Why do I smoke?
Am I really addicted?
What is holding me back?
Is it a habit or an addiction?

Why do I smoke?

Different feelings or situations can trigger your need to smoke: anger, habit, breaking up, boredom, nerves, school pressures, friends who smoke, parties, reward, after eating, troubles at home, etc. You can deal with these situations and feelings without a cigarette!

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Am I really addicted?

If you have ever felt jittery, irritable, nervous or edgy and felt you had to have a cigarette to calm down, you're addicted. If you've ever felt cravings in the morning, after a long movie or after a class, you're addicted.

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What is holding me back?

Sometimes people look for excuses not to quit smoking. You can out manoever the common excuses, roadblocks and rationalizations most people use for not quitting.

Do you fear failure?
Remember that it may take a few tries. You may fear making a major change in your life, even if it is a positive one. Believe in yourself and in your power to succeed.

Are you concerned about weight gain?
Don't use smoking as a way to control your weight. There are better ways. Once You've quit, you will feel healthier and more energetic.

Do you have a sense of immortality?
If you use the excuse "We're all going to die sometime", think of suffering through lung cancer or heart disease caused by smoking or consider visiting someone with lung disease.

Do you think it's too hard to stop smoking?
Millions of people have done it and so can you!

Do you think smoking is not as bad as air pollution?
Tobacco smoke is the biggest cause of indoor air pollution. Thousands of chemicals come pouring out of a cigarette and go directly into your body.

Do you think you are safe because you smoke low-tar cigarettes?
There's no such thing as a safe cigarette. Low yield cigs may contain less tar and nicotine but most smokers compensate by inhaling more deeply, taking longer drags, and covering the air ventilation holes to inhale the amount of nicotine you're used to. These cigs often produce higher levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide.

Do you think that smoking relaxes you?
A cigarette restores the level of nicotine that your body has come to need but that's not real relaxation. It is just temporary relief from the tension caused by your need for a nicotine fix. Let your body return to its normal state.

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A habit or an addiction?

To quit smoking, you must understand your tobacco usage. You must overcome the two major factors that are responsible for smoking:

1. Smoking Habits

"You learned how to smoke; and now you will have to learn not to smoke!" Over time you have developed various habits that have reinforced your nicotine addiction.

Start a butt jar; don't throw your butts away. Collect them in a bottle and leave them out where you can see them!

2. Nicotine addiction

Nicotine is a very addictive drug and the modern cigarette is a highly effective device for getting nicotine into the brain. The nicotine containing smoke is mild enough to be inhaled deeply into the lungs from where it is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream. Each puff on a cigarette delivers nicotine enriched blood to the brain within seven seconds. This is quicker than an intravenous injection. Like other addictive drugs, nicotine becomes reinforcing with repeated use and induces the 'nicotine high'.

Tolerance to nicotine's effects develops rapidly and leads to increased use. Reducing tobacco consumption thus produces a withdrawal which we experience as irritability, poor concentration, mental lapses, anxiety, headaches and drowsiness. Thus people may smoke for negative reasons, that is, to avoid the discomfort of withdrawal effects to maintain the nicotine peaks following each cigarette. About one out of three quitters will experience some of these symptoms.

Dependence on nicotine controls the way people smoke. Since smokers have become dependent on the effects of nicotine on the brain, they regulate their intake - taking more/less puffs and deeper drags. Nicotine dependence is the major obstacle to the variety of strategies for quitting smoking. Switching to a lower nicotine cigarette does not work. Alternatives such as nicotine gum or the patch may be beneficial, especially for heavier tobacco users. These supply a steady amount of nicotine and avoid the high and lows which can occur with smoking.

The controlling nature of nicotine has been well understood by the tobacco industry for many years. Twenty-five years ago a tobacco industry executive wrote,

"Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a day's supply of nicotine. Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine. Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine. Smoke is beyond question the most optimized vehicle of nicotine and the cigarette the most optimized dispenser of smoke."

The same year another confidential research document included the following,

"...in a sense, the tobacco industry may be thought of as being a specialized highly ritualized and stylized segment of the pharmaceutical industry. Tobacco products uniquely contain and deliver nicotine, a potent drug with a variety of physiological effects."

In 1994, when asked if they believed nicotine was addictive, the CEO's from the major U.S. cigarette manufacturing companies replied, under oath, "No". The tobacco industry also denied that tobacco tar is a major cause of illness and death. When you see that the cigarette is a dirty delivery system for the administration of nicotine, you may understand the addictive role of nicotine and the unhealthy nature of tobacco.

Documents from nearly 40 years ago show the tobacco companies in the USA agreed on a united front to deny that smoking causes disease. This stance was further strengthened when executives from all the major cigarette manufacturers in the industrialized world met in England in 1977. They pledged to remain united in their statements that tobacco did not cause disease nor was it addictive.

Finally, in the year 2000, these same producers admitted that tobacco use is addictive and causes illness.

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