Smoking & Why?

[MoparManJim]

I have a rather good question here. I have been thinking on it for the past few days now. Why do people smoke for? why burn the money up into thin air? Because if you set back and really think about it, that is all they are really doing is just burning there money up into thin air with smokes   and then they have nothing to really show for it. I smoked one time when I was younger just to see why folks smoke for and after that I gave it up as I couldn't see no point in it at all. I would rather spend my money on my charger to get it in shape then up in the air in a pack of smokes that gets you no where but maybe for some bad lungs  . I have been trying to figure out why people loves to smoke for and been just for the heck of it studying the issue for the past few years now. But it really makes me wonder though.  

The way I see it, while your standing there next to the charger having a smoke, that time you sped on that smoke you could have spent on the car it self and it would be that much more done  . When a person tells me that they don't have time for something then turns around and light one up, and stands there with it, um... they didn't have time but yet they have time for a smoke  . The more I see the prices of a single pack and then the prices of a carton, it really makes me wonder even more  .  

As for me, I don't smoke BUT did that one time to understand why folks does it for though and then after that I gave it back up. I would rather spend my doe ray me on importing things then into the air   and then complain that I don't have doe ray me for when I really needed something and didn't have the doe ray me for it.  

I'm sorry if this thread offends anyone. 

[Silver R/T]

People like wasting time and money. Consider health problems down the road. I know a guy who has problems breathing but he's regular smoker....not very smart

[Mopar440+6]

Well as a smoker, here's my two cents. I started smoking about 6 years ago. I was at a rather rough/stressful point in my life and a lot of my friends smoked. It started out as a stress reliever/social thing. At the time I'd smoke one maybe two cigarettes a day. Didn't feel like I ever needed a smoke. But after a few months I got hooked. It is an addiction. It is a scientifically proven fact that nicotine is more addictive than heroin. Now, I smoke roughly a pack/day. When I wake up in the morning I have to have a cigarette before I can get anything done. And you know what? I hate it. I hate the time and money I waste on it (roughly $20K in 6 years), I hate smelling like an ashtray all the time, I hate the fact that my truck's interior is pretty well destroyed from it and I hate not being in shape like I used to be. But I have yet to be able to quit and I have earnestly tried.

Quitting smoking takes more willpower than anything I have ever had to do. Not only do you have to break the addiction you have to break the habit. When you start trying to quit your brain is freaking out because you don't have the nicotine in your system. The cravings for a smoke are extremely strong. But that actually goes away within a week or two. It's breaking the habit that is the most difficult part of quitting. I smoke a lot when I'm driving. When I have tried to quit in the past, driving down the road I literally don't know what to do with the hand that's not on the steering wheel because I used to always be holding a cigarette. Breaking the habit of smoking isn't just not doing it. It involves a complete lifestyle change. Most people who smoke aren't willing to put in that kind of effort.

Quitting is something you have to WANT to do, not for anyone else or any reason, but for yourself. But as bad as I hate smoking, I'm not to the point in my life where I want to quit. That time is hopefully coming soon but it probably won't be anytime this week...

[Ghoste]

As an ex-smoker the only thing I can tell you is that while I fully understand your question about it, it is something that you just cannot understand until you've been hooked on it.  It just isn't something you can explain to someone who has never smoked.  Yes, we all know the stupidity of it, even going in.  I don't even remember why I started but I remember how hard it was to quit.  Actually quitting was easy, staying quit was hard.  It's been over 25 years since I had a cigarette last but it has only been about the last 10 or so that when someone lit up my brand I didn't instantly get either a craving for one or a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Other brands didn't bother me so much but I could sure pick mine out of a crowd.

[RD]

...It is an addiction. It is a scientifically proven fact that nicotine is more addictive than heroin. Now, I smoke roughly a pack/day. When I wake up in the morning I have to have a cigarette before I can get anything done.

Totally true

And you know what? I hate it. I hate the time and money I waste on it (roughly $20K in 6 years), I hate smelling like an ashtray all the time, I hate the fact that my truck's interior is pretty well destroyed from it and I hate not being in shape like I used to be. But I have yet to be able to quit and I have earnestly tried.

Wanting to change is the first step.. the need to quit smoking and the development of a plan and the desire to keep to it is the next step.

Quitting smoking takes more willpower than anything I have ever had to do. Not only do you have to break the addiction you have to break the habit. When you start trying to quit your brain is freaking out because you don't have the nicotine in your system. The cravings for a smoke are extremely strong. But that actually goes away within a week or two. It's breaking the habit that is the most difficult part of quitting. I smoke a lot when I'm driving. When I have tried to quit in the past, driving down the road I literally don't know what to do with the hand that's not on the steering wheel because I used to always be holding a cigarette. Breaking the habit of smoking isn't just not doing it. It involves a complete lifestyle change. Most people who smoke aren't willing to put in that kind of effort.

True again, but you can replace the fidgeting and need for the hand to do something with twiddling a pen, tapping your fingers to music, singing.. all things get your mind off of what you think you should be doing.

Quitting is something you have to WANT to do, not for anyone else or any reason, but for yourself. But as bad as I hate smoking, I'm not to the point in my life where I want to quit. That time is hopefully coming soon but it probably won't be anytime this week...

it can be tomorrow, you just have to make the choice and believe in yourself to get it done.  I have worked with addicts in my counseling days, and I am also a former 10 year, 2 pack a day smoker.  I quit in 2002 when my daughter was born.  I DID NOT WANT TO QUIT.  But, for my daughter I will do anything.  I still get cravings, but I never act on it.  The cravings never go away, it is just your "will" that does.  You are more important and stronger than any cigarettes.  

MY METHOD OF QUITTING AND IT HAS LASTED 8 YEARS:

STEP DOWN METHOD

• I smoked marlboro reds and menthols (full flavor <--- whatever that means.. it more like full pollutants, full poison, or full cancer if you ask me).  


• I stepped down to Marlboro lights and cut the filter in half for 2 weeks.  


• I then went to full filter length marlboro lights for 2 weeks.
• I then went to half filter marlboro ultra lights for 2 weeks.
• I then went to full filter marlboro ultra lights for 2 weeks and on the last pack before the 2nd week, I just quit.

It takes will power, it takes the gumption.. but the benefits monetarily and with your health are far more important than the outcomes if you keep smoking.

There is a difference in thinking and wanting to quit smoking because you know it has good reasons.. and actually needing to quit smoking for the right reasons.  We all want things in our lives, but we know we can never get them.  Do not think of quitting as wanting, but rather as a "need".  You do this, things have a better chance at success.

Remember this, people are making millions off your impending death.  Why pay people to kill you?

[MoparManJim]

Thank you both for being upfront on the issue. You see I'm trying to understand why folks do it for as that is why I kinda ask the question for or mention it. But have for the ones that are hook on it, have you ever tryed to say replace it with something good? say like instead of liting one up go get a can of soda? Back when I smoke over 10 years ago. I smoke for at least 3 months.  My late dad was a smoker also and smoke daily and went through maybe 6 a day maybe afew more. He had the smoke smell on him and in his skin. much as I love my dad I couldn't get close to him because of that issue, mom would always get sick also when she hug or kissed him. She was a smoker back in her younger days but afew she had me she just up and gave up one day out of the blues. All the years I seen people smoke and later down the road past away because of it, it really made me wonder why people did such a stupid thing to themselfs for. So over 10 years ago, I decided I would give it a try to see why people wanted them all the time. After 3 months, I couldn't yet understand there reason for it at all and why they do it for all the time. I just threw the pack in the trash can and went on, the cravings did hit me but I didn't even flich at them at all and just rather stuck them aside and out of my mind all togother. My friends asked me how in the world did I do that and I told them I just did and they ask me how did I handle the cravings and I told them what I did. Afew months later my one friends did give up smoking as well and he was doing it for like a year or more and now days he is plain happy that he did give it up.   

[MoparManJim]

I totally agree with RD and what he said  . Very well spoken RD. 

[LeadfootBob]

A related question... Why do people drink alcohol? Almost every single bad aspect of smoking applies to booze too...

[RD]

A related question... Why do people drink alcohol? Almost every single bad aspect of smoking applies to booze too...

I think your question would better be asked "Why do people drink alcohol everyday?"

then it would be an apples to apples.  Just my two pennies... but, you are right.. if they drank every day, then all would still apply.

[Khyron]

I smoke to piss non smokers off....


at least im honest about it

[Ghoste]

And I drink because I'm married.

[Khyron]

And I drink LOTS because I'm married.

fixed

[MoparManJim]

I smoke to piss non smokers off....


at least im honest about it

You might be doing that to think that you are pissing off the non smokers.... but think of it this way, all your doing is just hurting youself   

[Ghoste]

And I drink LOTS because I'm married.

fixed

 

[Belgium R/T -68]

A related question... Why do people drink alcohol? Almost every single bad aspect of smoking applies to booze too...

I think your question would better be asked "Why do people drink alcohol everyday?"

then it would be an apples to apples.  Just my two pennies... but, you are right.. if they drank every day, then all would still apply.

I'm now sober exactly 3 years after 10 years of daily drinking so I can surely agree that it applies to booze aswell. Without having replaced the alcohol with
my Mopars I would still be drinking and propably would have lost both family and work.

Per

[tricky lugnuts]

Good Questions!

As a former smoker of 10-plus years, I quit cold turkey in September 2008.

I had one more cigarette in my pack that day, smoked it at lunch, threw out the butt in the sidewalk trash can (as a side note, I hate most of all smokers who toss out their butts whenever, wherever and think those people should have their cigarettes extinguished on their faces or flipped back into the interiors of their cars when they're not looking), and quit smoking. once and for all. Haven't had one since.

Yes, it was tough to do, especially for the first couple days and weeks. Any habit of that magnitude - one pack a day or more - is going to be hard to break. I chewed on tooth picks, pens, whatever I could find; I fell victim to various outbursts and tantrums. For a while, I was not a very pleasant person to be around.

I quit smoking because I was tired of paying $5 for a pack of cigarettes that might, just might, last me one day and leave my lungs feeling sore the next morning. It is burning money. It is also burning lung tissue. I can now breathe, smell, and taste better than at any other time since I was 17.

I hate all the smoking bans and all the stupid taxes.

People should be able to smoke if they want, when and where they want, within reason. Just don't come looking to me to pay for your lung transplant, you tracheotomy, your oxygen breathing system, or your BS nicotine gum. Something has to kill everybody, so if some people insist on dying by sucking on the RJ Reynolds Corporate Tailpipe, so be it.

The bigger question here is not why people smoke or drink, but why they do irrational things at all. There are millions of things that could pop to mind.

[Tilar]

I started smoking back in 73 or 4 before I graduated and smoked anywhere from 2 to 3 packs a day for 30 years. I think in my peak it got close to 4 packs. I would buy a carton of cigarettes every 3 to 4 days.

The longest I went without a cigarette was probably 6 months between 1990 and 91 during a run-in with cancer and that was because most of that time I was in the hospital. I was allowed to smoke in there I just didn't feel like it.  I tried to "quit" a few times prior but I finally put my last one down on Memorial Day of 2005. They just got to be too expensive and they were starting to take a toll on my stamina.  I did go to a hypnosis seminar once a few years before I actually quit and wanted a cigarette as soon as I got out of the place. Cancelled the check on that one.

I started taking a prescription pill to stop smoking. I can't remember the name of it but it helped me get it done.

On one hand I wish they had put a $5 a pack tax on them... But I have to say that I enjoyed every one of them that I lit up and even though I quit, It still pisses me off that all the whiney-asses are making it where people can't even go to a private club and light up a smoke.  I don't feel that is anything the government has a right to stick their nose in.

[Todd Wilson]

I need a cigar and a cold PBR!


Todd

[Back N Black]

I have a rather good question here. I have been thinking on it for the past few days now. Why do people smoke for? why burn the money up into thin air? Because if you set back and really think about it, that is all they are really doing is just burning there money up into thin air with smokes   and then they have nothing to really show for it. I smoked one time when I was younger just to see why folks smoke for and after that I gave it up as I couldn't see no point in it at all. I would rather spend my money on my charger to get it in shape then up in the air in a pack of smokes that gets you no where but maybe for some bad lungs  . I have been trying to figure out why people loves to smoke for and been just for the heck of it studying the issue for the past few years now. But it really makes me wonder though.  

The way I see it, while your standing there next to the charger having a smoke, that time you sped on that smoke you could have spent on the car it self and it would be that much more done  . When a person tells me that they don't have time for something then turns around and light one up, and stands there with it, um... they didn't have time but yet they have time for a smoke  . The more I see the prices of a single pack and then the prices of a carton, it really makes me wonder even more  .  

As for me, I don't smoke BUT did that one time to understand why folks does it for though and then after that I gave it back up. I would rather spend my doe ray me on importing things then into the air   and then complain that I don't have doe ray me for when I really needed something and didn't have the doe ray me for it.  

I'm sorry if this thread offends anyone.  

The number 1 killer is heart attack, from eating greasy cheese burgers. So why do people waste their money on fast food?

[MoparManJim]

I have a rather good question here. I have been thinking on it for the past few days now. Why do people smoke for? why burn the money up into thin air? Because if you set back and really think about it, that is all they are really doing is just burning there money up into thin air with smokes   and then they have nothing to really show for it. I smoked one time when I was younger just to see why folks smoke for and after that I gave it up as I couldn't see no point in it at all. I would rather spend my money on my charger to get it in shape then up in the air in a pack of smokes that gets you no where but maybe for some bad lungs  . I have been trying to figure out why people loves to smoke for and been just for the heck of it studying the issue for the past few years now. But it really makes me wonder though.  

The way I see it, while your standing there next to the charger having a smoke, that time you sped on that smoke you could have spent on the car it self and it would be that much more done  . When a person tells me that they don't have time for something then turns around and light one up, and stands there with it, um... they didn't have time but yet they have time for a smoke  . The more I see the prices of a single pack and then the prices of a carton, it really makes me wonder even more  .  

As for me, I don't smoke BUT did that one time to understand why folks does it for though and then after that I gave it back up. I would rather spend my doe ray me on importing things then into the air   and then complain that I don't have doe ray me for when I really needed something and didn't have the doe ray me for it.  

I'm sorry if this thread offends anyone.  

The number 1 killer is heart attack, from eating greasy cheese burgers. So why do people waste their money on fast food?

Well your right about that bud, my aunt was taken last year due to a heart attack  , now about fast food, think of it this way, smokes can kill you, they don't keep you living. Cheese burgers on the other hand will keep you living longer as it "is" food   that you body can use. What is a pack of smokes to the body? nothing.  

[BIRD67]

I think the big question is why do we do what we do.. I'll never touch booze after hearing about how it made my father owe $12k to the state of California and technically took his life for 8 minutes..He has been sober for gosh, almost 20 years now..I've watched my aunt go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye with drinking, needless to say, we dont see much of her anymore.. As for smoking, a great case in how bad it is for you can be the presentations they show at our school, there is so much chemical shit in there, the same stuff they use in rat poison.. It is an addictin, and if you are not careful it can rob you of everything.. Thats just this teenager's  I'll choose a long healthy life over a life filled with toxins any day of the week!

[Khyron]

I smoke to piss non smokers off....


at least im honest about it

You might be doing that to think that you are pissing off the non smokers.... but think of it this way, all your doing is just hurting youself   

aaaannnnnnndddddddd??? hehehe you know how many brain cels I loose tuning that old 440 in my garage? lol

[TylerCharger69]

I'm a smoker....about a pack and a half a day....Anyway...the suggestions to switching to lighter cigarettes doesn't solve the problem because you tend to smoke more of them to make up the difference....plus....there is no such thing as a safe cigarette.  There are many ways to quit, but first you have to have the willpower to do so, and the want to.  It's hard to kick that habit.  Ive been smoking since i was in 9th grade in high school.  (I'm 44 now)  I'm one of the rare cases that I'm still in good health and i don't ever suffer loss of breath.  I'm a drummer and a lead vocalist in a metal band, so I get good cardiovascular workouts in that capacity.  Yes...I would like to quit....When I started, cigarettes were only about 75 cents a pack....for Marlboro or other premium name brand cigarettes.  Nowadays....around 5 bucks a pack.  So yes...the money issue really hits below the belt.  And yes...it is basically "pissing away" money.  But it is an addiction that is very hard to kick.  I'm sure I'll quit soon, but not really thinking about it too much yet.  There are products to aid in quitting....some can quit cold turkey.  Just have to decide what's the right direction to choose in order to kick the habit.  If you've never smoked...I can see where it would be hard to fathom the reasoning as to why we do it.  I'd like to add...a lot of states and cities have ordinances about smoking in public places....well....I agree with that because a non-smoker has the right to clean air.  And the booze issue.....drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand.   You'll find yourself smoking more while drinking than you would on a normal state.  If I'm in a non-smokers house, car....whatever....I go outside and smoke.  If you notice....there are a lot less smokers these days then there were say 10 or 20 years ago.

[Mike DC]

  
   
In some of the 1700s-1800s penal colonies run by europeans, smoking was against the rules for the prisoners.  The officials sometimes punished men for repeat offense smoking by flogging them with multiple-rope whips that had iron points on the ends of the ropes.  Plenty of men were regularly ripped to shreds (and some even died from the whippings) rather than give up smoking tobacco.  



Tobacco is one of the most addictive things known to man.  It won't wreck your body immediately like some stronger drugs, but that's not a measure of how addictive something is.  Tobacco is as addictive as any of the big-name stuff that gets rockstars killed.  
   
 

[nh_mopar_fan]

I was a runner and I smoked. How f*cking stupid is that?

I hated it. But it quickly got associated with other things, like drinking or morning coffee or taking a break at work...and I was hooked. I wasn't as heavy as others, I maxed out at a pack a day. I hated it. Quit multiple times, something multiple times in one day.

One morning, after a particularly hard night out with the boys, I woke up feeling like shit and vowed to never smoke again and that time it stuck.

I chewed ALOT of gum for months. It really helped.

One of the weird things for me was that the people I hung around with on breaks at work stopped asking me to go outside after I stopped. It was almost like I wasn't there any more. Very weird.

I can't stand being in the same room with smokers now.