I’ve smoked quite a few over the past few years. It was an experiment. Some months I’d smoke very lightly (1-3 per week), and other months I’d smoke about a pack a day and sometimes more. At this point I’m done with them.
I simply don’t enjoy it, nor am I at all addicted, or becoming addicted because of the nicotine content. They taste like crap, they make me feel like crap, they make everything around me smell like crap (the air, my hand, my clothes, my breath, the car, the room, etc), they discolor your teeth, they can cause cancer (even to other people around you), they are expensive, they are addicting, they can be dangerous, they burn holes in the rug (or other flooring/tabletops) should you drop them, they require lighters and ashtrays (another expense), they can burn you, you have to go outside in order to smoke or go into a designated area, etc.
Beats the shit out of me. Both of my parents smoked (until an extra penny tax was added in 19556 or so and they both quit cold turkey :D) I was never the least bit attracted to the idea. Of course having asthma might have a bit to do with this, but who knows.
Just because you haven’t become addicted doesn’t mean others don’t. I’ve smoked some in the past, and when I realized that my desire to have a cigarette was no longer a reaction to stress but the cause of stress, I knew I was getting addicted. A fortunate coincident case of pneumonia made it easier to quit than it would have been, but it wasn’t a breeze.
Your reaction notwithstanding, nicotine is very addictive.
When I look at others smoke it seems they really enjoy it. I figured hell, it’s legal, I may as well give it a shot. I tried, but I guess my body is prone to them, oddly. As for others I can’t say the same. My mother has been an active smoker since she was 14. She grew up on a tobacco farm.
I smoke because it makes me look older, more sophisticated and more attractive to the opposite sex. Well, that’s what I thought when I was fourteen. The addiction didn’t kick in until I was twenty or so.
Last cig about 2 weeks ago. I’ve been on the “very light” phase the past 4 months or so. Only 2-3 at most, per week, because friends who think I’m a smoker (because they’ve seen me smoke a cig before) offer them to me, say, while were at the club. I’m really at the point where I smoke maybe half and toss it.
Believe it or not, some people smoke because it feels good. The nicotine buzz was always quite pleasurable to me when I smoked, although I have now quit in order to help my singing.
Some other reasons people smoke besides the addiction factor: the oral satisfaction, the fire, the beautiful smoke, and the amazing ability to bond with other smokers.
Absolutely true. When I started smoking, it was solely to obtain the buzz from the combination of nicotine and oxygen depravation. It wasn’t until it started taking me two or three cigarettes to get it that I knew how it worked.
It’s funny you say that… When I first first started, maybe into my 3rd or 4th cig, a friend of mine (a female) asked me “You’re a smoker?”… She was absolutely disgusted by it.
Be seen smoking once, and you are forever a smoker.
The question is .knowing the cost and health effects, why smoke the first one? Both my parents were very heavy smokers. Neither my brother or I have ever smoked. When I was a kid and it was offered I refused .
Have you ever been away from it for a few years, then got a bit drunk and ended up being back to square one after having twenty Southern Baptists between your lips the night before? On fire! Have you, have you?
