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Most young people I see on the street walking, waiting for the bus, talking with their friends smoke or vape. I believe the majority of middle schoolers vape. A few smoke. High schoolers do the same. University students mainly smoke, some of them vape. Generally a big number of students at any young age either smoke or vape.
Why? Well I'll list some of the reasons I've been hearing around in real life.
1. "I have anxiety and it helps me calm down"
2. "I have a lot going on in my life so I smoke to cope"
3. "Well everyone in my family smokes so why not start as well?"
4. "I was bored and I started vaping to pass time"
5. "Well my university friends all bought vapes so I can't be the only one left out, I can't keep hitting my friend's vape all the time I need to get one for myself"
6. "Most of my coworkers smoke and I want to have smoke breaks with them"
7. "Smoking is a good way to start conversations with people and making friends"
8. "I smoke because I feel like it makes me look hot"
9. "I smoke/vape because it matches my aesthetic"
I could list more but you get it. So the main reasons are anxiety/stress, peer-pressure or wanting to look cool or fit a specific aesthetic.
I honestly didn't even understand how it all started, just out of nowhere a few years ago I started seeing tiktoks romanticizing smoking and boom everyone smokes or vapes. Like are we really blind trend followers or what? Are we really giving in to addiction? As if we didn't already have addictions let's add more to our lives.
Like yes life sucks but trying to bury our problems by creating new problems makes everything worse. You have anxiety and smoke cigarettes to cope but oops if you don't smoke right NOW you'll have a panic attack.
And then you'll tell me that you don't care about what smoking will do to you, you don't care to stop because you're already too deep into it, that you enjoy it, that it's your excuse to socialize with people and whatever.
Maybe you're right who am I to judge. But us humans usually we don't realize or to be more precise, we don't care about consequences until something actually happens to us.
What caused me to write this whole essay?
On the bus today everyone heard a girl talking on the phone about how someone she knew died of cancer at 18 and they were a smoker since they were 12. Everyone on the bus turned their heads and looked at each other. Incredibly sad.
There are people who smoke all their lives and are healthy but that doesn't guarantee anything.
Addiction can kill. I talked about smoking because of the conversation I heard but same goes for being addicted to drinking, drugs etc. Even if you're not addicted think about it twice before doing something that may cause you harm. You don't want to do something that you'll regret, just because it's popular and trendy right now.
Comments
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ruby may ⋆.𐙚 ̊
i will never ever start ! what good comes of it ?
i agree!! nothing good comes out of it
by neraida☆; ; Report
kkaran
As someone still in school (though not for long) i'll remind that smoking (and all substance abuse in general) is currently down in gen z. in fact, it's WAYYYY better than generations previous. the people that i know that does any sort of substances are either:
1. poor. where i live and my school is pretty affluent so my closest peers are very much sober. still, i'm in a city and know plenty of people with less means. still most of them are sober, but it's much more likely they'll vape or something. (i think alcohol is more popular with the wealthy crowd, actually. and weed. weed is very popular)
2. mentally ill. everyone i know that does substances is making up for their anxiety depression adhd autism bipolar etc etc etc. i don't blame them, personally if i ever get my hands on adderall i think i'd be cooked. there's a shortage though, literally none of my adhd friends have amphetamines.
bummer..3. stressed tf out! like damn! this kinda goes into mentally ill but even some relatively well adjusted or neurotypical people i know are going through it! one girl is like some kind of bottle girl, idk it's weird i don't ask about her situation but she's always advertising for and working at this club despite being a minor (the ads are wild too like she's barely wearing anything) so she vapes and smokes and drinks like crazy. plus her ex is crazy and abusive, no idea who she's fucking now but i hope he doesn't try to blow her head off..
the other "normal" guy that drinks like a sailor is...well he's him. ivy bound and in charge of a shitton of stuff. i was surprised to learn about his party side but after thinking for two seconds about what he's responsible for, i'm surprised he's not doing snow tbf.
yeah there are a lot of reasons for some people to start smoking. i hope that smoking and substance use are down, bc idk i see SO many young people who smoke/vape around me. maybe it's different in each country. also that's crazy about that girl i hope she's okay and i really wish she gets out of that situation
by neraida☆; ; Report
xxRebellious_Emmaxx
Oh, it's definitely a pretty big win for the big tobacco companies, even if it's to the detriment to people's health and lives.
I remember not too long ago when I would always hear about the dangers and statistics of smoking on TV during every other commercial break and even seeing a poster at my school from like 2003 near one of the stairways about the addictiveness of nicotine when I was in elementary school. Growing up with a mother who smokes has also turned me against ever considering smoking or vaping thanks to all of the nasty secondhand smoke clouds I've had to breathe in since I was a kid (I guess that's the one good thing about being raised by a long time smoker who has been smoking since the 80s).
Now it seems like those informative PSAs have disappeared (at least so on good old cable television networks) and you probably won't find any posters like the one I used to walk past on a daily basis when I was in the 4th grade either. I thought we as a society were supposed to have been making progress on this, but I guess not.
There is still a billboard (yes, an actual billboard near a busy intersection and all) near me that counts all of the smoking deaths per year and updates itself in real time (using a digital counter on an otherwise analog sign), though, so I guess that counts as something as far as public awareness goes.
Yes that's exactly itttt. I remember those anti-smoking campaigns, and young people were starting to be so against smoking. One of my friends has a similar experience as you, both her parents smoke and i remember when we were in elementary school she would constantly tell me how she hated it and how she would never smoke. She actually stayed true to her word. Well i guess growing up around smokers either makes you hate smoking or makes you start smoking really early.
Something needs to be done about this though, especially since more and more children smoke and vape everyday. But i don't think they'll do anything about it since it's all about business. And that's the horrible thing about the situation.
I've seen that billboard on a video before where people were counting down for new years lmao. Here in Europe cigarette packs have really disturbing health warnings on them but smokers have gotten used to it, i don't think this affects people that much anymore like if they want to smoke, they'll smoke
by neraida☆; ; Report
Possum
But when I smoke the good plant my stresses go away, I feel all fuzzy/tingly inside, and I laugh more than I ever have :(
i get it but it'd be nice if you could feel that way without having to smoke the good plant :( or at least do it in moderation
by neraida☆; ; Report
Life is too stressful lol, I do smoke in moderation and def not an every day thing but every time I stop smoking for a while, doctors always warning me about high blood pressure when I visit
by Possum; ; Report
ohh that's not good especially since you're young. be careful not to become too dependant on smoking because of that. if you have high blood pressure because of anxiety, definitely look into it more, maybe look into therapy or doing something that calms you down that's not addictive. i'm sorry if i sound like a worried mom or whatever you can just ignore me lol
by neraida☆; ; Report
Nah I appreciate the concern dw. The high blood pressure is from stress in general lol, like I said it's not a constant thing. As it currently stands it's been a few days since I've smoked. I do need and want therapy but it's really expensive unfortunately
by Possum; ; Report
yeah therapy should be more accessible, that's why we all turn to bad coping mechanisms...
by neraida☆; ; Report
Def, I feel like most of the world's issues could be solved by more accessible therapy
by Possum; ; Report
Cereal Milk
The main thing i will say that needs to be brought to this conversation is this;
"what situations will put people in a mindset where they need a vice?"
and as of right now a majority of that is usually some toxic relationship either friends, family, spouse, work, etc or you're not getting your basic needs met, and while i agree with the fundamental truth that smoking and those these things are not good for you, i would much rather someone smoke a pack a day and still be on earth with us (granted for probably a shorter time) than have them kill themselves because they cannot cope any other way
when people critque whjy people use vices without the nuance of coping in the current societal structure where poverty is one of /the/ leading causes of drug use
when you think to ask "why are these people smoking or doing drugs" instead ask "what system is failing them to lead them to a point of needing a vice, and is there something i can do to ease that pain" and if you cant do anything to help them let them have their cig, vape, joint, beer etc
and while there def. are instances of peer pressure most of the people i know who started using /anything/ had something going on in their personal life that was either too overwhelming (understatement) or entirely out of their control and turning to vices was the only way they could cope without hurting themselves in a worse way
by Cereal Milk; ; Report
Yeah I understand what you're saying. As humans we tend to do "harmful" things to cope and get some instant satisfaction which is indeed better than killing ourselves. But yeah society has failed marginalized people because it's easier to sell them cigarettes and drugs than to provide them with help. But for other people as well if it's more accessible and cheaper to buy cigarettes or a vape than talk to a therapist/ psychiatrist/ social worker then of course they're going to choose that as well. And the cigarette industry (and all industries that are based on addiction) is a huge business so why would they want people to heal in a healthy way?
But if us, the people, don't try to change this nobody will. It will only make things worse. I remember like in 2015-19 studies showed that fewer and fewer young people were smoking. After the pandemic I saw a drastic rise in the amount of people who were smoking, which of course can be bc of the stress of the pandemic but I believe it was also a business tactic, the algorithm pushed smoking as something "cool" so they would get their business booming again.
Like you said I also know people that started smoking/vaping because they had crazy shit happening in their lives, but I know others that started just because. For no reason. It's trendy and they started it
by neraida☆; ; Report
we have to fight back against the lobbying and manipulation of the alcohol and cigarette/ vaping companies and take care of ourselves for sure, i just know that that fight is gonna be a harder for those who are struggling and "getting clean" from these things should be lloked at with nuance and space for people to grow (which from what ive seen you write i feel like you would agree with that, im not trying to argue)
i just wish people were nicer to those with addictions from nicotine to hard drugs, being mean in any way isnt helpful to those that you want to see healthy
by Cereal Milk; ; Report
yeah i agree with what you're saying. and i'm really not trying to be mean maybe i'm coming off that way because i'm sad and upset about the situation, but yeah hating on these people won't change anything
by neraida☆; ; Report
yer def not coming off as mean im just always worried about accidentally starting an argument with someone when i didnt mean to
we are agreeing with each other :))
i too am upset with the state of things and you are valid for feeling the way you do
by Cereal Milk; ; Report
Dandy Leon (彈帝獅)
Most of my closest (and at this point, only) friends smoke or have smoked in the past, so I don't judge people over that. At the same time, so do several mortal enemies, one of them being a friend I was secretly in love with and her two evil exes, so I don't know how or what to feel.
Did cut off two crappy friends who were puritanically anti-tobacco (one of them was anti-weed, despite being an ex-Mormon liberal), so there's also that.
Yeah I didn't say anywhere that smokers are bad people, some of my close friends also smoke. Smoking doesn't define personality I'm just saying that some people feel the need to start smoking as a type of fulfillment, which in my opinion does more harm than good
by neraida☆; ; Report