Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoking

Die-hard cigarette users claim many benefits to smoking, some are the following:

Peer group acceptance if peers smoke
Performance enhancement in tasks
Concentration
Stress Relief
Some smokers enjoy the taste
Smoking is like a friend

There are issues with most of these perceived advantages. If a smoker attempts to change peer groups, they could find smoking to be a barrier to acceptance. The performance enhancement is minimal after the first few cigarettes a smoker has in their lifetime; from that point on, it is just a perception of enhancement based on the memory of those initial cigarettes. Weight loss and stress relief could be as effectively obtained […]

Time Out

Everybody who smokes connects the act of smoking with some activity in their life, these are called triggers as they are the activities that trigger a person to smoke. A lot of people that I see tell me that one of the triggers for them to smoke is to have time out. Taking the time to smoke gives them a break from the activity that they are currently doing. The movement of bringing a cigarette to the mouth also gives a calming effect.

Deep breathing can give the same effect. Instead of taking time out to smoke a cigarette, take the time […]