I smoked for 3 years before my parents found out, my punishment was
to write this, and I was grounded for the whole summer, I also wrote this
one
Technical addiction stuff
Addiction in teenagers is now being linked to Depression. Teenage
girls with addictions are twice as likely to be depressed as boys of their
age. The question scientists are now trying to find an answer to
is does addiction cause depression or does depression cause addiction.
(Personally I think depression causes addiction.)
There are many things that trigger smokers to need a smoke, strong feelings
such as anger, loneliness, and boredom. Also some situations where
a smoker will want a smoke are after a break up, when having troubles at
home or school, at parties, when friends or family smoke, while drinking
alcohol or eating, to appear more clamorous or grown up, or to reward yourself
for something. People also smoke to give themselves a feeling of
rebellion. To quit smoking an addict has to learn how to deal with
each of these situations and more without a smoke.
There are three types of cigarette addiction physical, behavioral, and
physical and behavioral. With a physical addiction the body is addicted
to nicotine. A person who is physically addicted uses smokes to relax
and deal with stress. With a behavioral addiction it’s more like
your brain. These people smoke more out of habit then addiction,
their brain just says it’s time to have a smoke now, because it used to
having one then. Physical and behavioral smokers smoke out of addiction
and habit. The female body absorbs more nicotine then the male so
women have a higher chance of getting addicted to cigarettes.
Withdrawal is felt differently by everyone, these are just some of the
things a person will experience during withdrawal sweating, rapid pulse,
hand tremors, insomnia, nausea, physical agitation, anxiety, hallucinations
or illusions, and grand mal seizures. They may be grouchy or irritable,
for this listen to calming music or take a bath. Bored, stay active.
Hungry, eat low calorie snacks or chew a toothpick. Loss of energy,
get lots of rest, exercise and fresh air. Depressed, listen to music
or visit a friend. Nervous, avoid caffeine. Cravings occur
about once every 20-45 minutes and they last from 5-10 minutes.
Helping to quit
Quitting
Most smokers go through a period of time when they build up their confidence
and bring down the number of smokes the have a day. Common roadblocks
for people trying to quit are a fear of losing friends, fare of failure,
a false sense of immortality, and sadness. There are two ways to
quit smoking, tapering off, and cold turkey. When a person tapers
off they slowly cut down the amount of cigarettes they smoke a day.
First you pick a date one to two weeks in the future, only take with you
the exact amount of smokes you plan on smoking that day. On your
pre-designated quit date stop. When a person quits cold turkey they
just spontaneously quit no cutting down or anything like that. The
main trick to quitting smoking is to think of yourself as a non-smoker.
When a person tries to quit smoking hey will encounter two kinds of
people, supporters and non-supporters. Non supporters usually feel
insecure especially if they are smokers who have tried to quit or recently
thought about quitting and aren’t strong enough to quit so they don’t want
you to either. Try to explain to them that quitting is very important
to your and you would appreciate their support, maybe offer to help them
attempt to quit. If they still don’t support you then it would
be wise not to be around them a lot, try to surround yourself with friends
and family that will over you support when you need it.
Always remember, the decision to quit has to come from you. You
won’t succeed in quitting if someone tries to make you or you quit just
cause some of your friends are. It has to be something that you full
hartedly want to do. A non smoker is more a state of mind then anything
else, you have to think “I no longer smoke” and truly believe that, you
can’t think “I don’t know about later, but for now I quit” cause it wont
work that way. If you are finding it extremely hard to quit then
try to avoid situations and people that will tempt you to smoke.
To help yourself quit smoking think of these benefits, when you quit
you’ll feel better about yourself and healthwise, your teeth will be whiter,
you’ll have better coloring in your face, you’ll smell better, you’ll be
breathing cleaner air, you’ll be saving money and you’ll be saving yourself
from a higher risk of cancer and heart disease. Designate one person
as your supporter and every time you have a strong urge to smoke call them
or go visit them or treat them to lunch in a non-smoking restaurant.
The chemicals in tobacco smoke
In the U.K the cigarette with the least amount of tar for 1999 was Nayfair
Ultra Lights with only one mg per cigarette. The brand with the most
tar was York Superkings with 14 mg of tar per cigarette .9 mg of nicotine
per cig and 16 mg of CO (Carbon Monoxide) per cig. These statistics
were found using a smoke machine. A smoke machine works by inhaling
the smoke into a little place and testing it for different chemicals.
A limit has now been placed by the U.K government to 12 mg of tar per cig.
In 1992 it was 15 mg/cig
Your health
Drugs and addiction
Most drugs are classified into three groups, the psycholeptica, the
stimulantia or psychoanacepticaand the hallucinogen or psychodysleptica.
The psycholeptica inhibits your brain activity. The stimulantia stimulates
the brain and the hallucinogen changes the balance of brain activity.
Hallucinogens are the most commonly used group of drugs. It consists
of LSD psilocybine, mescaline, PCP MDMA (XTC) hash and marijuana.
Hash and marijuana are the most popular drug because they keep working
but cause little lasting effect on the body. The stimulants include
amphetamine methylamphetamine, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine and anti depressants.
The most dangerous affect of doing drugs is the O.D (overdose).
It is cause when a person takes to many drugs. Their brain just stops
causing the person to pass out and suffocate. The person is usually
not aware that this is happening. If you are with someone who is
experiencing an overdose never leave them alone to just get over it, make
sure you keep them awake then they’ll have more control over their breathing
and then if they barf it’ll all get out of their throat. Signs of
an overdose are the person goes limp and gets pale, they breath slowly
if at all, a foam may appear on their lips which will turn blue, the person
may vomit or go into an epileptic fit.
When a person overdoses on dope, first shake him and call his name to
check if he’s conscious. If he’s not then slap his face pinch him
hard under the collar bone or splash cold water on his face to try and
wake him up. Once he shows any form of life keep him awake force
him to walk around and watch to make sure he doesn’t pass out again.
If someone shows sings of an overdose call 911 immediately, don’t worry
about the cops they will be more concerned with saving his life then arresting
him. You may have to give the person artificial respiration until
the ambulance arrives, no matter what do not leave the person alone.
When the paramedics arrive they will give the patient a shot of Narcan.
Narcan is a medication that immediately stops any affect heroin may have
on the brain. It will stop a heroin overdose in its tracks.
If you are using dope there are some safety guidelines to follow.
Never smoke dope alone, if you OD when your alone you wont be able to give
yourself fist aid or call an ambulance, so always have someone with you.
If you go out of town or start using a different dealer start with small
amounts because you don’t know how potent it will be. It is wise
not to smoke pot after a lot of drinking or pills, because you may vomit
and that can get stuck in your windpipe and kill you. If you stop
using for a while or cut down considerably the amount of drugs you are
using don’t think you can start again with the same amount as you used
to use cause your body will no longer be used to that much. These
guidelines don’t mean its okay to go do drugs, they are just stuff to remember
if you are already using, REMEMBER it’s still not safe to do drugs.
The idea of giving a person who is experiencing an overdose a shot of salt
water is useless, that’s just an old wives tale.
Addiction to me… at the end
Another reason I’ve decide to quit is cuz I saw Jeff while walking to
McDonalds with Katie, I told him why I was grounded for ever and he asked
why. I told him and he said that he couldn’t stand being with a girl
who smokes cuz it be like licking an ashtray every time they kissed. I
don’t mean I wanna be with him cuz he’s to old. But that just helped
me to realize that a lot of guys, or any body think its really disgusting
to see people smoke and I’d never want the fact that I smoked to get in
between me and a cute guy.
Written by Heidi
Addiction to me...
Addiction to me is living your whole life for that one thing.
Like with smokes I’m either thinking about when I’ll get my next one, when
I’ll have time to smoke it, and how relieving it is when I do, then its
right back to when I’ll get my next one, its like an endless cycle that
is really hard to break. It’s almost like waking up in the morning,
something that has to be done every day. Addiction is a sign of weakness,
you are no longer in control of your life, and you can’t regain control.
That is my opinion of addiction before any research. The remainder
of this paper will be stuff I find out through my research.
With addiction comes three symptoms; tolerance which just means you
need more of that substance to get the desired affect, Withdrawal which
occurs if you don’t have the substance for a prolonged amount of time,
and a greater use of the substance then expected or desired. Addicts
may also experience unsuccessful attempts to stop using the substance,
or cut down the amount being used. Addicts spend a great deal of
time using, which may reduce them socially, occupationally or recreationally.
A user may continue to use a substance even after they have contracted
a serious health problem from it.
Scientist have developed five medicines to help smokers quit; gum,
patch, nasal sprays, inhalers, and sublingual tablets. All of those
work by releasing controlled amounts of nicotine into your body in one
way or another. The gum is chewed not like any regular gum but like
once a minute for a half-hour. If you chew it like a regular gum
it will release too much nicotine even for the heaviest smoker and you
will get sick to your stomach. The patch is placed in certain areas
of the skin and it slowly releases nicotine into your blood flow.
Nasal sprays are quite simple, you just spray into your nose and use like
any other nasal spry. These have been known to cause an irrition
in the nose. The inhaler, you inhale nicotine threw the mouth, it
also makes you feel more like your smoking which is good for habitual smokers.
The sublingual tablet dissolves under your tongue.
People trying to quit smoking should try some of these tips, take it
one day at a time, don’t worry about tomorrow till it hits, positive self
talk, keep telling yourself you can do it, never say maybe I will.
To deal with sudden urges to smoke take a shower and breath deeply, go
for a walk, brush your teeth (to make smoking less appealing), participate
in physical activities. Chew a tooth pick or raw vegetable, drink
ice water, play cards, play an instrument, listen to music, watch T.V or
do other things that will distract you from smokes.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 harmful chemicals, it is mostly made
up of tar (the main chemical that builds up in your lungs) nicotine, carbon
monoxide, cyanide, formaldehyde, ammonia, and arsenic just to name a few.
Tobacco smoke has been proven to be just as addictive as heroin.
Some of the chemicals in tobacco smoke are caused by the burning of the
smoke while others are there already. 43 of the chemicals in cigarettes
are known carcinogens (cancer causing chemical). The amount of each
chemical you inhale is dependent on many things, the way the tobacco is
processed, if there's a filter, the paper its rolled in, weather there’s
any ventilation and how it is smoked. Tar is the chemical that damages
the little hairs on your lungs, those hairs help to protect your lungs
from dirt and infection. Tar can also stain your fingers and teeth.
Ammonia is used to clean toilets. Arsenic is a rat poison
Some health risks youth take when they smoke are nicotine addiction,
increased heart rate and blood pressure, reduced oxygen to the brain, increased
coughing shortness of breath, fatigue and early teeth and gum decay.
Teenage girls that are on birth control pills have an advanced chance of
getting a serious heart disease, strokes or high blood pressure.
Smokes also cause you to look old before your time. After the long
time use of tobacco smoke there are higher chances of getting lung, mouth,
throat, pancreas, bladder, kidney and cervix cancer. Smoking can
cause birth defects such as slower brain patterns, asthma, and really skinny.
Not everyone who uses marijuana becomes addicted, but many do.
An addicted marijuana user is said to feel like they need to take the drug
to feel well, or make it through the day. 100,000 marijuana users
experience “tolerance” for it. Just in the last couple years has
treatment become easily attained. Scientist are currently working
to find a medication that that will help marijuana users quit. For
now treatment is based on concealing and group support systems.
So now that I’ve written this easy on addiction I’ve decided to quit
smoking altogether. I’ve learned some new strategies for not smoking.
I’m gonna quit cold turkey, but I’m gonna need you to read this and try
to remember that it might make me slightly moody for a little while.
It will help me to be aloud to go for walks to take my mind off smoking,
and have a supporter like it says in this easy. I’ve also learned
some of the bad things about smoking pot and other drugs and learned how
to deal with an overdose, that may come in handy some day, who knows maybe
I’ll save someone’s life and this easy will come in more handy then either
of us though.