Here’s an odd question, but I’m considering becoming addicted to nicotine just to quit. Don’t ask. If I did so, however, is there some sort of rough estimate of the amount of cigarettes I’d have to smoke in order to actually become addicted?
Like many drugs, when it no longer makes you sick, you’re addicted.
Advice: Don’t, and just say you did.
Peace,
mangeorge (A Camel on my back)
It depends on your body chemistry. Some people can smoke hundreds of cigarettes and never become addicted, others are more or less addicted after just one cigarette.
Haj
For the last three or four years I smoked only 5-10 cigs a day but I am well and truly addicted. I quit from last Nov. to this past May and then started right back up again. I am right this second sucking on a Nicotrol Inhaler. Fourth day of quitting AGAIN. I read something once: when you try to quit and fail, don’t think of it as failure, think of it as practice. Well I’ve had a lot of practice. I don’t know why you would want to start just to quit, some kind of test of self-will I guess, you said don’t ask so I won’t, but I’m with mangeorge, don’t do it. Or maybe you could get addicted to the gum instead.
Well, actually, I’m considering it for 3 reasons. A) I’ve never been addicted to anything, and I’m curious. B) I’m convinced I have the will power to quit, no doubt in my mind. and C) If I get addicted, then just stop cold turkey, I have a friend who has agreed to stop smoking if I can/do.
I did the same thing once. I honestly don’t recommend it unless you are very strong willed. It took me one pack spaced out over a period of 4 days to get addicted. It took me about two weeks to get over the strong cravings.
DANG! For the whole past year at college I smoked cloves (I’d bum cigs when I was out). I went home over summer break and haven’t had a cigarette since (about 2-3 months now) and never had a single withdrawal symptom. But GOD do I miss em! I swear I have an oral fixation… I just like hlding the clove in my mouth! I even dream about it now… but like I said, not one physical withdrawal symptom!
Hmm. How would I figure out if I were addicted or not… presence of cravings?
That, SenorBeef, or getting jittery and a cig making it better.
Getting bitchy when you haven’t had one in a while is a good sign too.
One of your next cigarettes will make you feel VERY good. That’s when you’re addicted.
Oh, and by the way, I tried the same experiment. I thought I would try to smoke for just 1 year and then quit. It’s been 13 years since. I really have to quit, this experiment has gone on too long…
SeniorBeef, please don’t.
If you think you’re strong enough to withstand addiction, you’re probably right.
But if you’re wrong, you’ll get addicted right away. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known.
If you’d just spent a week in the hospital with your mother, praying that the lung cancer hadn’t spread, you wouldn’t even try. (It was two months ago, but it seems like last week.)
People who die of lung cancer, says my sis the doctor, tend to die by drowning slowly over a period of weeks. Eventually, there’s not enough lung left for you to breathe.
Don’t even go there. It’s so ugly.
It’s not going to be as simple as smoking a pack or two…you may experience mild physical addiction from that. To truly experience what a smoker goes through when trying to quit then you should smoke regularly for at least 3-4 months.
Physical addiction is only one aspect of dependence–and for most people beating that is the easy part. The hardest part of quitting smoking is the psychological addiction. To experience that, you need to incorporate smoking into your daily routine, so that your mind expects to have a cigarette in specific situations. For me, the hardest part about quitting was missing the after-meal smoke. Others need to smoke while drinking, after sex, driving to work, after an argument or other stressful situation.
So if you really want to get the full experience, then you need to commit yourself to becoming a smoker for quite a while. And as others have pointed out, this really isn’t that good of an idea!
Senorbeef, lay off the Simpsons? ( Bart: And I’ll take up smoking and give that up. Homer: Good for you, son. Giving up smoking is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do.)
Oddly enough, I kind of know how you feel. Most people I know have been smoking since their early teens. While I’d hate to label myself a “social smoker”, I do occasionally indulge in half a pack when out for drinks, and I pretty much chain-smoked all last summer. However, I never find myself craving one, even while drinking, although, despite that, I may have one anyway just for that juvenile buzz. Same goes for other substances, except maybe sugar. Why not try getting addicted to sugar?
Go with heroin instead. It’s safer and easier to quit.
Thanks Jenner You beat me to the punch.
Nicotine will sneak up on you. There’s no set time limit for addiction, diff’rent strokes and all, but once it gets you, it’s got you. Just like alcohol, there’s no such thing as an ex-smoker. It only takes one smoke to start the ball rolling again. This is an extremely bad idea, and I urge you to find something else to occupy your time.
Hmm. Well, I asked the question because if it was a clear cut “3 or 4 packs will make you addicted”, then I’d do it - but if it’s more of a “you have to smoke for 3 or 4 months, regularly” thing, I don’t - even 3 or 4 months of smoking has to be pretty bad for the lungs.
second “I don’t” is supposed to be “I won’t”
i vote Cat Fight for our Resident Agony Aunt [tm]. gosh, get addicted to sugar ?? 
what a suggestion. only, SenorBeef would have to give up eating most everything to quit his sugar addiction.
[anecdote time…pull up a chair…light up a smoke…]
a very close friend of mine at hostel was a chain smoker. i kept pestering him to quit. i am a 12 hr a day sleeper. i need it. we had an arguement in which he decided that sleep is screwing up my life in the way smoking is screwing up his. he went on to wager that if i slept 6 hours instead of 12 everyday, he’d give up smoking for good. i was game. it sounded easy. and it would make him quit. my only condition was that he wakes me up at the end of my alloted 6 hours. since we were in a hostel and had adjacent rooms, that wasn’t an issue. i managed a week with 6 hours. and i couldn’t go on anymore. i was like a zomboid with just 6 hours sleep. i needed my 12. lost the bet. he’s still smoking… some 5 years on… i’m still looking for a way to sleep less… the SDMB could only suggest coffee… but i’d have to get up to make that… or atleast to drink it… so that’s on hold for now… [/anecdote time…put back chair…stop smoking…stop smoking…stop smoking…]
Well, Senorbeef, I guess it varies on an individual basis. I’d recommend you try 1 or 2 packs and then suddenly stop. It was tough for me when I suddenly stopped, but maybe for you it would take longer to be hooked.