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My mom's smoked since she was in her teens. My dad smokes cigars off and on, but doesn't appear to have any genuine dependence upon them.

I smoked cigarettes back in college for about 6 months, and decided that I didn't want to smell like an ashtray. Years later I got introduced to pipe smoking, and then years after that, the hookah.

I likely have a slight addiction to the hookah. I don't think that's chemical though, because if it were chemical, I would think I'd get the same effect from the pipe.

Thats likely because of the reduced amount of nicotine you're getting from Hooka and Cigars. Its not enough to cause an addiction, at least in you.

Cigarettes get highly concentrated, plus they have all those very nasty extra chemicals.

Winners never quit.

Thats what i keep telling myself. :(

Gotta go out somehow... then again, if that stuff they just grew in a lab is any indication, I'll be able to get cyber-lungs in the relatively near future and smoke all I want.

Also, there's that doctor talking about doing a full head transplant... I'm just going to move mine to a 100% artificial body, thanks.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm curious, why does anyone even start smoking in the first place? Peer pressure? Accidental binge at a party while drunk off your mind? Curiosity? It's not like a century ago when the public wasn't really informed about just how bad cigarettes are.

In my case it was unconsciously self medicating. After being around people who smoked for so many years, I noticed I was less jittery, more focused around them. Started smoking, and had an even greater reaction. Wasn't until years after I quit I was diagnosed bipolar and ADHD. Seems nicotine mimics neurotransmitters that are tied to both afflictions, so what I was really doing was giving myself the brain juices my body wasn't producing. (And lest you think I've got cause and effect mixed up here, my mental health symptoms trace back to before anyone close to me smoked.)

I have smoked since I was 12 years old, a pack a day at thirteen. It does have a calming effect on me, and I am well aware that I need to quit. I just enjoy it.I keep saying that one of these days I am going to quit, and that day is probably the day I plummet to my death ... probably smoking all 800 feet or more, it all depends which job I am on.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm curious, why does anyone even start smoking in the first place? Peer pressure? Accidental binge at a party while drunk off your mind? Curiosity? It's not like a century ago when the public wasn't really informed about just how bad cigarettes are.

I smoked my first cigar when I was 18. A fellow classmate got them and we all smoked when we graduated. I started smoking cigarettes when I was in college a few years later, and decided that I didn't want to smell better than my girlfriend who smoked at the same time. Personally I hate the smell of them. It wasn't hard to give up the cigarettes when I gave her up.

I do it cause I like the taste and smell, but I'm off the charts as far as your typical smokers. Cigarette smell makes me kind of want to puke a little anymore.

Started smoking at 16 or 17. Smoked on and off until I turned 31. Quit cold turkey. I mainly smoked on the weekends when we went out for pints. Main reason I quit was because during the week the withdrawals pangs manifested themselves as an intense hunger. So I'd be eating massive amounts of scran yet still be hungry an hour later. Was killing my abs and the English ladies just wouldn't have it.

My wife recently quit. 5 days cold turkey then on to the old e-cig. Me? Still smoking... I have smoked since I was 15, I'm now 34, and it's getting quite bad now. I've been advised by my Doctor to stop smoking as I'm on Blood pressure medication daily. I probably should stop, but it's really hard for me. As has been pointed out earlier, Nicotine is possibly more addictive than Heroin as it works directly on the brain.

Well Nicotine is one of the most powerful poisons that we have, it is so effective because if you dont get poisoned enough to die, it will create an unbearable urge to get more of it.
Of course the amount of nicotine in cigarettes is tiny but it shows you how powerful it is.

Arsenic which has been used as a poison for a very long time works on a very similar basis.

 Carlson793 wrote:
Odd thing is, I can walk through the no-smoking-in-this-area-but-everybody-does-anyway outside work, catch a face full of smoke, and my reaction is 'I can't believe that used to be me', but I'll be sitting at home, glass of bourbon-and-Coke in hand, and the whole time wanting a smoke in the other hand. Or I'll be walking down the street, see a half smoked butt on the ground, and suddenly Gollum is talking to me.

Same here. Quit 7 months ago. I walk in smoker slipstream now and it's repulsive (fyi: i am not one of those former smokers that now quotes terrible things about smoking. I wanted to stop for a long time and couldn't, and then finally found something that worked. I don't say a peep to smokers about smoking except when pointedly asked how i quit. The only quasi-douschey ex-smoker thing I did was apologize to my work office suite-mates and administrative assistant for smelling like a literal ashtray for years and not realizing the extent to which it clung and was offensive. Even that was done discretely to them. When i was a smoker i couldn't stand preachy ex-smokers, so i go out of my way to not be That Ex Smoker. )


But dammit... i'll be playing pool with buddies, or have a few drinks... and holy gak do i want to light up again out of nowhere.


They say psychologically that nicotine withdrawal is about on par with heroin (but that heroin's physical withdrawal is hell on earth made manifest, so that's why its clearly worse). I have no proof of this, it's purely anecdotal, but its something i've heard regurgitated many times.


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 OIIIIIIO wrote:
I have smoked since I was 12 years old, a pack a day at thirteen. It does have a calming effect on me, and I am well aware that I need to quit. I just enjoy it.I keep saying that one of these days I am going to quit, and that day is probably the day I plummet to my death ... probably smoking all 800 feet or more, it all depends which job I am on.

You should try switching to vaping. Granted glycol emulsion isn't the healthiest thing either, but it's a lot better than cigarrettes. If you genuinely like smoking, you can at least reduce the worst parts of cigarette smoking while continuing to smoke by switching to Vaping.

Just a suggestion! Lot's of my friends switched from cigs and pipes to vape pens and have never gone back. One nice thing about them is they are WAY less expensive after the initial buy-in, and you can control your nicoteine intake (i.e. - if you want to get off nicotiene completely you can very gradually reduce your mg of nicteien intake via the oil. This way over several months you can actually wean yourself off. This has worked for several people i know (currently 4, a fifth in process. 3 are completely off nicotiene in their oil, another is down to 6 mg per 200 ml bottle from 12 when she started, and the last is down to 9 mg per 200 ml down from 15).

Again just a suggestion if you like smoking but want to try to be a touch healthier about it. And again... glycol emulsion isn't wonderful for you either, but its a hell of a lot better than ammonia, tar, carbon oxides, and all the other gak in Cigs.


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 Xenomancers wrote:
I smoked for 8 years - quit a few years ago. Now I am mostly disgusted by it. If I'm drinking sometimes I will take a drag off a friends cig and immediately regret it because it's awful. I don't think it's the nicotine that makes it so hard for people to quit - the chemical dependence is pretty weak IMO. In reality it's the boredom without smoking that keeps people hooked, IMO.

Interesting take on things. Can i ask why you think that, or is it just conjured opinion without basis in fact ? Because most credible sources would highly disagree with you. Just about everyone agrees now that Nicotine is one of many addictive agents in cigs, and is an extremely habit inducing one. Anything that stimulates the brain to produce epinephrine (adrenaline) and affects neurotransmitters that produce Dopamine (which affects reward and pleasure centers in the brain) is going to be extremely habit forming and addictive, and difficult to stop doing. Your brain is literally dumping chemical reward and good feelings into your body after ingesting cigarette smoke. It's why people really have the urge to light up when "stressed". Cigs don't reduce stress, but the dump of adrenaline makes one feel more focused (which makes it easier to tackle stressful situations), and feel "better" (due to the dopamine effect).


I mean, i'd agree that trying to fit in / look cool / boredom is why people start. It's not why they continue. This pretty much isn't even up for debate anymore. Even the cigarette companies have admitted to it as part of immunity to future class action suits.
I mean.... the maker of the cigarette itself is disagreeing with your hypothesis as part of legal civil immunity. Not sure how much of a stronger argument you can make that "boredom" isn't the causation of continuing to smoke / being hard to quit, but "addictive agents" are instead.



American Heart and Lung Association:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/QuitSmoking/QuittingSmoking/Why-is-it-so-hard-to-quit_UCM_324053_Article.jsp


US Government (despite the seemingly biased URL, actually a very scientific explanation of nicotine delivery)

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cigarettes-other-tobacco-products

I started when I was 17. I quit after 3 months, for a few months, and then started again. I quit a few months after that, and it lasted nearly a year, and then I started again. I smoked regularly until I was 28, when my first son was born. I quit again, and restarted a couple months later. I quit again when my second son was born, and stayed quit for a couple of years, restarting this past September.

I quit a couple of months ago. Every time I quit prior to this, it felt like, "I'm quitting until I start again. I'm not done, just done for now." Having quit so many times, I've taken a rather pragmatic approach to it. Each time you finish a cigarette, you've quit. It just depends on how long it takes you to have another.

This quit has been different. This time, I don't feel like it's until I start again. This time, I feel like it's quit until I'm ready to die, or just plain finished altogether. Hard to say at this point, as I'm hoping that's a solid 50+ years from now. That said, if they came out with a cheap, non-dangerous version, I'd be on it in a heartbeat.

Smoking [Nicotine] makes me feel like I can think more clearly. Like my entire thought process speeds up and I can focus, and simply accomplish MORE in a given space of time. I feel relaxed. I'm so much more efficient when under the influence of Nicotine. And for some reason, I don't get that same feeling from chewing the gum, or sucking the tablets. Something about it is different. The gum and tabs can keep the cravings away, and they offset the fog that I feel during withdrawl, but they don't seem to have that same "Brightening" effect that I get from smoking a cigarette. That's probably just addiction talking, but it is the genuine way that I feel, whether it's just in my head or not.

The intense "need it now" cravings seem to go away, for me, after a couple weeks, and then I get it bad again about a month later for a couple days. After that, I get the odd, "Man, wouldn't a smoke be a good idea right now?" Feeling, but it's pretty rare and goes away in half an hour if I have some water or something, and do something to get my mind off of it. But like I said, I'd start again in a heartbeat if I wasn't concerned about seeing my kids have kids, and the financial impact. Even a half a pack a day would cost me about $6 a day, times 365 would be $2200 a year. That goes a long way towards my personal financials, so there's that too.

To the OP, it is not my experience that the cravings stay away forever. They come back, and kick you in the head every now and again. If you give in, you've already quit again by the time you finish that first cigarette. Stretch that quit as far as you can , and keep doing that till the quits are a nice long time.

I don't smoke for months at a time, although I am quite partial to Camel cigs (for that cool Turkish vibe) and Cigars, which I'm quite a fan off.


Can't really say why I enjoy them, but I've always loved the smell of cigars, but I look a bit like Big Boss when I don't trim my beard. Nothing better than chilling in my armchair with a glass of fine scotch and a good cigar. Except I never get the urge to smoke nor does being around smokers make me want to light up.