smoking

[Iskanderia]

I smoked for 10 years (about 1/2 to 1 pack a day) and quit cold turkey 7 years ago.

And Antaeus, if you think that people that have a hard time quitting are weak, I'm guessing you never smoked every single day of your life for 10 years.

 

[holylampposts]

I do not smoke, drink, or do drugs!

Me neither! Smoking is gross. When my parents used to, I could handle it. Now that they haven't, I can barely stand to be around the stuff.

 

[a-amanitin]

Even though my mom has quit "cold turkey" about a year ago, she occasionally gets insanely stressed and having a cigarette will calm her down and make her feel better. My dad gets these extreme allergies for a few weeks during the first half of spring, and his doctor told him that smoking half a cigarette every once in a while will help him cough up excess pollen and phlegm easier. I don't know if that's true or not but he says it's made him feel better, so I'm not going to argue. I've developed much more of a tolerance for smoking as a result. Also, I grew up around second-hand smoke and the smell, in small doses, is somewhat comforting (I guess I don't smell enough of it to distinguish brands so it's all the same to me).

I would think that being able to appreciate the taste of food to the utmost and being able to smell clearly again would be incentive enough to quit, but that's a personal choice.

I don't smoke myself, but I don't have anything against smokers as long as they smoke respectively in regards to non-smokers. It would be nice to see less smokers around, though... it's really not a healthy habit.

Edit: Didn't the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files smoke some sort of herbal cigarette?
... "Because Bill Davis felt it would add more realism to CSM, he at first smoked real cigarettes. However, he had not smoked since the 1970's, and found that he might slowly be developing an addiction, and so immediately switched to herbal cigarettes, which he smoked for the rest of the show." Source. </random x-files trivia>

 

[Lardeen]

"no lung cancer for me thank you"

No no no and again NO. >__<
I think it's really disgusting. The smell is so horrible.
My mother smokes and I can't stand being dowstairs (she doesn't smoke upstairs, if she would she'd be a head shorter, made by both my father and me) because the clothes smell like smoke then and when she was upstairs just after a smoke I always open the window to get rid of the smell <_<'
Eww. Total huge ew.

Some years back I didn't even sit next to smokers at parties xD
But since pretty much everyone smokes I got used to it. Still, if someone dares to blow smoke in my face I slap them.
And having a red mark on their face usually brings them to not do it again~ 0=) (First I tell them (if we don't know each other [my friends know about it]) I hate it when someone does that and they please shouldn't do it again; I'm not that violent guys ^.~ *laughs*)


I admit to not say "no" to a shisha though~
But I like the taste and it's different to cigarettes or cigares.
Nevertheless, cold smoke or smoke in clothes is ew. Also for Shisha.
Or even worse. If that smell is cold, stinky AND sweet =_='
Easily helps to empty a(n ?) stomach @______@

 

[SDjilliaRE]

I went years without smoking, but I decided to take a drag one day. I've never even finished more than a halfie, but it still counts I guess.

@Amatsu: There's a little store in Centralia that sells those powder ones for a penny a pop. Sometimes you get a dud, but there's about a 60% success rate. But Centralia is halfway to Portland, so it may be a little out of the question.

 

[Antaeus]

And Antaeus, if you think that people that have a hard time quitting are weak, I'm guessing you never smoked every single day of your life for 10 years.

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

 

[Elec]

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

the answer is chemicals, silly

 

[Priss]

And Antaeus, if you think that people that have a hard time quitting are weak, I'm guessing you never smoked every single day of your life for 10 years.

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

For a second, I thought that said "...what's so difficult about ignoring a hobbit?"

 

[Kyuketsuki]

And Antaeus, if you think that people that have a hard time quitting are weak, I'm guessing you never smoked every single day of your life for 10 years.

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

It's an addiction just like any other addiction. You're naive thinking it's so easy. Can people just quit doing cocain? Heroine? LSD? It is chemical, as Elec said, and the chemicals create a mental dependence, thus turning it into a completely new kind of thing. This goes for any sort of drug, including nicotine. It is also the same sort of thing people who cannot stop eating go through, or addiction to sex, gambling- any substance, inherently bad or otherwise, can be abused and lead to such a thing. Saying that 'quitting isn't difficult' shows that you yourself have never experienced such a thing- not everyone shares the same experiences.

 

[Amatsu]

And Antaeus, if you think that people that have a hard time quitting are weak, I'm guessing you never smoked every single day of your life for 10 years.

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

I know other people have explained the science of addiction already, and I don't want to be rude, because you may be a very smart person, but that is one of the most ignorant things I've read all week.

I've only smoked one and a half cigarettes in my life, never got addicted because I was like 11 and probably didn't even inhale, but you should read some things about addiction. I'm not being condescending I just think you'd learn some new stuff and it might be interesting to you.

 

[Iskanderia]

Exactly.

There's a big difference between a simple habit and an addiction. Sure, willpower and an honest desire to stop are key to quitting either a habit or an addiction but the degree of willpower needed to beat an addiction is astronomically higher than that needed to quit a bad habit.

It's not like when you get a craving for McDonalds but talk yourself out of it because you know it's bad for you. Most of us have been there and most of us find this relatively easy. But imagine instead if after deciding to avoid having that cheeseburger you then found that nearly every single waking moment of the next week would be spent thinking about cheeseburgers, to the point where it begins to drive you a bit mad. This obsessive yearning for something that you logically know is not even that great continues after that week, lessening only excrutiatingly slowly over time, and it's only after a year of not touching a single cheeseburger that you feel like you can maybe walk into a McDonalds and just order the salad.

Sound easy?

Addiction is an insidious little monster that lives in the back of your head, constantly trying to convince you that you should just go ahead and have that cigarette, that drink, that dose. If you're not 100% committed to quitting - if you're not entirely sure that you really want to quit or that you're strong enough to quit - it's very easy to listen to that voice.

I don't know how many times I tried to quit but gave up after a day or so because the withdrawal made me so miserable. (I'm not talking heroin withdrawal level misery here, but it still sucks.)



I can't stand when people try to tell other people how they should handle things when they've never been in their shoes.

 

[Amatsu]

^ (just adding to your post, not correcting it) and, there are other side effects too, the chemicals in your body which were dependant on the chemicals you get when you smoke become imbalanced causing mood swings, irritability, and intense discomfort.

 

[Iskanderia]

Yeah, I didn't even get into the fact that it feels like the world's worst PMS.

 

[Amatsu]

Yeah, I didn't even get into the fact that it feels like the world's worst PMS.

...

 

[navate]

For a second, I thought that said "...what's so difficult about ignoring a hobbit?"

They are terribly short.

 

[Priss]

For a second, I thought that said "...what's so difficult about ignoring a hobbit?"

They are terribly short.

Which is why they're SO not ignorable.

 

[navate]

Only because they are a tripping hazard. Safety first!

 

[DementedThingie]

I do not smoke, drink, or do drugs!

Yep that pretty sums it up for me too.

For a second, I thought that said "...what's so difficult about ignoring a hobbit?"

Frodo Lives!

 

[Antaeus]

No. But if someone really wants to quit, then what is so difficult about ignoring a habbit? People who can't say no to a cigarette are simply people who don't really want to quit. Quitting isn't that difficult.

the answer is chemicals, silly

And chemicals can also been manipulated and ignored. we can think, and criticize our own behaviour and feelings.

When I wrote that reply I knew a lot of people would reply to it, telling me how hard addiction is, and to get rid of it. Did they all read my replies? I have also been addicted to smoking. I know what an addiction is. I know the biology, the chemicals that are related to it. And how it feels when a voice in the back of your head says "smoke a cigarette". That everytime when you see something related to smoking you will think "oh I would love to smoke now".

Smokers can't stand it when people criticize their habit(sorry for the typo earlier ) A habit can become an addiction. It takes a few weeks to get rid of a habit. It also takes a few weeks to get rid of the habit of having a cigarette in your hand. Your body needs 3 days to cure from its dependence on nicotine. After that you just need to lose the habit. Also, get used to the pressure of other people who smoke.

Irritation, frustation, craving are all part of getting over it. But well, you can conquer those feelings with willpower. At least, to me it was quite easy. If you can't conquer those feelings with willpower, then I think you don't really want to quit. Smoking is great, and it is really not weird or strange if you don't want to quit smoking. However, if you really want to quit, then I am sure willpower can easily conquer all the voices, chemicals and negative emotions.

 

[Garnet in the Eden]

I couldn't even if I wanted to because I am allergic to cigarette smoke.

Only really get the effects if I'm close enough though.