Smoking is a habit that millions of people across the globe have adopted, and many thousands more will die from it this year. This habit claims many lives by destroying the internal organs and several other critical body systems, but it can also have another effect: destroying your self-esteem.
Self-esteem is how we view ourselves physically and as people. It includes how we feel about our accomplishments, personality, looks, and much more. It’s not exactly common knowledge that smoking cigarettes can affect your self-esteem, but it most certainly can. Let’s look at some ways it can affect you that you may never have even thought of!
A Serious Health Concern
First, let’s address the most pressing concern of smoking. It’s a health hazard both for individuals and for the public. Not only does smoking destroy important bodily systems and drastically increase your chances of developing cancer or disease, but it also pollutes the air, ground, and purchasing tobacco products supports an industry with little regard for the planet.
Did you know that cigarette butts are actually the most littered item on the planet? Each year, they account for billions of pounds of waste, and they end up in waterways, ecosystems, and all over roads and sidewalks. Those chemicals present in cigarettes can find their way into drinking water and affect both flora and fauna.
Whether you’re aware of the far-reaching effects of smoking or not, there’s a good chance smoking has made you feel guilty when you exhale smoke near a non-smoker or flick a butt onto the ground.
One of the most amazing advances in recent years is the creation of tobaccoless chew, like the kind produced by Black Buffalo. Not only are tobaccoless products far more affordable, but they’re also more responsible in how their ingredients are sourced and the impact the industry as a whole has on the environment.
Physical Signs Of Smoking
Smoking does more than just damage your insides. The physical signs of smoking can cause your entire look to change over time, and many smokers often appear much older than they actually are. As humans, we’re constantly fighting the bite of time. It ages our looks, our organs, our skin—but smoking helps to speed up that process. Let’s look at some of the physical signs of smoking that might be affecting how you see yourself.
Drooping Skin
Smoking causes the capillaries and blood vessels in the skin to contract and also causes the skin to lose its elasticity. When this occurs, you develop bags under your eyes, sagging skin on other parts of the face, breasts, and arms, and more. Dropping skin usually occurs as the skin naturally loses elasticity due to aging, but smoking accelerates the process.
Age Spots and Wrinkles
Age spots and wrinkles are a tell-tale sign of aging. The skin loses elasticity, causing it to sag and deform around frequently-used muscle groups, like those of the face and eyes. This is pretty much inevitable with age, but smoking is a good way to add more wrinkles and accentuate the age spots. This is because smoking restricts the blood flow to crucial areas, which means your skin doesn’t get the right nutrients it needs to stay healthy and firm.
Poor Dental Health
You’ve probably noticed your dental health deteriorating as you smoke. This is because the tar and other chemicals inside cigarettes can cause tooth decay, gum disease, and discoloration of your teeth. Having whiter teeth is a benefit, and can help you make connections, get dates, and even impress employers or clients. Smoking yellows the teeth and causes them to decay quicker. Not to mention, it can cause mouth and throat cancer.
Financial Problems
Interestingly enough, there’s a connection between smoking and income level. The CDC states that people living in poverty often smoke twice as long as those living within their means. There also seems to be a connection between financial disparity and smoking.
Smoking itself is a habit that can have serious financial consequences. The cost of cigarettes continues to rise, but the real cost of smoking lies in the devalued home, vehicle, and personal property of smokers due to smoke damage, and the medical bills that will inevitably accompany a smoking habit.
You can’t smoke and not have health problems eventually. You’re inhaling over 7,000 chemicals with each cigarette, and many of those are known carcinogens and poisons.
Stigma
Smoking isn’t like it used to be. Where once it was considered cool and fashionable to be a smoker, research has revealed smoking for what it really is—a dangerous, destructive, and unhygienic habit. Being ostracized from certain social groups for being a smoker can be incredibly damaging to a person’s self-esteem, but non-smokers usually don’t want to be exposed to the dangers that a smoking habit presents. Second-hand smoke is still a serious threat to non-smokers and causes thousands of deaths each year.
Conclusion
Smoking can wreak havoc on your internal bodily systems, your exterior visage, and even your financial wellbeing. The bottom line? Smoking doesn’t do anything for your personal health or self-esteem. In fact, it worsens them. Do you need a more compelling list of reasons to rid yourself of the habit?
