Why do people start smoking?

[SecretaryofEvil]

@DrDeth

See, as Stoid said, this is the drug talking. Only around 25% of people smoke, and nearly all the others really hate being around smokers and won’t hang out with them. Thus, you are cutting yourself off from around 60-70% of the population. it’s a terrible way to meet new people thus, and an even worse way to meet people of the opposite sex.

Nonsense. I have an instant conversation starter with at least 1/4 people. Partly because less people smoke nowadays, and we have to go outside or into designated areas or whatever to do so, it creates sort of a subculture. If I didn’t smoke, by your logic since I obviously would never be able to hang out with or date smokers if I wasn’t one so I would lose all the friends and lovers I currently have while also losing an advantage I enjoy with a significant minority while gaining no advantage by joining the majority. 25 percent of the American population is a huge number, it’s not like I’m going to run out of smokers.

Of course the crux of your argument is that 70 percent of Americans “really hate being around smokers and won’t hang out with them.” Does anybody not think this is a ridiculous exaggeration?

Now we move onto anecdotal evidence. I’ve hooked up with girls who weren’t smokers, and I’ve seen girls who weren’t smokers smoke a cigarette in attempt to get close to a guy they like who was a smoker. I’ve also seen men do the same. In my experience, saying oh lets step outside the bar/party for a cig is a good way to get some private one on one time with a girl who smokes. I’ve also had girls who don’t cheerfully announce “oh I’ll keep you company.”

Now my point isn’t that smoking will get you friends and women, it won’t. It can however be used as an effective icebreaker/social tool. And yes obviously this advantage works mostly just with people who smoke.

[Stoid]

@SecretaryofEvil

Thanks for your kind intentions. They’re a couple of things I want to clarify. There is no addict inside of me. I am the addict (a word that gets applied to so many different people, things, and situations that it’s nearly meaningless). Yes satisfying a nicotine craving is one of the most enjoyable parts of smoking. The “I can quit any time I want to I just don’t want to,” defense is rather true. You’re going to have a hell of a time convincing someone to stop doing something they want to continue doing. I think people often confuse “I can’t quit” with “I have mixed feelings about quitting.” People often relapse after having detoxed from their physical dependency on a drug. People often form very damaging habits out of things that don’t cause physical dependency the way some drugs do.

I know you can’t be talked into something, but I ask you this for you to ask yourself: if, by some magical process, you could feel about smoking the way you did before you ever smoked, if you could be relieved of the desire, the perception of pleasure, the perception of loss or deprivation if you didn’t have it… would you accept the magical gift?

Because if your answer is yes, then I think you might want to think about it, because it’s more possible than you realize.

Again, I hope for you, as I do for everyone, that you can be free of the habit itself, and free of the desire for it. It’s a wonderful thing.

[SecretaryofEvil]

@Stoid

I know you can’t be talked into something, but I ask you this for you to ask yourself: if, by some magical process, you could feel about smoking the way you did before you ever smoked, if you could be relieved of the desire, the perception of pleasure, the perception of loss or deprivation if you didn’t have it… would you accept the magical gift?

Because if your answer is yes, then I think you might want to think about it, because it’s more possible than you realize.

Again, I hope for you, as I do for everyone, that you can be free of the habit itself, and free of the desire for it. It’s a wonderful thing.

My answer is no. I just don’t feel burdened by the desire to smoke. But what’s the difference between the perception of pleasure and pleasure?

[suranyi]

@DChord568

I think peer pressure (or at least “everybody else is doing it”) is the most compelling reason.

Not that I’m prejudiced or anything, but my older daughter was (and is) beautiful, intelligent, accomplished, and extremely self-assured. If anyone should have been resistant to cigarettes for multiple reasons, she would be it.

Nevertheless, she started smoking in high school, probably because her boyfriend smoked. And she continued to smoke all through college and beyond, because nearly all of her friends did.

To her great credit, she realized a couple of years after graduating that she needed to stop. Went about it very systematically with help and encouragement from a free state program (tons of online resources, people you can call if you get the urge, etc.).

She quit for several months, backslid, then quit a second time. She’s been smoke-free for about three years now, and I believe it’s for good. She will tell you that it was the hardest thing she’s ever done.
To the original question, everyone’s circumstance is different. I don’t know what magic combination of ingredients it takes to assure that a young person never starts, but there seem to be few guarantees. As my daughter’s case illustrates, all the positives in the world may not be enough of a counterbalance.

What worked in my case was that when I was in the prime start-smoking age, I hated the cool people and they hated me. So I didn’t want to imitate them, and that included smoking.

[Incref]

Me and friends around my age (I’m 25 now) started smoking because it gave you head spins. At 15 we thought this was quite fun and it became a routine to stop before or after school and have a cigarette. Unfortunately we all still smoke. I enjoy smoking but I never thought I would do it for so long, my girlfriend doesn’t smoke and I’m making concerted effort to quit next week.

[The_Universe_Lashes_Out]

I did not read the thread, but I did a control-f for “oral fixation” and nothing came up. That was me for sure. I sucked my thumb as a child and the only way I stopped doing that was when I started wearing an orthodontic appliance while I slept. When I was in elementary school I violently chewed on my pens, every so often having one leak ink into my mouth. I wanted to smoke before I ever had seen a cigarette in real life. When I finally got my hands on some, I loved them. Looking cool was only a side benefit.

I luckily was satisfied with only a few a day. I could never have handled double digit smokes in a day. So I never got too addicted. I managed to mostly switch to snus a couple years ago, and I managed to mostly quit all nicotine a couple months ago. It’s not too bad, but I miss it every day. And now I eat too much because I need something to satisfy my oral fixation and not as many girls want to kiss me as I’d like.

[Stoid]

@SecretaryofEvil

My answer is no. I just don’t feel burdened by the desire to smoke. But what’s the difference between the perception of pleasure and pleasure?

I find it nearly impossible to believe that you do not find smoking any kind of burden, to begin with. It’s costs money, it makes you and everything around you stink, which, whil you may not perceive it, has to be perceived by others and sometimes result in rejection by people you would rather didn’t reject you. You need to feed your habit at times that are not convenient, leaving restaurants and movies and planes in a rush to get your fix, and whether you dwell on it or not, you know that you are poisoning yourself the whole time.

But if by some miracle you are 100% immune to having any negative associations whatsoever with the facts attached to smoking, you are experiencing pleasure that is only pleasure because it blunts the pain of addiction, not pleasure unto itself. I am not addicted to massages, but they are deeply pleasurable. Massages do not have any negative side effects, certainly not deadly ones. The pleasure of massage is entirely uncomplicated.

I was a hardcore smoker for 26 years. I know what it feels like to think the relief of taking my drugs was pleasure, but it wasn’t. It was the relief that came from taking my drug. Everything in the world is wrong with that, psychologically and physically.

But it doesn’t matter what I think. If you are 100% happy and unconflicted about being a smoker, then that is what you are and it’s certainly not going to change because anyone else thinks differently.

For the sake of your health and longevity, I hope for you that the situation changes and you make different choices. I know that you can be happier and feel much better not smoking. I hope for all smokers the same. It is drug addiction, it is deadly, expensive, and repulsive. Life is better without it. I wish for you that your life will be better someday. I wish it for the people who love you, I wish it for the children you have or will have.

[kjbrasda]

@DrDeth

The 5# or so you gain can be easily lost again. The years it adds to your skin is very hard to get back. Most of the women I see around in the smokers area are heavier than average. Again, it’s an addicts excuse.

My sister gained nearly 40 lbs when she quit. I agree with the skin part, also it’s hard on your teeth.
I quit smoking 10 years ago, I only got up to maybe a pack or two a week, and I still have cravings. Usual story, started regularly smoking as a teen because friends smoked. I tried my first cigarette around 10 or so in imitation of my dad, and out of curiosity, and because we found some unattended in the house.

[AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet]

ow, I thought I was the only one who picketed the parents with antismoking signs as a kid.

Starts to laugh… no, you weren’t. but i bet that I and my sibs and my “fake cousins” (offspring of family friends) were the only ones who picketed our parents when they smoked pot at Thanksgivings. The irony is that out of five of us, two became pot heads.

[TriPolar]

Because smoking makes you cool.

[Superhal]

They psychology of nicotine addiction is that smokers reach a particular plateau or comfort level of nicotine in their blood. As time goes by, nicotine is cleansed from your system, causing this level to drop. This causes withdrawal symptoms such as nervousness, irritability, hunger, etc. Smoking another cigarette causes the nicotine level to rise back to the “usual” level, ending the symptoms. Thus, many smokers are under the impression that smoking causes relaxation, calmness, etc. when in actuality the “bad” symptoms are caused by nicotine withdrawal in the first place.

I think young people get fooled by this, and don’t understand that the “good” effects are actually just a lessening of the “bad” effects.

[Serenata67]

I was a dancer and all the dancers did it to keep from eating. You’d smoke when you were hungry… not only did I get hooked, I got a nasty eating disorder…

[HazelNutCoffee]

@Stoid

I find it nearly impossible to believe that you do not find smoking any kind of burden, to begin with. It’s costs money, it makes you and everything around you stink, which, whil you may not perceive it, has to be perceived by others and sometimes result in rejection by people you would rather didn’t reject you. You need to feed your habit at times that are not convenient, leaving restaurants and movies and planes in a rush to get your fix, and whether you dwell on it or not, you know that you are poisoning yourself the whole time.

I make enough money - and cigarettes are cheap enough in Seoul - that the money I spend on cigarettes is negligible to me. I don’t smoke heavily enough to be saturated in cigarette smoke (I can perceive when my clothes DO smell like smoke, like after a long night at a club or bar). I can’t think of a person that would reject me for my smoking - I don’t hide the fact that I smoke, so someone who’s that bothered by it probably wouldn’t become friends with me in the first place. And who the hell leaves a movie to go smoke a cigarette? I’m not going to interrupt a meal or risk missing a plane for the sake of lighting up. I doubt many would.

Look, Stoid, I know you have the best of intentions, but the tone of all your posts makes me want to go out and smoke a pack just for the sheer hell of it. We know how bad smoking is for our bodies. There’s no point in unrealistically exaggerating the social consequences of smoking in an attempt to persuade people to quit. You make it sound like all smokers turn themselves into social pariahs. I can assure you that is not the case.

[MeanOldLady]

@HazelNutCoffee

I have never encountered the degree of hysteria towards smokers that I have seen here on the SDMB.

People on the SDMB feel extreme hostility toward all bad habits. None are allowed. Except overeating which, of course, isn’t really their fault.

I smoked briefly, but luckily not for long enough for it to become a real habit. I smoked my first one because I wanted to see what it was like. We all know nicotine is addictive, but it’s not like you smoke one cig and are zomg addicted forevar!! I’ve smoked cigarettes, but don’t now. See?

It really is a social thing, and it doesn’t matter than only 25% of the general population smokes. If you’re out at, say, a bar or a party, and a cute boy asks you to come outside and smoke, you go outside and smoke. If it’s raining, and you’re huddling up on the patio outside for a smoke break, it’s an easy way to start a conversation. It really is just fun, and gives you something to do with your hands when you’re not drinking.

My smoking started as bummed cigarettes from friends or cute boys at bars, but when I started buying my own, I realized it was a pain in the ass, and I wasn’t getting enough enjoyment out of it to continue. If someone asks me outside for a smoke these days, I’ll go out depending on how interested I am in talking to the person. If interested enough to get up and go outside, I’ll do it, but will just say no when offered a smoke.

[Agent_Foxtrot]

I wasn’t pressured into it by anyone. I started at 14-15 because I wanted to see what it was like. When I took my first drag, I immediately felt more euphoric than I ever have in my entire life. I thought to myself, "Hell yeah, I’m gonna keep doing this!

Sadly, 15 years later, I’ve kept that vow.

[Stoid]

@HazelNutCoffee

I

Look, Stoid, I know you have the best of intentions, but the tone of all your posts makes me want to go out and smoke a pack just for the sheer hell of it. We know how bad smoking is for our bodies. There’s no point in unrealistically exaggerating the social consequences of smoking in an attempt to persuade people to quit. You make it sound like all smokers turn themselves into social pariahs. I can assure you that is not the case.

Living Seoul no doubt helps. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard that other parts of the world, particularly Asia, have not given up the habit to the degree that we have. I’ve spent a lot of time in poker halls here in LA, which are packed with Asians, and the smoking going on outside is way heavier than elsewhere, so I tend to believe what I’ve heard)

And I credit the social pressure a lot with helping me get over it. It became a complete pain to be a smoker in LA by the 90’s. I’m sure that has a lot to do with why the US has gone from 75% smokers to 75% NON-smokers. Good ol’ peer pressure works both ways.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@HazelNutCoffee

Look, Stoid, I know you have the best of intentions, but the tone of all your posts makes me want to go out and smoke a pack just for the sheer hell of it.

This. You’re like a walking Truth commercial.

@Stoid

Living Seoul no doubt helps. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard that other parts of the world, particularly Asia, have not given up the habit to the degree that we have.

Not only that; it’s actually increasing in India, China and most of Africa.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I started smoking to look cool. Pure and simple. I also thought it enhanced the buzz from smoking weed.

I quit a long time ago, but I’m not really an anti-smoker. I don’t care if people smoke around me, smoke in my car, whatever. My wife won’t allow it in the house because of the kids, but it doesn’t bug me personally to be be in a smoke filled room.

I am skeptical of those who say they can smoke only 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, though or only smoke occasionally. Either they’re smoking more than they realize or they’re not doing it right. There is nothing pharmaceutically in nicotine that gives any kind of pleasure except for relief from withdrawal.

[kayaker]

@Diogenes_the_Cynic

I am skeptical of those who say they can smoke only 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, though or only smoke occasionally. Either they’re smoking more than they realize or they’re not doing it right. There is nothing pharmaceutically in nicotine that gives any kind of pleasure except for relief from withdrawal.

I dunno. The only time I smoke tobacco is in a hookah, and I’m smoking high nicotine containing shisha. I get a real buzz from it. But my hookah is 99% decoration. So each time I use it is an ordeal. Making up the bowl, getting the coals going, then maybe 30 minutes of cleanup after. I smoke it maybe once every 45 days.

And as far as cannabis enhancement? I’ve always thought the exact opposite. The zingy effect of nicotine IME takes away from the relaxation of cannabis.

[In_Winnipeg]

I first tried it at the age of 12. There would be three of us cutting school and each putting in a quarter to buy a pack of smokes; I guess we thought we looked cool. It was just a brief flirtation, though, that didn’t take.

I had brief flirtations with it when I was in my late teens, but usually that had to do with cigars and cigarillos. Again, it was probably the coolness factor.

When I was 22, I found myself in a Heavy Equipment Operators program, back in the bush in Northwest Ontario. So far back in the bush that it was boring, but they did have a cigarette machine there. So I tried it again. One of the other guys on the course suggested that I take up pipe because it was cheaper, and lent me one of his so I could try it. I loved it, so I took up pipe smoking.

That was fine until I got a job where there was set coffee breaks – it was hard to smoke a whole pipe so I took up cigarettes initially for at work only, and then it expanded to all the time since pipe tobacco wasn’t as easy to buy everywhere.

Eventually, it was a pack of 25 a day, every day.

But you know what? I enjoyed it. Well, except for the price, that is.

Four months ago I went into the hospital to get my gallbladder out. The night I went in, I had just bought a new pack, but when the gallbladder attack started, I went to the hospital. I had a smoke on the way there, but when I got there and got admitted, they took me right away. They were giving me morphine for the pain, that night and for the next couple of days until they could do my operation. I didn’t crave a smoke, nor did I feel like going all the way downstairs to have one (winter), and apparently, the regular dosage of morphine killed any cravings I had for a cigarette. When I got out a couple of days after my operation, I still wasn’t craving a cigarette. I guess the morphine cancelled out that “nicky-fit” stage that usually occurs.

That pack with only one missing is now sitting on top of the fridge; I haven’t felt like having one, though. It’s weird…occasionally, in my mind I get the thought that a smoke would be good right now, but then I say to myself right away, “But you outgrew that, remember?”

And that’s exactly how I feel about it right now. Been there, done that, outgrew it.

Am I anti-smoking? No. Will I ever smoke again? Maybe, I don’t know. Only time will tell. Do I begrudge the fact that others smoke? No.