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There are not many smokers who started smoking after the age of eighteen. The majority of smokers took up the habit in their early- or mid teens. Peer pressure is surely has a big part of the responsibility. Many children start smoking because their friends have tried it or smoke themselves. Those children may have started as they have grown up in an environment where their parents or older siblings, in particular, smoke, and so they smoke in order to look like them. Other children start smoking as an act of rebellion against their parents. Some children may also begin to smoke if they have low self-esteem. Smoking may get them in with the "in crowd" and help them to make friends. In short, if they smoke, then they will be accepted. Apart from the fact that nicotine is highly addictive, which makes it really difficult to give up, many adults have their own reasons for continuing to smoke. A lot of people think that they need cigarettes in order to handle stress or nerves. However, nicotine is a stimulant; it makes your heart beat faster and raises your blood pressure, so in fact, smoking does not really relax you at all or help you handle unpleasant situations. Other smokers say that their habit relaxes them. In a lot of the situations where you would light up a cigarette, you are actually carrying out relaxing and enjoyable activities like having a break from working. Many women are afraid of giving up smoking as they think that they will gain weight when they stop. A lot of people are so used to smoking that they do it out of habit. For example, you may light up a cigarette when you do certain activities. If you are not allowed to smoke at work, you may need a cigarette before you start, during a break, before lunch, after lunch and as soon as you leave etc. Statistics tell us that tobacco steals approximately seven lives every minute of every day of the year, world-wide. From heart disease and many forms of cancer to lung diseases that steal our ability to breathe, tobacco is a vicious killer in sheep's clothing. From your very first puff, the smoke begins to steal away at your lung’s natural defenses. I you continue you can completely paralyze the lungs’ natural cleansing process. This serves as a breeding ground for a wide variety of bacteria and viruses. The makes you more susceptible to colds, flu, bronchitis, and other respiratory infections. Tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death in the United States and worldwide. Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers, and pancreatic cancer). The best advice is to quit smoking. The benefits of quitting take effect right from the start. Within 30 minutes after your last puff, you blood pressure returns to normal. Within 12 to 48 hours, the carbon monoxide in your blood drops to normal. One year after that, your risk of heart disease will be half that of a smoker’s. Fifteen years after giving up cigarettes, your risk of heart disease will be the same as that of someone who has never smoked. You’ll also reduce your risk of getting many types of cancer.