Why Quitting Smoking Is Different For Young People
What is special about young people, well plenty if you ask them.
So why is it different for young people to quit smoking than someone older? The longer someone smokes the more ingrained are their behaviours.
If someone has smoked for 30 years they have probably smoked to relieve stress thousands of times.
But someone who is nineteen and has smoked for four or five years has made that connection far fewer times.
But someone who is nineteen and has smoked for four or five years has made that connection far fewer times.
For young people to learn how to quit smoking they must understand the differences between them selves and a long term smoker.
This applies to all the connections, including alcohol, on the phone, while driving etc.
So you would assume that it is easier for a young person to quit than an older smoker who has smoked for much longer.
But,here's the thing, if you are young you may not realise this, or you may deny it.
I admire the enthusiasm and the self confidence of the young, but the self belief can translate to self delusion.
Most older clients will admit that in their younger years they didn't worry about smoking because they believed that they could quit when they wanted to.
Yet decades later they were still struggling.
Younger people typically think they are in control and they will quit whenever they like.
The joke is on them.
The other thing about young people is that they think they are bullet proof.
It's a combination of their self belief and their increased risk taking due to lack of mature frontal lobes.
This is a part of the brain that doesn't fully mature until about age 25 The best way to get young people to quit smoking it's to appeal to something that makes sense to them.
Smoking makes you ugly is a campaign which worked well in the UK.
It hit right at the heart of the fears of young women.
Smoking damages the skin by shortening the life span of an average cell.
Plus smoking injects thousands of chemicals into each and every cell.
Smoking can make you impotent.
This obviously hits hard at young men.
Their ego's can and will be influenced by the risk of failing to perform because of smoking.
This happens because of compromised circulation and toxic chemicals affecting the hormone systems.
For younger smokers perhaps of school age some direct leverage can be applied.
A recent example was the parents threatened to remove the access to a young man's motor bike unless he quit.
He wanted to but felt that he would be estranged from his friends.
Fortunately being estranged from his motor bike was even more powerful.
for him this was the most powerful way to quit smoking.
So why is it different for young people to quit smoking than someone older? The longer someone smokes the more ingrained are their behaviours.
If someone has smoked for 30 years they have probably smoked to relieve stress thousands of times.
But someone who is nineteen and has smoked for four or five years has made that connection far fewer times.
But someone who is nineteen and has smoked for four or five years has made that connection far fewer times.
For young people to learn how to quit smoking they must understand the differences between them selves and a long term smoker.
This applies to all the connections, including alcohol, on the phone, while driving etc.
So you would assume that it is easier for a young person to quit than an older smoker who has smoked for much longer.
But,here's the thing, if you are young you may not realise this, or you may deny it.
I admire the enthusiasm and the self confidence of the young, but the self belief can translate to self delusion.
Most older clients will admit that in their younger years they didn't worry about smoking because they believed that they could quit when they wanted to.
Yet decades later they were still struggling.
Younger people typically think they are in control and they will quit whenever they like.
The joke is on them.
The other thing about young people is that they think they are bullet proof.
It's a combination of their self belief and their increased risk taking due to lack of mature frontal lobes.
This is a part of the brain that doesn't fully mature until about age 25 The best way to get young people to quit smoking it's to appeal to something that makes sense to them.
Smoking makes you ugly is a campaign which worked well in the UK.
It hit right at the heart of the fears of young women.
Smoking damages the skin by shortening the life span of an average cell.
Plus smoking injects thousands of chemicals into each and every cell.
Smoking can make you impotent.
This obviously hits hard at young men.
Their ego's can and will be influenced by the risk of failing to perform because of smoking.
This happens because of compromised circulation and toxic chemicals affecting the hormone systems.
For younger smokers perhaps of school age some direct leverage can be applied.
A recent example was the parents threatened to remove the access to a young man's motor bike unless he quit.
He wanted to but felt that he would be estranged from his friends.
Fortunately being estranged from his motor bike was even more powerful.
for him this was the most powerful way to quit smoking.