How to Quit Smoking for Teenagers -The Role of Parents,Schools and the Society

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If you’re one of those looking for information on how to quit smoking for teenagers, please read this post to the very end as it contains all you need to know. Enjoy it.

Many celebrities confess to taking up the smoking habit in their teens. Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and a couple of others took up smoking right from their teens and even at 26 and after a few health challenges, Lindsay still smokes like a chimney.

Just like Lindsay got into smoking as a teenager, several other teenagers get into the habit daily due to various and sometimes unfathomable reasons. And the statistics are alarming.

According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (1994), approximately 6,000 young people try a cigarette and more than 3,000 children become regular smokers everyday.

Michael Mannion in his book: How to Help Your Teenager Stop Smoking asserts that nearly four million teenagers smoke, and another 3,000 start each day. “While adult smoking has declined, the 1990s have witnessed a dramatic rise in teenage smoking’, he says.

In the same vein, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says “over 4000 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 become regular smokers everyday. Half of these teens will become daily smokers.”

According to Charles Herrick, Charlotte Herrick, Marianne Mitchell in the book: 100 Questions & Answers about How to Quit Smoking, this surge in the number of teen smokers is due to the fact that “teens get addicted faster than adults”. Other reasons the book alluded to include parental smoking, peer smoking, seeing smoking as ‘cool’ and easy accessibility to tobacco products.

As alarming as teen smoking is, 100 Questions & Answers about How to Quit Smoking, says smoking among young adults is the most worrisome as they constitute the group with the largest numbers of addicted smokers: 44.3% of those aged between 18 to 25.

Reasons Why Teenagers Smoke

According to Dr David Brizer, in his book, Quitting Smoking for Dummies, “one big reason that teens smoke is to pump up their self esteem and self confidence.” As a parent, it’s therefore your duty to make sure your kids grow up with a healthy self esteem. If your kids are not confident about themselves, they will be influenced by their friends who smoke and adverts that depict cigarettes as passports to being ‘cool’.

Yet another reason why teenagers smoke is to avoid weight gain. Many teenagers and young adults erroneously believe preventing weight gain is possible through smoking. And so, they keep puffing only to discover it does not, according to this report.

Teenagers who have smoking parents would most likely smoke and that is another reason teenagers pick up the smoking habit.

To fit in and feel ‘cool’ among friends, some teenagers pick the smoking habit.

Yet another reason why teenagers get into smoking is the fact that celebrities who they look up to as role models smoke. They (teenagers) reason along these lines: If I adore an actor and want to be like him, whatever he does is ‘cool’ and if he is having fun smoking, why can’t I?

While teenagers get into smoking through all sorts of reasons, a recent study indicated it’s hard to quit the smoking habit is just as hard for teenagers as it is for adults.

The study made available online Sept. 4, 2012 in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research discovered that young people who are new to smoking experience similar negative psychological effects when they attempt to quit as people who’ve smoked for years. Scientists at Brown University conducted the research.

How Then Can Teenagers Be Helped to Quit Smoking?

Parents, schools and the society have a role to play in this regard.

Parents should spend quality time with their teenage smokers and vehemently discourage tobacco use but threats won’t help in this situation. Instead, a lot of convincing and appealing must be employed. Allow your teen smoker say his reasons for smoking and gently counteract each and every reason he gives. Make him understand the dangers of smoking. And without being harsh, assist him in setting a quit date, provide self-help materials, encourage him to think of the health benefits of quitting and monitor his peer relationships.

Encourage him to exercise frequently as an American Academy of Pediatrics report investigated the advantage of adding exercise to some teen smoking cessation programs. After the research, the AAP found that those teens who involved in physical workout had a greater chance of cessation at 24 weeks. This was particularly evident among the male folk.

Also, do a bit of calculation and come up with the exact figure your teen is expending on cigarettes in a week, month, and possibly, a year. And try to convince him or her to quit for just a week and invest the money in a gift he had always wanted. That can motivate him to quit. After that first week, convincing him or her becomes much easier.

If you realize in your interaction with your teen smoker that he is smoking because of lack of self confidence, try to involve him in activities that’ll help boost his self esteem and make him understand that he can live a full life without cigarettes.

While trying to help your teen get over smoking, please be a good example to him. You cannot give what you don’t have. You can’t expect your teen smoker to stop smoking while you’re actively smoking.

William L. Fibkins in his book: What Schools Should Do to Help Kids Stop Smoking, encourages schools to implement school -based tobacco prevention and intervention programs modeled after successful tobacco intervention programs like the Great American Smoke Out, CDC’s Project TNT, the American Medical Association GAPS program, and so many other successful community intervention programs.

The society should provide a clean and smoke-free environment for these teen smokers. It helps to strengthen their resolve to quit and stay smoke-free. There should also be advertising controls so that adverts that portray smoking as the passport to a fuller life can be eradicated. The society should celebrate and highlight celebrities who have successfully quit so these teens can see that smoking is truly dangerous.

For further help, please download CDC’s ebook on preventing tobacco use among youth and the young adult.

Study Confirms Risk of Death for Teenage Smokers

An October 2012 study revealed that teenage smokers are more probable to die of heart disease years down the line, even if they quit by the time they’re middle-aged. David Batty, who co-ordinated the new study at University College London,with colleagues, maintained it was never too late to quit. This study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is a huge wake up call to parents, societies and schools to help teen smokers overcome their addiction.

Earlier, a study made available in the journal Addictive Behaviours, linked smoking to depression among adolescents.

Michael Chaiton, the co-ordinating author of the research as well as a research associate at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit of the University of Toronto, held that while cigarettes may seem to improve mood and have self-medicating effects in the short term, teens who began to smoke experienced higher depressive symptoms in the long term.

This is enough motivation to save our youth, our future from the devastating effects of cigarette smoking. Parents, teachers and the society at large, the ball is in your court!

References:

Quitting Smoking Just as Hard for Teens: Study; HealthDay News; FRIDAY, Sept. 14

100 Questions & Answers About How to Quit Smoking; Charles Herrick, Charlotte Herrick, Marianne Mitchell; Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Sep 22, 2009

Quitting Smoking For Dummies; David Brizer, M.D. ; John Wiley & Sons, May 4, 2011

How to Help Your Teenager Stop Smoking; Michael Mannion; Welcome Rain Publishers, Apr 1, 2000

What Schools Should Do to Help Kids Stop Smoking; William L. Fibkins; Eye on Education, Jan 1, 2000

bit.ly/T5AVCh Journal of the American College of Cardiology, online October 3, 2012

Smoking, Depression Linked in Teens, health24.com, Monday, August 30,2012

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