab centers like Connecticut substance abuse help
Additives
The United States government has approved 599 additives in cigarettes. When these additives are burned it actually creates over 4000 chemical compounds released into your lungs. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia are in cigarettes as well as many other cancer causing compounds. These compounds are added to make smoking extremely addictive.
Social
Back in the good old 70s and 80s smoking was seen to be the in thing to do. And why you ask was it so cool to smoke? Because tobacco companies spent billions and billions of dollars a year to advertise to the general public that smoking was cool.
I implore you to take a look at those people who have been smoking for the past 20 or 30 years. Stained fingers and skin, decayed teeth, wrinkled skin, and that lovely smokers cough that produces so much mucus is really cool isn’t it.
Smoking is becoming socially unexceptionable in public places. If you smoke you will be ostracized an outcast from public spaces restaurants and friends and family do not want to be around secondhand smoke.
Psychological
The reasons people start or can’t stop smoking are mainly psychological. That’s right smoking today is still glamorized in the media and people want to try it. Once you’ve started and find that you can stop it is mainly due to the habit you’ve formed.
You will end up lighting a cigarette without even thinking. Smokers see the cigarette as a cure all, a way to feel calm under any circumstance. Depression, anxiety or nervousness are all melted away when you puff that cigarette. What will happen when you have to stop and how will you cope with normal human emotions when you can’t smoke. Psychological effects of devastating.
Financial Cost
In addition to hastening your entrance the grave smoking will take it’s toll on your pocketbook as well. In the United States cigarettes a pack of cigarettes ranges from about five dollars in the cheapest states to about $13 and the most expensive state (New York).
One pack each day will run you about $2000 per year. In addition to the cost of the actual cigarette, a smokers insurance premium tends to be on average 35% higher than non-smokers insurance premium. Also a smoker will likely suffer job loss due to poor job performance and low productivity because they are sick more often.
Posterity
Smoking can also hurt your future kids. If you are a male, smoking damages your sperm making it much less likely to be able to fertilize eggs. And that’s if you do manage to get an erection. Smoking is a major cause of erectile dysfunction. The rates of men with erectile dysfunction that smoke are much much higher than those who don’t smoke.
Hey ladies, you are not out of this either. Smoking reduces fertility rates in women. If you do have children, increased risk of birth defects which include mental and physical disabilities, from smoking might deter you from starting. In addition women who smoke reach menopause at least two years earlier, so look forward to more intense hot flashes. If you’re smoking and taking oral contraceptives the risk of stroke and heart attack greatly increases.
Should you start smoking cigarettes
Trust me, starting smoking is much easier than quitting. And quitting is no small task. The cons outweigh the pros making starting smoking is a terrible idea. The consequences happen gradually but they do happen. Lost money, COPD, Cancer, bad skin, teeth, poor sexual performance are just some of the cons. Staying smoke-free will give you more energy, more money and better looks as well as better health.
About the Author: Hyrum Taffer is a freelance writer for DrugRehab.org with expertise in drug addiction/recovery. Through much personal experience and a lot of research, Hyrum hopes others can benefit from his writing.
Smoking is one of the worst addictions ever. I use to be a counselor in a treatment center where I was in charge of interviewing the patients when they arrived. Almost every single addicted individual all started smoking cigarettes before they started using harder drugs. Basically it went like this, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, then harder(drug of choice). Almost every single patient I interviewed followed this pattern.