reasons......

[judyb]

We all know the con's of smoking. If not, we'll write about some of
them.
But we all know smoking kills about 400,000+ humans every
year
and how it
causes soooo many health failures, and so on.

I want to talk about the pro's of smoking and show how
most of
the pro's of
smoking are built on lies. They aren't true and don't hold
up.
The bottom
line is: There are no pro's to smoking. But here we go...

One pro is that it reduces stress or relaxes me. This has
GOT
to be the most
quoted reason for smoking I've ever heard. "I can't quit
because it relaxes
me too much." Wrong! Smoking does NOT relax a person nor
does
it reduce
stress levels.

We feel like it relaxes us because if we ever stop using
it we
become
nerve-racked. But that's not due to a lack of nicotine.
That's
due to
WITHDRAWAL from it. If the smoker never would have smoked,
he
wouldn't feel
jittery about not having a cigarette. It's a game.

The smoker has chemically conditioned his body to respond
to
cigarettes and
to respond to the absence of them. If the smoker never
smoked,
he wouldn't
crave it! He would never need it. A NON-smoker doesn't
say, "I
need to start
smoking so I can relax." He is not in withdrawal. The
smoker
cannot EVER say
he needs cigarettes to relax until he is completely off of
them. Then he
will see the light that they only make matter worse - not
better.

Stress? Don't look to smokes. We were lied to about that
too.
Yup. (Oh, I
can hear many people screaming protest about that
statement.)
Smoking does
NOT reduce stress. We just think it does. Smoking actually
makes stress
management worse. Look, if nicotine aided in stress
reduction,
it would be
prescribed by shrinks - and it isn't.

When the smoker is under stress, they tend to freak out
MORE
than a
non-smoker because chemicals in their brain, that allow
them
to remain
even-keeled or steady, are interfered with by nicotine. So
they run for a
cigarette yelling, "I need a smoke!" But what they are
really
fixing, is
not their stress, but brain chemical imbalance that
SMOKING
caused in the
first place. You see? Smoking caused the inability to
handle
pressure. It
caused the problem so that it can be the solution. It's
the
solution to its
own problem, not your problem. Amazing how they engineered
this product to
fool you, eh?

Still don't believe me about stress? Listen. A group of
non-smoking/never-smoked teens were gathered and
monitored. As
some
inevitably began smoking they were all called back
together.
They all had
about the same pressures and demands but some smoked and
some
didn't. Get
the picture? Guess who had the higher stress levels? The
smokers!! Don't
tell me smoking reduces stress. You only THINK it does
because
you've been
so ingeniously lied to and fooled.

Get off of cigarettes. Get past the first few months.
Handling
stress has
never been easier. I can think clearly now. I'm not slowed
down like I was
with cigarettes. My energy is used more evenly. I don't
rely
on "surges" any
more. I don't flame-out. I have endurance now. I don't
need a
cigarette's
permission to think. My life is no longer phases
in-between
smokes. I have
control now. Life is good.

Cigarettes offer nothing good.


Yeah, that's right. One of the pro's of smoking is that it
prevents the
problems of old age. Because it kills you before you get
there. This isn't a
joke. Many people smoke because they don't feel good about
life and don't
want to hang around very long. "I've got problems, but I
won't
live long
enough to worry about them." It's kind of that, "It's
better
to burn out
than
to fade away" mentality.

Even worse are the people who can't face life or the
future so
much so that
they smoke in hopes the future doesn't come. They want to
commit suicide,
but can't. Smoking is a great method of suicide. Others
may
not even figure
out what you're doing. It's great. Suicide by smoking.

I was that second person who felt so poorly about life
that,
after
experimenting with smoking, I continued in hopes I'd die
young. I didn't
have the courage for normal suicide methods. I couldn't
bear
to think of my
family grieving over my actions, either. But smoking...
hey,
there's a
covert action. They wouldn't know I did it on purpose.
Then
when I die young
I won't have to face up to the responsibilities I ignored
when
I was
younger. I didn't want to grow older. So I smoked.

It's not bizarre. It's not unheard of. No, I'm not like
that
anymore and
haven't been for a long time, but most people have felt
depressed and
entertained leaving (dying) this place to get away from
it. I
hear even
intelligent, wealthy, established, mature, smokers say,
"Well,
if smoking
makes me die a few years early, so what? I'll probably be
glad
I checked out
early anyway. That's a form of suicidal desires and many"
smokers find
smoking to be a solution.

Don't fool yourself. That's one of the major reasons
people
smoke. They
don't care about "checking out". That's a contributing
factor
to why so many
more clinically depressed people smoke than non-depressed.
Slow covert
suicide is one of the pro's of smoking. (That fact alone
should make you
quit.)

But guess what? Smoking lied to you again!

Smoking does NOT commit suicide very efficiently. (It
can't do
anything
well!)
A friend told me recently, "I'm not gonna quit smoking. If
it
kills me, it
kills me. We all gotta go some day." How sadly misinformed
he
and so many
others are. If smoking kills you, it's not a matter of
checking out.
You're not just going to "go". It usually results in
long-term, extremely
painful torture that is humiliating, immobilizing, and
expensive. Not to
mention, your loved ones have to witness your struggle to
stay
alive during
all the pain. Imagine the gut-wrenching pain it causes
them,
knowing they
can't help you. This is not a pretty picture of "checking
out". Don't think
you'd ever be doing your family a favor by "checking out
early" due to
smoking. It doesn't work that way.

If you're not satisfied with life, do something about it.
Smoking holds no
solution to depression and is no means of escape. Smoking
only
causes you
more problems and more depression. And, in the case of
contracting a serious
illness, smoking will only cause your family and friends
more
trauma. Stop
smoking out of your love and consideration for them if not
for
yourself.
But, mainly, quit for yourself. Learn to love yourself.
Love
yourself enough
to want the best. And the best is... freedom from smoking.


posted on smokebusters by Lenny August 2001