Why Do We Carry on Smoking?We all start smoking for stupid reasons, usually social pressures or social occasions, but, once we
feel we are becoming hooked, why do we carry on smoking?
No regular smoker knows why he or she smokes. If smokers knew the true reason, they would stop
doing it. I have asked the question of thousands of smokers during my consultations. The true
answer is the same for all smokers, hut the variety of replies is infinite, I find this part of the
consultation the most amusing and at the same time the most pathetic.
All smokers know in their heart of hearts that they are mugs. They know that they had no need to
smoke before they became hooked. Most of them can remember that their first cigarette tasted awful
and that they had to work hard in order to become hooked. The most annoying part is that they
sense that non-smokers are not missing anything and that they are laughing at them (it is difficult
not to on Budget Day).
However, smokers are intelligent, rational human beings. They know that they are taking enormous
health risks and that they spend a fortune on cigarettes in their lifetime. Therefore it is necessary for
them to have a rational explanation to justify their habit.
The actual reason why smokers continue to smoke is a subtle combination of the factors that I will
elaborate in the next two chapters. They are:
1 NICOTINE ADDICTION
2 BRAINWASHING