Why Do Teens Smoke
By: vivecaTotal Views: 413, Word Count: 556,
Adolescence is a sensitive phase in which a slight influence or attraction can lead to a long term habit. This is the case with all the teens who start up smoking to prove some or the other idiosyncrasy to themselves or their surroundings. Flown with the tide, they love the taste and pleasure offered by tobacco to continue smoking throughout their life. The reasons associated with teenage smoking should be dealt with a right insight into the volatile temperament of this age. A trivial incident or hard pressure can conclude the end of their life with an unhealthy lifestyle. Smoking among teenagers is not the proof of their ignorance towards the evil effects of smoking. Inspitre of daily campaigns and propagandas on anti- smoking in schools and colleges, they still are the consumers of tobacco. Why?
Following are the basic reasons of teenage consumption of tobacco:
Peer pressure: Peer pressure is inclusive of the social and personal pressure, influence and attraction supplied by colleagues and friends. Students are highly tempted to bad habits of their friends, in effect of their social obligations they take up smoking which they think can be quitted within a fraction of second. Thousands of Australian teens inculcate tobacco addiction to satiate their friend’s request or to complete a ritual within a group.
To copy an image: Beyond the heavy health advertisements against smoking, the cause of increasing teenage smoking is the image set by famous personalities on screen of school goers. The innocent dwellers of adolescence imitate the look of Julia Roberts or Richard Gere in Pretty Women. Why not to look like a star? or why not to possess the feel of a star's life style? The National Survey on Drug Use and Health declared that 4000 children under the age of 18 take their first puff of smoke and about1, 100 will end up becoming chain smokers.
Pressure to climb the ladder: This result in the scope of another reason to smoke and escape social and personal troubles. The compulsion to perform well in schools: in studies, in sports, in extracurricular activities, to compete with the topper in class or to reach parents expectations induces rebellious emotions in a child which severely lead to the inhalation of smoke to fight against all the excess pressure forced on children's mental and physical level.
They take up smoking to get the feel of that “in group”: Why should they refuse when it’s the easiest course to initiate friendship with the most famous group in the class. Students simply smoke to be a part of that popular crowd in the school.
They smoke because their parents smoke: Smoking can be termed as a genetic factor. A child addicted to the smell of smoking since infancy will definitely like to feel the taste of a cigarette. Ignorance and indifference on the part of guardians towards child psychology can lead the child to the lethal path of tobacco consumption.
There may be thousand reasons for the addiction of smoke in teenagers but methods to vanish the taboo factor of tobacco are few. Parental guidance and involvement of schools in understanding the psychology of child can help him/her keep off the cigarette bud. At a higher level, medication and doctors help is advisable. Any method chosen should complement with your child’s temperament and biological cycle.
About the Author
Viveca is a practicing consultant in psychological department of a US based organization, working for the benefit of smokers, providing them with medical and emotional aid in dealing with their smoking addiction and cravings. She is a frequent visitor to schools and colleges to make the young generation aware of the harmful effects of smoking. Drawn from her recent research in the efficacy of homeopathy to relieve the temptations of smoking among teenagers and adults, Smoke Deter has introduced a new product to cater to the needs of tobacco victims.
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