Smoking is Evil!!

[Ausm]

I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine who quit smoking about the same time I did in Janurary. GUESS WHAT! He is back to smoking again He's in the process of juggling 2 Ex's and buying a house was to much stress for him he said

I hope he can someday kick the habit I won't pressure him about it though. Nagging someone about their smoking habit is always counter productive.

Sysadmin

 

[Gurck]

Doh

Agreed on nagging. On the up-side I take it from your post you've stayed smoke-free? Excellent, congratulations! Feels so much healthier doesn't it? Your wallet is probably brimming over with cash too

 

[RedRooster]

I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.
Did you find it relatively easy, considering you had been doing it for so long? Congrats, by the way.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

 

[MiniDoom]

I quit smoking cigs four years ago and herb one year ago, cigarettes were alot harder to quit.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.
Did you find it relatively easy, considering you had been doing it for so long? Congrats, by the way.

Smoke a pack a day for a few years and try to quit. Until then, you have no idea.

 

[RedRooster]

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.
Did you find it relatively easy, considering you had been doing it for so long? Congrats, by the way.

It's really tough, yeah. On top of being more physically addictive than heroin (although with less in the way of withdrawl symptoms), lighting up is something many do 10, 20, or more times a day. I was up to two packs, so 40. There's a tremendous void in habit to fill. It's true that you have to really want to do it, but those who can't or have trouble aren't necessarily weak-willed; it's a very strong addiction. I smoked for close to a decade and didn't play around doing that 1-2 cigarettes a week thing and calling myself a smoker - I have too addictive a personality for that I ranged from 1-2 packs a day, more in times of stress and the last few years of smoking. Since quitting I can laugh when I find something funny and not go into a coughing fit that scares those around me (sound ridiculous but that was my MO ) I can do more than a few minutes of cardiovascular exercise, and weight training has a much more pronounced effect on my muscle mass. I'm saving unbelievable amounts of cash. I used the patch.

On addiction - there are two basic types, physical and psychological. Physical addictions occur when the body comes to depend on the chemical you're putting into it. Nicotine, opiates (heroin, morphine, etc), and even alcohol fit this bill. Psychological addictions are addictions to things which the body can do without but which are addictions because they're enjoyable. Marijuana, excess food, and watching television fall into this category. Cocaine and crack do as well, oddly enough. Their reputation for high addictiveness isn't without basis though; they hamper dopamine reuptake, which in turn directly stimulates pleasure centers in the brain. Similar to antidepressants, but much stronger & more immediate. Long-term addicts can give it up and be physically fine, but often battle moderate to severe cases of depression because of the permanent effect it's had on their natural production of neurotransmitters.

 

[Modeps]

My dad's been smoking since he was drafted in the army. They'd say "smok'em if ya got'em" and if you didnt have'm, they'd give you something fun to do like clean the latrine.

Anywho, besides the physical addiction, many smokers just flat out like smoking.

 

[Ausm]

Yup, I am still smoke free. The first month I had dreams about smoking. I didn't realize how much of a part of my life smoking was!!! Cigarrettes to a smoker is like crack to crackhead. I smoked a pack /day for at least ten years.

Sysadmin

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: RedRooster

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

Let's put it this way, Smoking to me when I was a smoker was 1st and foremost in my life. My cigarrettes where like my "best friend" always there when you needed them.

Damn hard to change that habit.

Sysadmin

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: RedRooster

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

Wow, you really are clueless. Even at 14 before any real education on chemical properties, i was able to deduce that cigarettes provided a chemical rush to the brain (called nicotine) that brought pleasure.

 

[KarenMarie]

I have been a ...at least a pack a day... smoker for 30 years. In all that time, I never wanted to quit. Recently, however, I am coming around to the fact that I must do so. I am terrified. I KNOW I am physically and psycologically addicted. I have been smoking for so long, I cannot imagine what it will be like to not smoke. Silly, but it has become part of who I am.

I don't know how I am gonna do it, but I know I must and am beginning to accept that and set goals for it.

 

[Atomicus]

Give him the man-to-man talk with plenty of profanity and "are you stupid?"

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
I have been a ...at least a pack a day... smoker for 30 years. In all that time, I never wanted to quit. Recently, however, I am coming around to the fact that I must do so. I am terrified. I KNOW I am physically and psycologically addicted. I have been smoking for so long, I cannot imagine what it will be like to not smoke. Silly, but it has become part of who I am.

I don't know how I am gonna do it, but I know I must and am beginning to accept that and set goals for it.

This is what I used to kick the habit... www.smokeaway.org. I quit in 2 days with absolutely no withdrawals.


My buddy went cold turkey but failed

Sysadmin

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Atomicus
Give him the man-to-man talk with plenty of profanity and "are you stupid?"

We have been friends for 25 years...he knew I was dissappointed but it is something that you have to do yourself. The average smoker tries to quit three times before sucessful.


Sysadmin

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
I have been a ...at least a pack a day... smoker for 30 years. In all that time, I never wanted to quit. Recently, however, I am coming around to the fact that I must do so. I am terrified. I KNOW I am physically and psycologically addicted. I have been smoking for so long, I cannot imagine what it will be like to not smoke. Silly, but it has become part of who I am.

I don't know how I am gonna do it, but I know I must and am beginning to accept that and set goals for it.

It's the habit that's the hard part... nicotine leaves your system within 72 hours, but the habit of all those years is what's hard. EVERYBODY can quit for a few weeks or months at a time, it's the long term that's hard. And often it's just a single cigarette that kicks the addiction back into place.

What you need to do is make smoking negative... it's taken you 30 years to realize it, but if you quit for a year or two, then 'rediscover' the joy of smoking, it'll take time again for you to convince yourself to quit again. What i suggest is making that very first cheat smoke you have as something costly... you can have a cheat smoke, but you can only have a single smoke out of the pack, just enough to kill whatever craving or convincing of yourself you were able to do, but then you have to throw the pack away (don't give it a friend, don't hide it, literally crush it up and flush it down the toilet).

Eventually, you'll come to realize that the benefit of smoking doesn't outweight the cost... that every smoke is costing you $3-4. If you're serious about quitting smoking, try this method, and i guarantee you after cheating a few times, you'll come to hate the cost of smoking... cancer, emphysema, etc, people do'nt think it'll happen to them, so it's often not enough to convince somebody to quit smoking, but if you actually lose hard cash everytime you smoke, the costs become more concrete.

 

[nan0bug]

Originally posted by: RedRooster

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

Its a little bit of everything. Physically, the addiction causes you to get headaches and stress out more easily when you don't have cigarettes. When I quit, it became harder to fall asleep, harder to drag my ass out of bed in the morning (waking up with a headache), harder to get through the day without feeling like breaking something or punching somebody. The good news is, the physical effects subside after about a week. Getting over the physical effects is the easy part.

The worst part is the mental addiction. Smoking becomes so ingrained into your day to day routine that it is really hard to cope with cutting it out. Anyone who is a smoker has certain times of the day they light up. I always light up as soon as I get in my car, which is why I started smoking again -- I deliver pizzas, so I'm getting in and out of my car a lot, plus the stress of dealing with traffic all day while I'm working. Almost everyone lights up after meals. Then theres the alcohol factor, which is really hard to overcome if you're young and have any type of social life at all. Alcohol totally removes your willpower. After about 3 or 4 beers, you look around the bar and all you see is people smoking, and you start thinking 'Just one, just tonight. I'll wake up tomorrow and not smoke, but just one at the bar is harmless! This is torture!'

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. You smoke one, and you just want another, except now you want it more.

Its also tough because when you smoke, cigarettes don't really taste good, in fact I don't even really notice the taste, but when you go without for a while and then you light up, man nothing tastes better than that cigarette at that moment. It literally tastes different, its hard to explain but its almost sweet tasting. The addiction warps your mind to believe the foul smelling, foul tasting noxious fumes actually taste GOOD.

Its a really nasty habit to quit. I'm not a person who lives with regret, but one of the few things I truly regret is ever smoking a cigarette. You should count your blessings that you never started.

 

[Lazy8s]

Did you bring up to him the fact that smoking actually causes your body to release cortisol (the stress hormone) so that while you get a temporary (a few min or less) stress relief it actually causes more stress than you could naturally? If he's trying to reduce stress he's going about it in the wrong way.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
Did you bring up to him the fact that smoking actually causes your body to release cortisol (the stress hormone) so that while you get a temporary (a few min or less) stress relief it actually causes more stress than you could naturally? If he's trying to reduce stress he's going about it in the wrong way.

Right, people are really going to quit smoking just because you state some fact? If facts work, a picture of a cancerous lung would be enough to destroy the tobacco industry.

 

[Lazy8s]

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
Did you bring up to him the fact that smoking actually causes your body to release cortisol (the stress hormone) so that while you get a temporary (a few min or less) stress relief it actually causes more stress than you could naturally? If he's trying to reduce stress he's going about it in the wrong way.

Right, people are really going to quit smoking just because you state some fact? If facts work, a picture of a cancerous lung would be enough to destroy the tobacco industry.

Worth a try. Using that logic we should look the other way on anything because the "type" of person might not listen to logic. What about suicidal people? Depressed people? Criminals? Do we just let them all go?

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
Did you bring up to him the fact that smoking actually causes your body to release cortisol (the stress hormone) so that while you get a temporary (a few min or less) stress relief it actually causes more stress than you could naturally? If he's trying to reduce stress he's going about it in the wrong way.

You know what....I believe this is true I feel much more relaxed after quitting smoking. I used to think smoking mellowed me out


Sysadmin

 

[jdini76]

Originally posted by: RedRooster

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

First off, you are confused, you mean psychological addiction. psychological addiction is when you do a repetitive action for so long you get used to it. A physical addiction is when your body is physicaly dependent on it, and will go through chemical withdrawls if you stop doing it. Cigarettes have nicotine in them that purposely cause a Physical (chemical) addiction to keep the smoker smoking. So if one wants to quit, they first have to get throught the Physical (chemical) addiction of the nicotine, then on top of that they have to get throught the psychological addiciton (cigarette after meals/sex/work). I am a non-smoker, never picked it up, and I still can understand the problems with quiting.

Marijuana does not have any addictive ingrediants in it like nicotine (THC is not an addictive substance), therfore people will not suffer a physical addiction to it, but they can become psychological addicted.

 

[RedRooster]

Originally posted by: nan0bug

Originally posted by: RedRooster

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I don't understand how it can be so tough, but there's no doubt that it is. It seems the weak willed will find reasons not to quit.

To a smoker, having a smoke is as basic as taking a piss or having lunch. It's a physical addiction.

Try not urinating for a few days.

Is it the physical action of doing it, or the feeling of the inhilation or...? I really am curious, as I obviously have no clue.

Its a little bit of everything. Physically, the addiction causes you to get headaches and stress out more easily when you don't have cigarettes. When I quit, it became harder to fall asleep, harder to drag my ass out of bed in the morning (waking up with a headache), harder to get through the day without feeling like breaking something or punching somebody. The good news is, the physical effects subside after about a week. Getting over the physical effects is the easy part.

The worst part is the mental addiction. Smoking becomes so ingrained into your day to day routine that it is really hard to cope with cutting it out. Anyone who is a smoker has certain times of the day they light up. I always light up as soon as I get in my car, which is why I started smoking again -- I deliver pizzas, so I'm getting in and out of my car a lot, plus the stress of dealing with traffic all day while I'm working. Almost everyone lights up after meals. Then theres the alcohol factor, which is really hard to overcome if you're young and have any type of social life at all. Alcohol totally removes your willpower. After about 3 or 4 beers, you look around the bar and all you see is people smoking, and you start thinking 'Just one, just tonight. I'll wake up tomorrow and not smoke, but just one at the bar is harmless! This is torture!'

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. You smoke one, and you just want another, except now you want it more.

Its also tough because when you smoke, cigarettes don't really taste good, in fact I don't even really notice the taste, but when you go without for a while and then you light up, man nothing tastes better than that cigarette at that moment. It literally tastes different, its hard to explain but its almost sweet tasting. The addiction warps your mind to believe the foul smelling, foul tasting noxious fumes actually taste GOOD.

Its a really nasty habit to quit. I'm not a person who lives with regret, but one of the few things I truly regret is ever smoking a cigarette. You should count your blessings that you never started.

Good answer, thanks for the insight!
I guess I can't fathom the utter addictiveness of it, but you certainly put it into perspective.
So, rather than unintelligently berating people who can't quit, I should question the ones just starting as to why they're doing it(like my sister and friends). That's the most important time by the sounds of it.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Lazy8s

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
Did you bring up to him the fact that smoking actually causes your body to release cortisol (the stress hormone) so that while you get a temporary (a few min or less) stress relief it actually causes more stress than you could naturally? If he's trying to reduce stress he's going about it in the wrong way.

Right, people are really going to quit smoking just because you state some fact? If facts work, a picture of a cancerous lung would be enough to destroy the tobacco industry.

Worth a try. Using that logic we should look the other way on anything because the "type" of person might not listen to logic. What about suicidal people? Depressed people? Criminals? Do we just let them all go?

People who smoke are in denial..they say it can never happen to me. Well I didn't want to take the chance!!


Sysadmin