Reasons People Smoke | Smokefree Veterans (2024)

FAQs

Reasons People Smoke | Smokefree Veterans? ›

You may smoke as a way of calming down when you're stressed out or picking yourself up when you're feeling down. Internal Nicotine Craving Triggers, such as craving the taste of a cigarette or having withdrawal symptoms like restlessness, after not having smoked in a while.

Nicotine is the main addictive substance in cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. Nicotine is a drug that affects many parts of your body, including your brain. Over time, your body and brain get used to having nicotine in them. About 80–90% of people who smoke regularly are addicted to nicotine.

Why do people start smoking? Most people who smoke started smoking when they were teenagers. Those who have friends and/or parents who smoke are more likely to start smoking than those who don't. Some teenagers say that they “just wanted to try it,” or they thought it was “cool” to smoke.

As this analysis of soldiers' correspondence and oral histories reveals they decided to smoke for a variety of reasons: the habit had positive social consequences, it helped them cope with stress, it was hard to escape the promotion of cigarette smoking by tobacco companies, and the military itself promoted it.

The widely recommended 5A's strategy for brief smoking cessation includes five tasks: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. Assessments of the 5A's have been limited to medical-record review and self-report. Using observational data, an instrument to assess the rate at which the 5A's are accomplished was developed.

Cigarette smoking during childhood and adolescence causes significant health problems among young people, including an increase in the number and severity of respiratory illnesses, decreased physical fitness and potential effects on lung growth and function.

Smoking in the Americas probably had its origins in the incense-burning ceremonies of shamans but was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. The smoking of tobacco and various hallucinogenic drugs was used to achieve trances and to come into contact with the spirit world.

This is because nicotine can change the way the brain works, causing cravings for more of it. Some tobacco products, like cigarettes, are designed to deliver nicotine to the brain within seconds,¹ making it easier to become dependent on nicotine and more difficult to quit.

Study finds some individuals have genetic variants that allow them to have long-term exposure to a carcinogen without developing lung cancer.

Can lungs heal after 20 years of smoking? ›

Long-time smokers will take longer for their lungs to improve. Some damage from smoking is permanent. Unfortunately, your alveoli cannot restore themselves, but stopping smoking will halt the progression of COPD and improve your ability to breathe.

"Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation." They may simply have "very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke," he said.

Quit Smoking

Peer pressure—their friends encourage them to try cigarettes and to keep smoking. They see smoking as a way of rebelling and showing independence. They think that everyone else is smoking and that they should, too. The tobacco industry has used clever marketing tactics to specifically target teenagers.

Much more work remains. Military veterans smoke at a rate of 21.6%.

The U.S. Marines lead the smoking pack: 30.8 percent of Marines smoke, with the Army (26.7 percent), Navy (24.4 percent) and the Coast Guard (19.9 percent) falling in line at lower rates. The Air Force boasts the fewest smokers, at just 16.7 percent of current enlisted.

White and gray smokes are deployed in grenades to obscure vehicle locations or troop movement, and colored smokes are used to mark specific locations.

Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.