Don't understand smokers

[zaph]

On one of my rare social outings I was at a table with three smokers. The conversation turned to their habbit, and how they weren't addicts. Things like "I only smoke 15 a day.." or the old stand by "I could give up when I want to". It was obvious they were addicted, but I didn't understand how they started. I get alcoholics and drug addicts. Drugs get you high, being drunk feels good. Cigarettes don't have a high, there doesn't appear to be an upside. I speak form a little experience, I did try smoking while travelling. A guy offered me some, so I decided to see what the fuss was about. Lit, started smoking, nothing happened. Guy pointing out I was smoking it wrong, showed me how to do it properly. Tried again, still nothing, it wasn't unpleasant, it just didn't have any effect. When I say this to smokers, they tell me you have to smoke five or six before you notice anything. So you have to get addicted to enjoy cigarettes? That just sounds like smokers feel like crap, until they smoke, then they feel normal. Which I get for free, without having to smoke.
You might disagree with me about no high from smoking, but look at it this way. You can smoke and drive a car. A doctor can smoke, then treat a patient. What other drug could you say that about?

[stina]

I started a new job and every time we go down for a break all 10 or so people (plus the boss) sit there smoking. It's only me and this one other girl who don't smoke. They're all 17-19 year olds which kinda sucks to see. They're really not giving their lungs a fighting chance.
I agree with your views on smoking - I really don't get why people do it. Although I suspect in my case half the girls started because of peer pressure and trying to look 'cool'. They can at least try to quit once their hooked, the effects on your body are so severe it's not worth it.

[Micronian]

Originally Posted by zaph

On one of my rare social outings I was at a table with three smokers. The conversation turned to their habbit, and how they weren't addicts. Things like "I only smoke 15 a day.." or the old stand by "I could give up when I want to". It was obvious they were addicted, but I didn't understand how they started. I get alcoholics and drug addicts. Drugs get you high, being drunk feels good. Cigarettes don't have a high, there doesn't appear to be an upside. I speak form a little experience, I did try smoking while travelling. A guy offered me some, so I decided to see what the fuss was about. Lit, started smoking, nothing happened. Guy pointing out I was smoking it wrong, showed me how to do it properly. Tried again, still nothing, it wasn't unpleasant, it just didn't have any effect. When I say this to smokers, they tell me you have to smoke five or six before you notice anything. So you have to get addicted to enjoy cigarettes? That just sounds like smokers feel like crap, until they smoke, then they feel normal. Which I get for free, without having to smoke.
You might disagree with me about no high from smoking, but look at this way. You can smoke and drive a car. A doctor can smoke, then treat a patient. What other drug could you say that about?

I'm an occasional tobacco smoker. I'll only smoke at parties or some other social occasion (about every 6 months if I were to put it on a timeline).

There is a small relaxing effect, nothing too special, and the idea (to me, anyway) is that it helps you relax the same way that breathing fresh air would help you relax...except with a tobacco, or menthol, taste and a tiny pleasing effect on your brain.

but cigarrettes are still pretty dangerous and no one should be smoking x number of packs a day.

[ivankaramazov]

Originally Posted by zaph

You might disagree with me about no high from smoking, but look at it this way. You can smoke and drive a car. A doctor can smoke, then treat a patient. What other drug could you say that about?

Caffeine and 500 different types of prescription Narcotics.

[Syrena]

Originally Posted by zaph

Cigarettes don't have a high, there doesn't appear to be an upside.

I'm not a smoker, but most of the people I hung around with in my teens (the few that they were), were smokers. Every once in a while I would have a cig with them and it always got me a little light headed. Now, I will admit, the effect didn't seem to continue with more cigs and I do get tipsy off one beer, so maybe it's just me.

To be honest, I like the physical actions of smoking. Having something to do with my hands, a reason to go outside for a little while. But knowing how horrible it is for your health, and the scent, keeps me away.

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by Micronian

I'm an occasional tobacco smoker. I'll only smoke at parties or some other social occasion (about every 6 months if I were to put it on a timeline).

There is a small relaxing effect, nothing too special, and the idea (to me, anyway) is that it helps you relax the same way that breathing fresh air would help you relax...except with a tobacco, or menthol, taste and a tiny pleasing effect on your brain.

but cigarrettes are still pretty dangerous and no one should be smoking x number of packs a day.

I'm an occasional social smoker (like it will take me two months or more to go through one pack) and I'm not addicted. Its relaxing but I don't know how someone can do a pack a day.
I don't smoke indoors either - why would you want to get the smell on furniture?

[JayDontCareEh]

I smoke because it makes me feel good.

So I die at seventy istead of seventy five....

[UltraShy]

Smoking is an oddity. I can't imagine that anybody ever smoked their first cigarette and said anything like "Damn, that feels great! Give me some more!" More likely they were coughing like crazy and found it to be quite noxious.

It's much easier to understand why someone would smoke crack, or opium, or pot -- all providing an immediate payoff.

Way back in the mid to late 1980s when I was a teen those who smoked did so to look cool. It may have looked so cool at 13, but who the hell is impressed by a smoker today?

I've often said that smoking is for those who think putting a gun in their mouth is simply too fast. Both will get you to the same place. One just takes decades longer.

[caflme]

The first time I ever tried smoking was in a girls bathroom in high school (maybe 9th grade)... I took one look in the mirror and saw my reflection and thought, 'wow, you look really stupid.' My second thought was that I look like my mom. I love my mom but I remember growing up my whole life having to smell that horrible smell on her breath, on her clothes and all through the house. I remember being in the car on a long trip and having to breathe it for so long that I almost wanted to puke and would get nauseated and sick to my stomach.

Later in my latest teens and early 20s when I was out drinking and playing pool I would occasionally smoke a cigarette while drinking a beer and playing in a pool tournament - it did seem to steady my nerves slightly and it was the only time I would actually win these tournaments - it made me 'fit in' to the environment. But that was the only time I ever smoked cigarettes.

To this day I feel repulsed by the smell of cigarettes - oddly, I can tolerate a good pipe tobacco and a few cigars - go figure, no logic to that.

[newboki]

I am a smoker, and all those people who can't understand smokers is that they never got addicted. You don't have to get high in order to enjoy ciggarette. It is just like taking medication for example paxil, you don't get high from it but you start to feel better as you continue to take it. And ciggarettes do increase seretonin dopamine in the same way as cocaine but it is too mild to get high from a ciggarette. And ciggarettes relax me because i am addcited to them, and i also like ciggarretes because with ciggarette you never feel alone at least for me.

[UltraShy]

Originally Posted by caflme

To this day I feel repulsed by the smell of cigarettes - oddly, I can tolerate a good pipe tobacco and a few cigars - go figure, no logic to that.

Even places that allow smoking often ban them because they stink so much as to offend even other smokers.

Cigars are generally used quite differently than cigarettes. There are plenty of chain smokers who only stop smoking a cigarettes to eat, sleep, or shower (and they probably dream of a waterproof one so they could smoke even then). Cigars, on the other hand, seemed to be something that is enjoyed by some as an occasional treat. I've never seen anybody smoke one cigar after another endlessly the way some do with cigarettes.

And if anybody wanted proof that smoking isn't cool, they should have met my father when he was alive. He was the ultra-cheap guy who went around with a pipe that was taped together because he was too cheap to spend several bucks for a new one. No kid could possibly think smoking was cool after seeing him.

[britisharrow]

Your right, smoking is not logical.

But drug addictions are not logical, including nicotine, they are to do with the chemistry of the brain.

As for getting started smoking, well most people start when they're young and immature and there is still a hangover from the days when smoking was cool and tough. Some people still buy that line, I certainly did.

Does smoking give you a high? The way it works is that you get addicted to it, and then you feel a withdrawal from the nicotine, and the 'high' is getting that nicotine back again. I wish I could give up, I have tried but nicotine has been shown to be as addictive as heroin, albeit the latter has horrific withdrawal symptoms.

[UltraShy]

We have a lot of younger member on SAS -- well, young compared to me at 36.

I'd like to hear from them. Has the attitude of teens changed in the last 20 years with regard to smoking? 20 years ago kids would stand directly in front of my HS's front doors smoking. Back then you didn't need to be 18 to buy a pack and there was no rule against smoking on any school property, so they could stand literally two feet from the door and it was fully legal and accepted.

[caflme]

I'm 44 and remember teachers smoking in the cafeteria... but yeah, kids were right out the back door and girls were always smoking in the bathrooms. Teachers would just come in and tell them to put it out and get back to class. That was the late 70s and early 80s.

[Thomas Paine]

I think I remember reading in a neuroscience magazine that nicotine has a regulatory effect on your autonomic nervous system. Meaning, that it can prevent your autonomic nervous system (the part responsible for blushing, sweaty palms, etc.) from going to extremes in either direction, to some extent.

[zaph]

Well this is quite interesting, what lot of people seem to be saying is they get started because they liked the way smoking made them look or feel. It made them feel grown up, cool or tough. Then they got addicted and have to smoke. I suppose the point I was trying to make, is that to a none smoker the balance between risk and reward didn't seem to make sense. Something like coke or heroin for example. That seems to be like speeding in a Ferrari, sure you more than likely end upside down wrapped around a tree; but you'ill have a great time before you die. Smoking seemed like speeding in Lada, sure you can do it and end up in the same tree; but what would be the point?

[Thomas Paine]

Originally Posted by zaph

Well this is quite interesting, what lot of people seem to be saying is they get started because they liked the way smoking made them look or feel. It made them feel grown up, cool or tough. Then they got addicted and have to smoke. I suppose the point I was trying to make, is that to a none smoker the balance between risk and reward didn't seem to make sense. Something like coke or heroin for example. That seems to be like speeding in a Ferrari, sure you more than likely end upside down wrapped around a tree; but you'ill have a great time before you die. Smoking seemed like speeding in Lada, sure you can do it and end up in the same tree; but what would be the point?

I would guess that one of the reasons people choose smoking over other, more pleasure inducing drugs like coke or heroin, is because smoking is legal. So in a way, there is actually less immediate risk to a cigarette smoker, because they don't have to worry about going to jail, losing their job, their reputation, etc. For someone who is afraid of jails and prisons, that could very well outweigh the the benefit of any high, even knowing that they will likely end up with emphysema or cancer.

[somethinginthewind]

Originally Posted by UltraShy

We have a lot of younger member on SAS -- well, young compared to me at 36.

I'd like to hear from them. Has the attitude of teens changed in the last 20 years with regard to smoking?

At my high school the smokers were considered to be losers and dirty. We had a young guy who lost most of his mouth/jaw due to oral cancer from smoking do a presentation to our entire school, I don't think I'm the only one who'll never forget it.

[nubly]

i cant stand smokers. it stinks and it seems like a lot of them are rude about where they smoke. i love the new smoking laws but i wish more places would apply the no smoking within 100 feet of a building. theres no reason for smoking

[strawberryjulius]

When I'd go outside to eat lunch at college in this particular area someone would always sit down and start smoking. I'm like, uhh hello, I'm eating? Ugh.
I've never seen the appeal of smoking but then again I've never smoked.