Smoking as an Addiction

There are those that smoke cigarettes occasionally, like anything else done on occasion, it is not an addiction. When you are tense and the only thing you can think of is lighting a cigarette instead of other solution, this is an addiction. If you were tense and decided to do some exercise instead of smoking that would show that an addiction does necessarily exist.

Some people, very few, actually revert to smoking on occasion from being heavy smokers. This is a rarity but it can happen. It requires a lot of will power to cut back so much, but so does stopping to smoke altogether. If you can accomplish one you can accomplish the other. Raising the price of cigarettes is certainly not a way to stop people from smoking, because they will obtain the cigarettes from somewhere. It is stupidity on the part of the government to raise taxes very high, all it will do is cut back in tax receipts to the government.

How do you overcome the smoking addiction? Well, there are gums and patches. These can gradually decrease your addiction and is some cases smoking stops. The effectiveness of this remedy works differently for different people. Which people it helps is open to question, so the only way to test its effectiveness is to give the gum or patches a try. Both cigarettes, patches and gum put nicotine in your body, the advantage of the gum is that your lungs are not damaged.

There are prescriptions like Zyban and others but the effectiveness of these drugs depends on the individual. Again, it is a trial and error procedure. Hypnosis is a remedy advertised by some, but the individual must be susceptible to be hypnotized and this is rarely the case. Also, there are very few individuals who are in reality capable of hypnotizing others. Recently, an electronic smoking machine has come out, but it does nothing to stop you from smoking.

You can continue to live with smoking as an addiction and pay the high price of cigarettes or get them through the mail or in person at Indian reservations. You might damage yourself, but if you smoke away from others it will not hurt anyone else. Driving while speaking on the cell phone or while intoxicated is far more dangerous to others than smoking.

Smoking is definitely an addiction. One of the best ways to quit if you want, is cold turkey. Just pick a time and stop. It is as successful as any other measure of quitting smoking. Some smoke again, others never do. Life is full of things to get addicted to. Not to defend smoking as something positive, but there are far worse addictions that destroy lives faster and are far more dangerous to innocent parties. Remember curing the smoking addiction is a big industry.