What is the appeal of cigarettes?

[NFS4]

What's EQ?

 

[BD2003]

Everquest, better know as Evercrack. Believe me, EQ can be a serious addiction too, thought not physically. My roomate is an EQ addict, he cant go a day without his fix. Its certainly more addicting that marijuana. Discuss amongst yourselves.

My game poison is DOD. I havent shot any nazi's in a week, and its eating away at me.

 

[Brutuskend]

They say Cig's are more addictive than "junk" and I can vouch for that!

In my younger days, I did every drug you can think of, and NEVER got hooked on anything.
Anything but cig's that is!!

If you don't smoke, DON'T start!!!!

 

[KEV1N]

Simply put, cigarattes are appealing because sometimes, they just feel damn good.

Having one once in a while is one thing. Using smoking as a crutch (stress relief, etc.) is another.

 

[Rage187]

It makes you look cooooool..

 

[Nefrodite]

hehe, there must be some appeal or else who'd waste their time sucking on a i love you shame its so bad for you, or else i'd try it guess i'll stick to starbux. sad thing is china has the most smokers now i think. i guess i should be happy that i live in california.. smokers don't run things here. everytime i go to vegas i get headaches from all the 2nd hand smoke.. its probably the smell that gets to me that or i'm 2ndary smoking

 

[nullshark]

Funny how doctors used to advise patients to take up smoking to relax, heh.

 

[kduncan5]

Everybody is addicted to something, and every addiction has its drawbacks, some physical, some mental and/or emotional. I smoke for stress relief, and I happen to think Camel Lights taste pretty darned good.


Of course, that's just my opinion.......-kd5-

 

[MiExStacY]

i'm trying to stop smoking.i know all the draw backs of smoking but it does release some stress for me atleast.and it does get them annoying people that bothers you alot at work and you know they hate the smell of smoke just pull one out take a puff poof they gone.my goal next year is the patch hope it works

 

[GagBag]

Why even start in the first place?

nothing pisses me off more than when i see a hot girl smoking, nothing.

 

[SackOfAllTrades]

<< nothing pisses me off more than when i see a hot girl smoking, nothing. >>


sorry i just took that line out of context and it sounds very funny. just read it again and not think of cigarettes

 

[rgwalt]

I'm a very light smoker (maybe a pack a week, typically when I go out, but it is getting more frequent). However, I know that when I want to quit, I will be able to. For me, it will be simple... I'll just stop buying packs and leave it at that. This doesn't work for everyone, but I think it will for me. The other nice thing is that my smoking buddies are dropping like flies, so when I don't have someone to smoke with, it makes it less appealing.

Ryan

 

[JellyBaby]

The drug nicotene is addictive.

 

[GagBag]

<<

<< nothing pisses me off more than when i see a hot girl smoking, nothing. >>


sorry i just took that line out of context and it sounds very funny. just read it again and not think of cigarettes >>



heh

 

[tcsenter]

<< Stress releif IS NOT a valid claim. >>

Of course its a valid claim, for smokers. I know a guy who goes sky-diving to "relieve stress", that's not a valid claim to me. I know someone else who likes to ride his $1500 bike down a hill at high speeds, crash into a rock, flip ass-over-tea-kettle, break his wrist, collar bone, and scrape a 1/16" layer of skin off 20% of his body, for "stress relief". I don't think that's a valid claim. A lot of people say pot is relaxing, it doesn't relax me at all - it puts me on edge and makes me nervous. That's how "stress relief" works, its entirely subjective. What one might find relieving, another might not.

As for addiction, there is a fundamental problem with overindulgence in this country, and its primarily a character flaw. There have always been people who drink too much vs. those who know how to moderate. There have always been those who smoke too much vs. those who know how to moderate.

We are the fattest nation on the planet because people overindulge in the pleasure and 'stress relief' they derive from food, or they overindulge in foods they find especially palatable instead of learning to moderate them. Are "thin" people just lucky enough to possess special genes? In the vast majority of cases, NO! Their eating habits are different.

We have been taught by the left - if it feels good do it. Don't worry about the consequences, because if you like it, then you should have as much of it as you can afford or stand. Nobody is standing over us like our parent saying "don't do so much of that, its not good for you". That is our responsibility to determine limits for ourselves, and many people miserably fail in that respect.

A buddy of mine has smoked for 20 years, never more than 2 or 3 cigarettes a day. Maybe he just has been lucky that every cigarette he has smoked just mysteriously had far less nicotine than others? No, he set limits for smoking, and stuck to them.

My grandfather rolled his own cigarettes from the time he was 12 until he died at 87 from a heart attack. He never smoked more than 2 - 3 cigarettes a day, because he knew it wasn't good to smoke so much.

Many pipe smokers don't get fiendish with their pipe tobacco, stoking their pipe every hour. They reserve the pleasure as an occasional one. Same with cigar smokers, smokeless tobacco users, etc. Because people don't have any discipline, they will attempt to consume as much of something that is pleasurable as they can instead of recognizing that too much of it is not a good thing and setting limits.

Addiction is primarily about rewarding the "me want" factor. Me want, me want, me want. So, have, have, have, but don't come crying to anyone (or suing them) when there are consequences to pay for it.

 

[SilverThief]

It would serve everyone of those people right if they got cancer! The ones who work at LabCorp, biggest rip=off medical company out there.
Hope you like those cigs you friggin bastards, hope you dont miss that lung too much either!!!
:|

eh...my 2:00am rant!

 

[jhu]

until you get addicted to cocaine and die from the withdrawal.

 

[rommel]

to keep you away from me?

 

[Roddy]

I'm not sure why people smoke - but the conclusion i come to is that it's an image that they like to portray. Possibly that of a "cool" image. I've smoked before a few years ago, then had another cig a few years later.. ARGHH! disgusting!
Mind you, it has totally put me off now as it's just another coffin nail and the only time i've thrown up from drinking is when i smoked. Bringing beer and smoke back up isn't a pleasant taste.

It's just purely disgusting, but I don't have anything against people who choose to do it. Each to their own i guess.
Mind you, I'd prefer a woman who didn't smoke, as I've been with one that has smoked before and it was like licking an ashtray when I kissed her... disgusting!

Needless to say I am no longer with her.

Just my AU$0.02

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Oooh Oooh, Cancer!
No, how about Emphysema!
Or what about Bad breath!
Maybe Increased chances for heart disease?

I better pick up that habit now! Id be stupid not to!

 

[jamison]

Too tired to read the enite thread, but whatever justification a smoker tries to give you, is a lie.

There is no justification or right answer. Smoking is bad in every way possible.

-James
Receiving second hand smoke for 17 years and hating it

 

[Looney]

I'm a very light smoker (maybe a pack a week, typically when I go out, but it is getting more frequent). However, I know that when I want to quit, I will be able to. For me, it will be simple... I'll just stop buying packs and leave it at that.

LOLOL that's what EVERY smoker says in the beginning. Did you know that POWs in WW2 would often trade their daily rations for smokes? And cigarettes today are even more addictive due to the manipulation of the tobacco companies.

We have been taught by the left - if it feels good do it.

Um, i think you mean by the RIGHT. The left are the ones that care about overconsumption and are telling people to moderate.

A buddy of mine has smoked for 20 years, never more than 2 or 3 cigarettes a day. Maybe he just has been lucky that every cigarette he has smoked just mysteriously had far less nicotine than others? No, he set limits for smoking, and stuck to them.

My grandfather rolled his own cigarettes from the time he was 12 until he died at 87 from a heart attack. He never smoked more than 2 - 3 cigarettes a day, because he knew it wasn't good to smoke so much.

I find this a little hard to believe... maybe they hid the seriousness of their habit from you out of shame, but that just defies the effects of nicotine. Your body eventually builds up tolerance to it, and actually develops a dependency to it, in which you'll need more nicotine just to stay 'normal'. Now, eventually there is a point where xx amount of cigarettes a day satisfy that need, for some it's as little as half a pack, and others need 3 packs. Your buddy and your grandfather could have had a really really low tolerance and dependency for that, but that's not so much as 'will power' as physiological... so no point in congratulating your buddy and grandfather for a more fortunate physiological response.

Addiction is primarily about rewarding the "me want" factor. Me want, me want, me want. So, have, have, have, but don't come crying to anyone (or suing them) when there are consequences to pay for it.

You have no idea what you're spewing about. Addiction has nothing to do with the 'me want' factor. A behavior becomes addictive when several conditions are served, including tolerance, withdrawal, and lost of control of the behavior... look at this thread itself, and how many people hate the behavior, say it's disgusting, telling other people to don't start, and want to quit themselves. It has nothing to do with the 'me want' factor. It's thoughts like that that is making quitting so difficult for people. People seem to think that to quit should be a matter of will power... that if they use pharmacological aid such as bupropion or the nicotine patch, that it then means they have a serious problem... something now out of their control, and so they're ashame of it and don't bother seeking those type of aids. It's the same reason why people don't like going to see a therapist or taking prozac for depression... once they reach that stage, then they think their state must be extremely bad if they lost complete control over it and need outside aid.

Yeah, addiction is all about the 'me want' factor. The junkie lying on the floor in his own diarrhea, curled up in the fetal position because of a severe stomach ache, and running a fever wants a shot of heroin because of the 'me want' factor. The insidious nature of nicotine is that people don't want to believe how addictive it is... users don't want to admit it until it's too late... and non-users can never appreciate how addictive it really is. It's a wad of dry leaves wrapped in paper, you should be able to quit that. Obviously you're ignorant, both to the effects of nicotine, and to human behavior.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I smoke because I'm suicidal. But I'm also afraid of dying, so I'm doing it slowly with cigarettes.

 

[tcsenter]

<< I find this a little hard to believe... maybe they hid the seriousness of their habit from you out of shame, but that just defies the effects of nicotine. >>

Weren't you the former drug addict? I wouldn't expect you to find it easy to believe, since drug addicts obviously don't know the meaning of self restraint.

Tobacco as an OCCASIONAL pleasure used to be the rule, not the exception, just like the occasional pipe or cigar smoker. In the beginning, my grandfather couldn't afford to buy enough tobacco to smoke any more than he did. They traveled into town every two weeks and he bought what his modest income would allow for spending on luxuries. He was a firm believer in moderation. He didn't just ostensibly preach it, he BELIEVED it. Too much of anything is not good. Some people live according to that maxim, others don't.

MANY people reserve alcohol and tobacco such as cigarettes, pipes, cigars and smokeless tobacco as an occasional pleasure today. That you don't know any of them may have more to do with the character of those you chose to surround yourself with. Because you don't understand the meaning of "limits" or "moderation" doesn't mean the same must therefore be true of everyone.

<< Your body eventually builds up tolerance to it, and actually develops a dependency to it, in which you'll need more nicotine just to stay 'normal'. >>

ONLY in those persons who are constantly exposing themselves to it. When you grant your body a reprieve from ANY addictive drug, or do not cross the maintanence thresshold required for dependency and decreased sensitivity to develop, every exposure is like the first. This is FACT. The person who smokes a pipe or enjoys a snifter of brandy ONLY in the evening after dinner a few times per week does NOT build any measurable tolerance or require more to stimulate the same level of pleasure/reward feedback in the brain. The person who overindulges to the point that they have not granted sufficient reprieve from the drug's influence between exposure will certainly develop dependency and tolerance.

<< You have no idea what you're spewing about. Addiction has nothing to do with the 'me want' factor. A behavior becomes addictive when several conditions are served, including tolerance, withdrawal, and lost of control of the behavior... look at this thread itself, and how many people hate the behavior, say it's disgusting, telling other people to don't start, and want to quit themselves. It has nothing to do with the 'me want' factor. >>

Then by your logic nobody can quit? Of course that's bullsh-t. How could people quit at all if they were just hopeless slaves to addictive substances? Its a choice. When people are ready to quit, they quit. Those who aren't, won't. People may not "chose" to become addicted, but they do chose to engage in the behavior that predictably leads to addiction.

I'm very familiar with the clinical significance of addiction; the dopaminergic system, the nucleus accumbens shell, the pre-frontal cortex, etc. But, if you want to re-educate me, have at it.

<< It's thoughts like that that is making quitting so difficult for people. People seem to think that to quit should be a matter of will power... that if they use pharmacological aid such as bupropion or the nicotine patch, that it then means they have a serious problem... something now out of their control, and so they're ashame of it and don't bother seeking those type of aids. >>

That's their choice how they want to perceive it. Addictions are tough to quit, nobody denies that. Tough doesn't equal "impossible". Its tough to lose weight. Its tough to maintain good grades. Its tough to tolerate some of your neighbors without strangling them. Its tough to get beyond the loss of a loved one. Its tough to work-out. Its tough some days just getting out of bed. Its tough some days just going to work. WAAAAAAAAAAA! Cry me a freaking river.

I don't care if someone wants to try and ease their cessation by using whatever means they think will work; hypnosis, gum, patches, meditation, group support, incarceration, a length of rope hung from the ceiling. Whatever they think will get them over the hump. There's no shame, just quit. People do it all the time. 30 year 3 pack-per-day smokers wake up one morning, cough-up a lung biscuit and nearly choke to death on it, become disgusted and proclaim THAT'S IT! And they quit - just like that. I've seen it, that's how my mother quit. My father quit a few years later, though not in time to stave off lung cancer.

<< It's the same reason why people don't like going to see a therapist or taking prozac for depression... once they reach that stage, then they think their state must be extremely bad if they lost complete control over it and need outside aid. >>

They do so because they chose to do so. Depression is a self-deceiving condition in and of itself. People don't need to be 'discouraged' from seeking treatment, they rationalize all by themselves how they don't need to seek treatment. I know, I went through a 6 month long depression where I rarely left my apartment. Cry me a river.

<< Yeah, addiction is all about the 'me want' factor. The junkie lying on the floor in his own diarrhea, curled up in the fetal position because of a severe stomach ache, and running a fever wants a shot of heroin because of the 'me want' factor. >>

Yeah, by that time, they're addicted. How did they get to that point? Maybe there were indulging themselves on behalf of or for the benefit of someone else?

<< The insidious nature of nicotine is that people don't want to believe how addictive it is... users don't want to admit it until it's too late... and non-users can never appreciate how addictive it really is. It's a wad of dry leaves wrapped in paper, you should be able to quit that. Obviously you're ignorant, both to the effects of nicotine, and to human behavior. >>

Well, obviously. I mean, I'm not a drug addict, never have been one. I've experimented with it all. I even had 'urges' to keep doing it, because it was pleasurable. But, I realized that was the catch, that was the bait, so I left it alone for a while. IOW, I had "restraint". Some of my friends rejected this, despite my attempts to discourage them. They would say "Ahh, what's the big deal? I'm not going to get addicted." One of them is dead, but he chose that road. I can't make his decisions for him.

Addiction is a self-inflicted "disease", calling it a disease is a true insult to those who have REAL diseases they did NOT bring upon themselves through foolish, indulgent and decadent life-style choices.

 

[IGBT]

According to tobbacco company research, it's highly addictive. Works on the same brain center as cocaine. Has an impact response similar to crack. The impact response can be enhanced by adding amonia to the tobbacco. Which creates phosgene gas but who cares. They like the crack like impact. And it becomes more addictive. So the tobbacco companys make more money. Because they can't quit. And if they suspect health problems, just tell them that's "contraversial" and they have the right to smoke..works every time...and they think they aren't junkies..HAHAHA.

<< nothing exceeds like excess.. >>