[300bps]

Because humans aren't rational machines and there are many things that cause people to take up habits that aren't healthy

I get this, but usually there is some substantial benefit to the habit.

To start smoking cigarettes today, you are well aware of the fact that it will:

1. Make you less healthy while you are alive

2. Will prematurely end your life

3. Will make you reviled by a large portion of the population

4. Will cost you a ridiculous amount of money

5. Will cost you a tremendous amount of time while you seek out cigarettes and smoke them

... there are many more negatives.

What possible positives are there that outweigh these negatives?

Nicotine is no more addictive or harmful to a person in a normal dose than caffeine, and its effects are similar also.

This is just so incredibly ridiculous. I've never smoked a cigarette but I have been addicted to caffeine multiple times in my life. I've gone "cold turkey" several times and the only effect was a slight headache that was off and on for a week. I think it's actually pretty easy to quit caffeine but from what I hear, it's nearly impossible to quit smoking cigarettes.

And if the effects of caffeine are similar to the effects of nicotine why not just use caffeine? It seems to have few of the negatives and all the positives (including the social impact of smoking which can be transferred to the social impact of getting coffee).

I just don't get smoking at all. I don't see any benefits to it in a vein similar to I don't see a benefit of smacking myself in the head with a hammer. It's hard to explain away such things with, "Yeah, people aren't rational" because you don't see many people smacking themselves in the head with a hammer.

[anextio]

I started smoking in university, and where I'm from a very high percentage of university students smoke (usually roll-your-own cigarettes, though).

I can remember the first time I had a puff of a cigarette, and I was quite drunk at the time. The thing about smoking while drinking is that, at least at the start, a cigarette seems to make you twice as drunk as you were before, while also making you feel really good.

Of course before this I had smoked weed a bunch of times, and here that is usually mixed with tobacco in a joint, so I was used to it at least in that aspect.

But most people here who smoke weed and not cigarettes are quite able to handle the occasional tobacco in a joint without making a cigarette habit out of it.

Anyway, basically it just started out as something that I would do while out drinking. I would get drunk with my roommates, and occasionally have a puff or two from a cigarette in that state. Eventually I would have a whole roll-up to myself. Eventually I started buying my own tobacco to use with my own weed, and at times I would occasionally have a pure tobacco roll-up with no weed, just for the nice feeling.

For a lot of people, it generally starts out with the connection to drinking. Drinking and smoking are very conducive to each other, and it's how many many people get started.

I don't think I need to go into the details of how alcohol affects your judgement.

How my addiction came about was a slower process. At one point for whatever reason I decided to have a cigarette in the morning just as I was walking to my college, and by god did it feel great. At this point I was still convinced in the back of my mind that I had it under control, and could quit whenever I wanted.

The tradition of a morning cigarette turned into a necessity. Within about 6 months, I had an awful nervous feeling in my arms and stomach until I had the first cigarette of the day, and once it gets to that point, you're screwed.

I was young and foolish, I was drinking, I was doing it with my friends, I was getting social satisfaction from it. I enjoyed the ritual of making the trek to the smoking area with a friend or two for a nice chat while everyone else was inside.

I was smoking up until early August this year. I'm not a drinker at all anymore, and it's always been completely clear to me the health risks of smoking cigarettes, but the excuses still pile up: stress at work, stress at home, no time, trying to find as much enjoyment from my free time as I can, etc.

I switched to an e-cigarette (I hate that term, by the way, much prefer vaporizer) then in August, and the difference has been night and day. I never had another cigarette after that day, and to be honest, I despise them now. I've never had a craving for one and the smell of the smoke disgusts me now like it never did before when I was a smoker.

My cravings have gone down as well. I no longer feel that nervous feeling when I wake up in the morning. My nicotine requirements have gone way down. I'll be moving to a lower nicotine % juice when my current bottle runs out. My blood pressure is great, I can run again, my circulation is better and I don't cough up gunk.

I still have no full intention of quitting. Nicotine for me, like caffeine for some, is an aid to my work pattern. Walking down to the curb for a cigarette or leaning back for a few puffs from my vaporizer are the things that get my mind past a difficult bug or coding problem.

[mst]

You might find that asking the question without repeated use of the word "ridiculous" and without calling people "reviled" would make it more likely that they'd answer you.

Then again, I'm not really seeing any evidence that you want your mind to be changed, so perhaps a better approach would be for you to simply post "I don't understand smoking at all and I don't honestly want to" and skip the insults for that reason instead.

[cdcarter]

Well first of all, and as much as your deep-set hatred for smoking may not let you see it, you get a MUCH different feeling from a long drag on an American Spirit than you do from smacking yourself in the head with a hammer. One can be described as quite pleasant, the other quite...blunt.

I'm not a regular smoker, but I'll take a drag from a friend's every few months, and I enjoy it. But I also lost a family member to lung cancer, so I am particularly careful.

From my own anecdotal evidence, people start smoking in three ways: 1) Started as a kid under 16. Usually through parental influence (if they're smoking around the house a lot, you become very likely to). Otherwise through peer pressure (cool kids behind the bleachers). 2) Started while drunk. See the sister-comment for details. 3) Dated a smoker. This one will get ya, and definitely was the closest I ever got to smoking regularly. Once you get used to the smell of it, the taste of it, the release of a post-coital cig... I'm sure you can imagine how it can be to be deeply in love with someone and have incredible sense-memory connections with their brand of cigarettes.

Hopefully this might give you a little more compassion for people who have become smokers through any avenue, and instead of mocking them for their choices, help them seek cessation therapy.

[fein]

"I've never smoked a cigarette but I have been addicted to caffeine multiple times in my life."

Woops, a little bit of liberty taken there. The caffeine-> nicotine comparison refers to the isolated stimulants, not the act of smoking. People don't seem to be primarily addicted to nicotine in the sense of a cigarette, but the combination of nic + everything else in there.

You don't have to smoke to get a nicotine fix. You don't even need tobacco products.