Over the last 20 years, cigarettes have changed in their shape and form in many ways. They now contain more harmful ingredients than ever before, and the tobacco industry has dramatically expanded its marketing strategies to target new and diverse populations, including children.
Many people smoke because this is how they learn to deal with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), negative moods, and the stresses of everyday life.
Smoking can be part of other activities in your daily life, such as watching TV, using the phone, going out with friends, visiting certain places, or taking a break to relax. Then smoking becomes part of a pattern or routine.
Addiction is one of the main reasons that people smoke. A personal consultation or a phone call with a counselor can teach you how to break the link between smoking and your daily activities.
Porn, like smoking can also become an addiction. Both of these activities have been subject to heavy stigma in the society lately. They have gone from a delightful pastime to a social taboo.
The Story of Cigarettes
Tobacco has been around for a long time, and here’s an account of that.
From Ancient History
Since ancient times, smoking has been practiced in one form or another. Tobacco and various hallucinogenic drugs were used as early as 5000 BC. Since then, people used tobacco for chewing and smoking in cultural or religious ceremonies and events.
Tribes in eastern North America carried large amounts of bagged tobacco as an easily accepted commodity and often smoked it in ceremonial pipes, either at sacred ceremonies or to seal deals. Both adults and children enjoyed the practice.
People believed that tobacco was a gift from the Creator. And that the exhaled tobacco smoke could carry thoughts and prayers to heaven. In addition to smoking, tobacco had several uses as medicine. It was a pain reliever as well. Indians said smoking was a cure for colds. Especially tobacco with the leaves of the small desert sage, was optimal.
Tobacco in Traditional Markets
The prevalence of smoking continued to increase in the early 20th century, largely due to the development of new forms of tobacco advertising and the power and wealth of the tobacco industry’s ability to influence political party politics.
Smoking had increased dramatically during the World Wars, largely due to the policy of making free cigarettes available to Allied troops as a “moral-enhancing” exercise. Later in the 20th century, smoking lost its popularity as knowledge of the health effects of active and passive smoking increased rapidly.
People became aware of the tobacco industry’s efforts to mislead the public about the various harmful health effects of smoking and to manipulate public policies for the short-term interests of the industry.
Once this information started to spread, the citizens became aware of its effects and many people began filing lawsuits against tobacco companies for smoke-related illnesses that emerged in the second half of the 20th century.
Popularity of Smoking in the Modern World
Social smoking has become a common activity among millennials in today’s society. Some people smoke when they go out with friends or feel comfortable in social situations. Social smokers occasionally and almost always smoke in groups, often while drinking alcohol.
For many people, drinking alcohol is a trigger or an activity associated with smoking. Social smokers do not believe that they are harming themselves by not smoking every day. However, there can be health consequences if you smoke, even if it happens only occasionally.
Read More: How To Recover From Sex Addiction
Smoking & anything Social
Social smoking is not safe, contrary to popular opinion.
Every cigarette is harmful to your health.
If you smoke, you are at a higher risk of heart disease and cancer than people who don’t. Even a cigarette every now and then could harm your social life. Smoking also means the people you are with would get secondhand smoke, which can be worse. Secondhand smoke is dangerous for anyone who breathes it in.
Shisha smoking is a common form of social smoking that is popular with teenagers and students. Many people think that shisha is a healthier option than traditional cigarettes. It can be just as harmful as traditional cigarettes. Even after passing through water, hookah smoke contains high amounts carcinogenic materials. Like carbon monoxide, metals, and checmicals from the same family. One shisha session has the same harmful effects on your body as smoking five packs of cigarettes.
Due to the rapid rise in smoking in developing countries in the late 20th century. The number of annual deaths from smoking rose in the later part of it. In contrast, by the beginning of the 21st century, the scene is different. More and more people are starting to see tobacco for the harmful thing that it is.
The addictive nature of smoking tobacco is now common knowledge. A key point of contention is whether smoking regularly leads to a change in the person, causing them to continue smoking and depriving the person of voluntary control over their behavior.
How Porn is Running the Same Course
A similar pattern is emerging with consumption of porn as well. Let’s see what the deal with all that is over here.
#1 Porn & Tobacco: How are they Similar?
At first glance, tobacco and pornography don’t seem to have much in common. Because of its known harmful effects, tobacco is available behind the gas station counter. And an adult will need a valid ID to be able to buy it. However, porn is available almost everywhere with an internet connection.
Tobacco can quickly become an expensive habit, while a habit of consuming pornography can be completely free. But is a habit like smoking tobacco similar to consuming pornography? The simple answer: Yes. At some point, a direct comparison between the effects of drugs and the effect of pornography begins to crumble. Tobacco addiction and porn addiction are very similar. And it all starts in the brain.
Porn can trigger this process endlessly as it is infinitely available. Like addictive products like tobacco, pornography can create pathways in the brain that lead to cravings, and those cravings can drive consumers to seek the same “high” levels for longer periods of time.
What’s worse is that the amount of dopamine flowing through the brain only increases with repeated use. Every time a consumer turns to pornography, their desire for more increases. But as the consumer brain gains that greater desire, it loses something else.
#2 Delightful Pastime to Social Taboo
It is a widely popular belief that porn has become the cigarettes of our era. The strategy to counter the porn problem is similar to the former.
Candid statements out there justify watching pornography, such as: “Pornography is a natural way for you to release your sexual urges. And that watching pornography can improve your sex life”. Notwithstanding these open-ended statements, further research continues to show that watching pornography daily negatively impacts your physical and mental health.
In the past, if you wanted to watch porn, you had to sneak into a room at the back of a video store or go to an adult theater. Whenever you try to buy pornographic content, the cashier will ask for your ID to make sure you are of legal age as if you were buying cigarettes.
In today’s technology age, hardcore porn is just a Google search away and most of it is free. With so much pornographic content going on, people have started to wonder how harmful and addicting pornography can be.
Research has shown that watching pornography can be addicting. Watching too much porn can alter and reconfigure the way the brain works, much like it does when using drugs. More and more people are consuming pornographic material. The content is more accessible and cheaper. The content is also more hardcore than ever.
Porn addiction isn’t a medical disorder yet as per the professional terms. It is instead a compulsive behavior in the books. Daily research forces analysts to realize that porn addiction is a similar disease to drug and alcohol addiction. Pornography can lead people down a path of deviation.
#3 Which Stage Porn is at Today?
When someone buys cigarettes, the box often comes with a warning from the doctor to warn the person that tobacco use could have potentially serious consequences. Cigarette suppliers don’t require by law, to follow the guidelines to ensure that the consumer understands the harmful aspects. Porn is exactly a similar addictive behavior that people can engage in without realizing how harmful they can be.
The prevailing social consensus on pornography today is practically identical to toacco use. Serious people, including experts, advocate its use or deny its harm, or both. Plus, a lot of people find it to be cool. Especially among younger people, and this social status diminishes the already low incentive to question it publicly.
Pornography is the most wanted item on the internet and it is also the most profitable. The other moment captured by the opening description is ours, only this time it’s not about tobacco, but about pornography, especially the internet.
Pornography so ubiquitous today, so heavily promoted by stakeholders, and as widely accepted as an inevitable social fact as smoking was about 50 years ago. It has got mentions in more public places than we can list. With a wink or a sly smile, on phones, in video games and popular music, in comics and on skateboards, including other areas of youth culture.
How we Can Stop Porn from Harming Us?
Excessive porn viewing can cause serious problems, whether it is addictive in the traditional medical sense. Although there is disagreement about the causes of porn addiction, treatment generally involves addressing an underlying problem that could be related to mental health. Simple lifestyle changes can help.
To end this addiction for good, the first step should be to block porn sites with readily available browser extension tools and to log out of existing sites. Then record your progress so you know that you are constantly exerting yourself and not thinking about letting go of your exertion for nothing. Knowing what drives you to watch porn is also important, it may be specific ads or boredom so avoid them at all costs.
The care of a sex positive therapist who can identify underlying problems and offer evidence-based treatment strategies can help a person improve their relationships and regain a sense of control over pornography use.
