I lot of my friends growing up smoked. Like, my best friends. Most of my family, my mom and all of my older siblings, all smoked.
When I was something like fourteen or some shit, I took one drag and thought it was the most disgusting shit I had ever tasted on my life and an immensely unpleasant experience. Never touched them again, never even wanted to. It's honestly one that baffles me.
I always liked the passive smell, and when I first tried it, it tasted great.
On top of that you do get high from it, and the first times are very strong.
So, consider yourself lucky, that you don't like the highly addictive psychostimulant that can be legally bought everywhere.
It's kinda like you would find coffee's taste and smell disgusting.
Although, coffee is much less harmful than nicotine, and its consumption doesn't have other negative health effects that arise from inhaling toxic smoke.
At the same time there are clear benefits of coffee usage. So, depending on the perspective, addiction and overconsumption aside, you could consider coffe to be a net positive. Thus, from my point of view, it's your loss, mate. Hopefully you still get something done in the morning. If only we knew what you'd be capable of if properly coffeinated.
Kinda the opposite for me. I don't smoke or drink and absolutely hate people smoking in public so I find them a bit repulsive. Doesn't help that my grandpa was addicted to smoking and had a tough time getting off it.
Initially people start doing it to fit in and look cool, then the nicotine's tentacles creep around your brain and hook them in.
I tried it once and never look back, it's the worst recreational thing i ever do, the second being alcohol. I'm more intrigued on why people even start to discover and smoke this stuff, they got to be the most masochistic person in history.
It’s incredible. The judgmental douchebag inside of me that wants to scoff at you for this, despite the fact that I did the exact same thing. Don’t really know why I’m sharing, just felt like I needed to tell on myself and hope I’m not the only occasionally insecure snob around here.
Wish I never smoked, but over 4 years since my last and no cravings. Always was afraid that cravings would never go away, that hungry anxiety was awful, even if it was dull after a time
10-year smoker here who quit 5 years ago. My cravings were gone after about a month. I had nightmares about smoking occasionally for the first year or so though. I really didn't wanna fall back into the trap
I attribute the lack of cravings mostly to quitting using "the easy way to quit smoking" book by Allen Carr. It really helped how I thought about smoking as a whole. It's designed to be read while you're quitting, but maybe even 4 years later it could help you - worth a shot I'd say.
I did get them the first time I tried quitting, which lasted 1 or two years before I started up again
I don’t think I’ll ever smoke again this time though. Combination of reasons, I have kids now, who I don’t want affected by it. I ve really gotten into cardio since then, and I’m starkly aware of how it affects your lungs. Also this second time I quit I had a minor health scare where my mouth started sloughing a bit. Wasn’t just the smoking causing that, I also was drinking some very acidic juice and was reacting badly to a toothpaste ingredient, but it did help me to quit
1 year with nothing, after years of vape only and a long time with smokes.
I still get cravings every once in a while, especially with certain actions. Recently It was playing a record, I used to sit and listen to music and chug on my vape and now I sit and do nothing, so the craving comes back.
Haha oh man, a smoke on the move used to be my jam. Smoke when leaving a place. Smoke before I go in the building. I guess that happens ubiquitously enough that the correlation gets burned through pretty quickly
I mean as cliche as this seems to be an an answer, I think the best solution is to not try them in the first place. You can't lose if you never play the game.
there is that (as someone who had parents and grandparents who were smokers) but it is also quite unfair, you never asked for them to be smokers or smoke around you and when you are a child your attempts to convince them to stop smoking is met with laughter more often than not.
I think a big part on why I'm not a smoker is I saw what it did to people, and how second hand smoke has affected me. I'd be in a room with my mother and grandfather, trying to find clean air inside my grandfather's small apartment because both of them were smoking at the same time. I never want to make another human experience that.
Best thing you can do is to break the chain if others in your family do it I guess. I will never smoke, there's literally nothing in it for me or those around me.
I had the same experience, I think I even tried a few times over the course of years after I’d forget how bad the previous experience was. Each time it was the same, “Why the fuck do people do this? This fucking sucks.” And I grew up in a household where my Dad smoked constantly throughout his life, I had been around cigarette smoke for awhile.
There’s other addictions I can understand, and even have myself, but smoking is such a harmful, nasty addiction that I can’t get how anybody can willingly do that to themselves repeatedly.
Same here. My parents both smoked like chimneys. I tried smoking once. Tasted awful, smelled disgusting, and made my eyes hurt like a motherfucker. Then I tried twice again on different occasions. Same experience. Just an exceedingly nasty thing overall that had not a single thing that made me wanna go back again, so that was it. I consider myself lucky that my body found it so revolting.
I get that it's not for everyone, but damn... still kinda wild to hear people outright hating the experience.
Granted, I started smoking when I was 13. Heard it helped people feel less stressed, so when the opportunity arrived I figured why not give it a try.
Quickly got up to a pack or two a day and loved every drag for nearly 10yrs until my future wife asked me to stop. I quit cold turkey for a few years, but missed it the whole time. Eventually wound up settling on vaping as a compromise.
Tbh, the only part I don't miss is the dent it left in my wallet.
no, it does actually calma you down when you first smoke, but you quickly build up tollerance so you end up smoking just to calm down the cravings, and eventually you need to ramp up usage
Nicotine is interesting because it has different effects at different dosages and metabolizes fast so smokers use it to kind of manually control certain hormonal symptoms. Another example: it's often used as an appetite suppressant because it's a stimulant but many addicts need nicotine after a meal to increase gut motility and stomach acid production or they'll get indigestion. They'll change how they take drags based on the dose needed. It's a drug that both acts on the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
It's very common for people to get dizzy, blood drain from head, followed by cold sweats and even passing out. I've smoked for like 20 years now at 37 and I remember 3 kids who passed out just like I described smoking in highschool.
I have a buddy that used to smoke 3qty 1-3gram blunts rolled in vanilla duchess, DAILY. Every single one. He now smokes spliffs cuz the nicotine in just the inner wrap and leaf. Always heard but no clue if it's true that the little grayish piece that wraps around the mouth piece of a Dutch was the "cancer paper" cuz they soaked it in nicotine. Again, ZERO proof for that bit but everyone who rolled them always said it like it was common knowledge. The point being... dude had to smoke soooooo much fuckin weed to get addicted to tobacco from only 2 cigar leafs.
When I turned 18 I went and bought my first pack of cigs(had been smoking pot for a couple years). Smoking that first cig was the biggest let down after how hyped everyone made it seem. Made it through the first pack and didn't buy another.
Eh, just the general stress of existance with some teenage angst sprinkled on top, I guess.
Grew up under the poverty line, was abused at a very young age, started working around the age of 7 to help keep food on the table, had multiple deaths in the family within a few years (one of which was the result of a horrific industrial accident - didn't witness it, but overheard enough detail that it still haunts me to this day), spent my early teens mostly on my own due to my mom spending most of her time caring for my grandma after she broke her knee, etc.
So yeah, the novel concept of being able to take the edge off by lighting up a smoke was pretty alluring.
No worries, gotta play the hand you're dealt. And thanks, me too. Even though I still miss 'em from time to time, the health benefits of quitting are stupid obvious - and my wife brings more joy to my life than smokes ever could. No regrets.
I quit cold turkey for a few years, but missed it the whole time.
Sounds like addiction. This is what i dont want. I dont want to miss something that isnt good for me. I drink, I smoke weed but I dont miss it if I quit for half a year.
I rarely smoke when I drink a bit too much and I always regret it the next morning because my clothes stink, my hands stink and my mouth tastes like a damn ash tray.
I've moved to vaping, but every so often I'll have a few too many and crave a cigarette. I regret it about two puffs in every time, shit's gross - and I say this as someone who smoked for almost 20 years.
I was once in a band with 3 guys who chainsmoked. Locked in a shitty practice room in the bass players house with the windows and doors closed for hours at a time twice a week or more.
After a year of this I would get nicotine fits if we didnt practice.
When I first started smoking by stealing from my dad's packs in junior high, I didn't even know you were supposed to inhale it. I thought you just tasted the smoke, holding it in your mouth, and then blowing it out because my grandpa smoked cigars and remembering him saying that's how it's done as a kid.
This reduction of addiction is surprising to see here. You can literally replace your scenario with anything, booze, heroin, junk food, whatever and it may be easier to understand. You have already crossed the barrier on enjoyment, so why is it a stretch for you that people might overindulge. I'm sure there are things in your life that you overindulge in.
Our brains and bodies are vastly complex and all of these things have chemicals that alter your brain chemistry, everyone's brain is different and these chemicals affect people differently.
I'm not gonna downvote because I think your experience is valid. That being said, I think it is a little dismissive. Many people in this thread likely have direct issues with specific addictions, and many people likely have been around death or serious harm because of it.
Chemicals like nicotine have a direct addictive effect on your brain, whether or not you personally can overcome that or not doesn't make much of a difference over that fact that it isn't even about personalities or willpower in every case. Nicotine in particular digs very deep, altering brain development, changing the perception of pain, and controlling dopamine levels. Nicotine also has direct effects on the limbic system, and overall effects of the entire nervous system.
This isn't some issue of people being stupid or weak, nicotine is one of the most addictive (chemically) substances known to man, and a common delivery method is to freebase and concentrate it. It is constantly being developed in laboratories to be as addictive as possible, and there is a 1 trillion (and growing) dollar industry that is financially incentivised to get it into your hands.
1 in 8 people in the world smoke or otherwise consume tobacco products, that's almost the same amount of people that drive cars.
Same, except from the pipe for me. A nice high quality tobacco from my favorite pipe really hits the spot sometimes, plus it makes me feel classy as hell.
Same except I just grab some cigarillos from time to time. Some people are just more susceptible to chemical addictions then others, we're probably on the "Not Very Susceptible" end of the spectrum lol
Be me.
Be 12.
With my friend, steal a pack of ciggies from his mum.
Smoke a couple in low ground between two fields, surrounded by Meadow Pipits and Chiffchaffs.
Didn't bother for a fair few years after that. Never really got into it, but enjoyed the acceptable work breaks that came with it for a while. Haven't smoked more than a cigar or two a year for the last 25 years.
I used to get a hankering for cigarettes once in a blue moon after college. I kept a pack of Marlboros for such occasions. Two drags into one of those loathsome little death sticks and I remembered why I never smoke the damn things. Haven’t smoked a cigarette in 6 years and I can count the number of cigarettes I’ve smoked in my life on one hand.
I lot of my friends growing up smoked. Like, my best friends. Most of my family, my mom and all of my older siblings, all smoked.
When I was something like fourteen or some shit, I took one drag and thought it was the most disgusting shit I had ever tasted on my life and an immensely unpleasant experience. Never touched them again, never even wanted to. It's honestly one that baffles me.
Edit, typos
I always liked the passive smell, and when I first tried it, it tasted great.
On top of that you do get high from it, and the first times are very strong.
So, consider yourself lucky, that you don't like the highly addictive psychostimulant that can be legally bought everywhere. It's kinda like you would find coffee's taste and smell disgusting.
I do find coffee's smell and taste disgusting, actually. I hate coffee.
Well, another W for you.
Although, coffee is much less harmful than nicotine, and its consumption doesn't have other negative health effects that arise from inhaling toxic smoke.
At the same time there are clear benefits of coffee usage. So, depending on the perspective, addiction and overconsumption aside, you could consider coffe to be a net positive. Thus, from my point of view, it's your loss, mate. Hopefully you still get something done in the morning. If only we knew what you'd be capable of if properly coffeinated.
It looks awesome unfortunately
Kinda the opposite for me. I don't smoke or drink and absolutely hate people smoking in public so I find them a bit repulsive. Doesn't help that my grandpa was addicted to smoking and had a tough time getting off it.
Initially people start doing it to fit in and look cool, then the nicotine's tentacles creep around your brain and hook them in.
I tried it once and never look back, it's the worst recreational thing i ever do, the second being alcohol. I'm more intrigued on why people even start to discover and smoke this stuff, they got to be the most masochistic person in history.
as you said, to look cool and tough, even though they are so weak they can't resist using something that gives you cancer
Imagine being able to resist giving yourself cancer XD
Spoken like a square
My mind focused on the word "weed" and got very confused.. had to reread a few times :)
It’s incredible. The judgmental douchebag inside of me that wants to scoff at you for this, despite the fact that I did the exact same thing. Don’t really know why I’m sharing, just felt like I needed to tell on myself and hope I’m not the only occasionally insecure snob around here.
Hah! I appreciate your honesty.
Wish I never smoked, but over 4 years since my last and no cravings. Always was afraid that cravings would never go away, that hungry anxiety was awful, even if it was dull after a time
Terrible addiction that isn’t worth it
Little over four years smokeless for me too, after 20 years of smoking. High five for the quitter crew!
Sadly I still get cravings almost weekly.
10-year smoker here who quit 5 years ago. My cravings were gone after about a month. I had nightmares about smoking occasionally for the first year or so though. I really didn't wanna fall back into the trap
I attribute the lack of cravings mostly to quitting using "the easy way to quit smoking" book by Allen Carr. It really helped how I thought about smoking as a whole. It's designed to be read while you're quitting, but maybe even 4 years later it could help you - worth a shot I'd say.
I did get them the first time I tried quitting, which lasted 1 or two years before I started up again
I don’t think I’ll ever smoke again this time though. Combination of reasons, I have kids now, who I don’t want affected by it. I ve really gotten into cardio since then, and I’m starkly aware of how it affects your lungs. Also this second time I quit I had a minor health scare where my mouth started sloughing a bit. Wasn’t just the smoking causing that, I also was drinking some very acidic juice and was reacting badly to a toothpaste ingredient, but it did help me to quit
1 year with nothing, after years of vape only and a long time with smokes.
I still get cravings every once in a while, especially with certain actions. Recently It was playing a record, I used to sit and listen to music and chug on my vape and now I sit and do nothing, so the craving comes back.
Haha oh man, a smoke on the move used to be my jam. Smoke when leaving a place. Smoke before I go in the building. I guess that happens ubiquitously enough that the correlation gets burned through pretty quickly
I liked my sister's answer when someone offered her cigarettes to try.
"If I don't like it, it will be a shitty experience. If I do like it, that's much worse. There's no way for me to smoke a cigarette and win."
I mean as cliche as this seems to be an an answer, I think the best solution is to not try them in the first place. You can't lose if you never play the game.
Yeah. It's weird that just saying "no" really is the best move. We just shouldn't count on it when teaching kids about substance abuse.
Just like with abstinence-only sex education, basing the entire strategy around just one method of preventing an unwanted outcome is dumb.
Except get cancer from second hand smoking.
there is that (as someone who had parents and grandparents who were smokers) but it is also quite unfair, you never asked for them to be smokers or smoke around you and when you are a child your attempts to convince them to stop smoking is met with laughter more often than not.
I think a big part on why I'm not a smoker is I saw what it did to people, and how second hand smoke has affected me. I'd be in a room with my mother and grandfather, trying to find clean air inside my grandfather's small apartment because both of them were smoking at the same time. I never want to make another human experience that.
Best thing you can do is to break the chain if others in your family do it I guess. I will never smoke, there's literally nothing in it for me or those around me.
Life is shitty enough without adding a serious addiction in top of it, I'm good, thanks
Can confirm. Started smoking in the middle of my divorce and I was living alone for weeks at a time.
Just smoke tomorrow too, see where it goes
I had the same experience, I think I even tried a few times over the course of years after I’d forget how bad the previous experience was. Each time it was the same, “Why the fuck do people do this? This fucking sucks.” And I grew up in a household where my Dad smoked constantly throughout his life, I had been around cigarette smoke for awhile.
There’s other addictions I can understand, and even have myself, but smoking is such a harmful, nasty addiction that I can’t get how anybody can willingly do that to themselves repeatedly.
Same here. My parents both smoked like chimneys. I tried smoking once. Tasted awful, smelled disgusting, and made my eyes hurt like a motherfucker. Then I tried twice again on different occasions. Same experience. Just an exceedingly nasty thing overall that had not a single thing that made me wanna go back again, so that was it. I consider myself lucky that my body found it so revolting.
Humans are weird.
I get that it's not for everyone, but damn... still kinda wild to hear people outright hating the experience.
Granted, I started smoking when I was 13. Heard it helped people feel less stressed, so when the opportunity arrived I figured why not give it a try.
Quickly got up to a pack or two a day and loved every drag for nearly 10yrs until my future wife asked me to stop. I quit cold turkey for a few years, but missed it the whole time. Eventually wound up settling on vaping as a compromise.
Tbh, the only part I don't miss is the dent it left in my wallet.
Doesn't it calm people down because the cravings are aggravating them, though?
no, it does actually calma you down when you first smoke, but you quickly build up tollerance so you end up smoking just to calm down the cravings, and eventually you need to ramp up usage
It slows them down because it's a paralytic
I usually don't like to be stiff when relaxed, but then again I also don't like to smoke I suppose lol
Nicotine is interesting because it has different effects at different dosages and metabolizes fast so smokers use it to kind of manually control certain hormonal symptoms. Another example: it's often used as an appetite suppressant because it's a stimulant but many addicts need nicotine after a meal to increase gut motility and stomach acid production or they'll get indigestion. They'll change how they take drags based on the dose needed. It's a drug that both acts on the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
It's very common for people to get dizzy, blood drain from head, followed by cold sweats and even passing out. I've smoked for like 20 years now at 37 and I remember 3 kids who passed out just like I described smoking in highschool.
Turns out the dizziness affect can be genetic?!?
I have a buddy that used to smoke 3qty 1-3gram blunts rolled in vanilla duchess, DAILY. Every single one. He now smokes spliffs cuz the nicotine in just the inner wrap and leaf. Always heard but no clue if it's true that the little grayish piece that wraps around the mouth piece of a Dutch was the "cancer paper" cuz they soaked it in nicotine. Again, ZERO proof for that bit but everyone who rolled them always said it like it was common knowledge. The point being... dude had to smoke soooooo much fuckin weed to get addicted to tobacco from only 2 cigar leafs.
Wow, that's wild. Never heard of that before, thanks for sharing.
When I turned 18 I went and bought my first pack of cigs(had been smoking pot for a couple years). Smoking that first cig was the biggest let down after how hyped everyone made it seem. Made it through the first pack and didn't buy another.
What were you stressed about at 13?
Eh, just the general stress of existance with some teenage angst sprinkled on top, I guess.
Grew up under the poverty line, was abused at a very young age, started working around the age of 7 to help keep food on the table, had multiple deaths in the family within a few years (one of which was the result of a horrific industrial accident - didn't witness it, but overheard enough detail that it still haunts me to this day), spent my early teens mostly on my own due to my mom spending most of her time caring for my grandma after she broke her knee, etc.
So yeah, the novel concept of being able to take the edge off by lighting up a smoke was pretty alluring.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. And I'm glad that you were able to give up cigarettes!
No worries, gotta play the hand you're dealt. And thanks, me too. Even though I still miss 'em from time to time, the health benefits of quitting are stupid obvious - and my wife brings more joy to my life than smokes ever could. No regrets.
people at 13 can have issues too
I didn't mean to imply otherwise. That's why I was asking them.
Sounds like addiction. This is what i dont want. I dont want to miss something that isnt good for me. I drink, I smoke weed but I dont miss it if I quit for half a year.
Nicotine.
Easy to become a victim of the advertisement glamour.
I rarely smoke when I drink a bit too much and I always regret it the next morning because my clothes stink, my hands stink and my mouth tastes like a damn ash tray.
I've moved to vaping, but every so often I'll have a few too many and crave a cigarette. I regret it about two puffs in every time, shit's gross - and I say this as someone who smoked for almost 20 years.
I was once in a band with 3 guys who chainsmoked. Locked in a shitty practice room in the bass players house with the windows and doors closed for hours at a time twice a week or more.
After a year of this I would get nicotine fits if we didnt practice.
When I first started smoking by stealing from my dad's packs in junior high, I didn't even know you were supposed to inhale it. I thought you just tasted the smoke, holding it in your mouth, and then blowing it out because my grandpa smoked cigars and remembering him saying that's how it's done as a kid.
This reduction of addiction is surprising to see here. You can literally replace your scenario with anything, booze, heroin, junk food, whatever and it may be easier to understand. You have already crossed the barrier on enjoyment, so why is it a stretch for you that people might overindulge. I'm sure there are things in your life that you overindulge in.
Our brains and bodies are vastly complex and all of these things have chemicals that alter your brain chemistry, everyone's brain is different and these chemicals affect people differently.
I'm not gonna downvote because I think your experience is valid. That being said, I think it is a little dismissive. Many people in this thread likely have direct issues with specific addictions, and many people likely have been around death or serious harm because of it.
Chemicals like nicotine have a direct addictive effect on your brain, whether or not you personally can overcome that or not doesn't make much of a difference over that fact that it isn't even about personalities or willpower in every case. Nicotine in particular digs very deep, altering brain development, changing the perception of pain, and controlling dopamine levels. Nicotine also has direct effects on the limbic system, and overall effects of the entire nervous system.
This isn't some issue of people being stupid or weak, nicotine is one of the most addictive (chemically) substances known to man, and a common delivery method is to freebase and concentrate it. It is constantly being developed in laboratories to be as addictive as possible, and there is a 1 trillion (and growing) dollar industry that is financially incentivised to get it into your hands.
1 in 8 people in the world smoke or otherwise consume tobacco products, that's almost the same amount of people that drive cars.
How much time do you spend gaming a day?
Same, except from the pipe for me. A nice high quality tobacco from my favorite pipe really hits the spot sometimes, plus it makes me feel classy as hell.
Ah. Well perhaps you should read some neuropsychology?
Same except I just grab some cigarillos from time to time. Some people are just more susceptible to chemical addictions then others, we're probably on the "Not Very Susceptible" end of the spectrum lol
Try smoking your first after 4 beers. That'll get you hooked
That’s the only time I have one, well half of one, a whole cigarette feels like a lot
the only good cigarette is a drunk one
I never even bothered trying it. Expensive, smelly, bad for your health, it's all downsides.
Be me.
Be 12.
With my friend, steal a pack of ciggies from his mum.
Smoke a couple in low ground between two fields, surrounded by Meadow Pipits and Chiffchaffs.
Didn't bother for a fair few years after that. Never really got into it, but enjoyed the acceptable work breaks that came with it for a while. Haven't smoked more than a cigar or two a year for the last 25 years.
I used to get a hankering for cigarettes once in a blue moon after college. I kept a pack of Marlboros for such occasions. Two drags into one of those loathsome little death sticks and I remembered why I never smoke the damn things. Haven’t smoked a cigarette in 6 years and I can count the number of cigarettes I’ve smoked in my life on one hand.
Same but with beer (and most alcoholic drinks really)
the first cigarette of the morning always feels like that
This reminds me of when I tried smoking when I was 18. It did nothing to me and I didn't see the point. So I did not continue.
Nicotine levels have been increased to compete with vapes.
That's me when I am sick, or even slightly tired, lol.
Cuz' they're not pussy's.