It's normal for any of us to "rationalize" a behavior that we don't want to give up. It's often tough to quit smoking - it's a tenacious habit, often addicting, and many smokers feel that smoking helps them manage their stress (see #7). Ergo, smokers often find "rationalizations" help them avoid having to quit.
"Knowledge," as they say - is power! So check out the "rationalizations" below and see if any apply to you...
1. Cigarette smoking is not nearly as dangerous as many other health hazards. Besides, scientific facts have not been proven in human beings.
ANSWER: Yes, there are many other dangers to health, but cigarette smoking is the major cause of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Cigarette smokers have a much higher incidence of death and disability from coronary hearth disease and stroke. Smoking is also closely associated with many other diseases, such as ulcers, sinusitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and periodontal disease. It is the most preventable cause of disease and death today.
Thousands upon thousands of research studies have proven beyond a doubt that cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health. About 320,000 Americans die prematurely each year because they smoked. There is no longer any controversy about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
2. But what about smokers who live to be 99 years of age?
ANSWER: All smokers suffer negative effects of smoking. Different people are affected differently. Some contract killing diseases early in their lives. Others may suffer long-term chronic conditions. For all smokers, however, smoking reduces the quality of life. For example, it produces lower energy levels, shortness of breath, more frequent colds, and the like.
Scientific studies have clearly documented immediate effects of smoking, such as paralysis of the tiny hair-like fibers (the cilia) that line the throat and main bronchi. Their major function is to cleanse the respiratory tract, but smoking paralyzes them. Thus, the body is left unprotected and vulnerable to respiratory problems.
There is also the psychological burden of knowing that you are continuing a self-destructive behavior. You will be better able to understand this answer after you've stopped smoking and see how much better you feel both physically and psychologically.
3. I don't smoke enough to be affected by any of the diseases that smoking causes.
ANSWER: From the statistical evidence, there does not seem to be any level of smoking that is "safe." However, it is true that the more cigarettes you smoke, the greater the danger. But even light smokers have a higher risk of developing diseases related to smoking than do nonsmokers. Individual susceptibility varies, so that you cannot be sure that even a few cigarettes daily are safe for you.
4. How about reducing the number of cigarettes smoked to less than five a day?
ANSWER: Studies have shown that most smokers cannot successfully reduce consumption levels for any long period of time. Almost all will go back to their old smoking rates within a few weeks. Therefore, as long as you continue to smoke even a few cigarettes, you will continue to have the urge to smoke and there is no progress in breaking the habit.
5. It would be too hard for me to stop smoking. What if I fail?
ANSWER: It is hard to give up smoking, but over 50 million Americans have done it since 1964. If they can, so can you. Even if you are not immediately successful, you can try again and have a better chance of succeeding next time. The only failure is when you do not try at all.
We talked about habit formation. As you learn to become a nonsmoker, there may be a tendency to fall back into the old patterns of reacting to a situation by lighting up. Each day that you do not smoke, you are developing a stronger non-smoking habit. The desire to smoke will decrease and eventually disappear. There will be no need to yearn for a cigarette forever if you remember this important principle. You are not giving something up, you are gaining something - your freedom.
6. What about the low tar and nicotine brands? Do they make smoking safe?
ANSWER: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SAFE CIGARETTE.
Filters can reduce the amount of tar and nicotine to very low levels, but even these are hazardous. Compared to the higher tar and nicotine brands, these "light" brands often produce even more dangerous levels of gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrongen oxide. Also, smokers sometimes compensate for the low nicotine level by smoking more cigarettes, or inhaling more deeply or more often, in order to get the level of nicotine they are used to.
Therefore, the use of a low-tar filter cigarette should not be a reason to continue smoking.
7. Smoking relaxes me. I am less nervous when I smoke.
ANSWER: Most smokers believe this idea, but it is totally wrong! Nicotine is a stimulant that sets off a chain reaction in your body. Here's a quick science lesson for you: When you smoke, the nervous system is stimulated, heart rate and blood pressure increases, while the blood vessels become constricted or smaller. The body feels a temporary "life," which is soon followed by a drop in blood sugar and feeling of fatigue or a tense, uncomfortable feeling or both. To relieve this feeling, you smoke another cigarette - which causes the same bodily cycle to repeat itself.
So, you see, it is the cigarette itself that produces the need for another cigarette. You smoke to relieve the discomfort and nervousness you experience when you don't have a cigarette. Therefore, a smoker has learned to associate smoking with relief of this tense feeling (which is actually caused by the nicotine). The cigarette ads, of course, encourage this association of smoking with relaxation - for example, while sitting by a bubbly brook.
When you stop smoking, therefore, you will no longer need the nicotine to relieve the tension that is, in fact, caused by the cigarette itself. You can learn to rely on other techniques to relieve the normal daily pressures. You will find that your reliance on cigarettes can be replaced by healthier activities.
You may have some "nervous" moments in the beginning, but they will pass. Once you stop smoking and have gotten control over the smoking habit, you will feel more confident, less nervous, and more in control of things.
8. I'm afraid that I will gain too much weight if I stop smoking. Smoking helps me control my weight.
ANSWER: Some people who stop smoking do gain weight. Others do not: some even lose a little excess weight. In some people, stopping smoking may cause a slowing down of the body metabolism as it returns to a normal state of well-being. Therefore, a person may tend to gain a few pounds. In any event, this small weight gain will usually disappear after the body has readjusted to its original nonsmoking condition.
You would have to gain roughly 80 to 90 pounds to do as much damage as one pack of cigarettes a day. Starting an exercise program while you're quiting can help you manage your weight (by increasing your metabolism), and also, as a bonus, helps to reduce your stress.
9. Isn't air pollution just as dangerous as cigarette smoking?
ANSWER: Air pollution is becoming more and more of a danger to human health. But if you add cigarette smoking to the pollution that you are already breathing, you are really in trouble. Remember, too, that the poisonous components in cigarettes are inhaled directly through your mouth into your lungs, whereas the components in air pollution are diluted by the air in open spaces.
In addition, smokers who live or work (or both) in heavily polluted areas have much higher rates of lung disease than nonsmokers. Any way you look at it, you do not want to be breathing in poisons - particularly in the concentrated levels found in cigarette smoke.
10. I've been smoking a long time. The damage is probably done, so it won't help me to quit.
ANSWER: This is false reasoning! It is beneficial to quit at any age, no matter how long you've been smoking. Statistics show a decreased mortality rate for ex-smokers as soon as they stop smoking.
Even if you have smoked for a long time, once you stop, the destruction of your body stops. It has the amazing ability to begin immediately to repair or overcome damage. For example, the little hair-like cilia along the respiratory tract begin to grow back: they return to their function as cleansing agents, so you will lose your "smoker's cough."
All your body systems will begin to function more efficiently. You will feel better and look better and healthier.
11. My friends smoke and it will be too hard for me to stop while they still smoke.
ANSWER: This is often more of a problem for young people, who feel that to be accepted they must do what their friends do. True friends never expect this. And most good friends will be happy for you if you can stop. They may envy you! If they do, perhaps you can help them.
12. I'll stop some day, but this is not a good time for me to try.
ANSWER: Yes. It is best to pick a time when you have a fair chance of succeeding. Don't try to stop smoking the day you begin a new job. Or the week your son or daughter is getting married. Or the day your best friend ran away with your wife or husband. On the other hand, you should try to stop as soon as possible - within the next few weeks, if you can. If you keep seeking the ideal time, you'll never find it. The time is now.
13. But I enjoy smoking . I can't imagine not being able to smoke; I have so few pleasures in life.
ANSWER: Most cigarettes are smoked to avoid the discomfort of not smoking. It is not a positive pleasure or joy, but rather a negative avoidance of discomfort, much like when you ask the dentist for Novocain to give you relief from a toothache. Rather than giving up a pleasure, you should realize how little true enjoyment comes from smoking, and, in fact, that it limits your enjoyment of so many other pleasures in life.
(Source: Adapted from the Valley Health Plan)
Hang In There - You Can Quit!
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Last updated: April 7, 2006.
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