Starting smoking in the first place makes it harder to deal with stress, why do you think smokers find it hard to quit? The receptors in the brain which create natural calmness, and also, proteins in the brain which control the sleep clock (in newer research), are damaged.
When someone started smoking in the beginning it was to 'cope with something'. Whether that was a dysfunctional family, childhood abuse or other trauma, lack of friends.
Did any non-smoker who became a smoker, see people smoking, think I know it's bad, I know it's unhealthy, but I'll do it anyway because my life is great and God is on my side in doing so?
But while some people may not have listened to the devil who says, you know you want one, you know you want to feel worthy, you know you want to forget about the past, you know you want to rebel, there are others who were fortunate to choose a different path. And smokers will not accept that, accept that they tend to be more weak-minded than those who never took up smoking.
This makes them more likely to be deceptive to themselves, and to others. And in answer to what StunnedByGrace said in a couple of responses, smokers will rarely speak positively of smoking in public. It's mainly if you want to try and help them quit, or you see it damaging their health, or you see them coughing all the time and try to advise.
I'm not here to make smokers feel bad, I'm here to speak the truth.
I've helped people quit drugs, I have never had any success helping anyone quit smoking.
And StunnedByGrace, not sure why you want to trample on my own observations of smokers and how they behave. Are you a smoker?