Reasons Why You Should Consider Quitting Smoking

Reasons Why You Should Consider Quitting Smoking Addiction Nicotine Use Print Reasons Why You Should Consider Quitting Smoking By Terry Martin facebook twitter Terry Martin quit smoking after 26 years and is now an advocate for those seeking freedom from nicotine addiction. Learn about our editorial policy Terry Martin Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Sanja Jelic, MD on August 22, 2016 Sanja Jelic, MD, is board-certified in sleep medicine, critical care medicine, pulmonary disease, and internal medicine.   Learn about our Medical Review Board Sanja Jelic, MD Updated on February 05, 2018 More in Addiction Nicotine Use After You Quit How to Quit Smoking Nicotine Withdrawal Smoking-Related Diseases The Inside of Cigarettes Alcohol Use Addictive Behaviors Drug Use Coping and Recovery When asked about the advantages of quitting tobacco, most smokers  will talk about the health benefits and perhaps money saved. There is no doubt that both have a significant impact on our lives after cigarettes, but there are more improvements coming  after  you stub out that last cigarette. Ask an ex-smoker about the benefits he or she has experienced since quitting. You might be surprised at what they have to say. Top 5 Things to Know About Why You Should Quit Smoking 1. The benefits far outweigh the work it takes to quit smoking.  The  sense of inner strength and belief in  our ability to accomplish challenging goals grows immeasurably. Quitting tobacco for most people represents an out of reach dream  weve carried with us for many years. Learning that we are indeed strong enough and  worthy a life free of addiction  opens doors long closed. Ex-smokers  often take on a sport they always wanted to do, change course in their careers, or  go back to school. Smoking cessation is a life-changer. Youll see. 2.  The odds are against you if you dont quit.  If you are a lifetime smoker, your risk of dying a tobacco-related death  is about 50 percent. Additionally, on average, lifetime smokers lose 10 years of life over those who dont smoke. 480,000 lives are lost to tobacco in the United States every year, and six  million die of tobacco-related deaths worldwide annually. However, if you quit smoking before your 40th birthday,  youll reduce  your risk of dying from a smoking-related disease by 90 percent. 3. Fewer people are smoking today in the U.S. than ever before. In 2005, 21 out of every 100 people over the age of 18 (20.9 percent) smoked in the United States. By 2014, that number  had dropped to 17 per 100 adults (16.8 percent/40 million smokers), and continues to go down. We can thank aggressive anti-smoking legislation and campaigns for nudging American smokers  in the right direction. Theyve educated us about the hazards associated with tobacco use, but in countries without this advantage, smoking rates are much higher. There are one billion smokers around the world today. Eighty percent of them live in low and middle income countries. 4. Quitting smoking isnt as hard as you think. Yes, it takes work and yes, it takes some time. That said, the hard part happens early on, and with some education about whats ahead and the support to get through it, youll be pleasantly surprised that recovery from nicotine addiction is doable and a finite task. You wont always miss smoking. 5. Every smoker is  afraid to quit smoking.  Nicotine addiction  compels us to continue smoking long after we want  to stop. We think about quitting daily, but then the fear of letting go sets in and we put it off.   The fact is, no matter when you quit, youll feel that fear every smoker is familiar with. Push through it and move forward. Your anxiety will dissipate with a little time invested in smoking cessation. Important Facts About Tobacco Use When thinking about quitting, it helps to consider some of the key facts about how tobacco affects the lives of smokers. Tobacco use  is the leading cause of preventable death. If smoking rates continue as they are now, an  estimated eight  million lives around the world will be lost to tobacco use annually by 2030.For every person who dies a smoking-related death, 30 or more people  are living with a smoking-related disease.The most common smoking-related causes  of death for smokers are heart disease, COPD, stroke, and cancer.  Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, claiming 1.4 million souls each year. Approximately 80 percent of them are caused by smoking.Similarly, 80 percent of COPD deaths are smoking-related.Light smokers (those who smoke 10 or less cigarettes a day) reduce their life expectancy by about five  years and increase their risk of lung cancer by 20 times compared to people who have never smoked.  Those who smoke just one to four cigarettes  a day still have a risk of developing lung cancer thats five times greater than never-smokers. Getting Started With Smoking Cessation Think about why you want to quit smoking, and commit those reasons to paper and to memory. Start with the big, obvious reasons, and keep going until youve listed all of the little ones, too. Smoking touches so many parts of our lives. Look at how it has affected yours in detail. Learn  what smoking cessation involves. Most smokers think quitting should be a relatively straightforward (and quick) task. Those who have one or more quit attempts under their belts know thats not true, but its easy to  get stuck in thinking well always be miserable without cigarettes. Knowledge put into action is power.   Stay in the present moment. Sounds  simple, but it isnt for most of us. We live our lives looking back or ahead, ignoring the day were experiencing right now. You will be able to cope with the ups and downs of recovery from nicotine addiction more easily if you develop the ability to shut down thoughts of missing smoking (looking back) or the fear of never smoking again (looking ahead). Keep it simple and deal with the day you have in front of you. Its where your power to change exists. Recovery is a gradual process. Make each day count.  Thats all you can do, and guess what? Its enough. A Word From Verywell You might think you love smoking, but the truth is more about addiction than it is about a fondness for cigarettes. That edgy feeling  when the nicotine in our blood needs replenishing is at the root of what we think of as smoking pleasure. And, over time, we learn to connect  smoking with most of the daily activities and events in our lives until we come to believe that  cigarettes help us cope with just about everything. Change the faulty programming  cigarettes forced on you and  build the smoke-free life youve been dreaming of. Its worth the work and will reward you with benefits you have yet to discover.