Why do people smoke ?

[newbiebiker]

I have a friend who smokes although I never asked why she smokes another friend asked her why she smokes when she already had asthma, she smiled and answered back, it's her Vitamin. Lol

 

[Over The Hill]

Pssst. It might be time to change your avatar.

I quite like it and I think it is a bit of a self ridicule. I come across in posts as a bit of an old git and so when I saw this pic I felt is was how other CC ers may see me.

 

[swee'pea99]

Bob Newhart.... Bringing Tobacco Home from America....  You get some leaves and you shred them up -roll them into a paper tube, set fire to it, and inhale the smoke.... it's nutty Wal again!

...the guys who keep an eye on the infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters to see whether they've come up with anything... "Hey, guys, I think we may have something here....'To be or not to be...that is the gzernenpltz.'"

 

[Rhythm Thief]

The addictive element seems much stronger than I had predicted.

Oh yes. If you've never smoked, you can't possibly understand how smoking gets its fingers into your brain and tells you that you need another ciggy. That said, I started again fairly recently after almost a year off them, and I rather enjoy my rollies. Smokers are generally more relaxed people to hang out with at work (I rarely smoke at home).

 

[surfdude]

would you smokers smoke if they were called cancer sticks .i think not .the thing that made me laugh was when i was a driver for the doctors out of hours service i would take a doctor to a patient who was dying of cancer and they would give them lots of painkillers so their last weeks /days would be less agony . then before they got in the car they would light up a cancer stick .MAD

 

[Mark_Robson]

I smoked for 24 years and it was a love hate relationship for me. I knew that it was wrong and I knew that I couldn't afford it but I also knew that I needed it. The catalyst for me was the day that my son came home from school and said that he didn't want me to smoke any more because he didn't want me to die. And here was me all smug and superior because I didn't smoke in the house or car and contaminate my kids with second hand smoke. I never though that actually knowing that their dad smoked could harm them emotionally.

 

[goo_mason]

I remember visiting my then-wife in hospital when she was in with one of her pancreatitis attacks, and going out with her for a fag on the smoking room balcony. An older woman was pushed out in a wheelchair to join us. She'd already lost one foot to gangrene after circulation problems caused by smoking, and she proudly showed us the dead, blackened toes on her remaining foot which she was also about to lose through bad circulation. It was vile, yet we all sat and smoked and it still wasn't enough to make me think about quitting.

The addiction is so strong that you can't conceive of life without cigarettes, even when the consequences are staring you in the face. I'm glad I eventually managed to quit - and happily my daughter can't remember me ever smoking. The ex still smokes like a chimney, even though she knows it aggravates her pancreas and she's already at an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer - much to my daughter's distress.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

would you smokers smoke if they were called cancer sticks .i think not

Well, they are (or "coffin nails", "gaspers" and any number of other descriptive names). And we do.

 

[Norm]

Well, they are (or "coffin nails", "gaspers" and any number of other descriptive names). And we do.

Excellent to read you again, RT, and we do too.

 

[guitarpete247]

I started on King Edward cigars. Bought them back several times for a friends colleague. He gave up (I didn't know at the time the reason he gave up was he was diagnosed with cancer he kept it private just said he'd stopped) so I had 50 sitting in the house for a few months. I thought I'd try just one and enjoyed it. For a few weeks I only had the 1 a night then It got expensive. Smoked for about 25 years before thinking this is stupid. Gave up last Feb and, though I do think about it, feel a lot better. ( me without cigar)

 

[jeltz]

People smoke because nicotine is a highly addictive drug, when you start you get quite a buzz but that soon fades.

People continue to smoke due to the addiction, and the need to maintain sufficient nicotine levels. The reason people believe that they enjoy it is because the associate smoking with pleasurable situations such as going to the pub relaxing and so on but most of the time the fix just gives relief for the want of nicotine and it was the situation which was enjoyable. That said relief is kind of pleasurable but you're being masochistic if you smoke to get relief from cravings.

The irony is that the biggest barrier to people quitting is their own mind, the vast majority of smokers say they want to quit they just need to get on with it. The harsh fact is that despite the withdrawal (both physical and psychological) the only way to quit smoking is to stop putting them in your gob, lighting them and breathing in the fumes.

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Never smoked, never understood why anybody would.

Dangerous, dirty, smelly and expensive pastime IMHO, but as long as they don't smoke near me, then each to their own.

 

[upsidedown]

The best reason that I saw for people smoking was in Alan Carr's book. He said that once you are a smoker you smoke to feel the same as a non-smoker does all of the time ie not craving nicotine. That helped me pack up almost two years ago.

 

[surfdude]

well i hope when all you smokers lay there in agony on your death bed dying thinking "yep all those fags were lovely and worth this hidous death "

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Cheers, dude.