Smoking is the addiction to tobacco.
Smoking is a chronic damage that occurs in people who consume tobacco excessively. The concept is also used to name the addiction that a subject experiences from tobacco, which is usually generated by nicotine .
It is a chronic systemic disease that belongs to the group of addictions and is one of the main causes of preventable mortality worldwide. Experts say that smoking is directly linked to the development of twenty-nine diseases, including ten types of cancer .
Effects of smoking
Whoever smokes acquires a mental and physical dependence on the aforementioned nicotine. The smoker may suffer withdrawal syndrome when trying to quit tobacco , causing the need to smoke again.
Nicotine, beyond the addictive effect, helps relieve anxiety symptoms and is also useful as an antidepressant. Its adverse effects, however, far outweigh any transitory benefits.
The consequences of smoking can even reach people who do not smoke. A passive smoker is known as someone who does not directly consume tobacco products, but rather inhales toxic substances from the combustion and smoke of cigarettes or cigars that other people smoke.
It should be noted that more than four thousand harmful substances have been detected in this type of smoke. Sixty of them are probably carcinogenic to humans, such as nickel and benzene. The WHO and most governments around the world have implemented anti-tobacco laws to prevent smoking, such as the decision to ban smoking in public spaces.
Smoking causes serious damage to health.
Ways to quit a bad habit
Quitting smoking is an impossible challenge for a large percentage of people, even when their health or that of their loved ones depends on it. Below are eight of the possible methods to achieve this, although it is always important to remember that nothing beats will and determination .
- Self-help books aimed at quitting smoking are usually very effective, and the most famous was written by a British author who fought against tobacco for 33 years; This is “It's Easy to Quit Smoking, If You Know How,” by Allen Carr .
- Leaving it without thinking, in a drastic way, is the solution that many lean towards, although it requires a very great inner strength, so it is common for it to take more than one attempt.
- Go to laser treatments, specially developed to eliminate the need to smoke in just a few sessions and without experiencing any type of pain or discomfort.
- There are treatments that replace cigarettes with products that contain small doses of nicotine to combat the anxiety experienced when quitting smoking.
- Like any other illness, it is possible to go to a doctor's office and ask for a prescription for a medication to combat smoking, such as Vareneline, which reduces the anxiety of withdrawal and the pleasure felt when smoking.
- There are many agencies that specialize in treatments for smokers, through programs that advise and accompany them throughout the entire process of quitting smoking.
- A more difficult method for many is to quit gradually, since even having reached one cigarette a day, the mere idea of going down to zero can be unbearable .
- Hypnosis helps in a particular way, since it allows access to the mind directly, without having to go through any type of filters or preconceptions, and positively influence patients, to make them understand that they should not continue smoking.