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Ive heard it said before that cigarettes can be a friend. I talked to a lady recently that was smoking and I mentioned the habit and she said she needed a friend(meaning the cigarettes not me). So what is it about smoking that fill the need for a friend?
Oscar Wilde said that true friends stab you in the front. The smoker knows exactly where the relationship leads. The smoker needs to smoke and the cigarette needs to be smoked; their teloses are entwined.
If cigarettes are your only friend, and that happens to people, then your only friend is self-destruction and you just want to die. This comes about for people because society has become incredibly selfish and insular, restricting social access to exclusive cliques of people who already have all the friends they want, and shut out everyone else.
That "friend" will not be seen when another one of it's victims is lying in a hospial bed dying a painful and premature death.
One would think the very high risk of that alone would make people want to quit, or not take up the habit in the first place, but such is not the case...
Cigarette smoking is a form of self-medication. Often those who self-medicate don't stop there. They add alcohol and illicit drugs to the list.
That's what happened to my brother. He was a depressive who smoked both cigarettes and pot plus was a functioning alcoholic. He didn't take kindly to anyone expressing concern. It all caught up to him when he died of lung cancer at age 56.
As someone who has had nicotine addiction and an addictive personality in general, I know what she means but what I think it is, is the ritual. There is something comforting about the rituals surrounding many addictions, that often is a stronger trigger, i.e. you miss it more than the addiction itself.
You also get used to things that become associated with smoking. For instance at work, the smoking area was like a little social scene. After I quit, I didn't know what to do during breaks anymore, and I missed that part of it. I think there is great comfort in routines and patterns for many people who have anxiety issues, which I would say applies to most people with addictions of any kind, even food.
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