Why do People smoke?
Posted: Friday, March 21, 2008
by *Bei Yin*
FalconBlanco
When people start to
smoke, mostly when they are young, then it is very much a social thing. They
want to demonstrate that they are grown up, doing things the adults are doing,
so they feel that it looks ‘cool'. But then they get addicted because of the
nicotine that has a numbing effect on ones mind, although some smokers say that
smoking stimulates their thinking. But probably this is just an excuse to
justify their silliness.
People who are smoking
are trying to release their stress and so they smoke excessively when there is
more stress. But they can't release any stress by smoking, they only reduce
their response to situations that create stress. People who are in a conflict
situation smoke a lot with the same reason, but they can't help finding a
solution by smoking, it only reduces their response by numbing them. But then
they need something that stimulates them and so smoker need to drink coffee. It
looks like that nicotine goes together with caffeine. We can observe this everywhere.
It is not just stress
because of outside difficulties. There is another more subtle reason why people
smoke. A conflict situation can be caused by coming to the moment in ones life
when nothing seems to make sense, there is confusion because things didn't work
out how one wants it and then there is just too much one should deal with, but
one feels impotent to deal with life and coming to the point of falling into a
void. The smoker doesn't want to deal with this situation and somehow it works:
he/she fills the void with smoke, paying very expensive with this when
rejecting the given challenges in life.
Smoker are not willing
to confront openly a conflict situation, smoking is the best way for them to
hide. This is dramatically serious, because if they do not relate and respond
out of their full capacity, then they get stuck in their personal evolution and
this has a serious effect on their whole system. Nicotine is toxic and
weakens the system, but this is not the most serious. When the individual growing process is intentionally
blocked, then this accumulates negative energy and tension and this will blow up the
system in its weakest point. It might be that the system destroys itself
through a disease or the smoker has destructive tendencies, manifesting
aggression and violence in his/hers surrounding. This might happen verbal or in
form of emotional threatening and in extreme cases they are provoking others to
use then their reactions to be physically violent.
It is difficult to
relate to smoker, because they don't want to look at themselves. They don't ask
for help and they reject any help. They are in a spiral of self-destruction and
they draw others into it. That is probably the main reason why smoker doing so
hard if they want to quit smoking even when they are effected by their habit
and seriously sick.
It seems not only a
personal problem but also a social one. This society is formed and ruled by
smokers and hardly anybody is questioning the situation and wanting seriously
to do something about it. There is another aspect why people smoke. Because
they like to regret into an infantile state, where they don't need to take
self-responsibility, so instead of sucking a dummy (Am. pacifier) they suck at
a cigarette or cigar. It brings them back to the beautiful time when lying in
mothers arms, protected, warm and secure. So when people need to confront
situations in daily life that are not giving the satisfaction they would like
to have like when they were a baby, then they grab a cigarette. People are not
conscious about it and they indeed don't want to look at it and they get really
angry if one questions their habit and they react the same as a baby if you
take away the pacifier.
Probably people
drink for a similar reason, if they suck on a bottle then this is the same and
works the same as a dummy-pacifier! So it is obvious that people don't want to
grow up! And it is easy to understand why they get angry if life's situations
are threatening, forcing them to grow!
BeiYin
You can listen to my audio at: http://www.falconblanco.com/audios/
This article was not terribly helpful, especially since the author did not address the actual effects of nicotine or alcohol on the human body. Smoking and drinking are nothing more than substitute pacifiers caused by a desire to avoid but not deal with the stresses in our lives? I don't think so! Too many people are seriously addicted to these drugs for us to dismiss them so lightly. I am disappointed by the author's lack of research on this subject.Your comment is a typical defence reaction and you are not conscious about it and you don't want to look at this. This is exactly the way smoker deal with any confrontation and any problem showing up in daily life. You don't think so, of course not. The only way to be able to receive help is that first you clear up yourself and find out about yourself, your tricks and games you are doing with yourself. You are defending your established habits, your attitude and your self image. You are identified with it and so you don't want to change anything about it. This is a very strong behavior of human nature and smoking helps to stay stuck in it. Even when a deadly disease shows up people are not willing to look at themselves only very very few. I only can wish that you might be one of these, so that you can heal yourself. If you have a specific question, I will do my best to answer.
BeiYin
