Smoking is bad for your health, no doubt about it.
At this point, we've all heard about the dangers of smoking for decades.
Cigarettes have all sorts of negative effects, from fairly mild ones like premature aging to truly lethal health risks like cancer, emphysema, and serious danger to unborn children in pregnant women.
Despite all the information out there about the dangers of smoking, about 40 million Americans are still lighting up.
There are a lot of reasons that people keep smoking even when they know the dangers.
The most potent reason is addiction, but it's also likely that people in general respond more strongly to visual proof of the effect smoking has.
That's why a dramatic photo recently posted to Reddit is going viral. It shows exactly what happens when cigarette smoke filters through a home for 20 years. Needless to say, the results are disturbing.
Scroll through below to see the dramatic photo that started it all, and the other scary side effects smoking can have.
This photo recently surfaced on the content-sharing website Reddit, under the caption, "This is what 2 packs a day for 20 years looks like."
At first, we couldn't tell what the picture was, but after a few moments it became clear that this is a wall that used to have three pictures hanging on it in somebody's home.
The blank spaces where the pictures hung are white, the rest of the house is stained ashy yellow-gray.
It's a very clear and dramatic visual on the effect that smoking every day has.
When you smoke a cigarette, the chemicals and tobacco aren't just going into your body, they're going into the environment around you.
That's why second-hand smoke is so dangerous. You don't need to smoke directly to be effected by cigarettes.
There are, of course, tons of negative effects on the body too.
Cigarettes are well-known for causing lines and wrinkles around the mouth.
They force your skin to pucker tightly, and are often credited with aging the face years, if not decades.
Even leaving aside the bigger health risks, cigarettes cause a ton of gross effects on your body.
Tobacco ruins your nails, and can often make them cracked, thick, and yellow from oxygen deprivation and nicotine stains.
It has a similar effect on your teeth, which is why regular smokers lose their teeth so early and get so many cavities.
But tobacco doesn't just leave marks on your body, it leaves marks on everything around you.
Smoke stains happen so gradually that you don't always realize they're there until someone else comes into your home and points them out.
Lifelong smokers are often sitting on couches saturated in cigarette smoke and driving cars full of the second-hand smell without even realizing it.
What's worse, smokers and their homes always smell like cigarette smoke, even if they can't smell it themselves anymore.
Friends and family might avoid visiting the house, especially if they have kids who would be exposed to second-hand smoke.
If you're house-proud, it can be hurtful when people stop coming over. But cigarettes also kill your sense of smell, so smokers might not even be aware that their home is off-putting.
Fortunately, there's a lot of stuff you can do reverse the negative effects of smoking, especially if you take the big first step and quit.
You can't reverse all the damage of smoking to your body, but quitting sooner rather than later immediately lowers your risk of cancer and emphysema, and improves your ability to reverse mild effects like lines and yellow teeth.
Meanwhile, if your house is full of smoke stains, it might be time to scrub your walls, throw open the windows and doors, and trade in your couch for a smoke-free model.
If you or someone you know would like to learn more about quitting smoking, check out Smokefree, and don't forget to SHARE this important image to highlight all the smoking side effects that sometimes go unnoticed.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
