Tobacco Addiction in Adolescents and Young Adults

By Craig Rogers

When adolescents and young adults are addicted, they have a compulsive need to seek out and use a substance, even when they understand the harm it can cause. Tobacco products; cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco, can all be addictive. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, and most people that smoke want to quit. In fact, nearly 35 million people make a serious attempt to quit each year. Unfortunately, most who try to quit on their own relapse, often times within the first week.

The Health Effects of Tobacco Addiction

Tobacco use harms every organ in the body. It has been conclusively linked to leukemia, cataracts, and pneumonia, and accounts for roughly one-third of all cancer deaths. The overall rates of death from cancer are twice as high among people who smoke as those who don’t, with people who smoke heavily having rates that are four times greater than those of people who don’t smoke.

Adolescents and young adults who smoke also lose some of their sense of smell and taste, don’t have the same stamina for exercise and sports they once did, and may smell of smoke. After smoking for a long time, adolescents and young adults find that their skin ages faster and their teeth discolor or turn brown. With each puff of a cigarette, a smoker pulls nicotine and other harmful substances into the lungs, where it is absorbed into the blood. It takes about eight seconds for nicotine to hit the brain.The nicotine affects the brain by producing pleasurable and mood-altering effects that become addictive, spurring continued use of the product. Adolescents and young adults who begin using tobacco products face a greater chance of developing a long-term addiction. 

Counseling and medication can help tobacco addicts quit. Nicotine replacement therapy in the form of gum, a patch or inhaler can ease the withdrawal pains of quitting. If you are the parent or loved one of an adolescent or young adult and he/she is addicted to tobacco it is important that you act fast. Tobacco, like any other substance addiction, is a mental illness and must be taken seriously. Our family advocates at Therapy Insider specialize in finding alternative placement and treatment options for adolescents and young adults dealing with one or many behavioral or mental issues.