Why do people smoke though they know its injurious to health?!

Why do people smoke though they know its injurious to health?

For some, it's because life is hard and fraught with all kinds of pain and stress.

When life is a difficult place to be, people turn to all sorts of things to alleviate the stress, or at least ro provide a distraction from the stressors... some to alcohol, some to drugs, some to self-injury of one kind or another... some to workaholism.. Some people choose healthier ways to alleviate the stress -- some to jogging, walking, or biking, some to yoga.

I think the choices we make about handling stress have a lot to do with the models we had growing up... BY the same token, a lot of the stress some of us have, has a lot to do with what we were saddled with, growing up (i.e., various forms of abuse, depressed parents, absent parents, etc.).

That said, I dealt with abuse growing up. I used to be outwardly angry, until I realized I didn't want to hurt anyone else... so then I turned to self- injury. It kept my anger on myself... no one else had to hurt... though I felt suicidal, I knew that suicide would hurt my loved ones... when I was in my 30's, I took up smoking. The angrier I was (undealt with emotions) the more cigs I smoked. I figured it was like playing roulette. If I developed cancer and died, great; if not, life would go on as before.

The folks I know, who smoke, are just dealing with the stresses in life. They're playing roulette while paying the bills and doing the "responsible thing," until a better choice shows up.

If you don't understand why people smoke, though smoking is bad for their health, then thank God that your life had been so blessed... note that I did not say your life has been easy... but somewhere along the line, you learned how to deal with hardship in positive ways.