Smoking Habits Die Hard?

Excess of anything is bad. And when anything becomes an addiction and that too, at a tender age like adolescence,it creates a big problem for the child and the parents.

Smoking is a challenge faced by people all around the world. When a teenager becomes hooked to smoking, the consequences can be really devastating. Once the youngsters get into the habit of smoking, the habit may terminate with the end of life only.

A new study conducted by Jennifer O'Loughlin and colleagues at the Universite de Montreal suggests even if the die-hard smokers desire to leave the habit of smoking, they somehow are unable to handle the craving to smoke.

Youngsters get hooked to the smoking to such an extent that when trying to shed off the habit, they go through a severe emotional, psychological or physiological trauma.

The study looked at teenagers aged between 12 to 13 years (at the commencement of the study). As per statistics, in approximately 19 months they became habitual smokers.

As a part of the study, 319 teenagers were made to answer extensive questions related to their smoking behavior at a regular interval of three months for about five years.

The study made it evident that out of 70 percent of the teens who wished to relinquish smoking only 19 percent were able to completely abandon their habit, lead author Dr. Jennifer O'Loughlin said.

This shows the addicts physically and emotionally get caught in the vicious circle of smoking.

To refrain from smoking the teens had to pass through five phases, during the course of the study.

In phase 1 the teens affirmed they had the courage to quit the habit after one to two months since they first placed their hands on cigarette. In phase 2 teens took serious heed of the issue and expressed the will to stop smoking. In phase 3 the teens became customary smokers, two years past they began smoking, felt it was difficult to leave smoking. In phase 3 they became daily smokers and said it was easier said than done to control the urge to smoke and defined the task as a very daunting and a tough thing to do. In 5 phase they became complete smoking maniacs with full on addiction to tobacco.

While working on an identical issue, researchers from McGill University and the University of Montreal talked about six smoking cessation therapies which are much more effective than placebos in aiding addicts renounce the habit, in a study.

The researchers of another study published in the American Journal of Public Health argued that the government must outline few stringent laws that confine the young chaps from buying the easily available cigarettes.