Cigarette Smoking and Teenagers

Your Teenager's Health Series : Cigarette Smoking and Teenagers

Why do people start smoking and continue smoking? Most of them start when they are teenagers for many reasons. They want to look “cool,” fit in with their peers, and are more likely to smoke if their friends and family smoke. Most adult smokers started smoking before they were 15 years old. Smoking creates an “image” that many teenagers associate with smoking. It’s being tough, cool, sexy, attractive or as a form of rebellion.

Why do they continue to smoke? They continue to smoke because it is habit forming. The chemicals, especially the nicotine reduces the withdrawal symptoms between cigarettes. Smoking is an addiction.

Teenagers can quickly become addicted to the nicotine habit. They begin smoking because their friends smoke, and continue to smoke especially in certain situations. Teenagers smoke if they are talking on the phone, after eating, with caffeine products or alcohol, and just sitting around with their friends. They don’t necessarily notice a “craving” just smoke automatically in certain situations.

Stress also can cause a teenager to smoke, or if they are angry, depressed, or bored. It gives them an emotional boost if their feelings are unbalanced. Third, it is physically addicting because of the nicotine in the cigarette smoke. This nicotine addiction starts immediately after a teenager starts smoking regularly. Teenagers are aware of the dangers, but increasingly more are starting to smoke in their early teens.

What does smoking do to your body? It damages small blood vessels, restricts the flow of blood to hands and feet, and could even cause gangrene and amputation. If you smoke you are ten times more likely to die early from stroke or heart disease. Smokers suffer from severe bronchitis and emphysema more often than non-smokers.

Smoking affects your breathing and you don’t have to have bronchitis or emphysema. There is a decrease in lung capacity and a smoker will have a harder time with physical activities such as swimming, jogging, playing sports, or working out in an aerobics class.

Smoking is the main cause of throat, lung, and mouth cancer. It really does harm your body! What else does smoking do? It makes you smell bad. Smoke clings to your hair, clothing, and especially your breath. Think about kissing an ashtray, that’s what it is like to kiss a smoker. If you are a smoker, chances are, you’ve gotten used to the smell of the tobacco and don’t even notice it anymore. Remember other people can still smell it.

Smoking turns your fingers and teeth yellow, makes your skin age faster, and affects your complexion. As well as the health concerns, think of how much money you would save by kicking the habit.

The good news in all of this is your body can repair itself quickly if you stop smoking. Nicotine will leave your body in less than two hours; the deadly carbon monoxide leaves the body’s blood stream after twelve hours.

All other by-products of nicotine are gone within two days! It only takes two months for the circulation in your arms and legs and even better news, your lungs start to repair themselves in about three months. After a person has stopped smoking, they will notice their sense of smell and taste returns, you enjoy your food more, and your skin will lose the grayish cast that all smokers’ skin has.

Best of all, your body will be free of stale tobacco smell, and your chances of getting heart disease or skin cancer starts to fall.

Maybe your teenager thinks they are immune to all of these symptoms by smoking “light or filtered” cigarettes. There is no evidence of any kind that shows a reduction in health risks by smoking light cigarettes. They are just as addictive as a regular cigarette, they will still cause heart and lung disease and they still contain as much nicotine and tar. You aren’t saving your body from health risks by smoking these cigarettes.

The important thing to do is to talk to your teenagers, keep lines of communication open, and try to point out the dangers in pre-teens and teens beginning to smoke.