Smoking has become more than just a need of one person to satisfy the desire for a cigarette or feeding his nicotine addiction. For decades now smoking is considered as a social action, people get together in a designated smoking area and they see the rest of the world as intruders. They go to whoever has the lighter like he is a king, but that is all for adults, what about teen smokers? Their look on things hasn’t changed a bit, they still think cigarettes are cool, they still find the appeal in hiding and getting attention, both from parents and their peers. It’s very easy for a teenager to start smoking.

Five or six years back we all felt relieved when the statistics showed a large decrease in teenage smoking, the credits for that went to anti smoking campaigns. But it seems that they were short termed, in 2004 around 25% of teenagers were smokers, which was a decrease compared to 1997 when over 34% of teenagers used to smoke. In 2009, statistics show that almost 40% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 are smokers, so what happened.

Nothing happened, that is the problem. Pure pressure never used to work on a teenager; we all know that, we were all teenagers years or decades back. Pure pressure and some anti smoking campaigns and commercials are not enough. Kids see cigarettes as something appealing and attractive and they go for them, it is easy as one, two, three and they are already addicted. I don’t want to judge anyone, I don’t know much about prevention of that sort; and I’m sure there are plenty of people trying to solve that problem and they are doing their best. So since I can’t help with that, I can help with getting rid of that addiction. Which is not easy, the methods are easy but the process can be long and tiring.

I’m sorry to say there isn’t a simple cure, but there is only one way, you have to want to stop. It might take a long time, you might go through several relapses, but if you truly want to quit smoking you can make it happen. You have to forget about cigarette substitutes, most of them are even more harmful than cigarettes. The best chance you have along with the will to stop is to have a motive, something that will stimulate your desire to stop smoking even more. Once you get those two there are several ways for you to go, each person has its own buttons to press; you have to figure them out for yourself. You might be able to quit cold turkey or you may take it one step at a time, but the best bet is to seek some counseling, especially if you are a teenager. Getting heard and having someone that understands what you are going through by your side is the best sort of help anyone can get in any similar situation. Smoking is very easy to start, but very hard to stop, so do what you have to and find the strength to stop, after all, nobody forced you to start smoking, you had the strength for that, now you have to walk the hard part. But trust me, it’s worth it, you will start feeling alive after the first week.
 

Today’s teenagers have been stereotyped as adventurous and harebrained individuals.  They are generally fond of experimenting with things until they get in touch with drugs, sex, guns, alcohol among others. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures, 16,000 young adults die each year from unintentional injuries and accidents.  The most common justification for teenagers’ care-free attitude is that their brains just aren’t developed enough to know better. However, recent research shows that in some cases the fact is just the opposite, the brain matures not too slowly but perhaps, too quickly.

According to a psychiatrist, an adolescent who engages in more dangerous activities have white-matter pathways that seem to be more mature than those of risk-averse youths.  White-matter is the brain’s wiring, the neutral pathways that connect the various gray-matter regions of the cerebrum that are independent of one another.  Having a mature white-matter is necessary because it allows faster brain processing speed.  Nerve impulses also travel faster in mature white-matter. Experiments also reveal that the more mature the look of the brain, the more adventurous the teenager tended to be.
Another possible explanation is that some teenagers whose brains develop more rapidly than others become uncomfortable and a little confused owing to the gap between their biological capabilities and the social norms they must follow as kids. Precocious development of these neural tracts may make some adolescents more susceptible to engage in behaviors that society considers too adult in nature for their chronological age. It is also a common notion that teens make dumb decisions because their brains are immature. In other words, having a more mature brain may actually motivate some teens to try out new and potentially harmful experiences.
For now, these theories are mere speculation, and the researchers concede that the interaction of white and gray matter is so complex that hard conclusions remain elusive. The results of the study are relatively bare and by no means conclusive. The human brain is so intricate in nature, and one has to consider the fact that there are other factors that come into play such as the environment and certain genetic predispositions that are equally complex to study.