By: Michael Russell
While there is no such thing as a good addiction, probably one of the worst addictions is the one that people have to tobacco.
Tobacco is a slightly different kind of addiction in comparison to addictions like gambling and sex, which are addictions that arise almost from the addictive personality itself. Tobacco is a little different because the substance itself is addictive.
Most people who take up smoking, especially if they live in a tough neighborhood, do so because it is the cool thing to do. Peer pressure is a terrible thing in this world, especially if you're a youth. The last thing you want is to have your peers laugh at you, call you chicken or whatever daily abuse they dish out when you tell them no thank you to the cigarette they hand you. So in order to not be teased into oblivion you take the cigarette and take your first puff.
Unfortunately, the hacking that follows, which is your body's way of telling you that it doesn't want that smoke in its lungs, is ignored by the youth. Heaven forbid he should be laughed at for being a sissy.
It takes time, but eventually the body does become accustomed to the smoke itself. The coughing isn't as severe and eventually all but stops. Pretty soon, the youth is able to smoke a whole cigarette without any outward signs that the cigarette itself is doing him any harm.
It is at this point that the act of smoking becomes addictive, not because of the smoke itself, but because of the substance in it called nicotine. Nicotine is a drug, and like any other drug, if taken for long enough the body begins to crave it. Suddenly the person finds that if he doesn't have a cigarette he begins to feel nervous. Now it's not simply a matter of getting a hold of a smoke to impress his friends but to satisfy a craving that won't go away.
For some people this addiction can become so bad that they become what are called chain smokers. These are people who have to have a cigarette at all times. These chain smokers can go through four or five packs of cigarettes a day easily.
There is no need to go into the harm that this kind of smoking does to the body. In the years since cigarettes reached the peak of their popularity, enough research has been done to prove beyond any doubt that smoking causes cancer, respiratory disease and heart problems. In a word, smoking kills. Further proof that smoking is indeed an addiction, as even with this knowledge of what cigarette smoking can do to you, these people find it almost impossible to stop.
There have since been many ways to try to deal with this terrible addiction, including patches, gum and of course smokers anonymous. While some people are successful in ending their smoking habit, many are never able to give it up completely.
Sadly, the best way to stop is to never start in the first place.
