#1–5 in 5 Prototype
As a part of my research on smoking, I interviewed two sets of people that is people who are smoke and who do not. I asked them a set of questions and have consolidated their responses as below. I tried to draw a pattern between their responses.
People who smoke
Question: What was the circumstance that made them start smoking?
Response: The most generic answers to this question was either stress or peer pressure. A lot of people mentioned that they picked by this habit to dissolve in the group of people around them which more or less translates to peer influence or peer pressure. There is no other objective to smoking in such scenarios to begin with and that is how most people start. Once they have started and know how it feels it becomes their immediate resort in situations of stress and anxiety.
Question: Why do people smoke? Why is smoking so addictive?
Response: What I understood from most people is that smoking helps them numb their mind and senses for a short span of time. It brings a sense of calm where one does not bother much about the ongoing things and that’s what draws people towards smoking.
It is addictive because of the state of mind that it gives. And since this state of mind does not last for a long time, people have a tendency to smoke more to be able to retain this state. As the consumption of smoke increases so does the resistance of their body towards it, which leads to the people having to smoke more to reach the desired state of mind.
Question: Are people aware about what smoking does to their body and health?
Response: In the world that we’re living almost everyone is aware of the harm smoking can cause but we choose to stay oblivious to it. Of all the people I interviewed everyone agreed to be aware about the same but does not believe that it’s doing anything to them or they believe they’ll be able to quit soon which will help them reserve the effect but which is nothing but something they’re saying to satisfy themselves.
Question: Do they really want to quit? What are they things they’ve tried to do so?
Response: Some people that I interviewed had the believe that it is not an addiction for them and they can leave this habit anytime they want. While this could be true for a small set of people, the other set of people were only saying this to fool themselves and the people around them.
Then there is another set of people who are heavy smokers and are either themselves troubled and worried about it or their loved ones are. And so they have resorted to ways that could help them avoid smoking like nicotine patches. While some did succeed, a large number of people fell back to the addiction again or more heavily after trying these resort methods.
People who do not smoke
Question: What was the circumstance that make people start smoking?
Response: People who do not smoke understand the situation that could’ve led to the development of this habit in people who do. Most popular answers in the people I interviewed who do not smoke said that they believe that it either starts with company that does smoke and begins as an influence and probably sticks around for the same reason or alternatively stress.
Question: Why do people smoke? Why is smoking so addictive?
Response: This question is still a mystery to people who do not smoke I’d say. They wish to understand this better and help out the people around them. Some people mentioned that it might relax the senses of the people who smoke which is a similar effect to which intoxication in other forms does to human body but on a lower level that they’re at least able to function.
Question: Are people aware about what smoking does to the body and health?
Response: As mentioned most people were aware of what potential smoking has on body and they believed that people who smoke must be aware as well. But as the human tendency is, it is does not bother someone to know what it can do and we choose to ignore unless we land in the situation.
Question: Do people really want to quit? What are they things they’ve tried to do so?
Response: People who do not smoke wish to help their loved ones who are into the habit of smoking but have very little in their capacity to do so. Some have tried talking people who smoke out of it by understanding their situation and what causes them to smoke and what does smoking do to them that they cannot quit.
While some have tried to help by trying out and using solutions available and treatments to help quit the habit.
Conclusion
What I realised after interviewing these people is that for majority of people, external factors can help very little to people who smokes. It has to eventually be that person’s intention and will power that urges him to quit smoking as a habit and which requires a strong sense of realisation. This realisation could come from knowing about the damage and seriousness of what it could do to the body or by thinking about the people who love them and wish good for them.
There is no one formula to help this problem but a string of factors.
