Since the early 1800's when nicotine was first discovered, smoking has been considered a socially acceptable way of slowly killing one self, often in public. For many years it was considered perfectly normal for smokers to not only indulge in a habit that slowly turned their lungs to carbon but to openly inflict the same fate on others by polluting the air with deadly nicotine poison.
Today society has come leaps and bounds towards recognizing the
habit for the potential killer that it is. In many first world
societies it is no longer okay to smoke in areas where others must
breathe the same air and bystanders may now request that cigarettes not
be smoked indoors.
Despite this heightened level of awareness smoking continues to be the
leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The National
Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion reports that smoking
causes nearly 440,000 deaths each year.
The annual medical costs are in the billions but what is more alarming
is the years of potential life lost each year. Across the nation
smoking results in the total loss of 5.5 million years of potential
living.
These are shocking statistics and yet many of us still smoke or have
loved ones that do. Addictions are irrational things. They are no
respecters of the facts as they stand. Smoking continues to be
attractive to over 40 million of people in the United States alone.
Nicotine still offers that almost immediate high as it makes its way
into the pleasure centers of the brain and as the effect dissipates we
are forced to take yet another puff.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends that you fully prepare
yourself for the act of quitting, that you get yourself the necessary
medication and the support that you need and that you prepare for the
possibility of relapse and plan around it.
Resources: CDC (Centers for Disease Control) - Public Domain
Addictions.org
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