<p>smoker here - still. Yes, we smokers mostly started at a very young dumb age (6th grade here) and were addicted for a long time before the logical, more mature brain in us developed - and for a lot of us, it is very difficult to quit. I haven’t had a medical issue yet - still run and have no adverse effects - it will likely take a doctor telling me something is wrong before I actually stop - sad but true.</p>
<p>My mom just quit smoking - made the switch to e-cigs - after a stay in the hospital for a bad COPD attack. She knew she already had emphysema and hadn’t quit but not being able to breathe made a big impression on her. I hope it doesn’t take that much for me to “get it together”, but I have little real motivation to make that change right now.</p>
<p>Where I live, you can smoke in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol (bars/restaurants allowed to make that call). That seems to surprise a lot of people.</p>
<p>I usually try to avoid thread necromancy, but this thread isn’t so old, I suppose.</p>
<p>As a current non-smoker, I think that a lot of views espoused in this thread are a little off the mark. People smoke, and continue to smoke, because smoking is a pleasurable activity. I enjoy smoking. Lots of people do. Like most pleasurable activities, though, it should be practiced responsibly, which is where most people go wrong with smoking - or anything else.</p>
<p>I, for one, sincerely hope that the tide of anti-smoking rhetoric completely backfires.</p>
<p>The problem with smoking, unlike most other unhealthy habits, is that it doesn’t just affect the user. </p>
<p>I hope the anti-smoking messages continue loud and clear so people like me can walk outside and go to restaurants without fear of going to the hospital.</p>
<p>Can’t agree with you aegrisomnia. Smoking can’t be practiced responsibly, at least by most smokers, because it is highly addictive. It is much more addictive than alcohol, for example. The fact that there are a few people who can take it or leave it doesn’t change that fact, any more than would a few people who can use heroin casually. So it’s not really accurate to say that people “continue to smoke” because it’s pleasurable. They continue to smoke because they can’t quit. Rationalization doesn’t change that fact, either.</p>
<p>Nobody enjoys being a smoker. That’s like a heroin addict saying how much they like being a junkie…</p>
<p>In both cases, you live for the drug, all day, every day, until it kills you…</p>
<p>Think about it. Inhaling burning hot smoke from leaves is “pleasurable”? The only “pleasure” is from the drug fixing the drug withdrawal after not getting a dose for an hour…</p>
<p>Someone asked about how to quit smoking. I’ve done it twice. I have not had a cigarette in 21 years now. </p>
<p>Sooooo, the first thing I learned is it’s harder to quit the second time. So if you manage to quit, NEVER EVER EVER pick it up again.</p>
<p>The way I quit the second time:
The patch applied at night so that my system would be full of nicotine when I woke up. I stopped the patch after 3 weeks.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Gum and sunflower seeds. Lots</p></li>
<li><p>Everytime I would think about smoking, I would play mind games with myself. Self-talk. “Is that little bitty cigarette bigger than you? Is it bigger than the God you asked to help you? You believe that God wants to help you and can help you? Are you going to make a liar out of God by an act of your own will?” Substitute whatever works for you - whatever shame, guilt trip, or otherwise empowering speech gets you riled up.</p></li>
<li><p>Remembering from the 1st failure that I cannot smoke just one. And NEVER EVER EVER picking one up again.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I still want one every day. But no way will I do it.</p>
<p>19.3 percent of adults smoke but 45.2 percent of adults with GEDs smoke. It looks like the dumber you are, the more likely you are to smoke. I guess that’s not a surprise. </p>
<p>28.9 percent of adults living below the poverty line smoke. People are poor enough to get food stamps but rich enough to buy tobacco?</p>
<p>Btw, great job quitting. I’ve seen so many friends and family struggle that I think it’s really influenced my generation to not pick up the habit. I, for one, never even felt the slightest inclination to try it after watching my mom struggle for years and years and years to kick it. I have enormous respect for those who succeed.</p>
<p>Somehow out of all the things I’ve found myself addicted to smoking isn’t one of them, I have however smoked at different times in my life for different reasons. The longest was a few months in my mid twenties, I was in a full day therapy program and most of the patients smoked so I started smoking too because I’d go out with them on our free time. It was a social thing, and incredibly stupid, and a total waste of money.</p>
<p>Many people who smoke get addicted, but people don’t get addicted from breathing second-hand smoke. Why is that? </p>
<p>Over and over again I told my kids that if you don’t ever start you don’t ever have to try to stop. That and if they ever start smoking they have to live in the fort out back. They don’t run with a crowd that smokes, so they don’t seem to have ever been tempted much.</p>
<p>I know this thread will eventually turn into fighting but I’ll post anyway…</p>
<p>Aegrisomnia - Did you bring this thread back to life simply to let us know you hope that “the tide of anti-smoking rhetoric completely backfires”?? Really?? </p>
<p>Have you watched a loved one, WAY to young to die, with a loving family, die a miserable smoking-related death? Listening to how much that person HATED smoking (as do most smokers I know do) and then watching as his kids dealt with the anger and sadness of their father’s death? Listening to his 20 year old son and 22 year old daughter wonder “why” their dad would want to kill himself if he really loved them? Then, feeling like total S**&#@ that they ever had those thoughts because they knew their Dad’s addiction was greater than his will power? </p>
<p>So, please be thoughtful before you post such hurtful and inflammatory comments. Smoking is EXTREMELY addictive – most people can’t practice it “responsibly”.</p>
<p>Thanks, Romanigypsyeyes. And yes, I quit because of my kids. I looked at my oldest and thought to myself, “Do I really want her to struggle with breathing problems? Do I really want her to see me doing something like this every day? Or do I want her to see me strong and healthy making good decisions.”</p>
<p>I am SO GLAD I was able to quit. I’ve watched so many people struggle, and my MIL died from COPD.</p>
<p>Smoking addiction is caused by bio-chemical reactions in the brain when nicotine binds to brain receptors eight seconds after the first puff. Dopamine is released (the same reward mechanism in heroin and cocaine addiciton). </p>
<p>I don’t think there’s enough nicotine in second hand smoke to trigger the brain chemistry response.</p>
I’ve had several friends quit when they were pregnant and then start again. I never understood that. If you could escape for 9 months, why not permanently?</p>
<p>interesteddad, I think if the cigarette companies could have figured out how to get more nicotine into the second-hand smoke they would have :(.</p>
<p>No, less intelligent. The average person with a GED is not as intelligent as the average person with a post doc degree. In fact, I would say not merely less intelligent but plain and simple stupid. Acting to harm yourself is a stupid behavior and those who choose to start smoking today are stupid. I think college applications should list whether the applicant is a smoker and if so, the college should deny admission for being too stupid.</p>