Smoking: the ultimate bad habit
If you are ever on the American television show, Family Feud, and asked to name a bad habit, I can guarantee that the number one answer will be smoking. When you think of a bad habit, sucking on “cancer sticks� as some call them, is a well established bad habit.
THE GOOD
As I mentioned earlier, bad habits are retained because they serve some positive purpose in our lives, and smoking is no different. Just like junk food is pleasing to the tongue despite its many negative effects, smoking has benefits some may desire:
- appetite suppression (if weight control is a goal)
- stress/anxiety relief through nicotine’s action as a depressant, and through the repetitive action (not unlike nail biting)
- nicotine’s action as a stimulant when you’re feeling depressed (oh the tricky dual nature of nicotine!)
- a feeling of social acceptance or feeling comfortable in a group, bonding over the common activity of smoking
Don’t be fooled though, smoking is not the best habit to pick up!
THE BAD
Smoking and health
If you have had the benefit of a North American education, it isn’t necessary to talk much about the negative effects of smoking because they are well publicized. Smoking is bad for your health, period. Besides the potential to lead to oral cancer (throat and mouth cancer), lung cancer, and increase the likelihood of getting other cancers, smoking is closely linked to the following diseases and health conditions:
- heart disease
- emphysema
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- asthma
Smoking and exercise
If you decide to balance out your habit of smoking by exercising, that’s great. You may be disappointed, though: while exercise is always a good move, keep in mind that as a smoker, you are limiting your fitness level, and may not be able to attain your highest possible fitness level due to your decreased lung capacity as a smoker. This may cause you to quit exercising when you find you can’t reach goals and targets that you hoped to reach.
Other effects of smoking
There are other effects that you may or may not care about: the smell is unpleasant (some smokers will admit they don’t like the smell), your teeth will yellow, age faster and may begin to rot (if you do not have good dental hygiene habits), bad breath, yellow fingernails, the smoker’s cough, your voice may change (become raspier and deeper), your hair and skin may become dull, and the skin especially may age faster.
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While the decision to quit smoking is one only you can make, I hope I’ve given you a reason or two to contemplate it. Tomorrow we’ll look at some means of quitting, and I will need your feedback on which method you’ve tried and how it worked for you.
smoking, quit smoking, bad habit, cigarette, nicotine
October 16th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I knew you were coming to this one!
I feel attacked! ;P
Not really.
I’ve heard the question asked before “What would it take for you to quit smoking?”
And I have no idea what the answer is. The health things don’t scare me. I already know I smell hideous. My teeth were never perfectly white to begin with.
I just don’t know. I certainly encourage others not to start, but I can’t encourage myself to stop.