Smoking: Bad Habit to Have

Smoking is a nasty and expensive habit that can ruin someone’s life. Smoking can ruin lungs, cause cancer, impacting a person’s social life or job, cause addiction and possibly lead to death.
Smoking is still the number one killer in the USA. According to the Center for Disease Control, about 443,000 people die each year due to cigarette smoking (CDC). Tobacco causes more deaths than any other diseases, motor vehicle accident, drug and alcohol, murder and suicide combined together. Smoking also causes ninety percent of all lung cancer death. It is also known to greatly increase the risk of heart disease and strokes by nearly two to four hundred percent. The health risks that come from smoking are just not worth the risk. But yet with this information, people continue to smoke.
I have smoked for many years and just recently quit for the second time. I started smoking when I was twelve years old when I was in Junior High school. It was more of a social activity than anything else. After high school my bad habit got much worse. I started smoking two packs a day. My health really started to deteriorate as I got older. I was not feeling well after I smoked. I was always tired and short winded. When I was about twenty-two years old, I decided that I had smoked enough and stopped cold turkey. The first two days were great. However, shortly after that I had an anxiety attack. I was having them very often. This caused me to feel like I needed to visit a doctor. I really wanted to know what the cause of these attacks was. I explained to the doctor that I was not under any stress or dealing with other mental issues. However, I told him that I had just quit smoking. He realized that the cigarettes had caused a chemical unbalance in my brain. From that point forward I had to begin to take anxiety pills. Because of smoking I have to take them for the rest of my life. However, even though I went through all of that, I still somehow ended up smoking again. This shows just how much it really can affect people’s lives.
Many people try to quit smoking but it is a very difficult thing to do because of addiction to tobacco. It has been shown that only ten to twenty percent of smokers are able to kick the habit (Sciences). There are many disturbing posters and television adds about the dangers of smoking. However, they do not seem to have an effect on hardcore smokers. Fortunately, there are many different ways that people can attempt to quit smoking. Pharmacies carry variations of nicotine gum, nicotine patches and even proscription drugs. A smoker can try all of these various options. However, it really comes down to what the smoker decides. If someone quits smoking, it could be because they feel pressured to do so because it is frowned upon. However, they might pick the habit back up later with such weak motivation. Positive reinforcement is most likely the best way to help people quit smoking.
Smokers tend to stay away from people who do not smoke. However, they do not do it simply to isolate themesleves. They do it so that they do not smoke around people who do not. Another reason that they go smoke away from non smokers is because non smokers do not want to be around people who smell like smoke. Smoking doesn’t only affect you socialyy, it can also affect you at work. Most employers will not directly tell you that they will not hire you. However, many people at job sites will gossip about people with bad habits. For example, when people smoke often employees may comment on how many brakes the smokers take. They might also complain about the smell of smoke in the workplace. As personal life goes, parents do not like to see their kids smoke and wifes who don’t not smoke, don’t want to kiss a husband that smokes. Some parents go as far as throwing away their kids cigerts, which it could start a fight between the parent and the kid. The kids will also isolate thems self from their famely to concill their cigert habet.
People have smoked for over a century. However, regardless of how bad it is for them, they will to continue to smoke. Even though the CDC and the surgeon general puts out anti-smoking advertisements, they still do not deter people from smoking. The only way people can quit smoking is if they make an educated decision. Nobody can make it for them. Many have tried to quit, but most of them only try because they feel pressured to do so. Unfortunately, most people try to quit smoking once it is too late. For example, when they have terminal cancer, or are dying. I will also try to not get back into this bad habit so that I do not have to face any terrible situations later on in life. Works Cited
CDC. Smoking & Tobacco Use. 10 January 2012. 23 June 2012. Web. .
Sciences, International Encyclopedia of the Social. Smoking. 1968. 26 June 2012. Web. .

Cited: CDC. Smoking & Tobacco Use. 10 January 2012. 23 June 2012. Web. . Sciences, International Encyclopedia of the Social. Smoking. 1968. 26 June 2012. Web. .