The Reality of Smoking_14257

The holiday season can be very stressful for a lot of people. Especially for people quitting smoking. When we first quit or maybe even after we have been quit for a while and are under stress. Strong thoughts to smoke may come up. " Oh if I only had a cigarette." or " I'm under so much stress right now. I could sure use a cigarette." So what is it about the cigarette that is going to make what is wrong with your day feel so right after you smoke it? What is that cigarette really going to do for you? Are you fantasizing about smoking a cigarette and have all of your stress just wash away? Well I hate to break it to you, but that is a fantasy and not the reality of smoking. I was in a chat room the other day and had two interesting conversations. One was an arguement with someone who gives advice on how to quit smoking, about smoking relieving stress. Someone was under a lot of stress and wanted to smoke a cigarette. He mentioned to them that smoking only temporarily relieves the physical stress and the person is still left with the mental stress. I disagree. SMOKING DOES NOT RELIEVE STRESS!! IT CREATES IT! He said that when a person smokes a cigarette. That nicotine relieves the muscle tension caused by stress. Thus relieving the physical symptoms of stress. I then asked him if a person that has never smoked in their lives and were under stress and then smoked a cigarette. Would that cigarette releive their stress or would it only make them cough,quit smoking, feel shaky and ill and raise their heartbeat only to compound the initial stress with these ill effects? He responded,stop smoking now, " Eric we aren't talking about people that never smoked. We are talking about nicotine addicts.! THIS IS MY POINT EXACTLY!!!! A PERSON MUST BE IN THE PHYSICAL GRIP OF ADDICTION TO CREATE THE ILLUSION THAT SMOKING RELIEVES STRESS!! Nicotine is an unstable alkoloid. Stress is an acid producing event. When a person is under stress. This causes nicotine to get pulled out of the bloodstream much quicker. This will put the smoker into the first stages of withdrawal, thus compounding the problem that their initial stress caused. This will increase tension in the muscles as adrenaline is pumped through them thanks to nicotine's ability to also fit the smoker's adrenaline locks. A smoker will then smoke a cigarette which temporarily puts a stop to withdrawal. This eases the compounded tension that withdrawal was creating, but it did not relieve any stress. On the contrary. It has created stress in a different way, because after smoking that cigarette. The person's heartbeat has raised about 20 beats more a minute. It does so, because it is trying to combat the ill effects that the cigarette created. The problem though, is that the carbon monoxide from the cigarette in the blood is making it harder for the blood to be able to carry oxygen to the heart. Making the heart have to work harder, because it is already working harder, because of smoking. A catch 22 scenario. A smoker will never be as calm as a non smoker. Give someone who has never smoked in their life and is under a great amount of stress, a cigarette and you will see that it does nothing, but make them feel ill. It relieves nothing and probably only adds to their problem. Give an ex smoker who has not smoked in a long time a cigarette and they will most likely experience these same ill effects. The only difference between a never smoker and an ex smoker is that an ex smoker has memories that smoking did in fact relieve their stress. This can make the ex smoker stubborn, because even if they didn't find that great stress reliever in the first cigarette. They might still try to find that great stress relieving miracle in the 2nd one and the 3rd and so on. Until they are back to where they started. In the grip of addiction where they will in fact need a cigarette when they are under stress. This brings me to my 2nd conversation. Someone then asked me, if learning all this technical jargon actually helped me to quit smoking? It absolutely did. Not because of the fact that it is "technical jargon", but because it made me realize something that I used to believe. I used to believe that smoking relieved my stress. IT DOES NOT! Smoking can only do one thing. It can only replenish lost nicotine. It can only relieve an anxiety that the previous cigarette created. It can only relieve the stress that it created in the first place!! Knowing this has completely stripped away the undue credit that I used to give cigarettes. When I am under stress, I have no thoughts to smoke whatsoever. Why? Because I no longer believe in the cigarette. I know the truth! So are you under stress? Are you having strong urges to smoke? Do you think that if you smoke a cigarette, all will be right with the world? Really think it through. Not in a fantasy way, but in the reality way. A CIGARETTE CAN ONLY RELIEVE AN ANXIETY THAT THE PREVIOUS CIGARETTE CREATED. SO WHAT CAN ONE CIGARETTE DO? IT CAN CREATE THAT ANXIETY!! A cigarette can only possibly do two things. Start the cycle of addiction back up or create withdrawals again. Again, a smoker will never be as calm as a non smoker. Everytime a smoker is under stress. They HAVE to smoke to relieve the compounded stress that withdrawal creates. Not only that, but they HAVE to smoke day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out, only to relieve anxiety after anxiety, after anxiety, after anxiety that smoking created. That is the reality of smoking. Eric I freed myself on 7/7/04