Is social smoking bad for you?
Most Western countries have banned smoking in public areas. A few Arab countries have tried to follow in their footsteps, but with little to no success, making Arab people – whether they’re active or passive smokers – vulnerable to one of the biggest health hazards.
When faced with the fact that smoking is unequivocally bad for us, we often tend to spin the truth in order not to feel too bad about our own practices. How many times do we hear people say, “I’m just a social smoker”, “I only smoke 5 cigarettes a day”, “I can stop smoking whenever I want” or “I only smoke shisha”? Well the truth is that social smoking is far from a risk-free practice.
It can indeed be addictive. Even if social smokers are not physically addicted to nicotine, they can still be addicted to the act of smoking and get “situational cravings”, meaning that they will get the impulse to smoke whenever they find themselves in a particular situation. Also, a single cigarette can temporarily reduce one’s lung capacity, hence impact one’s ability to breathe, and make them more susceptible to lung infections. Researchers at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute found out that smoking just four to five packs of cigarettes in a lifetime can cause several permanent cell mutations throughout the body and therefore increase the risk of cancer. Additionally, social smoking speeds up the ageing process and can cause irreversible damage to one’s skin, hair and teeth by reducing the amount of oxygen that they get.
In a nutshell, smoking – even occasionally – puts your health at risk. There is no such thing as a safe level of smoking. This brings us to our next topic: how to stop smoking painlessly?
There are many ways to stop smoking but we will mention here our preferred method, which is by no means the only good method. You should of course do what’s most suitable for you.
On a regular day, count the cigarettes you smoke. Let’s say your number is 10. Every morning, you should take a pack and put 9 cigarettes in it, and let it be your ration for the day. Only smoke cigarettes from your own pack. Don’t borrow cigarettes from other people. Just be honest with yourself and stick to that. When you feel comfortable smoking 9 cigarettes a day - it may take you a week, a month or even longer, and that’s totally okay - go down to 8 cigarettes a day and follow the same process. Then go down to 7 cigarettes a day and so on and so forth until you reach zero. Not one, ZERO! It’ll take the time it needs to take, but you’ll feel good and comfortable with the result.
The problem when you decide to stop smoking from one day to the next is that it might induce compensation mechanisms, like eating more, sleeping less, being irritable, etc. This method should prevent you from becoming frustrated and hence has better chance of getting you to the desired result, slowly but surely. And of course, adopting a healthy lifestyle overall will make this process much easier for you.
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