All smokers will tell you, smoking causes pleasant sensations, but these sensations, similar to drugs, are addictive, and cigarette manufacturers amplify this addiction by adding addictive agents.
Thus, despite being aware of the health harms of tobacco, the new smoker will be addicted within a few weeks.
This addiction manifests itself by the loss of control over consumption: the pleasure of the beginning becomes a need, and this need, this addiction occurs quickly after starting to smoke.
"Each cigarette smoked reinforces this addiction which ends up chaining the "beginning" smoker to tobacco.
Certain factors, other than chemical, are involved to some extent in this dependency:
Tobacco "helps" to escape, to work, to write, to paint, to be creative, to dream...
It is still considered as a means of communication, a social gesture to assert oneself, to give oneself a sense of self-confidence and to create moments of conviviality (although anti-smoking campaigns have given a blow to this image: today the trend is reversed, the banned smoker is forced to smoke outside, and to isolate himself because the smoke is increasingly felt as a nuisance by all).
On the other hand, for some smokers, it is an opportunity to be alone, calm and serene.
When manufacturers even used Santa Claus!
Addiction
The loss of control over the use of a substance that continues to be taken despite its adverse health effects.
Addiction occurs quickly after starting to smoke.
The smoker will lose the will to resist nicotine, which is a real drug. He or she will smoke because he or she needs to maintain a constant level of nicotine.
The smoker will have a gesture that will gradually become established, and will vary according to the habits of each person: it is the morning cigarette, the one after coffee, the one at the end of lunch, during breaks, during dinners with friends, in the car, in front of the television ... These gestures are situations that succeed in calming the anxieties (created by the drop in nicotine levels?). ) ... The smoker does not manage to calm his anxieties without smoking: tobacco gradually becomes an antidote to anxiety. At the beginning of the tobacco withdrawal, the loss of these gestures panics the smokers (having his lighter and his packet "reassure"!) ...
Smoking represents a real compulsion: the smoker will no longer be able to control himself and will lose all willpower.
The majority of smokers are fully aware of the dangers they are taking and some psychiatrists go so far as to speak of suicidal tendencies among users.
Despite anti-smoking campaigns, rising prices and increasingly restrictive laws, tobacco continues to be a source of public health concern. In France, tobacco is responsible for more than 60,000 deaths per year.
The success of cigarettes depends on advertising, but also on the addictive function of nicotine: in order to increase this function, manufacturers add various components to the tobacco during the manufacture of cigarettes.
The first additives are, to compensate for the reduction in tar, the flavourings which serve to increase the taste. But manufacturers know that the role of cigarettes is to deliver nicotine (the main cause of addiction) to the smoker's lungs, so they use other additives whose sole purpose is to increase addiction.
Here are a few of them:
- ammonia: increases the amount of free nicotine in the smoke. These are "light" tars ... but the user will inhale more nicotine - he will be more addicted,
- cocoa: added to tobacco, it gives a better taste sensation, but the theobromine it contains acts as a bronchodilator (increased airway dilation), resulting in better absorption of smoke and therefore nicotine - increased addiction,
- glycyrrhizin: comes from liquorice, it also gives a better taste, and also acts as a bronchodilator - increased dependence,
- Sugar: it is the proportionally most added product, it is used to mask the unpleasant taste of nicotine, which could hinder its use.
There are other additives used to mask or modify the taste and aromas of the smoke, to make cigarettes more attractive, especially for teenagers who are starting to smoke.
The purpose of these tobacco treatments is to make the user quickly addicted, and thus increase the toxicity of the cigarette.
Tobacco and beauty!
Tobacco is the enemy of gums and teeth.
It makes teeth yellow: the suction of smoke causes tar deposits and pollutants that irritate the teeth.
It promotes periodontal (i.e. gum) disease, which is responsible for most tooth loss and tooth decay.
It causes the formation of leukoplakia plaques in the mouth and pharynx, which are the cause of malignant and cancerous tumours.
It causes breath to lose its freshness,
It diminishes and loses taste and smell.
On the skin, tobacco has harmful effects: the skin becomes more yellow, dull and wrinkled faster and the fingers turn yellow (those holding the cigarette).
But the effects of tobacco do not stop there: like the sun, tobacco promotes the proliferation of free radicals, which oxidize skin cells. No need to put ointments and creams that will not stop the devastating effects on the skin!
The only way is to stop smoking if you want to preserve your health, your radiance, your beauty: put out your cigarette!