What kind of smoker are you?
People have all kinds of motives to smoke: enjoyment, stress relief, weight control, peer pressure.
Smokers may have different motives for light up, but all of them have something in common: They should stop. Understanding why you smoke may be the first step in this direction.
Look at these profiles of the most common forms of smokers. Which are you?
Skinny smoker
The profile: You’re worried about your weight.
Your motivation to smoke is tied up with your body image, a trait that’s particularly common among girls. You are like the college-age women who, in one study, reported an increased urge to smoke after trying on a bathing suit.
Why you need to stop: Although the average post-quitting weight gain is 4 to 10 pounds, ex-smokers usually return to their healthy weight, and there are steps you can take to keep off the pounds.
Sneaky smoker
The profile: You can’t (or will not ) kick the habit, but you’re ashamed of it, so you sneak cigarettes as soon as your loved ones and friends are not around.
You are in good company: President Obama is your Sneaky Smoker in Chief. He has tried to stop, but during a 2009 media conference, he admitted that he sneaks a guilty cigarette out of time to time, but always away from his wife and kids (and news cameras, of course).
Why you should stop: Even the occasional smoke has health consequences. According to a 2008 research, smoking only one or two cigarettes can undermine artery function for over a week.
Rebel smoker
The profile: Unlike the sneaky smoker, you smoke because it’s unhealthy and against the rules. You identify with the Marlboro Man, a personality who projects”individualism” and”freedom” (based on tobacco industry study ), or with the”nonconformist, self-confident mindset historically attributed to the Camel user.” You probably picked up the habit in your teens–an era when rebelliousness is linked to smoking, research shows.
The reason you need to stop: Smoking cigarettes is like riding a bike: If you do it long enough, you’re most likely to wind up seriously injured or even dead.
Social smoker
The profile: You smoke in specific scenarios: at parties, at bars, at night, on the weekends. You are the tobacco equivalent of a social drinker. You might go a bit overboard sometimes (and smoke an entire pack in a weekend, say). However, you do not consider yourself a real smoker. You’re not necessarily addicted to smoking, though you might be addicted to smoking.
Why you need to quit: Even societal smoking is terrible for your health, and you might get addicted to nicotine. A 2005 study that followed social-smoking school students for four years discovered that one-fifth of these became daily smokers.
Stressed-out smoker
The profile: You’re one of that 47 % of smokers who say they light up to alleviate stress. If you’re racing to meet a deadline at work, or once you’ve fought with your partner, you reach for a pack of smokes.
The reason you should quit: You may feel more relaxed after a cigarette. However, smoking causes the biological markers of stress on your body to rise. Yoga, Pilates, meditation, and breathing exercises are all healthier and more effective techniques to unwind, and they can assist you through the quitting process.
Serial quitter
The profile: You tell yourself that every cigarette you smoke will probably be your final. Quitting smoking–and failing–has become a habit in itself. You’ve tried everything: cold turkey, gum, the patch, and prescription medications. You are among those 16 per cent of smokers that, in a 2006 Gallup poll, said they’ve tried to quit six times or more.
The reason you should quit (again): Never quit! From the Gallup poll, some former smokers quit and failed eight times until they were eventually cigarette free.
Committed smoker
The profile: You’re among those 16 per cent in the Gallup poll who said that they’d never attempted to stop. You don’t care if you’re damaging your health, and you also do not care what people think of you. You love smoking–or can not imagine life without cigarettes.
Why you need to stop: Your addiction is costing you tens of thousands of dollars a year, and every cigarette you smoke reduces your life span by 11 minutes. (If that is not enough, here are 97 more motives.) If you already have lung cancer, it makes sense to quit; even in this stage, you’ll live longer if you ditch cigarettes once and for all.
You might want to read about Ban cigarettes for anybody underneath 21
