There are a number of reasons why people suddenly decide to quit smoking. The major and most obvious reasons are listed below. As you can see at a glance, the section on health is the shortest, this is by no means because it is the least important. If cigarettes weren’t ruining our health we probably wouldn’t think twice about giving up. There are numerous smoking-related diseases and the effects that they have on smokers.
Even glossy photographs of the inside of smoker’s lungs – something to put you off your dinner but probably not your after-dinner cigarette. But, as we know, shock tactics do not work. People who have had limbs amputated through smoking continue to smoke. People who have lost someone close to them from a smoking-related illness continue to smoke. None of these people can possibly ignore the evidence. You can’t afford to either.
Top 5 Reasons to Quit Smoking
- Health: Fears for our own health or for those around us, for example children or an asthma-suffering partner. Unborn babies are particularly susceptible because any nicotine absorbed into the mother’s bloodstream enters the baby’s blood and can cause numerous complications both during and after the birth for both the mother and the baby.
- Cost: The rising cost of cigarettes is, bizarrely enough, not usually sufficient trigger to prompt people into quit smoking, no matter how dire their financial situation. Smokers have an extraordinary way of justifying their dependence by labelling cigarettes as a ‘necessity item’ in their minds. Therefore, cigarettes are ranked with food, clothes, petrol etc., as a necessity; something that you can’t possibly survive without. The majority of smokers refuse to register that they would be hundreds, possibly even thousands of pounds better off at the end of the year. If they did not smoke (imagine what that totals over a fifty-year smoking career). Because to a smoker its like working out how much saving you could make if you didn’t eat a fruitless task! Therefore, the cost alone is rarely a major factor when people quit smoking – although the savings will quickly become apparent.
- Social Problems: The increasing social stigma attached to smoking (because everyone is aware of the dangers and they know you know) makes smokers increasingly aware that they are practising a revolting and antisocial habit. This point was really brought home to me one day when I was having my mid-morning cigarette on the office steps. I was unsuspectingly standing there, unaware that someone might as well have stuck a notice on my forehead that read ‘Lecture me, I’m a smoker’. Actually, I think the real giveaway was the cigarette drooping from my hand and large clouds of unpleasant-smelling smoke issuing from my mouth. Anyway, in the time it had taken me to smoke a cigarette (just under five minutes) I had received two lectures from complete strangers on the dangers of smoking. From that moment on I became increasingly aware of the disapproving looks I received in public places.
- Social Interaction: Have you noticed people moving away from you in pubs and restaurants? Do children point you out to their parents in the street? Perhaps your own children complain about your habit. Have you ever been asked not to smoke by someone eating near you in a restaurant? Do people comment on the smell when you re-enter the office after a quick puff? If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions then you will be perfectly aware that smoking is an antisocial habit and a lot of people despise it. This knowledge may make you more determined than ever, not to give up. Believing yourself to be exercising your right as a free citizen to smoke. This is a foolhardy approach. You are not going to be doing anyone any favours or proving your point if you go on to develop lung cancer, heart disease, bronchitis or any other of the smoking-related diseases.
- Convenience: Smoking is also gradually being forced out of the workplace. Very few smoking offices remain, increasingly smoking is also banned within the vicinity of the building. So you can’t even pop off to the smoking room for a quick fag. Instead you have to go and hide behind a bush in the rain. Worse than this, smoking may actually jeopardise your career if you happen to be a sportsman or woman. Restaurants and public transport are constantly increasing their smoking restrictions. Even the good old British pub, that staid haven of smokiness, is beginning to be affected by the anti-smoking lobby. Therefore, simply for the sake of convenience it would actually be far easier not to be a smoker.
Smoking is Ruling my Life!
How long each day do you spend looking for your cigarettes and lighter and making sure that you always have sufficient quantities on you for the day/ evening/journey? How often have you got dressed again and gone to that late-night garage just because you fancy a cigarette and have run out? Have you ever made detours from your route or wandered around aimlessly (and grumpily) attempting to find a newsagent or a bar or anywhere that sells cigarettes?
Wouldn’t it be nice not to be late for work simply because you had to buy some fags so that you could have one for your mid-morning coffee break? How many times have you furiously attempted to make that lighter work or scrabbled around for a live match in utter desperation (cursing the person who put all the dead ones back in the box), at the thought that you may be unable to light your cigarette? The panic induced by each of these scenarios, which crop up all the time, increases your daily stress and worry.
Cigarettes govern your life, they are always in the back (if not the front) of your mind. Often seeming more important than remembering your car keys or your wallet. Wouldn’t it be nice to be free of these shackles and not to have your life ruled by anything as ridiculous as dried up bits of plant soaked in chemicals and rolled up in paper.
At this stage take some time to think about your ‘real’ reasons for quit smoking. Write them down starting with what you see to be your most important motivation.
Reasons to Quit Smoking
- Health – Nagging worry and guilt about smoking- related diseases and premature death.
- Fitness – I would like to feel generally healthier, not get breathless after minimal exercise.
- Cost – I can’t afford to smoke and I would rather spend the money I save on a holiday or some new clothes etc.
- Convenience – My life would be much easier without cigarettes. I don’t want to be a slave to nicotine, always worrying about where my next cigarette is coming from.
- Taste/Smell – I would like to be able to smell and taste properly again to increase the pleasure that I get from food.
- Clothing/Furniture – I don’t want my house and clothes to constantly stink of smoke.
- Partner – it would save a lot of arguments and unhappiness.
- I will be a much happier person in myself when I am a non-smoker.
- Keep this list safe and add to it as you think of more reasons why your life would be better without cigarettes. It will come in very handy later.
