Should I quit using tobacco now?
Like many smokers, you may not feel ready to stop smoking just yet. You know it’s unhealthy. Friends, family or even your doctor may urge you to stop. But the hit of nicotine may help you relax and cope with the stresses of life. Despite everything you know or have heard, you may still sometimes find that smoking is pleasurable. You may be torn. Does the pleasure of smoking out weigh the problems associated with it?
Here are some thoughts that may help you decide …
Are you are worried about the affect smoking has on others?
- Cigarette smoke also damages the health of others. Asthma, lung or heart problems can be worsened by second-hand smoke.
- Pregnant women protect their baby’s health in many ways if they stop smoking during pregnancy and continue to be smoke free after their babies are born.
Does the need for tobacco control your lifestyle?
- Addiction can sometimes take away your choices. Maybe you have to go outside to smoke and stand in the cold and rain with all the other smokers. You have to remember to stop to buy cigarettes, and may sometimes even make late night trips to get them if you are running low. Perhaps you avoid places where you can’t smoke and people who don’t smoke. Without that regular hit of nicotine, you may get nervous and irritable. Think how great it will be to be free from tobacco!
Would you like to save $14,000 in five years?
- A pack-a-day addiction
costs big bucks. Do the math:
$7.50 a pack x 1 pack a day x 365 days a year = $ 2738.00 each year. - Putting that money in a bank will give you $13,688.00 in five years.
- Think of the other things you could do with that money – help pay for your university education, go on a fabulous adventure, or buy a car.
Are you are worried about the environment?
- Every day, Canadians throw away millions of cigarettes butts and packages. Cigarettes butts topped the Dirty Dozen List – the top 12 items collected – during the 2003 Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup that took place at 477 shoreline sites across the country.
- Cigarettes, matches and other smoking-related materials are also a common cause of fires which can quickly destroy people's homes and wildlife habitat.
Are you are concerned about your appearance?
- You don’t want wrinkly, prematurely-aged skin, bad breath or a chronic cough.
- The tobacco industry still tries to make smoking look cool and sexy. But what’s sexy about bad breath, coughing, nicotine-stained fingers or yellow teeth?
Check out Poster Child or the Puke Page to see more of the visible effects of smoking.
Would you like to have more energy? Play better at sports? Live longer?
- Eliminating cigarettes from your life will improve your breathing, reduce coughing, decrease your risk of heart attack, stroke and of many kinds of cancers.
- When you quit, your body’s ability to fight infections and to heal itself will improve and your sense of taste and smell will return.
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, why not give quitting a try?