Anyone New to Smoking?????

[floramorada]

SydneyDave, great work, you're doing wonderfully!

Regarding the question... I don't know. I came upon this several years ago, actually. I came to college and was absolutely shocked at the huge percentage of smokers on campus. I could not fathom why people my age were smoking. Didn't they KNOW that smoking is bad for them?

Then I got to know them. Yes, they know it's bad for you. Some don't care, some have accepted the fact that they're addicted, many are trying to quit, and many do. One of my best friends has been struggling with this for a couple of years. She asked me to help her quit, and has taken some steps - she doesn't buy cigarettes anymore. Unfortunately, she's quite comfortable bumming them even from strangers. I'm not that assertive. She knows that I don't approve of it, and she usually won't smoke around me. But she's much more susceptible when around other smokers, who really, happen to be very cool people. If I give her a look, she won't, I guess it makes her feel guilty, but I don't know, it's not my decision, it's hers.

It's a very social thing too. People hang around outside, smoke, and talk.

I don't know, it's hard I guess because it's so accepted here. There's ettiquette involved, too. A smoker will usually understand if you tell them no smoking in your car, or inside. But I can't ask someone outside to put out their cigarrette, because they have a right to smoke there, I guess.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this.

Maybe they started out of curiosity, maybe they started young, anyway it's addicting. And for many, not enough motivation to quit.

I'm now used to the fact that people around me smoke. I don't know if that's a good thing.

(Then again, I do live in Kentucky. Guess what our cash crop is.)

[SydneyDave]

Originally Posted by floramorada

SydneyDave, great work, you're doing wonderfully!

Thankyou!

Originally Posted by floramorada

Maybe they started out of curiosity, maybe they started young, anyway it's addicting. And for many, not enough motivation to quit.

Something I forgot to mention, theres always this little, very quiet voice in the back of your head somewhere going 'mmm nicotine ... cigarettes ...', (or perhaps I'm just crazy). Even now, when I smell cigarettes, I gag. But I still get this voice sometimes. If you have something like this happening, please IGNORE this voice, it is a sociopath and is just trying to make your life worse because it is the little part of you still addicted to nicotine ...
</crazy rant>

[mattsonn]

My grandpa used to smoke when I was really young, so part of me likes the smell of cigarette smoke.

I have had so many opportinities to start smoking. I've been given cigarettes and even once a cigar while hanging out with others. I've never really turned them down, either. When I'm with them, I'm not really thinking about the logic of smoking a cigarette. It doesn't seem like a big deal at all at the time. But in the end, I've never even once seriously inhaled on one. I've always faked it and tried to make it look like I wasn't. Why? Because I just can't let myself. I've been socially conditioned against it to much. In hindsight, definitely a good thing. Smoking is nobody's friend.

[elainevdw]

My brother took up smoking in med school a few years ago.

He also returned to social drinking, started dating for the first time, and all in all had a fabulous time!

When asked why a future doctor would take up the habit of smoking, he had a few reasons. One, it helped him and his colleagues deal with the stress of med school. And then he surprised me by saying that, in his professional opinion, smoking a cigarette or two a day wasn't harmful. He said all the studies linked people who smoked a pack a day for 20+ years to a higher incidence of cancer (duh), but nothing has linked moderate smoking with cancer.

I had also recently read Diet for a New America before visiting him where he was going to school. He surprised me by saying he'd recommend a vegan diet to a middle-aged, overweight man, but he considered it to be an unfit diet for women of any age.

Take it or leave it, folks! I'd give you further info on the subject, but he's currently in clinicals and so busy that I hardly get to talk to him.

[andrew]

I've read a lot of these posts about people being stupid etc etc.

Stop it, these people aren't stupid, they aren't even ignorant.

It's a choice they make. Most people in the USA are well aware of the negitive side effects, they just choose to ignore them. At the time, smoking is fufilling a need they have, and if that overpowers the conciquenses, there you go. But they're not stupid, they're just not very responsible or they lack the ability to make that kind of choice in the face of peer presure etc. Most of these are social activites, so peer presure is the driving force. Or the last reason is they just choose to.

Hell, I know drinking and eatting certian foods isn't good for me, but I do it anyways. That doesn't make me stupid, does it? I just want to. At the time the benifits outweigh the conciquences, so be it.

[danas]

I smoke between 2-5 ciggarettes a day, sometimes none (I havent smoked this week yet.). I enjoy it. I hate smokey places, I like smoking in fresh air, or when I drive. It helps me relax and dream. I dont really want to give up. and I wouldnt want to smoke more. I dont drink alchahol at all, I eat healthy and do excersize daily. So I guess the rebel in me needs to do something

[WanderingOak]

I know when I was in the military, the only authorized breaks were smoke breaks. Smokers were allowed to take a fifteen minute smoke break every two hours. I was one of the few non-smokers on my ship, and since my Chief knew that I didn't smoke, I had to work through the entire shift. The only reason why I didn't take up smoking is that my mother was a heavy smoker, going through 2-3 packs a day. Our apartment reeked of stale cigarette smoke while I was growing up, so I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

I have a friend who started smoking when he found out that all of the 'interesting' people in his office gathered together at the smoking area 2-3 times a day. He said it was like becoming a member of an exclusive club when he joined them.