How do I quit smartphones?
On Smoking
171–180 of 403 posts
Re: On Smoking
#172The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…
I've tried nicotine (in cigarettes, cigars, and vape-based products), but for some reason, it never became this light switch in my head. However, as soon as you started describing this, I immediately thought of my relationship with food, which is not a healthy one.
I maintain a healthy weight (now) and exercise, but this is a daily struggle. Since about the age of 12, certain peculiar foods inexplicably got wired in my head with pleasure, and the way you talk about this light switch is spot on.
I wonder if it has more to do with having an "addiction gene" of some sort – could some of us fall prey to addictive behaviors more than others? If so, why?
Re: On Smoking
#173The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…
Now imagine your problem is not smoking or drugs or alcohol but food.
Imagine you're an alcoholic who has to have half a shot of whisky everyday.
But hey, overweight people are just lazy and lack willpower.
Re: On Smoking
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alcohol is also addictive expensive and bad for you, and yet no one asks why anyone would drink alcohol
Alcohol has gourmet attributes and is a good social lubricant. The question is more around whether those two attributes warrant ingesting what is essentially poison. I don't think I've ever heard a cigarette smoker comment on the taste of their cigarette (cigars are the exception here) and the high, especially for regular smokers, is near non-existent. So for cigarettes the initial appeal is much less obvious. I'd as…
I quit smoking over 40 years ago (TL;DR: It sucked). Best decision I ever made. I don’t regret it one bit.
To this day, I sometimes smell a nearby cigarette, and it smells good to me.
Re: On Smoking
#175The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…
I quit smoking, and it was very very hard. I don't agree with you that the addiction, need and nicotine + other triggers will remain with me until the end of time. Deprogramming is part of the process of quitting to smoke. I do now never want to smoke. It is not attractive to me as a way to relax or focus. I can stand in a tobacco section of an airport taxfree shop holding a 5 cartons in my hands with absolutely no d…
Did the "deprogramming" came naturally over time, or did you do anything intentional to reach it?
If it's the latter, would you care to expand?
Re: On Smoking
#176On and off smoker here, mostly pipes, sometimes cigars and cigarettes. I always found it easy to start and stop(for months to years at a time). 23andme shows I'm at reduced risk for nicotine addiction. I've got an addictive personality and had problems with other things, but nicotine was never one of them. I'm type 2 bipolar though, and lately I've found nicotine works really well for managing a depressive cycle. I can break a negative thought loop with a nice bowl of tobacco, gingerly inhaled.
I have to watch it though. Sometimes the depressive cycle is really just a nic-fit. Nicotine is tricky. I'm also noticing that, as I get older(46), smoking triggers what feels like prostatitis. It doesn't last more than a day, but man it's apparent that my prostate doesn't like nicotine.
Re: On Smoking
#177One of the rare posts here where I read most of the comments, top to bottom. It’s fascinating so many of us can get so articulate and reflective about smoking.
Couldn’t smoking be considered a perverse form of breathing exercise? Not a beneficial exercise, but definitely a practice of sorts.
Modern (American) society went from taking several breaks a day for breathing to quitting this practice while getting more overweight, overworking, consuming more and more media.
Re: On Smoking
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alcohol is also addictive expensive and bad for you, and yet no one asks why anyone would drink alcohol
Alcohol has gourmet attributes and is a good social lubricant. The question is more around whether those two attributes warrant ingesting what is essentially poison. I don't think I've ever heard a cigarette smoker comment on the taste of their cigarette (cigars are the exception here) and the high, especially for regular smokers, is near non-existent. So for cigarettes the initial appeal is much less obvious. I'd as…
>Alcohol has gourmet attributes and is a good social lubricant
smoking was a good social lubricant as well. you can see that in the old Hollywood movies and in real life back when smoking was the social norm.
Re: On Smoking
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alcohol is also addictive expensive and bad for you, and yet no one asks why anyone would drink alcohol
Alcohol has gourmet attributes and is a good social lubricant. The question is more around whether those two attributes warrant ingesting what is essentially poison. I don't think I've ever heard a cigarette smoker comment on the taste of their cigarette (cigars are the exception here) and the high, especially for regular smokers, is near non-existent. So for cigarettes the initial appeal is much less obvious. I'd as…
Cigarettes are also a good social lubricant.
Re: On Smoking
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that really needs a cite in 2021 but let me give it a go https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180109214939.h... > At least 61 per cent of people who try their first cigarette become, at least temporarily, daily smokers, suggests an analysis of survey data by Queen Mary University of London. This is actually stronger than the original statement. A substantial minority who even try smoking become…
When you stated 'virtually everyone', I assumed >90%. So no, 60% is not that. It is still a terrifyingly high percentage nonetheless.
To clarify imagine a funnel. In step one 61% who try smoking become daily smokers. In step two some percentage n of those who become daily smokers become addicted to smoking.
Virtually everyone who smokes for any reasonable duration will become addicted is a statement about step two and asserting that n is somewhere near 100% based on knowing a plethora of smokers, hearing about how smoking effected them, and watching their struggles to quit and reading about the physiological effects of smoking. It isn't a very scientific analysis and I'm open to more clear numbers if you have them.