Smoking Addiction

• Drinking coffee or taking breaks at work
• Talking on the phone
• Drinking alcohol
• Driving your car
• Spending time with friends
• To overcome your nicotine dependence, you need to become aware of your triggers and plan for dealing with them.

Anyone who smokes or uses other forms of tobacco is at risk of becoming dependent. Factors that influence who will use tobacco include:

• Age: Most people begin smoking during childhood or the teen years. The younger you are when you begin smoking, the greater the chance that you'll become addicted.
• Genetics: The likelihood that you will start smoking and keep smoking may be partly inherited. Genetic factors may influence how receptors on the surface of your brain's nerve cells respond to high doses of nicotine delivered by cigarettes.
• Parents and peers: Children who grow up with parents who smoke are more likely to become smokers. Children with friends who smoke are also more likely to try it.
• Depression or other mental illness: Many studies show an association between depression and smoking. People who have depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder or other forms of mental illness are more likely to be smokers.
• Substance use: People who abuse alcohol and illegal drugs are more likely to be smokers.

For some people, using any amount of tobacco can quickly lead to nicotine dependence. Signs that you may be addicted to include:

• You can't stop smoking. You've made one or more serious but unsuccessful attempts to stop.
• You have withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop. Your attempts at stopping have caused physical and mood-related symptoms, such as strong cravings, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood, frustration, anger, increased hunger, insomnia, constipation or diarrhea.
• You keep smoking despite health problems. Even though you've developed health problems with your lungs or your heart, you haven't been able to stop.
• You give up social activities. You stop going to smoke-free restaurants or stop socializing with family or friends because you can't smoke in these situations.

• Tobacco smoke contains more than 60 known cancer-causing chemicals and thousands of other harmful substances. Even "all natural" or herbal cigarettes have harmful chemicals.
• You already know that people who smoke cigarettes are much more likely to develop and die of certain diseases than people who don't smoke. But you may not realize just how many different health problems smoking causes:
• Lung cancer and lung disease: Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths. In addition, smoking causes lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also makes asthma worse.
• Other cancers: Smoking increases the risk of many types of cancer, including cancer of the mouth, throat (pharynx), esophagus, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney, cervix and some types of leukemia. Overall, smoking causes 30% of all cancer deaths.
• Heart and circulatory system problems: Smoking increases your risk of dying of heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) disease, including heart attacks and strokes. If you have heart or blood vessel disease, such as heart failure, smoking worsens your condition.
• Diabetes: Smoking increases insulin resistance, which can set the stage for type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes, smoking can speed the progress of complications, such as kidney disease and eye problems.
• Eye problems: Smoking can increase your risk of serious eye problems such as cataracts and loss of eyesight from macular degeneration.
• Infertility and impotence: Smoking increases the risk of reduced fertility in women and the risk of impotence in men.
• Complications during pregnancy: Mothers who smoke while pregnant face a higher risk of pre-term delivery and giving birth to lower birth weight babies.
• Cold, flu and other illnesses: Smokers are more prone to respiratory infections, such as colds, the flu and bronchitis.
• Tooth and gum disease: Smoking is associated with an increased risk of developing inflammation of the gums and a serious gum infection that can destroy the support system for teeth (periodontitis).
• Smoking also poses health risks to those around you. Nonsmoking spouses and partners of smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer and heart disease compared with people who don't live with a smoker. Children whose parents smoke are more prone to worsening asthma, ear infections, and colds.

• Dissolvable tobacco products
• Smokeless tobacco
• Nicotine lollipops and balms
• Cigars and pipes
• Hookahs

• If a person is not exposed to any smoke immediately after quitting smoking, their body immediately begins to repair itself. Their pulse rate and blood pressure return to normal, and the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease decreases.
• If you quit in your 30s, your life expectancy increases by 10 years.
• If you quit in your 40s, your life expectancy increases by 9 years.
• If you quit in your 50s, your life expectancy increases by 6 years.
• If you quit in your 60s, your life expectancy increases by 3 years.