Smoking

[mildmanneredjanitor]

I never understood what smoking does, does it feel good afterward or does it take time to get it into the system to benefit from it ?

It makes you smell.
It saps vasts amounts of money from your pocket.
It makes you ratty when you can't have one.
It adversely affects your health
It stains your fingers, clothes, hair and house decor
It reduces your... performance


You become a social outcast.

There is no logic to smoking, but it is enjoyable and instantaneous...

 

[fitter]

All smoking does is satisfy a craving, which makes you feel better for a short time.
In my own case the only other benefit has been my grandchildren, who have witnessed me coughing, have said they will never smoke.

 

[david and julie]

What about that report on the news last week? it said smoking reduces life expectancy by 10 years on average. True or false? more scare stories or what?

Whoever invents the odourless fag would really make a killing, or should that be more killings?

 

[masona]

I think it all about luck but I think you would live longer if you didn't smoke.

My next door neighbour smoked 40-60 fags a day and lived to 87 years of age but only died because he fell asleep and burnt the bungalow down !

 

[securespark]

mason

nicotine is highly addictive and your body craves more and more of it. It affects the brain so that you want to light up again to feel the high once more. Very clever drug......

 

[securespark]

MMJ

Your mother was a hamster.......?

 

[lisap]

So is it the cigarette (or other vice) thats addictive or the person that has the addictive personality? What makes one person feel the urge to smoke and the other to be repulsed by it?

 

[AdamW]

I think that 50% of it is the person. However, anyone can give up smoking if they try hard enough.

I am quite fortunate: when I was 17 I smoked for a while. Not cigarettes, cigars. But lots of them and I didn't realise you shouldn't inhale (oops )

Anyway, after a few weeks of this I realised "Hmmm, this costs a lot of money, and isn't really that fun". So I stopped. Easy as that. Now, I hear conflicting opinions on this. Some say that one cigarette is enough to get you hooked, others say it is harder to give up the longer you smoke. I did one of those psychological tests where you look at the picture and answer questions, I came out to be one who is unlikely to get addicted to anything.

A good way to help you give up: I knew a couple who both gave up smoking. They set the money aside for other things, it helped them get through it "there's another £10 towards the new telly fund". Last I heard they were smoking again, I guess they had bought all the things they need!

 

[securespark]

I believe in addictive personalities (not people you just can't be separated from, though!!). Whether it be nicotine, alcohol or nylon gussets, I think some people are more pre-disposed to addictions.

In my family, my Grandfathers both smoked like chimneys, only one Grandmother. My Father smoked like a chimney not my Mother (Her mother was the non smoking one). He stopped at 45. I am one of three: my sister (b1960) smokes and drinks like it is going out of fashion, my other sister (b1962) drinks every night but not 1/2 as much as sis 1. I (b1966) smoked and drank to XS when younger. I gave up smoking in 94 and only drink the very occasional whisky or beer (like parties, Xmas etc). One is enough to make me uncomfortable. This from a 19 stone guy who used to drink 10 pints of lager and 4 whiskys every night.....

 

[lisap]

i think people have addictive personalities and I haven't got one thank god!! (Unless you class spending hours on diynot.com part of an addiction!! ) I watched a program last night about a large woman who ate ten packets of crisps a day, or if she opened a packet of biscuits she would eat them all in one go! I love crisps but just wouldnt eat that many. Its similar for smoking I knew it was bad so never gave in to peer pressure. Those with addictive personalities are tempted more easily.

 

[lisap]

In my family, my Grandfathers both smoked like chimneys, only one Grandmother. My Father smoked like a chimney not my Mother (Her mother was the non smoking one). He stopped at 45. I am one of three: my sister (b1960) smokes and drinks like it is going out of fashion, my other sister (b1962) drinks every night but not 1/2 as much as sis 1. I (b1966) smoked and drank to XS when younger......

Is this addictive personality traits or is it learning by example?

 

[securespark]

Good question, Lis. Not sure.

 

[AdamW]

I think a lot of it is personality.

All four of my grandparents smoked. Everyone did then, in fact my grandfathers got cigarettes as part of their wages in the forces during WW2.

They all gave up some time around the 1960s. Never smoked again, they obviously had the personalities to give it up.

My parents said they would never smoke, but after getting married they bought an ashtray just in case they had smokers round. My dad was offered a cigarette in the staffroom one day in the 70s (a teacher) and has smoked ever since. He finds it too hard to give up. Which is a real bu**er because we all want him to give up. No-one wants to see someone they love lighting those things up 10-20 times a day. He also drinks every day, often to excess. Now, I think he is someone with an addictive personality. In many ways he is strong, but when it comes to addiction he is weak.

Now, in terms of learning by example, his parents had long given up before he started smoking. Neither me or my siblings smoke (although my siblings both smoked for extended periods when they were younger). So in my family at least, it isn't the case.

However, most people take up smoking by example. No-one wakes up one day and says "I think I'll take up smoking today!". It is because someone they know smokes, they think they'll try it.

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Is this addictive personality traits or is it learning by example?

Surely we are a product of our genes and environment?

It would be impossible (or unethical) to create laboratory conditions to test this to absolution, but I think that you have to also allow for 'x' the random element.

A child from a happy loving and law abiding family can grow up into a chain smoking alcoholic murderer, tho I strongly suspect that statistically this is less frequent.

Secure, you've been through the mill in your life. My sympathies to you and your family, nice to see you focus on the 'positive' rather than the 'negative'

 

[AdamW]

nice to see you focus on the 'positive' rather than the 'negative'

Or with ac, "focus on the phase rather than neutral"