Why Do People Smoke?

Among life’s pleasures the long pull on a fragrant pipe ranks high. But the excess of the smoking habit can cause some well publicized problems. Smoking as a health threatening addiction has been documented and the public has been warned, yet massive smoking in excessive volumes continues. Cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, marijuana cigarettes, hand-rolled cigarettes and pipe tobacco smoking is enjoying and indulged in by individuals in all cultures and societies.
The epidemic of smoking diseases and complications of smoking for the individual and others provokes an investigation into why do people smoke yields answers. Why do people start to smoke in the first place. Some people smoke out of nervousness, or because they want to keep their weight down, or because they have developed an addiction to the feelings associated with smoking. Confronting an individual about their smoking can provoke anger, discomfort an guilt, yet the smoking habit continues in many who know they should stop.
When smoking becomes a daily volume habit that cannot be controlled, intervention is required for medical health. lung cancer and other medical complications that arise starkly in any individual health profile due to smoking. Shortness of breath, a hacking cough, inability to cope without compulsive smoking, and contravention of medication are just some of the symptoms, health side effects and problems of smoking addiction. Pregnant women smoking opens up a Pandora’s Box of health problems for the potential mother and fetus. Ear, nose and throat specialists are kept busily employed with smoking patients and career customers.
The incidence of starting smoking in the very young person, as early as 13 or 14, poses a problem for social scientists. Why do people start to smoke has become a social question as much as a medical question. The conflict between actual practice and indicative benefits illustrates the idiosyncratic nature of a person’s smoking practices and human psychology behind it. Peer pressure, discomfort in social or in response to tense situations, and smoking as a method of coping with stress all factor into smoking habit and in some individuals encourages a smoking addiction. many smokers conceal that they smoke a pack of cigarettes or more a day.
Scientists, health advocates, and all ask, why do people smoke? and The answer of course, come in large part thanks to iconic screen images of movie stars like James Dean and Humphrey Bogart lighting up. Modern advertising projecting the macho cowboy or sophisticated bachelor lighting up has been part of newspaper and television media history. A much-publicized campaign by tobacco companies to minimize the threat of cigarettes and tobacco to pubic health is a fact many smokers are benign to. An industry has arisen to stop smoking in pill, patch, and program form.
Despite a printed warning that cigarettes and tobacco are harmful to health included on every pack, cigarettes sales remain a lucrative franchise for many retailers. On any health insurance application, a smoking habit can mean additional health costs for the named insured and the company paying the policy. Absenteeism and by-products like acceleration of other health problems become a reality for any long term addictive smoker. Yet the pleasures of smoking and the habit of doing so is impossible for many to forego.
Smoking had been a standard form of recreation and relaxation long before cigarrettes came along. Pipe smoking was practices among Egyptians, ancient Chinese, Far Eastern cultures and native American Indians for centuries. The relaxation technique was hardly for the working classes or peasants. But today smoking is an epidemic health threat for health organizations and smoking addicts on a massive scale. Asking why do people smoke is to form a snapshot of the human psychology at its best and worst.