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Smoking is bad.
Yeah whatever, we get it. We all took Health. We know a public service announcement when we see one. Yet many of us are reaching into our pockets or crawling around on our dorm room floors looking for that half empty lighter because let's face it, that test this afternoon is going to blow. Something needs to calm us down and that pack should do it! Right?
Campus Calm had the opportunity to interview Sean Lewis, a senior English and Philosophy major at SUNY Fredonia, who identifies himself as a smoker.
Campus Calm What are some things that stress you out?
Sean: My bank account personally, the economy generally, my honor's thesis, deadlines and gossip.
Stress is any challenge you face in life. It comes in all shapes and sizes. They can be major issues such as illness in a family, relationship problems, or poor grades; or as little as the jerk behind you that kicks your chair and coughs on the back of your neck. Stress is unavoidable. But the way we handle our stress can change the way we feel.
Campus Calm How often do you smoke because of a stress related issue?
Sean: Rarely. Maybe 3% of my cigarettes are stress-cigs.
Campus Calm Does it help?
Sean: Somewhat.
Campus Calm Why does it or doesn't it?
Sean: It doesn't, because it doesn't actually make me any less stressed mentally. It just relaxes my body, which seems like the removal of stress.
Nicotine is a stimulant. Yes, it makes you feel good. There's no question about that. But it doesn't work for long, and as Sean testifies, it's not actually fixing anything. It's just hiding the actual problem for a little while. Secondly, according to www.smokefree.gov, those who smoke have higher stress levels than those who don't. Studies show that after quitting smoking, stress levels decrease.
Campus Calm What are some positives and negatives about using tobacco products as a stress reliever?
Sean: Uhhh... Lung cancer? Smokers Cough? Well, it's faster than a massage or psychotherapy. It keeps me thin. Feeling slightly more relaxed, even as a side effect of the nicotine, is better that no stress relief at all. And again, smoking is something I do all the time; it's just also something I do (more) when I'm stressed.
So smoking does have a few good qualities, but they're not worth the negative side effects, and they're not fixing any of your problems. As the www.smokefree.gov website says, smoking will kill you - the stress itself probably won't.
Tobacco Companies Are Spending What?
Tobacco companies in the US spend 15.4 billion dollars a year on advertising. That's millions every day just to get high school and college kids to smoke. As more young people are staying away from tobacco, the more tobacco companies are trying to push their cigarettes.
What You Didn't Know
• Light Cigarettes are no safer than regular cigarettes. They just contain different chemicals.
•
Filtered cigarettes might be blocking large pieces of tar, but they're letting the small pieces in that travel deeper into your body.
•
Filtered cigarettes also make smoking easier, allowing you to inhale poisons more deeply.
• Tobacco company executives know what's in cigarettes- they know not to smoke.
•Smoking kills more people than AIDS, murders, alcohol, drugs, suicide, and car crashes combined.
Secondhand Smoke and Nonsmokers
• Secondhand smoke includes the smoke left in a room the minutes after a cigarette or cigar has been smoked. Even small traces of it are harmful.
• The smoker inhales only 15% of cigarette smoke. The rest is released into the air.
• Secondhand smoke contains 4,000 substances. 60 cause cancer. 200 are known poisons. Secondhand smoke causes the death of 62,000 non-smokers every year.
3,000 of those are from lung cancer.
• 15,000 children will be hospitalized this year because of respiratory infections caused by secondhand smoke.
• Secondhand smoke is the leading cause of asthma.
Second hand smoke increases the severity and number of asthma attacks.
• Secondhand smoke can lead to heart disease.
• Women who live with a smoker have a 91% increase in the chance of having heart disease.
There is no safe exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking sections do not completely keep smoke out of non-smoking sections. Ventilation systems do not completely clear smoke from a room.
Other Ways to Relieve Stress
• Find a healthy way to chill. From yoga to kick boxing to lying in your bed with your iPod, find something that's going to clear your mind and allow your muscles to relax that'll be good for you too. Can't think of anything? Check out Campus Calm's article "20 Ways to Stress-Out Less" (article to be posted next week) or Campus Calm University: The College Student's 10-Step Blueprint to Stop Stressing & Create a Happy, Purposeful Life.
• Attack the actual problem. If it's the jerk behind you, sit someplace else. If it's something more serious, talk to a friend or a counselor at your school. You don't have to deal with stress on your own.
• Don't sweat the little stuff. There are some things we just can't do anything about: rain, the wall you keep stubbing your toe on, the bad coffee in the café.
Final Note: If you do smoke, please consider quitting. Find a reason that means something to you and give it a try. Visit www.smokefree.gov or www.quitnet.com.
The Great American Smokeout this year is November 21. For more information, go to www.cancer.org.
All of the facts in the article came from www.smokefree.gov, www.quitnet.com, www.cancer.org, www.lungusa.org, and www.no-smoke.org.
About the author:
Maria Pascucci is the President of Campus Calm –
the award-winning online-forum for today's stressed-out students, and
their parents and educators. Download your Stress-Out Less Kit with 4 FREE
gifts at www.campuscalm.com.
Want to reprint this article in YOUR own website?
You can as long as the article about college student stress time management
tips remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info
and link back to
www.campuscalm.com), and you send a copy of your reprint to
maria@campuscalm.com. You're also welcome to use my photo here.
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