Why do you smokers smoke (ie nicotine)?

Why do you smoke (note this is NOT "why do you think others smoke")

  • Mostly for the nicotine pick-me-up and/or "buzz"

    Votes: 8 11.9%

  • Mostly for social reasons

    Votes: 1 1.5%

  • Mostly for both reasons above (fairly even split)

    Votes: 3 4.5%

  • Mostly because it's a bad habit I haven't been able (willing?) to break

    Votes: 12 17.9%

  • Mostly a split of 1,2, and 4

    Votes: 9 13.4%

  • N/A - I don't smoke (or smoke so rarely it's essentially N/A)

    Votes: 32 47.8%

  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • Total voters
    67

bigred

Penultimate Amazing
bigred
Joined
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Messages
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Location
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Simple curiousity. Limiting this to nicotine (mostly cigs) as smoking other things is a diff matter entirely. :covereyes
 
I started when I was 15 to rebel against my parents and my school and whoever else it was I was rebelling against and because I guess I thought it was cool. It's hard to say why I started now...but at the time, it seemed like a good idea.

I only very occassionally have one now.
 
bigred said:
Simple curiousity. Limiting this to nicotine (mostly cigs) as smoking other things is a diff spliff matter entirely. :covereyes
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Corrected it for you.

To answer your question: Started with 14, wanted to be cool or something. Now it would be hard to quit, especially because I don´t want to give up the smoking of "other things".
 
? So it's an all-or-nothing thing for you? Interesting.

PS lost me on the spliff thing.
 
I started 20 years ago. Last month I took my first initiative to quit. After 3 days cold turkey, my wife bought me a pack of cigarettes. When I'm about to throw people out the window, she gives me one. This is my fourth week and I'm down to 2-3 cigs a day. Only one yesterday, and one so far today. Although, I'll probably have one before the day is over.
 
Tailgater said:
I started 20 years ago. Last month I took my first initiative to quit. After 3 days cold turkey, my wife bought me a pack of cigarettes. When I'm about to throw people out the window, she gives me one. This is my fourth week and I'm down to 2-3 cigs a day. Only one yesterday, and one so far today. Although, I'll probably have one before the day is over.
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Good luck, and keep at it. It is not an easy thing to quit, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Daredelvis
 
I began smoking at boarding school, quit for a few years after I had to have my heart valves transplanted, started back up again during residential treatment for an eating disorder at age 20 and finally quit for good two and a half years ago.

I'm not really sure why one would have to continue smoking tobacco products just because one would want to continue smoking other things.
 
bigred said:
PS lost me on the spliff thing.
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a "spliff" is, as Private Eye would have it, "an exotic cheroot", a "jazz fag" or perhaps just a "joint".

I believe you have been the victim of a pun.
 
I quit, yay! I quit more than two years ago after smoking heavily for six years. Yay, I'm so proud of myself. Woohoo!

Thought I'd try and annoy the hell out of my former fellow-smokers. :p

Seriously though, I had heard somewhere that the difficulty of overcoming nicotine addiction is partly influenced by your genes. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones with a more benign combination, I don't know.

After I arrived at the decision to stop smoking, the first two weeks without tobacco (I used to roll my own, filterless, and really smoked rather heavily) had been the most difficult time. The physical addiction sure was noticeable. I practically spent my entire tobacco money on Fisherman's Friend during those weeks, and my stomach sure did complain about that treatment. Some smokers can only really quit if they never come close to a cigarette again. For me, it was key not to have any tobacco around at home, but fortunately nothing beyond that. In fact, I still use to smoke whenever I go out and have some alcoholic beverage. I like that. Of course, I always have to "borrow" the cigarettes since I can't have my own around at home, you know. :)

Anyway, what's probably more interesting is how I summoned the courage to actually attempt quitting. I think for most people this is probably the most difficult bit. Also, I knew I would better succeed at the first try, because after experiencing failure it will only be harder next time. The story goes like this: I had fallen in love with a girl around the time, and this time around it actually worked out for a change. What followed was actually a bit of an idée fixe of mine: I spontaneously decided to put the unexpected high spirits to good use, and quit smoking. The fact that she didn't smoke also played a role of course, but she hadn't actually expressed any demands or concerns in this direction at all. As I said, it was really mainly this idée fixe to exploit my high spirits.

Well, what shall I say? It actually worked out, and I really needed only the one attempt. As to my girlfriend, we unfortunately broke up about a month ago after more than two years, but we're still on friendly terms.

However, I did not pick up the habit of smoking again.

So, I hope I didn't bore anyone to death. It would be really great if my little story may actually inspire someone to quit. The morale of the story is, wait for your next upturn in life and exploit it to quit smoking immediately! Think of all the money you save. For me, it completely financed the monthly cost of my cat. :p Really, if you feel you're close to giving in again: Try to think firmly about what you're going to do with the extra money. It does help, especially since the tax is raised regularly.
 
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I discovered early on when I was working 12-24 hour shifts in the navy that it was permissible to go outside and take a 5-10 min smoke break but not a fresh air break. Now I'm physically addicted.




Boo
 
What helped me quit was a two-week trip to visit my asthmatic aunt. I decided to not bring any cigarettes with me and since the trip was filled with lots of activity it helped me not think about it so much. It was pretty easy, in fact, as these things go (though I had never been a particularly heavy smoker).

They need to have some kind of smoker's rehab/resort. I'd shell out a couple thousand bucks for a couple of weeks of distracting activities in a smoke-free environment if it gave me a better chance to quit smoking ... I mean if I hadn't already quit. It could be called Quitter's Camp or something. Hey, they have rehab for drugs and alcohol and tobacco is just as potentially deadly.
 
Boo said:
I discovered early on when I was working 12-24 hour shifts in the navy that it was permissible to go outside and take a 5-10 min smoke break but not a fresh air break. Now I'm physically addicted.
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I thought you'd given up? :(
 
I started smoking because a chick I was hooked up with smoked. I kept smoking because of the addiction, and because I looked cool. I've since quit.

And, smoking played right into my personal philosophy.
 
Smoking is a complex habit for most with more than just an addiction to the drug. It's also a habit of using your hands and mouth when not occupied something like chewing your fingernails, a habit that is associated with other things you do so doing those things make you want to smoke like drinking alcohol or coffee or after a meal, or driving a car, it's a habit you often share with friends, and then it is also the nicotine. I started smoking because I was a rebel and someone dared me. I must have quit at least 50 times before I finally quit but when I finally quit it was so easy to do. I had quit cold turkey, I quit by using the gum, I quit by smoking other things, I quit by cutting down one cigarette a week, I quit by looking at the times that I most wanted to smoke and stopping my smoking at those moments then repeating this until I was no longer smoking. I quit by switching to cigars which seemed easier to quit or a pipe. I quit by cutting off pieces of the cigarettes so that I was smoking less and less over time. I quit by reading about people who died from smoking and reading about the scientific data about smoking............but I always started back up eventually till the last time. One of the times I quit but my fellow employees chipped in and bought me a pack of cigarettes and told me to smoke again since I was so grumpy when I quit. I had no reason to live long originally but now I do. I suppose if I ever feel like life isn't worth it I will start smoking.
 
I quit. but when i did smoke it was because it was VERY enjoyable. i couldnt get enough. ever.
 
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