Is Smoking Addiction Psychological?
Cigarette smoke contains nicotine, tar, and toxic gases. Tar contains approximately 4,000 chemical compounds. Most of these are toxic, that is, poisonous, and 43 of them are currently known to cause cancer.
The toxic gases found in smoke are nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, also known as exhaust gas. Carbon monoxide in particular reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen. Nicotine, on the other hand, is addictive. Nicotine is in fact a poison. It can kill a person if taken in high doses. It raises blood pressure and heart rate.
TYPES OF CANCER
Together with carbon monoxide, it leads to diseases of the blood vessels of the heart and brain. Smoking also affects a wide variety of organs, leading to the development of cancer, primarily lung cancer.
We can list the types of cancer caused by smoking as follows:
· Lung cancer
· Mouth, lip, and tongue cancer
· Laryngeal cancer
· Pancreatic cancer
· Kidney cancer
· Bladder cancer
· Cervical cancer
· Penile cancer
THE OTHER CULPRIT: NICOTINE
There are many reasons that lead a person to smoke. The roles of parents, older siblings, school, age, and social status in this matter are important. The other culprit in the development of the smoking habit is nicotine.
Nicotine stimulates the pleasure centers, increasing alertness and performance. In fact, as we mentioned earlier, it is a poison and can kill a person in high doses. However, since it is taken in small doses during smoking, it rapidly reaches the brain through the bloodstream, stimulating the pleasure centers and increasing alertness and performance. For this reason, the person develops a continuous urge to smoke, and the number of cigarettes smoked is increased until a certain blood nicotine level is reached.
When it is not taken, it produces withdrawal symptoms, leading to irritability, restlessness, concentration and sleep disturbances, headache, fatigue, increased appetite, and stress. Smoking addiction is both physical and, because this process is also a habit and a pattern of behavior, psychological.
The human body is part of nature. In nature, there is a balance of opposites such as day-night, hot-cold, and female-male. In the human body, there are also fundamentally two systems, called sympathetic and parasympathetic. Many diseases, such as stomach ulcers, migraine, asthma, and so on, arise as a result of the disruption of this balance. In a person who smokes, this balance is also disrupted.
In my next article, I will address the topic of "Treatment of smoking addiction and how it is applied."