Rebel
Usually during the teens, people are rebellious and anti-establishment in nature. When guardians take strict steps to impose rules and regulation, teens develop a kind of resentment and become rebellious by isolating themselves, psychologically. As a first step, they start smoking as they perceive it to be the first step towards betraying their guardians.
When a teenager smokes for the first time, the taste and the smell of nicotine is repulsive. In spite of that they continue to smoke. This continues until they are hooked. After a while, the addiction gains further root. Some of them go on to remain smokers throughout their lives.
Physical and psychological factors
Once the smoke goes inside, the nicotine get absorbed in lungs and it reaches the brain in a very short time span of fifteen to sixteen seconds. Nicotine has a 2 hour terminal half life and 15 - 16 minutes distributional half life. Smokers therefore maintain a constant nicotine level and always have the urge to take in more nicotine, which urges them on to their next cigarette.
This process makes the smoker a psychological and physiological addict.
Behavioral factor
While smoking, a smoker's throat gets abused by smoke at least seventy thousand times a year and the smoker becomes accustomed to keeping the hands and mouth busy. The smoker fears the possibility of not having a cigarette in their hands or on their lips. This craving hardens the physiological addiction and smokers reach the point of no return.
A typical Smokers justifications
Often smokers rationalize their smoking by explaining that it gives them pleasure and removes stress. What really happens is that nicotine has an effect for a very short duration and after that they feel physical and mental impairment until they smoke another cigarette. This is perceived as a necessary self medication by smokers.
Socioeconomic factor
In research and surveys it has been established that the 'haves not' and proletariat section of the society are strongly inclined to become habitual smokers. They take cigarettes containing high level of nicotine. They affluent class however tends to me more amenable to quit smoking later on in their lives.
Smoking is a chronic disease which may persist for a long period of time, in some cases throughout life. Preventive measures include the support of family and society to provide encouragement to smokers to kick the unhealthy habit.
Smoking is Fun
What is the nature of this psychological pleasure? It can be traced to the universal desire for self-expression. None of us ever completely outgrows his childhood. We are constantly hunting for the carefree enjoyment we knew as children. As we grew older, we had to subordinate our pleasures to work and to the necessity for unceasing effort. Smoking, for many of us, then, became a substitute for our early habit of following the whims of the moment; it becomes a legitimate excuse for interrupting work and snatching a moment of pleasure. "You sometimes get tired of working intensely," said an accountant whom we interviewed, "and if you sit back for the length of a cigarette, you feel much fresher afterwards. It's a peculiar thing, but I wouldn't think of just sitting back without a cigarette. I guess a cigarette somehow gives me a good excuse."
Smoking is a Reward
Most of us are hungry for rewards. We want to be patted on the back. A cigarette is a reward that we can give ourselves as often as we wish. When we have done anything well, for instance, we can congratulate ourselves with a cigarette, which certifies, in effect, that we have been "good boys." We can promise ourselves: "When I have finished this piece of work, when I have written the last page of my report, I'll deserve a little fun. I'll have a cigarette."
The first and last cigarette in the day are especially significant rewards. The first one, smoked right after breakfast, is a sort of anticipated recompense. The smoker has work to do, and he eases himself into the day's activities as pleasantly as possible. He gives himself a little consolation prize in advance, and at the same time manages to postpone the evil hour when he must begin his hard day's work. The last cigarette of the day is like "closing a door." It is something quite definite. One smoker explained: "I nearly always smoke a cigarette before going to bed. That finishes the day. I usually turn the light out after I have smoked the last cigarette, and then turn over to sleep."
Smoking is often merely a conditioned reflex. Certain situations, such as coming out of the subway, beginning and ending work, voluntary and involunatary interruptions of work, feelings of hunger, and many others regulate the timetable of smoking. Often a smoker may not even want a cigarette particularly, but he will see someone else take one and then he feels that he must have one, too.
While to many people smoking is fun, and a reward in itself, it more often accompanies other pleasures. At meals, a cigarette is somewhat like another course. In general, smoking introduces a holiday spirit into everyday living. It rounds out other forms of enjoyment and makes them one hundred per cent satisfactory.
Smoking is Oral Pleasure
As we have said, to explain the pleasure derived from smoking as taste experience alone, is not sufficient. For one thing, such an explanation leaves out the powerful erotic sensitivity of the oral zone. Oral pleasure is just as fundamental as sexuality and hunger. It functions with full strength from earliest childhood. There is a direct connection between thumbsucking and smoking. "In school I always used to chew a pencil or a pen," said a journalist, in reply to our questions. "You should have seen the collection I had. They used to be chewed to bits. Whenever I try to stop smoking for a while, I get something to chew on, either a pipe or a menthol cigarette. You just stick it in your mouth and keep on sucking. And I also chew a lot of gum when I want to cut down on smoking...."
The satisfied expression on a smoker's face when he inhales the smoke is ample proof of his sensuous thrill. The immense power of the yearning for a cigarette, especially after an enforced abstinence, is acknowledged by habitual smokers. One of our respondents said: "When you don't get a cigarette for a long time and you are kind of on pins, the first drag goes right down to your heels."
