smokers and former smokers (serious smokers) of CFC.

[bhsup]

I started smoking when I was 18. That was 22 3/4 years ago. I smoke about a pack a day of Camel filters. Used to smoke the wides from about 93 to just awhile back when I switch back to regular filters.

I've successfully quit 0 times. Unsuccessfully quite a whole crapload of times.

 

[Oerdin]

I didn't start smoking until I was late in my 27th year. It sounds dumb, and is, but in Iraq I worked with Psyops and every time we spoke to an Iraqi they'd always offer us a smoke and half the time people would get offended if you didn't accept it. Next thing you know I was being $2 packs of Camels or Gauloises; those were the days. Sure you got shot at occasionally and there was nightly mortar fire on the base but damn it you could buy a carton for $12. Four years later and I'm still smoking (about a pack a day) now it's mostly Camels though I prefer Gauloises but the French brands are so much more expensive then the domestics. There isn't even a tariff so I'm guessing the frogs are just trying to pretend they're a premium brand.

 

[Fifty]

I smoke around 2 cigars a month.

 

[MjM]

Never smoke the brown stuff...whether it be brown tobacco or brown weed.

What he said. All the bad effects of smoking and no high benefit? Or even any benefit besides a mild relaxant?

That said, a good cigar isn't too bad. Hell, if it has a good flavor, then I do see a benefit. But not cigarettes and other poop tasting tobacco.

 

[Oerdin]

smoked on and off for 10 years. Quit about 3 years ago.

Cold turkey. My advice is always this:

There will be mornings you wake up, feeling like crap, your mouth dry and nasty, your body kind of sickly feeling, where a cigarette does not sound all that great, but required. Those are the mornings you can say, "how about I skip my morning cigarette?" Then you can count the 8 hours of sleep as 8 hours without smoking.

The other thing is you must, in your mind, admit, you can NEVER smoke a SINGLE cigarette again, EVER. If you cannot bear that thought, you are not ready to quit.



And I don't mind smokers at all, or kissing girls that smoke, but I still get urges.

That is my problem. I've quit for like up to 5 months cold turkey but then I'll go out with the boys for a night, have a few pints, one of them will go out for a smoke, I'll go out too "to just have one" and then almost half a year of not smoking goes, pardon the pun, up in smoke. It's like you're starting right over from step one with the cravings and urges to smoke. You say it will be just one and that you can handle it but damn if you can stop after that. My aunt smoked for 15 years, quit for 10 years, but then when she and my (former) uncle were getting divorced after 25 years of being married she suddenly started smoking again because she was at a patio restaurant and smelled the smoke from someone else smoking.

A decade after she quit just the smell of it kicked in the addiction part of her brain (I'm sure the stress of divorcing someone you'd been with your entire adult life didn't help) and she got these urges to start smoking again. Everyone has heard it a million times but the truth is nicotine really is one of the most addictive substances known to man. Yes, some people are more prone to nicotine addiction then others just like some people are more prone to alcoholism or gambling addiction or cocaine but that doesn't change the fact that it is powerful, powerful stuff.

 

[Civfan333]

besides trying a cigar once and a few cigs, and (unsuccessfully) trying to smoke a banana peel, I don't smoke.

 

[nonconformist]

Just sparked boyos

 

[Bigfoot3814]

A man on a train once told me that the smokers of the world are the closest to each other without knowing each other. Is this true?

 

[holy king]

i guess you can say that about every group of addicts...

 

[Bigfoot3814]

I don't think crackheads share with one another.

 

[holy king]

that's not the point, they understand each other's addiction and what they love and hate about what they're addicted to.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

But I've seen with my own eyes a smoker approach another smoker they've never met in their entire life and ask for a cigarette, and have one handed to them. I've never seen that with anything else.

 

[holy king]

cause one is cheap. if crack was that cheap it would be the same...

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Long-time smoker and comedian Dave Chappelle described the cost of today's cigarettes as "crack prices".

 

[holy king]

dont know about the us, but a single one still isnt that expensive in most of continental europe...

 

[Oerdin]

A man on a train once told me that the smokers of the world are the closest to each other without knowing each other. Is this true?

They're certainly the friendliest. They get together to smoke all the time.

 

[Oerdin]

But I've seen with my own eyes a smoker approach another smoker they've never met in their entire life and ask for a cigarette, and have one handed to them. I've never seen that with anything else.

It's part of the social code. People know the same addiction and so they feel the need to help each other. Truth is they're very socialable.

 

[DNK]

And this stuff doesn't even get you high?

Well, it's as high as you can legally get driving your car, etc. And I've certainly had (very fleeting) highs on cigarettes. Go a couple days without one, get cravings like mad, then put a Turkish Gold in your mouth, taking the time to hold it up to your nose and smell its sweet, sweet flavor beforehand. Then take out your zippo and light it up, watching it slowly catch and burn, but don't hit it just yet... wait a few seconds, take in the moment, and then take a long, deep breath right through that filter, hold it a few seconds, let it out nice and slow... oh my God, you're in f-ing heaven for the next few minutes.

I think most people pick up smoking because they don't care about early death, or say they don't, or just deny it all. I guess they really just don't see the consequences, and early, horrid death certainly isn't the only one.

The other thing is you must, in your mind, admit, you can NEVER smoke a SINGLE cigarette again, EVER. If you cannot bear that thought, you are not ready to quit.



And I don't mind smokers at all, or kissing girls that smoke, but I still get urges.

See, I quit the opposite way. I said, "you can have one if it ever gets too bad." It was the only way I could let myself do it, I had to let go slowly. But I went a few months cold turkey, then had a crazy night and downed about half a pack in an hour. After that, though, I only smoked when I was drunk, and over the years the frequency of that dropped off and finally I quit for good.

And I don't really get cravings anymore unless I'm walking behind someone smoking. It's been years since I had a cigarette, but I was walking past someone just today that was smoking... I couldn't help but enjoy the smell for a few brief seconds. You forget how much that smell, that feeling, that addiction, can become central in your day. It's like a connection with the world that is fairly missed once it's gone.

dont know about the us, but a single one still isnt that expensive in most of continental europe...

Oh, we've sin taxed cigarettes to hell. A few years ago it was at $5-6 a pack (half a Euro or so, I think that's the conversion now?), not sure what it is now. Still not that bad (a quarter or so a smoke), but the point remains that in no other global subculture that I know of do random people walk up to each other and regularly ask for free crap and expect to get it almost universally.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

i smoke a pack in two days or less and i roll ciggarettes too with this tobacco

Smoke the same brand.

Mine last a little longer now I cut down. Usually 4 days.

 

[Grisu]

the only thing I ever smokes was Clematis as a kid

I'm glad I never started, but I have my other unhealthy vices