Important Note To All Anti-Smokers: I am NOT planning on starting. Don’t worry. Please be courteous, & refrain from being a pain-in-the-thread. That’s like a pain-in-the-butt, but not so far down. Thank you.
I never tried tobacco, not once. Not even in school.
So, I’m slightly curious.
What sensations do you get when you smoke? In what way is it pleasurable?
Are cigars different from cigarettes, & if so, how?
It’s an addiction. It’s a general feeling of well-being. It’s kind of like when you take a pain killer and everything goes all smooth and fuzzy. You probably can’t understand unless you have some sort of addiction.
Honestly? I smoke cigarettes because I’m addicted to nicotine.
But in the beginning, it wasn’t that. I smoked because it was the “cool” thing to do in my group of friends in high school. I also smoked because I got a short-lived buzz off the nicotine.
Eventually, though, I wasn’t smoking for the buzz or the so-called cool aspect of it - I was smoking because I needed the nicotine to feel “normal” - it has become a physical need for me to get through the day.
(Now, I’m not saying that I can’t break this need. It’s not like water, where if I stop taking it in, I’ll eventually shrivel up and die. I might feel like I will for a few days, but I know that it’s not one of the essential things I need to live. I still have to make the decision to actually push my way through those days though. )
Why do I smoke?
Well the short answer is because it’s addictive and I have become an addict.
The physical sensations you get when you smoke are definitely NOT pleasant at first. You feel like choking, your mouth becomes dry, the taste is horrible, your head feels woozy and you may feel a little nauseous, and when you blow your nose the next morning you might notice a little bit of brown residue in your nostrils. But I suppose it’s the sense of rebellion and abandonment - knowing you’re doing something ‘naughty’ that makes you keep going. The only reasons to continue smoking after your first cigarette are mental.
Then when you get used to it and your body begins to become addicted to the nicotine and you become used to the smell (in your hair, skin, clothes etc.) and taste of smoke in your mouth and the dryness in your mouth the next morning, the physical sensations are more pleasant. The nicotine is relaxing and stimulating. There is a sense of camaraderie among smokers too - at parties they go outside together and smoking gains a social aspect too. Smokers tend to be less straight-laced and more rebellious than some non-smokers so you’re often hanging around with like-minded people to some extent. It’s hard to explain without sounding simplistic but fellow-smokers will probably understand what I’m trying to get at.
Having said all that, for the few positive aspects to smoking there are obviously way more negative aspects. I don’t think I’ve ever met a smoker who was truly glad they became one. I regret it but it is VERY hard to give up. You feel like a fool for reaching for a cigarette everytime you’re angry (though they are a huge comfort - this is only because you’ve made yourself need them when you didn’t before). Also cigarettes are very expensive as they are taxed very highly here (Ireland) and in the UK too so you’re a fool for wasting so much money on them too. Add to that the growing social stigma of smoking and you really really regret starting. You know you smell of smoke, you feel how unfit they’re making you. It takes so much longer to get over colds and things… but everytime you try to give up it’s so hard and they’re such a comfort sometimes. It’s pathetic and you know it’s pathetic but you can’t help yourself. I hope to be successful at giving them up at some stage but for the rest of my life I know they’ll tempt me and that’s what I’ve done to myself. I didn’t fully appreciate the implications of smoking at the time so I DON’T agree with this attitude of the rabid anti-smoking nazis that smokers deserve everything they get, but if I fully appreciated then what I know now I would never have touched the things.
So, patronising and hypocritical as it may sound DON’T START!
Dammit, every time I have something useful to say someone else says it. In this case 7 minutes before I saw the thread. shakes fist at YoudNeverGuess
Basically, what YoudNeverGuess said. Strange, though, I’ve managed to overcome my addiction for Coke, E, hell - even heroin, but I always start smoking again sooner rather than later. I think 3 months is the longest I’ve gone without smoking a cigarette. It’s the social part - it’s difficult to stop when there are so many people smoking all around you and you have many smoker friends.
shakes fist
Damned tobacco companies forcing me to smoke. I’ll sue them, I’ll sue them all!
Why I started: because, when I was 14, there was such a big deal about why you shouldn’t smoke, I felt that it was some kind of forbidden fruit. My friends and I wanted to try it to see what the fuss was about.
Why I continued: because, once I got over the whole coughing my head off thing, the effect is pleasant. It made me feel happy, slightly light-headed and dizzy, and my face, hands, and feet would tingle. After a while, it became something to do while I was concentrating on stuff; it helped.
Why I still smoke: despite the good effects going away or only rarely being experienced, the nicotine had me totally in its grasp within about 6 months. It costs a fortune, it’s killing me, it has absolutely no benefits whatsoever, but I can’t stop. Trying to describe nicotine cravings to someone who doesn’t get them bad (which includes some ex-smokers) is tough. For me, it’s like holding my breath - I could physically hold your breath until I passed out, but psychologically every fibre of my being is screaming out for me to breathe. That’s similar to what it’s like when I’m craving nicotine, though obviously not as strong. On the other hand, if I were down to my last €5 and I didn’t have lunch or cigarettes, I’d buy cigarettes. It has become stronger than hunger, but not as strong as breathing.
“I could physically hold my breath” (don’t think I could hold yours). :smack:
Yep all the above about addiction.
Add to all that that to me a smoke is like a little buddy. They’re always there giving you something to do. When I walk into a pub etc when meeting people I may not know that well first thing I do is light up. It gives me some physical support as well as chemical just holding it, playing with it and smoking it.
It also believe it or not tastes great to me. I love a smoke with Guinness or coffee. The first deep intake of smoke after a meal is a true pleasure.
I’m addicted to the bastarding stuff both chemically and mentally. My little smoking buddy is killing me and I’m letting him. I still love him however. How fucked is that?
Another vote for “because I’m addicted to nicotine.” Back in 1973, smoking wasn’t the worst thing you could do yet, and like so many other teenagers, I started. I liked the nicotine buzz that you get at first. Then it goes away, but you have to keep smoking to maintain your level of narcotic addiction. And as others pointed out, there is actually a pleasurable aspect to it. The first smoke of the day and the first one after dinner are really nice, unfortunately.
I did quit, cold turkey, once. It was the worst experience I think I’ve ever voluntarily put myself through. I can’t honestly say whether I had horrible withdrawal symptoms, or whether I caught the flu at the time I was withdrawing - but I have never been as sick in my life as I was during that time. I was off it for three months, and then I went back to it. I’m still on it, because I’m afraid to quit and get as sick as I did the first time - it was horrendous. I can’t afford to take a month off work and kick it.
This gives me an opportunity to ask you other smokers who have successfully quit by using medicine - does that help any?
I’ll agree with that. I also started in that year, and back then smoking wasn’t harmful at all. Adults said it was, but we all know how they lie. Your older sibling’s friends are threal source of truth on the matter, and if they could smoke and not die, then so could I.
I also have to agree with what everyone else said, with one exception: I’d bet any smoker here that he or she was not the Rebel Without a Cause that he or she claims to have been. Sure, you rebelled against your parents, and society in general, but how much against the grain were you going when influential peers offered you a smoke and told you that you’d never be cool until you took one? I’d bet that conformity was #1 on your list at the time.
OK, maybe not everyone. But most of you (and me too).
Mostly because i wanted too i guess. I haven’t smoked in about 8 months or so, haven’t really kept track. I honestly don’t see the big deal, when i did smoke it was because i enjoyed it, when i stopped enjoying it i simply stopped smoking them.
Moved to IMHO.
We’ve heard a lot from people who smoke cigarettes. How about something from a pipe and cigar smoker?
Like many others, I suppose, I started on cigarettes. As others have said, back in the 1970s, smoking was far from the worst thing a teenager could do, and with everybody around me (adults, friends, even teachers in the school parking lot) smoking cigarettes everywhere (the mall, the movies, restaurants, work, I mean everywhere), it was natural.
But when my father (who was a pipe smoker) saw that I had taken up the habit and that his anti-cigarette lectures weren’t working very well, he decided that I should redirect my habit to something more enjoyable. I can’t remember his exact words, but they were something like, “If you’re going to smoke, don’t have a cigarette in your mouth constantly while you do other things. Get a pipe or a cigar, take the time to sit down and enjoy that smoke, and find out what good tobacco flavour is.”
So I did. Dad taught me about pipes and tobaccos, and though he didn’t know that much about them, helped me to discover premium handmade cigars. He pointed out that one does not inhale pipe or cigar smoke; one simply enjoys it for the flavour and aroma that the tobacco blender has worked to create. And unlike those who inhale cigarettes and feel the need for them, I’ve found that I can go days, weeks, and months without having a pipe or a cigar.
But when I do have one, I enjoy it. I sit in my big easy chair in front of the TV, a glass of whiskey or a microbrew in one hand and a Bolivar Royal Corona or pipeful of Peterson’s University Flake in the other, and enjoy the flavour and the aroma of finely-blended tobacco. It’s a peaceful, relaxing way to end the day, I find, and the flavour and texture of the smoke is unlike anything that can be eaten or drunk.
I’ll second what Spoons has said.
I’ve never developed a tobacco addiction. (Caffeine is my monkey, and I’ve tried many times without success to kick it.)
Although I sometimes purchase mass-market cigarettes, a package will usually go noticably stalish before I get through it. (A week or more.) Of course, ciggies tend to taste like ass anyway, so that’s hardly an issue.
I like good pipe tobacco or small cigars.
Why do I smoke? For the psychotropic effect, mostly. Nicotine is an interesting stimulant-- it seems to relax the body while exciting the mind. I find that it’s a tremendous aid to writing, and it doesn’t exactly hurt for reading, either.
Apart from that, a good cigar is very pleasant and sensual. When you’ve got a good book, a sunny seat in a sidewalk cafe, a double espresso and a fine cigar, everything else can go hang, because the world is good.
I’ve smoked cigarettes on and off for years. My longest stretch without a smoke was five years, but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about smoking. I wasn’t suffering from a nicotine fit so much as having an occasional thought of “man, a smoke would be great right now” running through my head.
I picked the habit back up last August when I went on a trip away from my normal life to hang out with a bunch of musician friends at an annual music fest, and stopped abruptly when I returned home. I picked it up again for the holidays, but havent smoked since New Year’s. You could say that even though I have smoked on and off, I am still a smoker with an addiction. Whatever. All I know is that I discovered that if I smoked in moderation (for me that’s about four cigarettes a day), and only bought one pack at a time (because I hate going to the store) that dropping the habit was much easier. Plus, when I was smoking in such moderation, each cigarette gave me that great nicotine buzz, the taste was always fresh, and it made the quelling of the nicotine fit last MUCH longer. Going forward, I will probably save smoking for the music fest each year and the holidays.
And when I (temporarily) quit, it’s always been cold turkey.
Not sure when I started cigars but as a teenager I was lucky enough to suffer horribly from cigarettes. Cigars fall into a different category. They have to be good to enjoy the taste and I prefer good ventalition so I’m not inhaling the smoke. I like to smoke them when I’m “thinking” or having a casual conversation with friends or listening to a blues band. You can spend an hour with 1 good cigar.