37 hours without a cigarette I'm prepared to murder for one, at this point.
You've got to be kidding me.. I doubt you smoked more then I used to, and it's been a few days for me and I am only experiencing medium cravings and stress levels. It's not that hard to quit, it's not going to kill you. Quite the opposite, actually.
We should study you more closely, apparently your experiences are the only experiences which matter.
Of course. And why are your hands on a keyboard? They should be on the ground, while you're bowing to me. What's going on?
I was just trying to give my opinion on the "addiction". Yeah, it really is an addiction. But it's not crack.. the majority of people can get over it relatively easily. If you're dying that much, get some patches or gum or something.
Ender.. it's probably too complicated for you to understand if you've grown up hating it, haven't tried it, etc.
Sometimes, it's part of a culture. Often times it's encouraged by friends. Maybe it's something to do.
Most people start smoking with the expectation that they won't be smoking their whole life. That's because it's not that hard to quit, and most people assume that they will quit before it drastically affects their health.
This is only my opinion and what I've seen, though. Some people, like Warrior, will listen to it and take it to heart. Others won't care. So take it with a grain of salt. Or something.
My point was that there are people with wildly different experiences than the one you describe. It is foolish to state that because you've gone through something a certain way, that others go through it the same way.
This is not something you can dispute.
No, I don't think it's foolish. I've talked to plenty of people about it, and I've never had anyone describe it as being as difficult as rabbit was implying. Like I said, it's not crack.
Quik, I am open-minded. (Of course, that doesn't change the fact that long-term smoking does cause lung cancer.)
I think I see what you're saying. It definitely is a part of culture, albeit a bad part of culture. For instance, sometimes it's nice to hang out on the front steps on a cool night without really doing much of anything. But if you were to do this, in a completely idle manner, (i.e. doing nothing but sitting on the steps like Confucius), you would be viewed as somewhat weird -- you'd be hard to comprehend. Some people may judge you as being depressed. Others may view you as creepy. So our culture found a fix to this: if you're seen outside at 10PM smoking a cigarette, people wouldn't think twice about it. They may think you have an unhealthy habit, but they wouldn't puzzle about you and say things like you're depressed, creepy, awkward, out-of-place -- it would be familiar to them. It's similar for parties, too.
Of course, that does not justify it. You can just part with culture without picking up an unhealthy habit. More specifically, I object to smoking because:
[1] It's not worth the risk of addiction. (Even though I've never smoked before, I think I can say with some certainty that you downplay the effect of nicotine addiction. After all, it is a matter of neuroscience, which is probably more reliable than a single person's judgment.)
[2] Even if you do it for a few years and then quit, the process of quitting can interfere with your life in a very destructive way.
[3] I don't like the principle of giving in to the destructive aspects of society in order to conform. I think that most people who smoke probably wouldn't call it 'conforming', out of their own self-love, but that's really what I see it as. You are risking your health in order to acquire some vain social advantages. (The goal of acquiring transient pleasure is different -- I wouldn't call it conformity -- but it is just as nonsensical, because of [1] and [2].)
Sorry that this post is long-winded. I'm just interested in the reasons why people smoke.
Having never tried it, you don't seem to realize the satisfactions people get from smoking..
It's not just a habit. Sure, it's something to do. It's an activity to make you not look weird as you go for a walk at midnight.. But also, it provides mental stimulation. It has a relaxing effect, can make the user feel lightheaded, more easygoing in social situations, and overall less stressed out.
I agree, it's a habit that's not worth the side effects, but I have a problem with people who make assumptions and judge people based on some decisions such as whether to smoke or not.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure everyone who smokes knows it causes lung cancer, as well as many other problems. It's not a surprise, you don't need to keep mentioning it.
Really though, enough about smoking. It's junking up this thread, hah!
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