Smoking habits and rituals
The habit of smoking is very strong: you puff on a cigarette hundreds of times each and every day. When people who have smoked for a long time stop, they find it strange to have nothing in their hands or mouths. They have become so accustomed to handling cigarettes that their hands seek cigarettes from habit, even when they aren't strongly craving them.
Signs of a strong habit include:
10 Persistent Myths About Smoking
Smoking in America is down -- but not out. Today, 20% of U.S. adults are smokers, compared to 45% in 1965, when smoking was at its peak. But even at the current level of tobacco use, an estimated 440,000 Americans per year lose their lives to lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or other smoking-related illnesses. On average, smokers die 14 years before nonsmokers, and half of all smokers who don't quit are killed by their habit. People start smoking for many reasons. Many continue to puff away...
Read the 10 Persistent Myths About Smoking article > >
- Smoking automatically without thinking about it or realizing it. You find a cigarette in your mouth and don't remember putting it there.
- Lighting a cigarette without realizing there is one burning in the ashtray.
- Feeling that handling a cigarette, the process of lighting it, or watching the smoke as you exhale is part of the enjoyment of smoking.
- Smoking automatically as a part of other things you do, such as drinking coffee or alcohol or talking on the telephone.
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