Why Do Teenagers Smoke?

WHY DO TEENAGERS SMOKE?

There is an urgent need to make non-smoking appear cool and desirable. The number of people lighting up is on the rise.In 1986, when the first National Health and Mobility Survey was carried out by the Ministry of Health to find out the number of smokers, the figure stood at 21.5 per cent. However, in the last study published in 1996, the number of smokers rose to 24.8 per cent.Of these figures, those aged between 15 and 24 in 1986 made up 11.5 per cent. In 1996, the age barrier shifted to between 18 and 24. Yet the percentage increased to 33.6 per cent, proving that young smokers are lighting up more, influenced by their elders and trying to fit into the the image of cool as depicted by their movie and music idols.

One doesn’t start smoking because of it seductive power. Most beginners do not enjoy their first try but rather suffer a bitter taste, bad smell, a cough and a money lose. One doesn’t feel a high soaring feeling. One actually has to over come this uncomfortable feeling to continue smoking. The reasons to start are mainly social and psychological and are not connected to the enjoyment itself. So the way to deal with it must be educationally and emotionally.

Rehabilitation is hard and complex as it creates a physical and emotional dependency. It is much easier to work on avoidance.

So we will examine why do youths start smoking.

The first feelings are uncomfortable- a bitter taste in the mouth, bad smell and a caugh. What motivates the youth to overcome these feelings, and to continue smoking until their addicted?

Some claim that kids slip into smoking out of immaturity or impulsiveness. But even adolescents have some logic which is social and psychological.

The addiction is both physical and mental.

The body adjusts to the Nicotine and craves it when it’s missed. But the main addiction is mental. The proof is found among Shabbat observers who can abstain from smoking the whole Shabbat. So it mainly depends on the habits a person has.

Rehabilitation must include energies such as the Jewish law to restrain habits that have become a person’s second nature.

More and more smokers claim they want to quit.

In an American poll 70% adolescent smoker claimed they wouldn’t have started if they could choose to again and two thirds want to quit. Most cannot quit.

The health ministry’s pole from the beginning of the year showed that 58% of the smokers who tried to quit failed. Most smokers claimed they could quit on their own despite their failure. Only 3% who tried to quit on their own succeeded. Professor Ben Ami-Selah, the Manager of Pathological chemistry Center in Shiba’s Tel Hshomer Hospital adds: “Every year,