# What is the physical appeal of smoking? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335 "2004-10-09T05:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/21 "2004-10-09T16:23:50Z")
I should also point out that, while a lot of people complain about not getting a buzz when they try a few cigarettes, a lot of people don’t get the hang of smoking them right for a while. I know I started smoking and not inhaling at concerts and stuff with friends of mine, and then I started inhaling and really got a serious buzz. I never got up to more than half a pack a day and I’d always get at least one buzz with the first smoke of the morning, but if you’re not a “natural” then it takes some time to get the nicotine fix. - **Ace** , smoke-free for two #&$@~!ing long weeks ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/22 "2004-10-09T16:24:29Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Intelligent choice. I tried one cigarette at age 12, and got the same result. Unfortunately, at age 26, I tried nicotine gum, and got hooked into the drug by the product meant to deliver smokers from the addiction! Foolish, foolish, foolish! :o Yes that was foolish, **QtM** and here is another foolish. I started back smoking about 6 months ago after _20 years_ of non-smoking. It is a powerful addiction and few people can smoke only occassionally. I lit up again with some folks I met at a writing conference…thought I will just bum a few and that will be it. Wrong. Bought my on pack in the airport giftshop and I was right back where I started 20 years ago. And **Incubus** , I think the nicotine gum just subs in the same addiction in a more acceptable and easier to put down form. You don’t run into many people you want to sit and talk and share a nicotine gum with at the coffeehoue. I’m thinking that is how it works. Don’t do it. And if you stopped don’t really be a poopyhead like me and light up again. Hey, I had to step out on my deck and have a cigarette before I made this post. Go figure. Maybe I will do the patch this time. Had to give up gum because of the TMJ…jeez I’m a mess. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/23 "2004-10-09T16:29:11Z")
Ummm…I think I’ll take a pass on that IV nitro **QtM** , those silly docs might insist I have an MI first or something. You know how damn rigid they can be about those things! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/24 "2004-10-09T17:17:30Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > I can’t remember a horrible moment since I was 17 where having a ciggie didn’t have some kind of weird focusing/calming effect. > > On a daily basis…well it helps wakes me up. Coffee and a fag are the perfect brekkie. I can’t imagine finishing a meal without the ciggie and given the choice I would have the ciggie not the meal. Certain activities are just not right without a smoke; coffee, phone calls, driving, yes even sex :D. OK I can do them without but they are so much better with. > > On the odd occasion I have gone a lengthy time without a smoke the ‘head rush’ is unpleasant yet good at the same time. > > I have attempted to give up (without actually wanting to) I made it 48 hours and I was ready to KILL. > > When the very worst moment of my life happened my FIRST reaction was to tell everyone to fuck off while I sat in the corner and had a smoke. It didn’t help anything but it sure did calm me. > > My family has a history of emphasemia. I’m not a stupid person (I just play one on SDMB). I realise that when my father’s doctor told him to tell any smokers in his family not to worry about cancer cause emphasemia would get them all, well I know he meant me. > > Smoking gives a very real physical feeling. Well real enough that you are willing to stand on the footpath in the middle of winter. Real enough that hearing people talk about stinky smokers just makes you chew some gum. Real enough that the last half hour of a movie will be drowned out by the Must Smoke Now thought. Real enough that a crisis will make you reach for a smoke before you can reach for a person. > > And it is pleasurable. That first drag on a smoke who have been thinking about for hours is heaven. Something inside you goes AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH even as those around you cough :D…sorry. I admire those who give up more then I can say. > > That’s just me. I’m currently under intense pressure to quit…but it’s part of me. Ok I’m also deathly afraid I would take up eating for sport if I gave up. I was a fat teenager. Haven’t been fat since I smoked. I know if I wasn’t smoking I’d be eating. Heart disease or emphasemia? …well we all go someway. > > Weak as dishwater but I need my cigs. It sounds like part of you wants to quit, at least. I always said that if I waited until I wanted to quit I’d never do it. I really really liked it. Nobody ever thought I’d quit, nobody. It helps to move to Southern California where there are only about 6 places in the state you can smoke. Sometimes I go days and never see anyone smoking. Also, **calm kiwi** , if you’re thinking you might stop, throw everything you can at it. Go on the Zyban for a few weeks, wear patches 24/7 and get some inhalers and gum in case all of that fails. I wore patches for months. I’d cut little slivers off them, bit by bit. Honestly, it was never nearly as uncomfortable as I had always been afraid it would be. [/end hijack] ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/25 "2004-10-09T23:39:23Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Hey, nicotine is very addictive, I’m an addict (albeit recovering now, thankfully). It didn’t take long for me to go from a 2 mg piece of nicotine gum to a great big wad of chaw in my cheek. Eventually I went back to the gum (years later) and after trying to quit gum a number of times, I finally succeeded. You know, right before your post, I was going to ask if it was as easy to get hooked on other sources of nicotine like gum and patches as it is to get hooked on cigarettes. Looks like you preemptively answered my question. And man, smokers talk about the high cost of their habit – isn’t nicotine gum a lot more expensive than cigarettes? > [@](#): > > If you’re interested, the quitting technique that worked for me was IV nitroglycerine. Once I had that for my acute MI 7+ years ago, I never picked up nicotine again, in any form. Is this some real pharmacological thing, or are you just talking about the newfound “time to quit!” motivation that a heart attack gives you? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/26 "2004-10-10T00:05:37Z")
I started smoking extremely young, basically as a result of peer pressure. I don’t think I was actually addicted for a few years (was barely inhaling for much of the time). And I even quit once, way back then, but realized that I couldn’t see all of my friends if I didn’t go out to the courtyard to have a cigarette. And so I started up again, and shortly after, I _did_ get addicted. For me, now, smoking is less about what is appealing, than about what is unappealing about NOT smoking - I am absolutely unfit for human consumption when I’m in the throes of withdrawal. I used to :dubious: whenever I read that cigarettes can be more addictive than heroin, but I started cluing in on some telltale things. If I even _knew_ that I was going to run out of cigarettes, I would start freaking out (and, oddly, start smoking even more). If I did run out of cigarettes, I would turn my house upside down looking for a forgotten pack (I actually tend to be very lucky with this, and usually find one.) If I can’t find whole cigs, it’s time to start digging through ashtrays, looking for anything long enough to light. The entire time, I’ll be disgusted with myself, but it doesn’t stop me from doing it. I watched British Big Brother over the summer, and there was a housemate named Nadia who had notorious temper tantrums whenever they ran out of their tobacco rations. One of the first episodes I saw showed her in tears, saying she’d rather leave the house than be without cigarettes, and I knew exactly how she felt. I don’t cry often, but give me a long time without cigarettes, and waterworks are looming at any second. And after a period of serious deprivation, that first cigarette is very, very close to an actual high. Glad to say though, that I have seriously reduced my habit. Two years ago, I was pushing 2.5 packs a day, easily. Now, I smoke maybe just over a third of a pack - about 6 or 7 cigarettes, a day. It might not be as good as quitting, but it’s gotta count for something. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/27 "2004-10-10T00:47:18Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > Is this some real pharmacological thing, or are you just talking about the newfound “time to quit!” motivation that a heart attack gives you? Hey, I’d tried cold turkey, I’d tried the patch, I’d even done that thing with the needles. You know, Morphine? And I still couldn’t stay off the nicotine. But after IV nitro, I never touched them again. 🆒 And no, I don’t recommend that treatment for anyone. IV nitro gives one freaking whale of a headache. They dialed it higher and higher to relieve my chest pain. With each increase the headache got worse! Finally I wouldn’t admit to having chest pain because the chest pain was far less severe than the headache! (Don’t try this for your MI, kids. I was being hauled off to the cath lab regardless). So yes, it was a final motivator. And a tongue in cheek tip of the hat to a pharmaceutical finally getting me off nicotine. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/28 "2004-10-10T01:00:43Z")
I smoked from the age of 13 or so to 32. I quit 6 months ago. Sometimes I would smoke a cigarette and it would go down just right and while I wouldn’t call it a buzz, it felt physically good. It’s a funny feeling of being rubbed the right way all the way down your windpipe. I think it might just be like when you heave a big involuntary sigh. Now that I’ve quit smoking I seem to get that rush from secondhand smoke and I’m not sure what that proves. When the wind blows someone’s smoke in my face I go weak at the knees. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/29 "2004-10-10T03:27:41Z")
I quit smoking in 2000 after smoking for quite a few years. For me, I would that the addicition is part physical and part psychological. The physical appeal of it is hard to describe. After you for a while without nicotine, the effect is like having an itch that you an’t quite scratch. It is very annoying, but you can definitely get through it if you have to. The effect of the cigarette on that situation was pure relief. For a brief moment in time, everything is going to be OK. It produces a sense of well being and for me relaxation. The psychological aspect for me was the ritual. I always had a smoke with coffee, if I had a beer, I needed a smoke to accompany it. The first drag of smoke was pure bliss. It was the fact, that I could use it as a justification to pause whatever I was doing for a minute or two, and relax for a minute or two before going back to work or whatever I was doing. It usually gave me more focus. Another thing was the companionship. I met quite a few people while smoking. Since you had to go to the courtyard to have a smoke, you tended to meet the other smoker, which meant that you could easily make friends in new situations and environments. I don’t really miss it much. My granddad had emphysema and having seen him a few months before the end was enough to convince me to quit. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/30 "2004-10-10T03:41:15Z")
I don’t smoke. Anything legal, that is. Hey, don’t Bogart those Doritos! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/31 "2004-10-10T12:36:57Z")
I’m glad to know I am not alone, with either ex-smokers or still smokers. If I could take back the moment I became a smoker (yes there was a moment…ohhhhhhhhhhhhh it was a stupid moment but there was a moment) then I would. I would LOVE to be one of those 'ewwwwwwwwwwwww smoke is sooooooo icky" people but I’m not. I suspect it will kill me. We all have to go some way, I know how I will probably go. ---
**Author:** ![Zahava424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@Zahava424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zahava424)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/32 "2004-10-10T15:02:17Z")
I don’t smoke, but I’ve done research on the topic. According to the chapter on smoking in Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point: Of three chemicals in your brain (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine), one is boosted by antidepressants. The other two are boosted by smoking. They apparently have similar effects, calming you down and making you happy. I forget which chemicals are boosted by smoking and which one by antidepressants, but whatever. It’s an interesting point: cigarettes actually ARE mind-altering drugs. Some people are less sensitive to those effects, which may be why you didn’t feel anything. Some people have a lower tolerance for nicotine, which is why they have an unpleasant sensation when they try it. Others have a high tolerance and are strongly and positively affected. These people are most likely to become regular smokers, because they will try it in larger quantities, enough to get hooked. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/33 "2004-10-10T15:40:16Z")
Hm, I started smoking when I was 16, sneaking cigs when I was out with friends. When I went off to college, I started smoking full-time, a carton a week. Quit at age 22 after a bout of walkin’ pneumnia. Strangely enough, quitting wasn’t all that hard for me. I don’t think I tend to get addicted to things easily; I didn’t have much trouble with coke either. Started smoking for the sociological aspects: I hung out with the punk kids and we started smoking because it seemed like such a pervers thing to start doing. And it was fun for other reasons, it gave you something to do at clubs and an excuse to tal to strangers, either bumming a cig or getting a light. But, I liked the physical side. You get a nice little buzz when you start smoking. Whenever I bum the (very) occasional cigarrette now, I still feel it. It made it easier for us to not eat much and become the quasi-anorectics we admired. The only time I ever really crave a cigarette now is when it’s really cold outside. It’s very pleasant to draw the warm smoke into your lungs on a cold day… ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/34 "2004-10-11T00:20:58Z")
HE: Do you smoke after sex? Dumb blonde: I don’t know. I never looked. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/35 "2004-10-11T14:19:07Z")
I am a complete and total non-smoker. I have never even wanted to take a single puff. I have two children who have been smoking for the last ten years…they are 20 and 22. My cousin (my age) quit smoking after just 2 weeks on Zyban, and has been smoke-free for several years now. I have held on to this success of hers, hoping the same cure would work for my kids, but they are not interested in quitting right now. But I’ve hoped. Now, after reading this thread, I realize more clearly what they are up against, and I weep for them. I tried to raise them as non-smokers, but they made the choice to start, and by the time I realized they were smoking it was probably too late. I am so depressed thinking about their enslavement to this drug. I have never been able to understand why they would want to smoke, why they would choose to be financially and physically dependent on cigarettes, why it has been so hard to quit. Now I have a better idea. Doesn’t make it any less depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/36 "2004-10-11T14:34:07Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Yes, people get a buzz from nicotine. It’s a narcotic. Technically speaking, it isn’t a narcotic, is it? I thought a narcotic was a drug that relieves pain and induces CNS depression? What is the correct usage of the word nowadays? Law enforcement people seem to use the word to mean any illegal drug, **fb** uses it here in the sense of “any addictive drug”, and pharmacists and doctors seem to have a different, narrower usage. **Qadgop** , perhaps, will wander in and give us his views. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/37 "2004-10-11T14:38:53Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Hey, nicotine is very addictive, I’m an addict (albeit recovering now, thankfully). It didn’t take long for me to go from a 2 mg piece of nicotine gum to a great big wad of chaw in my cheek. Eventually I went back to the gum (years later) and after trying to quit gum a number of times, I finally succeeded. Oh, I see you are here. One thing I’ve always wondered, is this: In smoking, does the harm come more from the tar than from the nicotine? Hypothetically, if the manufacturers produced a cigarette with high nicotine and ultra low tar, would it be less damaging to one’s health than high tar and low nicotine? I ask, because whenever I’ve known a smoker to switch to a ‘light’ brand, which usually has less nicotine, they’ve almost always smoked more cigarettes to make up for that. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/38 "2004-10-11T14:40:47Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Technically speaking, it isn’t a narcotic, is it? I thought a narcotic was a drug that relieves pain and induces CNS depression? What is the correct usage of the word nowadays? Law enforcement people seem to use the word to mean any illegal drug, **fb** uses it here in the sense of “any addictive drug”, and pharmacists and doctors seem to have a different, narrower usage. You’re correct; technically, a narcotic is basically just an opioid like opium, morphine, hydromorphone, methadone, hydrocodone, and so forth. But plenty of people use it to mean “any mind-altering drug,” or “illegal drug,” or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/39 "2004-10-11T14:59:35Z")
After hearing all the information as to the buzz nicotine gives, I would think the logical next question is: Would you recommend starting? ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335/40 "2004-10-11T15:09:25Z")
For me, it wasn’t really the buzz I got from nicotene, I was really addicted to having something to do with my hands. I’m fidgety by nature, so having something in my hand to fiddle with was very nice. The buzz actually made me sick the first few times I tried smoking. But when I moved to South America during college, everyone smoked when they went out, so I did, too. When I came back, though, I had to stop. It’s getting to be a pretty anti-social habit here in the States - you’re not allowed to do it unless you’re at a bar or outside - plus I constantly smelled like cigarettes when I was smoking, something I really didn’t like. I wouldn’t recommend smoking, really. I mean, if you’re really curious, you can always try it a few times, but you might find that the smell bothers you. Also, if you’re not used to it, it can leave a pretty nasty taste in your mouth for a few hours after a cigarette. At least I think so. Not to mention, for me, kissing someone with severe cigarette breath was really gross unless I was smoking myself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-physical-appeal-of-smoking/268335.md?page=3)