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On Smoking

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Re: On Smoking

#371

Post by chki »

Stevvo wrote: post #363
DeRock wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peking == Beijing. It’s the more phonetic translation of the mandarin name for the city.

No, Peking is not more phonetic than Beijing, and it isn't even Wade-Giles. Beijing is the currently accepted western name. You could make a linguistic argument for Wade-Giles, but not for the postal romanization.

> Beijing is the currently accepted western name.

In the English language, probably. I'm not a native speaker of English and momentarily forgot that "Peking" is unusual (although – in my defense – the English Wikipedia page still has it). But in my native language (German) everything other than "Peking" would be highly unusual.

Re: On Smoking

#372

Post by InitialLastName »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #333
rkk3 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1 in 12 adults had met the criteria for abuse or dependence at some point. That year, not some point in their lives. Nicotine is very addictive, but it's not an order of magnitude (10x) more addictive than alcohol.

>That year, not some point in their lives. What could be possibly so special about this year that you're so adamant to talk about it? Also, nice website, definitely not partisan.

> That year

> This year

Your other points aside (I agree, they should probably at least include some citations to their statistics), this article is from 2015, so I don't think anyone is making it about 2020/covid other than you.

Re: On Smoking

#373

Post by greenshackle2 »

jessriedel wrote: post #364
greenshackle2 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got myself addicted to nicotine gum and I never even smoked. To the point that I was constantly using it. Going through maybe 10-15 2mg gums per day. I used patches and regular non-nicotine gum to quit but I still have the urge, especially when I have difficulty focusing at work, because it does actually seem to help with that.

So, no one knows with complete confidence the long-term effects of nicotine alone (i.e., nicotine when taken without all the carcinogens in cigarettes associated with combustion that are not found in nicotine gum). But the evidence we do have suggests it's vastly safer than cigarettes. In fact, I don't even think we know if it's harmful on net. https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine Given the appetite suppression, and the kn…

Yeah, I'm not overly worried about it, I've read the gwern page before. I wouldn't have tried the gum if I thought it was nearly as bad as cigarettes.

I stopped because I found out my blood pressure was pretty close to hypertension range already, and I didn't have the discipline to control the addiction and only use it sparingly; my use ramped up until I was using it most of my waking time, which felt gross. Chewing gum all the time is kind of a gross habit, and using it that much gave me unpleasant GI effects, like coffee but worse.

I'm mildly addicted to caffeine but I have no trouble respecting self-imposed rules like not drinking coffee after 1pm, I found nicotine much more difficult to resist.

I lost like 7% body fat and been doing more cardio since then, my BP should be better now (haven't actually checked), I'm not totally against trying again but I'd use patches not gum, it seems more difficult to abuse.

Re: On Smoking

#374

Post by falcor84 »

blairbeckwith wrote: post #32
falcor84 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... and I never felt this sense of longing for something. Nobody else I've known that has had success with that method did either. Isn't that tautological?

Maybe? I'm not sure? It's a fairly throw away comment, I didn't send it to my editor to check for logical consistency or style advice.

Sorry, it wasn't intended as a stylistic comment. It just seemed you're making a recommendation about a treatment by saying that it works for all the people it works for. Would you have any estimate of what fraction of all the people who tried this fully succeed?

Re: On Smoking

#375

Post by blairbeckwith »

falcor84 wrote: post #374
blairbeckwith wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe? I'm not sure? It's a fairly throw away comment, I didn't send it to my editor to check for logical consistency or style advice.

Sorry, it wasn't intended as a stylistic comment. It just seemed you're making a recommendation about a treatment by saying that it works for all the people it works for. Would you have any estimate of what fraction of all the people who tried this fully succeed?

I gotcha, it was poorly worded.

My sample size here is extremely small – I know of three people who have used the method (2 read the book, 1 took the seminar) and all three were successes. I don't know of anyone who's done it that hasn't succeeded, but I expect there are tons of those. People who believe in it because it's worked for them are much more likely to speak broadly and loudly about it.

Re: On Smoking

#376

Post by moistbar »

unixhero wrote: post #24
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 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…

This was my experience quitting drinking. Once I realized what it meant for my stability, both mental and financial, the upsides stopped outweighing the downsides and I lost all interest.

Still working on cigarettes.

Re: On Smoking

#377

Post by bernardlunn »

The urge to smoke does go away in my experience. Now i don’t ever think about it. The physical addiction only lasts a few weeks but is super intense; the only thing that took the urge away was exercise. The psychological addiction took years with many relapses. I was hooked again within days of “just one”. This too does pass!!

Re: On Smoking

#378

Post by rkk3 »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #333
rkk3 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1 in 12 adults had met the criteria for abuse or dependence at some point. That year, not some point in their lives. Nicotine is very addictive, but it's not an order of magnitude (10x) more addictive than alcohol.

>That year, not some point in their lives. What could be possibly so special about this year that you're so adamant to talk about it? Also, nice website, definitely not partisan.

From 2015.

If you don't like that source Here is the NIH [1] in 2019 saying 5.3% have AUD, slightly lower stat but it is including 12 year olds.

I consume Alcohol and accept the health risks, but it is a hell of a drug and highly addictive.

1. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sh...

Re: On Smoking

#379

Post by wellthisisgreat »

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,…

You can quit smoking and you can stop smoking. I did both.

How do you know you did quit? You actually are quite disgusted by cigarette smoke and byproducts.

First, after 10 years of smoking, I stopped smoking for 4 years but was prone to have a cigarette every couple of months.

Now after 5-6 year relapse I quit for good. Honestly, I don’t miss a thing. The smell sucks, the taste sucks. The only thing that doesn’t suck is watching smoke come out of your mouth, but it’s not THAT enjoyable tbh.

Re: On Smoking

#380

Post by rkk3 »

InitialLastName wrote: post #372
KptMarchewa wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That year, not some point in their lives. What could be possibly so special about this year that you're so adamant to talk about it? Also, nice website, definitely not partisan.

> That year > This year Your other points aside (I agree, they should probably at least include some citations to their statistics), this article is from 2015, so I don't think anyone is making it about 2020/covid other than you.

I cited the article. The initial refutation was not even the date (covid) but a baseless claim that the statistic was at some point in there lives.
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