Question 4: Has The Time Come For Us To Take A Long, Hard Look At What It Takes To Succeed, Not Fail At Quitting Smoking?

Why smoke? Why fail to stop? Why succeed quitting smoking? How do you quit effectively? These are just some of the questions we should be asking ourselves.

We indulge and we take pleasure in smoking. It is a social habit (that dies really hard!).

This in itself could be enough for people NOT to want to quit, despite all the negatives already mentioned above. Here are some disturbing reasons and facts in society about smoking:

• It spills everywhere
• It is messy and smelly
• It burns holes and causes damage
• It stains
• It makes our breath stink
• It puts others off (odor)
• It is expensive
• Annoying and not endorsed in public places or opinion anymore
• It is not the worst of all evils
• There is conflicting information and findings about what smoking actually causes and contributes to
• Not all believe or prove that smoking causes or leads to heart disease and lung cancer.
• Research findings remain fragmentary and even contradictory in certain cases
• Most are waiting for MORE solid results and findings to have enough of a motivation to butt out.

You might be asking if you should be quitting based on what we know – good question and the answer is undoubtedly YES. WE know it is harmful and should act accordingly – yet we do not?! That is the puzzle and the intrigue.
Findings about smoking and lung cancer is very definitive and disturbing:

• 10 to 15 cigarettes daily (moderate), are five-fold MORE likely to die of fatal lung cancer than those who do not smoke
• 15 to 25 cigarettes daily (heavy),fifteen-fold MORE likely to die of lung cancer than those who do not smoke.
• 25 to 50 cigarettes daily (very heavy or extreme/chain smokers), twenty-five fold MORE cancer deaths, than those who do not smoke.

We know all this, yet we do not stop? Why? WE do not believe it quite frankly. We are taken in by the advertising of glamour and glitz that surrounds the lifestyle.

We put off the decision to STOP

WE live for the moment, not for tomorrow or possibilities/uncertainties. That is our nature. It is counter-intuitive, smoking does not cause tension for us, it relieves it. Therefore we are less likely to want to believe that something this “good” on the surface can actually be harmful, even deadly. It just does not makes sense to us.
We rationalize that they have filters and are more ‘healthier’ than they were before and that the numbers are wrong, inconclusive or just not relevant. Everybody does it, so there cannot be that much wrong with it, right? It is in ample supply and still on the shelves, legal and making good money! So what could possibly be that wrong or dangerous about it.
What are your excuses and rationalizations for continuing in your bad smoking habit? What have you convinced yourself of? What do you believe about smoking and quitting? These are just some of the questions that you need to be asking yourself.
Cigarettes sells an image (adulthood, independence, rebellion, expression) – different in appeal to different individuals, but we all buy into this façade.
Kids practice and experiment. It is about affordable lifestyle and buy-in into the image more-so than the habit itself. Smoking cigarettes does not show maturity per se, but we somehow believe it. It enables social conversation and interaction – so what can be so wrong with it, right? WRONG! We are smoking for the wrong reasons.
They break down barriers and make it easier to reach out and mingle with others. It fills silences and gives us something in common, even with strangers.