Why do we find it hard to quit smoking?
Why do we find it hard to quit smoking, even when we all know that it is not good for health? There are many reasons to it and we will look into one of the reasons, the biggest and most common, that make us find it hard to quit smoking or even to pick the habit of smoking today. This reason we are talking about here is Stress.
What is Stress?
Stress is a psychological and physical strain caused by our response to the pressure from external environment. Tension, irritability, unable to concentrate, headache and fast heartbeat rate are some of the common stress reactions. It is almost impossible to live without some stress. Stress comes in the form of good and bad. The good stress are the moderate amounts that add spice and excitement to our lives. On the other hand, the bad stress are the stress that gets out of control and this has negative effect on us such as harming your health, destroying relationships, taking out the enjoyment of your life and such.
Some examples of "overload" situations that are common in today's world:
First, you and your spouse both work full time while you are raising your family. At the same time, your parents are retired, in ill health, and are dependent on your help with shopping and running errands.
Second, you are a single person living alone, and your salary isn't rising as fast as the rate of inflation. It gets harder each month to pay the bills.
Third, you are a divorced parent and share the custody of your children with your former spouse. But the friction between the two of you on matters concerning the children is becoming more bitter and more frequent.
Fourth, the expectations and competition at your workplace is becoming fierce. You find yourself coming in early, staying late, and taking on more work than you can handle.
Does the above situations look familiar to you? In any of the cases above, the habit of smoking can be picked up easily.
Can stress be removed through smoking?
Can we smoke away our stresses in the air and relax? Perhaps the answer is in the negative. Think about this : if you have to submit a report to your boss in an hour, which you know is just impossible and you are thus nervous, will smoking a complete cigarette down your lungs make you build a ginnee of that smoke which will do some miracle for you? Perhaps that could have happened, but alas it is not so.
Smoking only provides that temparory hope that everything is under control and feel calm. This is exactly the same theory as why people turn to coffee when they are feeling tired and sleepy. The truth is, when this hope begins to fade away, you will feel nervous and stressed again, so another cigarette is lit. Hopeful again and subside again and another cigarette is lit. This cycle repeats over and over and the time interval between each new lit cigarette gets shorter. More cigarettes in turn more packs and at of the day or in a short time, you have become an addict to smoking.
Since the addiction had become so “deep” and “heavy”, you will find it hard to quit smoking. Smoking does not solve problems. Problems need to be confronted and only then will solutions surface that will solve problems at hand.
It is rightly said that it’s your attitude and not your aptitude that decides your altitude.
Does this article explanation sound logical to you? If so, take a little action to quit smoking today. If not, there will be more factual articles to come to show you smoking is bad. :)
