GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or thinking of quitting, please -- join us! You can also click the GUS tag to view all diary posts.
Good evening GUSsacks! I hope everyone had a fantastic day. There was a comment in a diary a few days ago musing about the role that rebellion and defiance play in starting to smoke. Join me below the fold for my own scattered thoughts on the subject....
Reasons People Start/Continue Smoking:
- Peer pressure: Peer pressure is a very common reason why people begin or continue to smoke. Young kids or adults who start smoking at a young age, often do so because they have been pressured by their peers.
- Independence: Some young people start smoking because they want to be seen as adult-like. They may feel that smoking allows them to be their own person.
- Friends and Family: Individuals who have family members or friends who smoke, have a higher probability of smoking then people whose family and friends do not. The same is true for other bad habits or addictions such as alcohol or drug use.
- Celebrities/Role Models: Some people begin and continue to smoke because celebrities that they look up to or aspire to be, do so. They may believe that it looks cool, sophisticated or mature.
- Advertising: Cigarette companies spend millions of dollars attempting to get people to purchase their product. To encourage people to spend their money on a product that will likely kill them or make them ill, they advertise on billboards and television with splashy, catchy and attractive campaigns. Many people give in and purchase.
- To Lose Weight: Some individuals, especially females, start or keep smoking because they believe that it will help them stay slim or lose weight. One of the most common reasons that women resist quitting smoking is due to the possibility of weight gain.
- Stress: Many people quickly grab a cigarette when they fell stressed or nervous. They believe that it helps to calm their nerves. Fear that they won’t be able to handle the stressors of everyday life without cigarettes, keeps many people from quitting.
- Habit: For other individuals, smoking simply becomes a routine part of one’s life. It becomes just like eating breakfast and going to work.
I'd wager that if you asked anyone who started smoking in high school why they started, most would give you an answer regarding either emulation of role models, or rebellion against what they viewed as the establishment. For myself, it had more to do with confounding the extremely high expectations of my overprotective family. In the first place, I am my parents' only biological child; my brother (nine years older) and my sister (eleven years older) were both adopted after my parents were told they would never have children of their own due to various medical issues that my mother had. That was in 1961; almost ten years to the day that they were given that prognosis, I was born. In public school I was tested and placed in the gifted program for exceptional students. I was always encouraged to be active in extracurricular groups; as a result, in grade eleven I was involved with my school's concert band, yearbook, newspaper and Amnesty International group, as well as coaching figure skating, working part-time, volunteering for the local community theatre and taking private music theory lessons.
That was also the year I started smoking.
Even exceptional students feel the need to push back against what they perceive as 'the system', especially as teenagers. Making decisions that are in direct opposition to society's tenets is how young adults establish their independence and carve out their own personalities. Smoking is an incredibly effective way to demonstrate that refusal to co-operate, to "do what everyone else is doing".
You see, I was sixteen. My mom, dad, brother and sister were all quitting for New Year's. I was talking about it with some friends at a New year's booze-up (which, of course, my parents knew nothing about), and they suggested that I should start just to spite them. If I remember correctly, the words used were something along the lines of, "F*ck your family, god damn sheep, doing what The Man tells them. You know what you should do? You should start smoking! Yeah! That'd piss them off sooooo much! Ya want another beer?"
And I listened to them.
I went to the corner store, bought a pack and lit my first one up at about 12:00:35 am on January 1st, 1988.
But there was more to it than just pissing off my parents. A lot of it had to do with the icons of North American culture as they were presented to me. As the child of older parents, I was exposed to quite a few classic films, especially after the advent of the VCR. The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Glenn Miller Story, 12 Angry Men, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story -- I fell in love with the glamour, the style, the air of sophistication that permeated those films. And smoking was an integral part of that atmosphere.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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It's just as much an integral part of the modern movie experience as well:
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Image may be NSFW.
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FACTOIDS:
Major movie characters are three times more likely to smoke than people in real life.
Two-thirds of all major children's animated films include the use of tobacco and alcohol.
Rebellion, sexiness, celebration, wealth, power and being "cool" are all common messages associated with smoking in movies.
These are the same messages that the tobacco industry spends 18 million dollars on each day to promote its products.
Movie actors - who is smoking denotes the glamour and sends messages to teens that tobacco use is a highly desirable activity.
Addiction, disease and death are often the end results of tobacco use...for movie stars as well as anyone else. Most stars who smoke recognize the harmful effects of tobacco use and try to quit...often several times.
It's not just the movies, either -- let's take a look at some of the heroes of modern popular music, shall we?
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This cultural veneration of smokers, coupled with the disapproval of proximate authority figures, is a dangerous combination. And then when the authority figures discover your smoking (I kept it hidden from my parents for almost two years -- my mom found me smoking on the deck two weeks before I was leaving for university), they react in a completely logical way -- scolding, excoriating and lecturing. For a young smoker, nothing is more effective in reinforcing their decision to smoke. Part of the reason they started was to create a defining line between the behaviour of authorities and their own; yelling and preaching to them about how much you disapprove means you're justifying their behaviour and strengthening their resolve to continue it. Of course, I'm not advocating that you congratulate your teenage son or daughter for starting smoking; but think about how that would short-circuit their reasons for smoking!
Even with long-time smokers, preachy admonitions that they're acting stupidly often has the effect of increasing their nicotine intake. I know that whenever I see one of those smarmy 'think-of-the-children!'-type of non-smoking ads, it makes me want to light up just to spite them. But hey, Bill Hicks put it way better than I ever could:
And finally, one last clip -- I couldn't figure out where to slot this clip in, but it was so jaw-droppingly surreal I just had to tack it on:
Thanks for reading!
Current members of the GUS team! Please post a comment if you would like to join, or if your name is here in error: 1BQ, 3rdGenFeminist, Abra Crabcakeya, addisnana, amk for obama, Anne933, ArthurWolf, bamablue, barnowl, bgblcklab1, Bike Crash, BirderWitch, blue husky, Blue Intrigue, bluestatedem84, breedlovinit, bsmechanic, burrow owl, Chocolate Chris, ChurchofBruce, coppercelt, dadanation, dangoch, DRo, duckhunter, Fineena, flumptytail, FrugalGranny, greylox, gchaucer2, Im a frayed knot, Indexer, interceptor7, inventor, itsbenj, jvolvo's Mom, jwinIL14, kai99, khloemi, labwitchy, ladypockt, langerdang, LarsThorwald, Lipstick Liberal, lmdonovan, luvsathoroughbred, maggiemay, magicsister, Mikeguyver, MinervainNH, nannyboz, ncsuLAN, Nick Zouroudis, Ordvefa, Pennsylvanian, post rational, rosebuddear, SallyCat, seenaymah, Scrapyard Ape, sheddhead, smartcookienyc, spmozart, trueblueliberal, Turn VABlue, uc booker, Unduna, Vacationland, webranding, weelzup, Wood Dragon
Anyone (on or off the buddy list) is welcome to write a diary for GUS. If you are interested, please leave a comment in the Butt Can (tip jar).
NEW RULES: If you are looking for a current diary and the schedule has an open or snark entry, it is a go for it, first posted, first commented on situation.
Wed PM: seenaymah Thu AM: CJB Thu PM: SallyCat Fri AM: Fri PM: bsmechanic Sat AM: Sat PM:
UPDATE: I almost forgot -- Happy birthday, Fineena!!