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On Smoking

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Re: On Smoking

#51

Post by 1auralynn »

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,…

It was physically hard for a couple months while my brain reprogrammed to run without nicotine (i.e. I was pretty slow/stupid for a while) and once in a while I get an urge (maybe every couple months?), but it's not severe enough that I'm in any danger of ever smoking again. Quit over 10 yrs ago. Others mentioned Allen Carr/Easy Way method, and that was definitely a part of putting smoking in context as just a physical addiction.

As long as you're able to separate yourself from the narrative of "I'm a smoker" and just let go the big dramatic story about how it's hard and you're going to fail then it's relatively easy to just deal with the physical symptoms of withdrawal/craving. I have a strict "no nicotine" policy and it makes it super easy because I never have to wrestle with decisions about whether I'm going to smoke/vape/whatever, the decision is already made.

Re: On Smoking

#52

Post by mavhc »

dimmke wrote: post #46
unixhero wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I agree. I quit smoking back in 2016 and I don’t think of myself as a smoker at all anymore. I sometimes have to remind myself I used to smoke.

Why do people start smoking? Surely they know it's addictive, expensive, and bad for you

Re: On Smoking

#53

Post by josephcsible »

blairbeckwith wrote: post #21
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 sort of agree with this, but I do know lots of people – myself to a certain extent – that have had success with mild re-programming, via Allen Carr's Easy Way method[0]. I'm not the type to buy in to this kind of thing, but it did help me quit when nothing else did, and I never felt this sense of longing for something. Nobody else I've known that has had success with that method did either. I also think it's really…

> I also think it's really unhelpful to talk about quitting smoking in such hopeless terms. If I was still a smoker, being told I was inevitably going to be craving cigarettes for the rest of my life might almost convince me not to quit at all.

I think the post was directed at non-smokers, to scare them into not starting to smoke.

Re: On Smoking

#54

Post by 1_player »

TameAntelope wrote: post #23
Scarbutt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind I don't think that's true in general, at least not for me or many of my friends. We never got hooked. Please don't try though ;)

My experience has been similar. I've smoked cigarettes probably ~12 times in my life, maybe up to 20 if you count cigars, but I've never felt like I need one or am in any way compelled to continue smoking on my own. Always, always while drinking. Maybe that helps isolate the context?

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.

Re: On Smoking

#55

Post by [deleted] »

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,…

[deleted]

Re: On Smoking

#56

Post by magneticnorth »

mavhc wrote: post #52
dimmke wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I quit smoking back in 2016 and I don’t think of myself as a smoker at all anymore. I sometimes have to remind myself I used to smoke.

Why do people start smoking? Surely they know it's addictive, expensive, and bad for you

There's a pleasant mild buzz you get before your tolerance builds up.

Re: On Smoking

#57

Post by shoto_io »

I quit about a hundred times 20 yrs ago. I don’t why, but after that I finally grabbed this damn book by Allen Carr. I would have never that it would work. But for me it did. Been smoke free ever since. Maybe just pure luck. Maybe it was the goddamn book.

Re: On Smoking

#58

Post by dageshi »

chippy wrote: post #43

I started vaping around the same time as the first lockdown. I never enjoyed it really and it kind of actually hurt my lungs a couple of times. I stopped. Break until next lockdown. I started smoking a tobacco pipe. Maybe 1 bowl every 3 days. More meditative, lasts around 40 mins, with the geeky hobby of different flavours, blends, techniques. It's also less nicotine and because there's no inhalation, much less worse…

Cigars aren't a million miles away from pipe tobacco, you don't inhale them either (some do, but they're lunatics). Larger sizes will probably take an hour, the largest closer to two. Power wise, it very much depends on the cigar, some are very mild, some very powerful, but my personal experience is that much like pipes they aren't addictive for most people, I smoke 2-3 a week in the summer when the weather is nice.

Re: On Smoking

#59

Post by dingo454 »

augusto-moura wrote: post #39
dingo454 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hardly masks anything TBH. You smell the same with some hint of mint on top. Most of the smell comes from your lungs, your clothing and your hair. You need to stay outside for a good 10 minutes to make a significant difference in perceived smell. Anything else is mostly wishful thinking...

It does make a difference, even so slightly. Trust me in that one, I have been called off more than one time by not using mints. But yeah, I agree that it doesn't remove the stench completely

I generally never comment on this to my coworkers because I want to be polite and keep good relationships (I've had very hard responses to very polite requests just to open the windows in the past, so I simply stopped commenting).

I'm doing this here because I'm seeing this often, and I want to be honest: no, it doesn't really do much, unless we're talking about ~50cm face-to-face conversations maybe (something that would make me back-off quite sharply, gum or not).

Keep in mind the smell after 10 minutes of open-air ventilation is still not a smell I would consider acceptable. For consideration, a very nasty and strong office fart would be in the same line of stench for my nose at that point. Except a fart doesn't tend to cling on for so long.

Sorry for the analogy :(

Re: On Smoking

#60

Post by 1auralynn »

1auralynn wrote: post #51
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,…

It was physically hard for a couple months while my brain reprogrammed to run without nicotine (i.e. I was pretty slow/stupid for a while) and once in a while I get an urge (maybe every couple months?), but it's not severe enough that I'm in any danger of ever smoking again. Quit over 10 yrs ago. Others mentioned Allen Carr/Easy Way method, and that was definitely a part of putting smoking in context as just a physic…

Oh and I was definitely smoking a pack a day+ for most of my 20's. Quit when I was 30.
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