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Old 05-15-2018, 03:30 PM
 
Location: on the wind
23,015 posts, read 18,357,296 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980 View Post
Smoking just happens to be among the most addictive "feel-good" activities, making it nearly impossible to do within moderation... but we all think it won't happen to us, and we'll be the ONE person who can stop when they want. Human nature, I suppose.
The variation in level of addiction is intriguing. My maternal grandfather smoked from late teens onward, according to him. He was the one relative we had to remember to put ashtrays out for at holiday visits. One year it suddenly dawned on us that he wasn't using his ashtray.

"Gramps, did you quit smoking?"
"Yep, decided it wasn't good for me, so I quit."
"Wasn't it hard to do?"
"No. Why do you ask?"

He was over 80 at the time. Amazing gentleman.
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Old 05-15-2018, 04:09 PM
 
Location: The Ozone Layer, apparently...
4,005 posts, read 2,065,464 times
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Kids do it for the same reason they always did, they think it makes them look older. Its funny looking back, you can see you looked like a kid smoking a cigarette, but for some reason when you are the kid, you suddenly transform into someone who is 17 to 19 years old.

There is also the bad kid image. I'm doing what I am not supposed to do - I'm a rebel.

And the bi-polar narcissist kid that only wants to listen to music that no one likes, and smoke cigarettes because in the main stream venue, smoking cigarettes is considered not cool.
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Old 05-15-2018, 04:32 PM
 
17,505 posts, read 17,415,571 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980 View Post
As I said, I'm less annoyed or offended by how you presented the question - more as a matter of curiosity, and just wondering WHY. I did offer an answer to that question, but it only really applies to adolescents/teens. As for why an adult these days would start, I guess the only answer is because they can and it feels good? Same reason people drink alcohol, or eat unhealthy foods, smoke weed, or do anything else they know isn't 100% healthy. Smoking just happens to be among the most addictive "feel-good" activities, making it nearly impossible to do within moderation... but we all think it won't happen to us, and we'll be the ONE person who can stop when they want. Human nature, I suppose.
Reason for the question popped up when I saw some neighborhood kids I saw growing up from toddlers to teens outside lighting up cigarettes. Was really disappointed to see this but I did not say anything to them nor their parents.
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Old 05-15-2018, 04:35 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,286 posts, read 51,800,126 times
Reputation: 23659
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnassia View Post
The variation in level of addiction is intriguing. My maternal grandfather smoked from late teens onward, according to him. He was the one relative we had to remember to put ashtrays out for at holiday visits. One year it suddenly dawned on us that he wasn't using his ashtray.

"Gramps, did you quit smoking?"
"Yep, decided it wasn't good for me, so I quit."
"Wasn't it hard to do?"
"No. Why do you ask?"

He was over 80 at the time. Amazing gentleman.
Simple explanation: We are all different.

Some folks have more addictive tendencies, and also your own body can go through changes over time. For instance, I had been severely overweight for YEARS before I found the motivation to do something (serious) about it... it was just like something clicked in my brain, and said "no more." I'm still far from thin, mind you, but much healthier overall than I was before that happened.
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Old 05-15-2018, 04:39 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,286 posts, read 51,800,126 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnassia View Post
What "health forum" doesn't have it's share of pedantic perfect preachers gloating about their life choices? After all, isn't the web's appeal it's anonymity?
Very true, lol. And I know we all judge sometimes, but there are two different kinds of "judgers" - those who do it from a high horse, and those who acknowledge their own flaws too.
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Old 05-15-2018, 05:28 PM
 
22,619 posts, read 24,441,992 times
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Smoking is pleasurable, that must be one of the reasons many people smoke.

I don't care, have at it.

I just HATE having to breath their toxic-waste.
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Old 05-15-2018, 06:12 PM
 
21,958 posts, read 19,080,264 times
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i knew a woman who said in high school she got the most sought after job of all, the one all the kids wanted, it was at a cigarette packaging plant, watching the cigarettes go by on a conveyor belt, and her job was to watch for broken cigarettes and remove them from the conveyor belt. that was it, the whole job. she said the best part and why everyone wanted it was you got to keep the broken cigarettes. so she was also very popular. she said everyone she knew had been smoking since they were 6 or 7 years old.

anyway she was the first person in her family on either side of her family to ever graduate from high school. Her family accused her of being uppity when she (a) graduated from high school and then (b) quit her job at the cigarette factory, to go work for the telephone company. She said all her life she was told she would never amount to anything. So she gets the most entry level position there is, in the mail room. And now her family is telling her work for 30 years at the phone company in the mail room and you can retire.

pretty soon she gets promoted to be an operator. then to be a file clerk. One day on the bus she hears some people talking and overhears someone say they were close to getting their PhD completed. She went to work that day at the phone company and told one of her co-workers "I don't know what it is, but one day I'm going to get a PhD too." She was in her early 20s at the time. Of course people were telling her she'd never amount to anything still and how could she get a PhD if she didn't even know what it was.

after a while one of her bosses hears this (it is a pretty funny story when you think about it) and mentions if she's serious about getting a PhD she needs to go to college first and get an undergraduate degree. Patty said she's not quitting her job at the phone company, because she's basically been supporting herself since she was about 13 years old. Anyway she starts taking one class at a time in the evenings at the junior college in town. Some of them she had to take over and over before she would pass. It took her 12 years, yes 12 years to get her undergraduate degree one class at a time.

Meanwhile she's been getting promoted at the phone company slowly but surely. After about 15 years she becomes a manager and after another 15 years she is head of Human Resources over 9,000 technical employees, yes still at the phone company. She's close to retirement and then she gets laid off with the big AT&T divestiture. She moves cross country now unemployed and decides it's time to start getting her PhD, so she starts taking classes yes one class at a time. Eventually she does get her PhD. I love that story. It is very inspiring.

Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 05-15-2018 at 06:25 PM..
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Old 05-15-2018, 06:38 PM
 
Location: Phoenix, AZ
6,323 posts, read 4,813,853 times
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I don't know why kids start smoking these days or at any time in the past half century or so since the Surgeon General's warning started appearing on cigarette packs.


It seems to defy common sense since there is so much information about about the health hazards. But, then, there is so much information out there about contraception yet teenage pregnancies abound.


I think teenagers are inherently stupid, like I was when I started smoking.


I was a child during the 1950s. My parents smoked (but told me not to). My mother routinely sent me across the street to the grocery story for her cigarettes. You couldn't go to the movies without seeing your favorite stars smoking cigarettes. (I look at those old movies now and wonder what the heck was so sexy and romantic about lighting cigarettes for each other. "Darling, have some poison." Many of the stars of the day died of lung cancer.)


At the age of 14 I noticed my friends were starting to smoke so, of course, I had to start. I smoked secretly through high school. On graduation day I was a big shot, walked out of the ceremony and lit up right in front of my parents. They accepted it, though in retrospect, I wish they would have put the proverbial 2 x 4 upside my head.


I continued smoking, gradually building up the habit to 3 packs a day by the time I got out of the Army. When I woke up in the morning I reached for a cigarette before my eyes were completely open and a cigarette was the last thing I had before going to bed.


Two years later I was at a Valentines party (Feb 14, 1970), heavily smoking that night, when I had a sudden respiratory attack. I was lying on the floor feeling like there was an elephant on my chest and that my lungs were about to explode. The most terrifying experience of my life and the absolute last time I have ever smoked.


I tell that story to illustrate that the habit can be broken. One can quit cold turkey (the best way to quit) but one might need a catastrophic experience to enable one to do so. My best friend quit that year, too, but only after having lung surgery. My parents both eventually quit when they were in their 50s and a lot of adult smokers seem to have quit during the 1980s and 1990s, possibly due to smoke related medical issues. Who knows.


I almost never see smoking on TV and rarely in the movies anymore so that influence seems to be gone. Cigarette advertising seems to be a thing of the past. And I can't understand why $5 to $6 per pack of cigarettes isn't a financial deterrent in itself.
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Old 05-15-2018, 08:19 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,286 posts, read 51,800,126 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adjusterjack View Post
I don't know why kids start smoking these days or at any time in the past half century or so since the Surgeon General's warning started appearing on cigarette packs.
This quote from Denis Leary addresses that issue quite candidly:

It doesn't matter how big the warnings on the cigarettes are; you could have a black pack, with a skull and crossbones on the front, called TUMORS, and smokers would be around the block going, "I can't wait to get my hands on these (f-ing) things! I bet ya get a tumor as soon as you light up!" Sad but true!!

Quote:
It seems to defy common sense since there is so much information about about the health hazards. But, then, there is so much information out there about contraception yet teenage pregnancies abound.
Why do people still eat fast food and sugar, drive too fast, drink beer, or *insert everything else we know isn't healthy*? Answer: Because it feels good in the moment, and even adults like doing things that feel good sometimes, regardless of the potential consequences. Life is short, and some people accept the risks that come with enjoying the small/guilty pleasures in it. Time for another Denis Leary quote, since I think he just gets it (and isn't afraid to say what most of us think inside):

Happiness comes in small doses folks. It's a cigarette butt, or a chocolate chip cookie or a five second orgasm. You come, you smoke the butt you eat the cookie you go to sleep wake up and go back to (f-ing) work the next morning, THAT'S IT!

Quote:
I think teenagers are inherently stupid, like I was when I started smoking.
See my post where I mentioned the adolescent/teen brain, and how it's literally undeveloped in the area for critical thinking and decision-making. It isn't about being stupid, since you don't morph from a stupid teen into a smart adult - you just become more informed, and more capable of making wise decisions. Even the smartest teens make bad choices, some of which have more lasting effects than others. They might choose to drink and drive, or use hard drugs, or have unprotected sex; and we just have to hope the end results aren't permanently devastating. Honestly, I think it's a miracle I didn't end up dead or in jail! Smoking is a bad habit, but given how reckless I was as a teen, it could have been MUCH worse.

Quote:
And I can't understand why $5 to $6 per pack of cigarettes isn't a financial deterrent in itself.
I only wish they were that cheap here! We're now paying $8-10 PLUS tax, making it more like $10-12 in the end... and I honestly thought that would be enough to deter me, and yet I continue to buy "just one more" every time I finish a pack. It's a powerful addiction, and I honestly wish I did have the answer on how to break it. Like you said, sometimes it just takes a catastrophic experience, or (like I said about weight loss) a sudden internal epiphany.

It can be done, but not until one is READY to quit. Telling us we're killing ourselves, showing us photos of diseased lungs, raising prices, putting warnings on the packs, ceasing advertisements, etc; all nice in theory, but not incredibly effective in practice. Just like anything else, you have to want it to do it.

Last edited by gizmo980; 05-15-2018 at 08:30 PM..
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Old 05-15-2018, 08:40 PM
 
5,397 posts, read 3,424,168 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980 View Post
...Just like anything else, you have to want it to do it.
Not in my case, but I had help. I smoked for many years (2+ packs a day) and 12 years ago I was in the hospital for a week with a ruptured appendix. Of course I couldn't smoke in there, but I did take a pack just in case I was able to find a place to smoke (I couldn't and I didn't). When I came home, I tried my hardest to stay off the cigarettes and did, but it was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. I used a patch and kept on the small one for about a year. I still get cravings, they are gone in seconds, but they are still there now and then. Am I glad I quit? Oh yes, I can't imagine what it's like to be a smoker today. It was awful back then, trying to find a place to smoke, trying to find a hotel room when travelling, and so on.

When I was smoking, a carton was about $30. I can't imagine paying $10 a pack today, 2 packs a day, $140 a week, $7280 a year.
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