I quit smoking recently, all I did was read The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. The book's success rate is higher than any other method available. I recommend the book to any level of smoker, you can buy the book for less than $8 at Amazon.com. Just as Carr says, if you buy and read the book, you have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain. For $8 it's a no-brainer.
i heard it makes them relax, or something like that, mostly used by people under stress, if you ask me, this thing shouldnt be legal in the u.s., killing people for no reason.
twit and HiroDaZero: People start smoking for a variety of reasons but primarily, smoking is a social accessory, it's used to "fit in" (at least initially). It's no surprise teenagers take to smoking so easily, it might as well be a trendy pair of shoes or pants (that gives you cancer).
As for smoking to relieve stress or to relax, this only applies to established smokers. A non-smoker under stress would not benefit from a cigarette because they are not addicted to nicotine yet. When a smoker is stressing out, they tend to chain-smoke because stress mirrors the physical feelings of nicotine withdrawal pangs. Anytime a smoker is smoking, they're merely relieving withdrawal pangs, regardless what the situation is. So think of it this way, smokers smoke just to feel normal, so they don't feel the withdrawal pangs anymore. Non-smokers have no withdrawal to deal with, they don't need nicotine in their systems to feel normal. It's a pretty straight forward addiction and quiting is far easier than it seems to be.
mrwjinx: Cutting back is one of the worst things you can do, it just makes the withdrawal pangs worse and quitting even harder to achieve. You can find such information in the book "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. :D
drawn in 10 min
As for smoking to relieve stress or to relax, this only applies to established smokers. A non-smoker under stress would not benefit from a cigarette because they are not addicted to nicotine yet. When a smoker is stressing out, they tend to chain-smoke because stress mirrors the physical feelings of nicotine withdrawal pangs. Anytime a smoker is smoking, they're merely relieving withdrawal pangs, regardless what the situation is. So think of it this way, smokers smoke just to feel normal, so they don't feel the withdrawal pangs anymore. Non-smokers have no withdrawal to deal with, they don't need nicotine in their systems to feel normal. It's a pretty straight forward addiction and quiting is far easier than it seems to be.