Smoking - An Addiction or Habit ? (Part 1)

When smokers think about quitting smoking they will consider what it is they are trying to stop. Part of that thinking, (depending on how easy or hard they find it to stop) may be whether smoking is a habit or an addiction.

If you were to ask the person in the street this question "What is more difficult to stop - a habit or an addiction?", you would no doubt get a majority saying that an addiction is far harder to stop. In fact calling something that we get an urge to do, an addiction, can rob us of our power. It is almost like saying 'I can't stop because I am addicted' or 'I can't stop because I am not in control'. An addiction has many people perceiving that they have little or no control. This is part of the issue with stopping smoking. If you view it as a total addiction, and have accepted the above perception of an addiction, then you have now made quitting smoking much harder in your mind.

Of course an addiction is quite a general term. There can be different types of addiction such as a physical or a psychological addiction. A physical addiction is when the body craves for something and a psychological addiction is when the mind believes it wants or needs something.

Now, coming back to stopping smoking, is it a physical or psychological addiction, both or something else? This area has many differing opinions. After all with over 4,500 chemicals entering the body with any single puff it would seem logical to assume that there must be some physical addiction. Yet when sleeping for 6, 7 or 8 hours and then waking up in the morning the vast majority of smokers will NOT smoke immediately upon waking. They may have breakfast, or wash, or have a cup of coffee first before lighting up. If smoking really was a 100% physical addiction then surely the body having been without those 4,500 chemicals during sleep would be craving for a cigarette so much that the smoker would have to light up immediately. However in many cases this does not happen.

The majority of airlines have a non-smoking policy. Some of the long haul fights might last for 12-14 hours. This policy would be impossible to keep if smoking tobacco was a 100% physical addiction would it not? The vast majority of smokers find coping with a long haul flight no problem at all.

So can smoking really be an physical addiction? Answering that question might just be enough to help you quit smoking for good.

Smoking - What is it ?

Smoking tobacco has been something that people do for numerous reasons for centuries. It is the inhalation of smoke from the burning of tobacco. Originally at least that is what it was. The tobacco leaf was shredded and rolled up or stuffed in a pipe and lit. The fumes or smoke were then inhaled. Why was this started - who knows - maybe it was seen as a cure for some breathing complaint. However it started though, most people who smoke will want to quit smoking .... eventually.

Today many more chemicals are inhaled into the smoker's lungs than when the practise first started. In fact there are more than 4,500 chemicals in every drag that a smoker takes. Some of these chemicals are in their naturally, others are added as part of the manufacturing process. The majority of these chemicals which include hydrogen cyanide, methane, acetone and countless others would harm you in isolation... so just imagine what those chemicals do in combination.

I believe that in today's faster society our food intake does not contain the goodness (vitamins, minerals, nutrients etc) in the same quantities that the previous generation enjoyed. Foods are processed quickly for economical reasons and many additives good and bad are included. So our bodies do not get as much goodness from the food we ingest. This may be a contributory factor in why people can contract illnesses, allergies, sensitivities to many things and can result in conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and IBS to name a few. It also means that our bodies are not so capable of dealing with all those 4,500 chemicals from tobacco smoke. It is a wonder we survive the first puff !

The sooner we decide to stop smoking the better. Believing that the decision to quit smoking can be left until we are in our forties, fifties, sixties or later is a bit like playing russian roulette with your life. Just because you might be able to say that no one has contracted any of the horrible illnessness from smoking in your family so far, does not mean that you won't. After all someone has to be the first.

Why not make sure that it isn't you. Quit smoking today because tomorrow...