Quitting Smoking

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Author:
Lee Macdonald

Tobacco use has been growing faster among adolescents than any other age group. 90 percent of smokers started smoking in their adolescent years and continued throughout their lives. Young persons who take up smoking will likely smoke for up to 20 years.

It is a sad but true reality that these teens seem to believe that they are invulnerable to the harshness of the world never mind even considering the harmful affects of smoking. This naivety sparks the initial cigarette, which leads to the future addiction. Every day around 6000 US teenagers try smoking and 3000 of them will become regular smokers for life.

Why does smoking start at such a young age? Well, here is a start. Remember candy cigarettes? Remember how we used to puff on them as if they were real? As children, we used to get them in our Christmas stockings as gifts. Advertising plays a giant role in what we perceive things to be and what we want to aspire to be. The wizards of the giant tobacco industry’s advertising programs have bombarded tobacco prevention specialists in their cause to stop advertising campaigns against children. Camel cigarette sales went up $6 million dollars after the Joe Camel campaign taking over 32% of the total youth market. Who didn’t want to be as cool as the Marlboro Man in their later teens?

It’s no wonder our children are smoking. I can even remember as a teen riding the city bus to school every day looking at the advertisements in the bus. There were so many for smoking, it was unreal. In most of the advertisements the woman or man was relaxing with a lit cigarette looking like they haven’t the slightest problem in the world. I also remember noticing that the actual picture of the cigarette seemed larger than normal and almost florescent bright white. The cigarette would almost glow in the dark when the bus went through a tunnel. It was the focus of the picture and branded the image of a cigarette into our heads. Advertisements like these make people want to smoke to achieve that relaxed and mature lifestyle.

The biggest risk of adolescent smoking is that it doesn’t stop once adolescence ends. Tobacco in childhood and adolescence has also been known to predispose people to use other substances. 30% of teenage smokers will try marijuana and will result in an increase of other drug use such as heroin or cocaine by 17 times.

Although some schools in the US have been successful at lowering their teenage smoking rates through “Life Skills Training Programs” most schools lack these effective programs and funding agencies to help support them. It is through understanding, learning and teaching that we can work together to try and lower the teenage smoking rates. Hopefully now that we know the harmful affects of smoking we can try to get to our youth before they start and affect the future smoking population.

To read more interesting articles about smoking visit: http://www.stop-smoking-hypnosis.net/

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Smoking... Ways to Quit Smoking - Part 1 Help to quit smoking can be best obtained by helping your ownself by firm determination to quit smoking and help from family and friends. Also practicitng some simple techniques and taking certain medications can help quit smoking. The first thing to do is to tell your mind that you are detemined to quit smoking. Make a firm decision in your mind. Even if you have failed in past, try again. Talk a lot to your ownself. Think about the benefits about quitting smoking and the evils of smoking. Say this to your mind "One cigarette takes away 4 precious minutes of my life." Their are several medications available for quitting smoking habit. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the following medications. However any medication should be taken only after it is prescribed by a qualified physician. The medications are - Bupropion SR. Nicotine gum Nicotine inhaler Nicotine nasal spray Nicotine patch Nicotine lozenge Out of the above, the Nicotine gum and the patch are available over the counter. Others are available by prescription only. But its good to consult a physician before taking it. In this article I'm going to talk about nicotine patches. Nicotine Patch Nicotine patches are another way to quit smoking. Patches are applied directly to the skin; each applied at an interval of 24 hours. There are a variety of different patches each with different content level of Nicotine. Nicotine patches are available only if prescribed by a qualified physician. They should exactly be as used as per the prescription. Over dosage or any experimentation with the application area of patches should be avoided. The patch should be applied on upper arm, upper area of chest or the hip. The area should not be oily or very hairy (preferably...