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On Smoking

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Re: On Smoking

#201

Post by amyjess »

murat131 wrote: post #3

The 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,…

My experience quitting smoking was that once I actually quit, I was just done. I don't normally get cravings anymore, though a few times a year, usually after eating a huge meal that leaves me stuffed or while drinking a lot, I'll think "damn, a cigarette would feel so good right now" and then the thought just fades away in a few seconds. TBH even when that happens, what I want isn't the nicotine buzz, it's the feeling of the smoke hitting my throat.

In fact, being around smoke doesn't make me want to smoke again. It's just the opposite, even. The smell of tobacco actively repulses me now, and if anyone lights up near me I start to feel sick. It's become a truly vile smell for me.

The hard part for me was just getting the motivation to quit. Nothing could really get me to want to quit, and I tried switching to vaping multiple times only to go back to kreteks, because I didn't really care if it'd kill me since I didn't really want to live anyway. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to transition that I got serious about quitting, because nicotine + estrogen is a really dangerous combination, so I realized I needed to quit if I ever wanted to be happy with my body. I switched to vaping pretty much instantly, vaped for a grand total of two months, and then decided to take a break for a few days before I got bloodwork done... and a few days _after_ I got my blood drawn I realized I hadn't touched my mod at all since and didn't even miss it, so I gave it back to the friend I borrowed it from, and I've been nicotine-free since (aside from one time, a year later, when I had a single kretek at a club just to prove that I wasn't addicted anymore and could have just one and then stop).

For what it's worth, I was a pack-a-day smoker for several years before I quit, and I've been nicotine-free for seven and a half years now (six and a half if you count the single kretek I had at the club after I quit).

Re: On Smoking

#202

Post by qq4 »

Since there seem to be past smokers in this thread, can any of you chime in for me what smoking did or does for you? I don't mean this as a insult, but I've never understood the addiction, at this point I feel like it's impossible for me to experience, and I don't desire to. I've smoked maybe a dozen or so times in my life, each time a dumb decision often for comedic effect where I asked myself afterwards, "am I addicted now?" and every time I felt nothing, from a cigarette, cigar, vape whatever. There must be a high. Is it relaxing or stimulating? My brother who got himself addicted said it "cleared his head" or something. My whole family smokes, none of them can quit. It feels like hypnosis to me, and I refuse to believe in hypnotism. Before you call me ignorant, I know and acknowledge that the addiction is a real thing, it's obvious. I'm simply curious where it comes from because it feels like I can't experience it.

Re: On Smoking

#204

Post by amyjess »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #111
murat131 wrote: post #3

The 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 think Hodgkinson in "How to be idle" nailed it. Smoking is one of the few things that changes your status by simply doing it: from being a John Doe you become a smoker. «The smoker simultaneously injects and excuses idleness in his life with every cigarette» «Many idlers love to smoke. It gives us something to do when we’re not doing anything.» As a smoker who quit several times over the past 20 years and went from…

That's a good point.

I quit years before the pandemic, but if I was still smoking when lockdown started I would've probably gone from being a pack-a-day smoker to a two-pack-a-day smoker.

First, all that pandemic anxiety would've made me smoke way more just as a matter of course. Second, being at home all day means I'd have no reason not to smoke. Back when I smoked, if I wanted to smoke at work, I'd have to stop what I'm doing and go outside (which royally sucked when it was either swelteringly-hot out or raining), but in lockdown? I could just smoke in my house all day while working.

I'm so glad I quit before that.

Re: On Smoking

#205

Post by HKH2 »

motohagiography wrote: post #29
pengaru wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also worth noting nicotine has interesting "nootropic" properties. You don't really have to quit your addiction to quit smoking, and there can be some advantages to continuing if you can afford it in safer forms.

It is a suprisingly powerful drug. I gave up cigarettes over 20 years ago and have zero craving for them, the smell is revolting. Looking back, the craving felt a lot like fasting. However today, I have a cigar a little more than once a month on average, and I can tell the nicotine content affects mood, sleep, and maybe some hormone levels for a day or two after, as much or moreso than most prescriptions I've ever ta…

"diminished neuroticism" - you've reminded me of the link between smoking and schizophrenia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia_and_tobacco_sm...

Re: On Smoking

#206

Post by inawarminister »

TameAntelope wrote: post #73
1_player wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I downvoted you, I hate when people think they're immune. They're one of the reason other people find themselves addicted to it. It's irresponsible and frankly immature. Smoking one or 100 cigarettes doesn't guarantee addiction, it's a Russian roulette. If you haven't heard BANG yet, doesn't mean there's no ammo in the chamber. You're not better or smarter than smokers. You just were more lucky.

I guess my only thought here is: how can someone like me talk about my experience if I'm going to get shouted down by someone like you? I was trying to share an anecdote to explain a potentially interesting alternative view, but I feel now that if I don't toe the orthodoxy line, I'm not allowed to participate. I don't think I'm immune, but I am certain I'm not addicted to nicotine despite having smoked dozens of time…

For what's it's worth, I experienced the same. I felt nothing but the burn of the smoke whenever I tried. Thank you for writing for us.

Re: On Smoking

#207

Post by hattmall »

defaultname wrote: post #103
TchoBeer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol is also addictive expensive and bad for you, and yet no one asks why anyone would drink alcohol

Smoking is magnitudes more addictive than alcohol. Regardless, a lot of people do ask why anyone would drink alcohol, given that it offers up an enormous array of detrimental health effects, the possibility of addiction and social troubles (DUI, violence, etc), and as a mental "holiday" altered state is an incredibly poor mechanism. Alcohol hangs around because it was accessible in earlier eras. There will come a tim…

Alcohol has enormous benefits over smoking and has pretty much been in hand for the entirety of civilization.

If people drink like a normal smoker smokes its considered a problem. If your having a couple morning drinks and taking shot breaks at work people would view that as extreme, yet that was/is a norm for smokers.

The thing is that its not so much explicitly smoking, but cigarettes that are the major problem. Cigarettes have so many additives and distort the natural tobacco to enhance the addiction that they themselves create the bulk of the smoking related issues. Using a natural tobacco product at the same frequency as normal / social drinking wouldn't have nearly the terrible health impacts as what happens to typical cigarette smokers and would likely be seen in a similar vein were it not for the negative attention brought on by cigarettes.

Re: On Smoking

#208

Post by gwbas1c »

qq4 wrote: post #202

Since there seem to be past smokers in this thread, can any of you chime in for me what smoking did or does for you? I don't mean this as a insult, but I've never understood the addiction, at this point I feel like it's impossible for me to experience, and I don't desire to. I've smoked maybe a dozen or so times in my life, each time a dumb decision often for comedic effect where I asked myself afterwards, "am I addi…

I almost got hooked. Like you, I had tried cigarettes a few times and they did nothing.

Then, 10 years ago, I watched "The King's Speach," where King George constantly smokes, and after the movie I bought a pack of hand rolling tobacco. Gosh, rolling those little buggers was FUN. They gave me a buzz, it was an excuse to go outside, and the buzz wore off very quickly.

About a week in, I started waking up with the idea that I should immediately smoke a cigarette... Then on my bike ride home I'd get the idea that I should smoke a cigarette. I stopped at that point, realizing that if I gave in, I'd get addicted.

The thing is, before the addiction sets in, cigarettes are fun. They're an excuse to go outside, have a conversation with someone, occupy your hands... The nicotine buzz is similar to marijuana, but much shorter and not intoxicating.

Re: On Smoking

#209

Post by oxfeed65261 »

qq4 wrote: post #202

Since there seem to be past smokers in this thread, can any of you chime in for me what smoking did or does for you? I don't mean this as a insult, but I've never understood the addiction, at this point I feel like it's impossible for me to experience, and I don't desire to. I've smoked maybe a dozen or so times in my life, each time a dumb decision often for comedic effect where I asked myself afterwards, "am I addi…

The best description I have read—I don’t recall where—described the desire for a cigarette coupled with the fulfillment of that desire, repeated twenty or forty or whatever times each day. It is hard to explain, but that reflects my experience. That tightly-coupled loop of desire and satisfaction is, in a perverse way, somehow preferable to not having the desire in the first place.

Re: On Smoking

#210

Post by datalus »

michaelmrose wrote: post #127
defaultname wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking is magnitudes more addictive than alcohol. Regardless, a lot of people do ask why anyone would drink alcohol, given that it offers up an enormous array of detrimental health effects, the possibility of addiction and social troubles (DUI, violence, etc), and as a mental "holiday" altered state is an incredibly poor mechanism. Alcohol hangs around because it was accessible in earlier eras. There will come a tim…

Virtually everyone who smokes for any reasonable duration will become addicted and almost all do so enough to substantially effect their health and longevity whether they know it or not. Most of the people who consume alcohol do so casually and not to excess. Essentially the chance of dying in a given year due to alcohol if this were anything like a random chance is around 1 in 2000 whereas the chance of dying from s…

The question is... what is a sane amount of alcohol? It’s surprisingly carcinogenic. It’s just the alcohol industry, much like the tobacco industry of yesteryear, has successfully suppressed this info.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_cancer

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