[aleprok]

Does smoking cause bad self-control or does bad self-control drive people to smoke? I do not know the answer.

What I know is that I am nicotine addict and smoking addict. It is a habit that I go for a cigarette about every hour. It is like a clock in my head ringing to go for a cigarette after 45-60 minutes even though the nicotine withdrawal hits in around three hours. After that I usually will just go out of choice for a cigarette even if I have decided not to smoke that much for the day, because the withdrawal symptoms are annoying.

Then again I know for a certain that I am looking for activities that create lasting profit and happiness and avoid every kind of risky things like lottery. Even though I may once a year buy a lottery ticket to try my bad luck, but so does everyone else.

I do know that smoking has bad social risks like yellow teeth and bad smell. I do know that smoking causes health problems. Thing is. It is life and it is my decision to live with my addiction, where is the self-control missing?

One thing I have noticed since some of my friends have tried to stop smoking or actually have stopped smoking. They will still be the occasional smokers if they stay around other smokers and often that is the case, because smokers usually socialize with other smokers at the cigarette break and once you have quit you will still have that carving for another cigarette and some times the decision "maybe one" will rule them all. It's the ~20% club.

[seanmcdirmid]

Nicotine addiction is not really the problem; you can get over that in a week. The problem is habit: want to go outside and think; talk to friends; kill some time while walking from point A to B? Would you rather think about smoking or just smoke and think about something else? For a smoker trying to quit, any whitespace/meditation time in your schedule is a potential for relapse. And its not just a matter of not smoking for a week, a month, 3 months, or even 6 months. It is a continuous long-road challenge to really stop.

Source: me.

[aleprok]

Yes I do know that Nicotine addiction is not the problem. The bigger problem is the habit of wanting to go outside and think, talk to friends, kill some time while taking the dog out. Like I just went to smoke and thought about this and that about how people discriminate smokers and try to get us to stop it even though most of us avoid smoking while non-smokers are present. Though it is their problem if they hang around with smokers while they smoke.

Oh yes and I do wear a seat belt while I am in a vehicle if the vehicle has one for me.

[seanmcdirmid]

Smoking is obviously bad, I think we all get that. I for one welcome "social pressure" as an effective mechanism for getting all of us to quit; its quite useful to limit the places that one can smoke, and to make it uncool when hanging out with a certain crowd, or even continuous admonishment from non-smokers. I would also be happy if cigarettes completely disappeared or were incredibly expensive; less temptation for me.

Smoking is not a personal problem, it is a societal one. Barring effective personal solutions, societal solutions will be more effective. Maybe they won't get you to stop smoking, but your kids probably won't smoke, and in a few generations it will be gone.

Consider that I never started smoking until I moved to a country at around 35 yro where smoking was common, welcomed everywhere but Starbucks, and cigarettes are incredibly cheap ($1.25/pack). It started out as a social habit at bars, and eventually turned into an addiction that I depended on for creativity. Now that I've associated it with that, and have been...more effective (coincidental or not)...its hard to just blow off the habit. Health or a successful career?

Oh and no, I never wear seat belts because they are always hidden in the taxis I take.