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[Tim]

Great Myths: Smokers Like to Smoke

by Heather Long


You know one of the greatest myths and fallacies about smoking that are labeled on smokers is that we like to smoke. I've even espoused this belief myself. But the truth is - I don't like to smoke, sometimes I wonder why I even bother and then I reach for the cigarette and I just light it. Am I doomed? Sometimes I think so.

There are other myths out there, myths that we are told or that we believe or that we have accepted as true because we've not found another way to look at it or to think about. Smokers choose to smoke. The truth is, the smoker may choose that very first cigarette but after that it's the cigarettes that keep the smoker on the leash. There's the mindset behind smoking that keeps that leash tightened into a choke chain, including the ideas that smoking:

* Relieves boredom
* Relieves stress
* Helps you to concentrate
* Helps you to relax

Smoking is a stimulant, it can hardly help you to relax. When you are thinking about wanting the next cigarette or counting down the minutes until you can take a smoke break, you are not concentrating and what boredom does smoking relieve? It's not an entertainment or a show or more. And when you consider the fact that from the moment you extinguish one cigarette, you are under stress until you light the next one - the only stress it relieves is the desire to have another cigarette and you are doomed to repeat that cycle over and over and over again.

So tell me again, smokers want to smoke? Smokers want to do this? Smokers want to be on the perpetual gerbil wheel?

Telling a Smoker that Cigarettes Kill Will Help Them

You know what, I am more than aware of the dangers inherent in cigarette smoking. I know how it can damage your lung capacity and it can hurt your heart. I know it can make bronchial pneumonia far more likely and I can't tell you how many bouts with bronchitis that I've had. I used to get bronchitis for years as a child - long before I ever smoked too. Still - I know that riding horses can be dangerous and I know that driving my car can be dangerous and sad as it is to say, going to modern schools can be dangerous - and telling ourselves this doesn't necessarily mean we aren't going to do it.

The worst myth is the one that most of us who have tried to quit smoking have all encountered - you have to suffer when you quit smoking. You have to go through hell wanting to have a cigarette. You have to quit this great and terrible habit that you choose to do. But that may not be true instead - it's not about quitting smoking, it's about being a non-smoker. It's about changing your mindset and not choosing to quit smoking, but to choose become a non-smoker.

So - tell me, what myths about smoking do you believe?

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Stop Smoking: Exercise Can Help

[eyejustam]

Great reading Tim: I sure hope your feeling better. Take it light kid. John.