Dependencies/ Habit Forming Stuff: Tobacco/ Cigarettes

Tobacco/ Cigarettes

Can cause CANCER/ DEATH

We don’t fear death- we are afraid of living

Available everywhere/ macho image/ habit

NICOTINE: Slow Poison

Becomes part of our Daily Routine

• Some can’t take a shit without it
• Stress relief
• To concentrate better

But is it as good as is made out to be

• It is a slow poison & we are paying for using it on our body both literally & figuratively
• Addictive ; harms the passive smokers; no high;

Portugese brought it tobacco to India during Akbar’s rule & we have taken it to heart- making up for all the lost millennium: chewing( zarda/ Guthkha/ Khaini) ; smoking/ snorting

Starting: usually friends/ school/college/ need to belong/ peer pressure/ adolescence/ curiosity/ role models

Continued Use: Habit formed

Losing out on Health & Money

The End

• Moves on to try more dangerous drugs
• Statutory warning is to be ignored till we get cancer
• Chances of Heart Attacks increase by 5-6 times
• Damage to lungs. Chronic bronchitis & asthma
• A third of cancers related to tobacco
• Women can have reproductive problems on consumption of tobacco

The cure for smoking has been advanced but it comes in form of cancer

How to stop: (Easier said than done)

But such is human nature; what can be started can be stopped; only cancer cells never learn to stop

Hang out with the non –in crowd

Out of sight out of mind

Discretion is better part of valor; don’t fight just remove yourself physically from the situation

Meditate & learn to relax

If you are living in any major city your filthy air needs are already supplied by society; need not smoke

Make the choice to quit

Believe  & Achieve

Project a mental image of you as a tobacco free healthy person

Other tips by experts

• We all know how to give up- we have done it many times
• Decide to fight/ stay in fight/ take support of friends & family
• Procrastination is good in this case
• No smoking period
• Quota for the day
• Shift to disliked brand
• Fewer drags on each cigarette
• Substitute with Gum
• Deep breathing & relaxation
• Target date of quitting