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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think people that smoke are totally crazy? i cannot understand it at all how do people afford it too?

159 replies

carriedababi · 16/09/2011 22:22

i find it totally baffling

  1. it's damages your health, and that of other around you, ie your children
  2. its an outrageous waste of money
  3. doesn't do your looks much good

how much is a pack of 20 these days anyway?

OP posts:
usualsuspect · 16/09/2011 22:33

I spend all my benefits on fags and vodka

My kids eat 9p noodles

Tiredmumno1 · 16/09/2011 22:34

Thanks stuck i'll take the fourth glass it looks fuller Grin

cjbartlett · 16/09/2011 22:34

It's a daft question though

Why do people smoke? Er... Because they enjoy it? Why do people do anything?

HairyGrotter · 16/09/2011 22:34

Oh, when did smoking stop being cool? Is it since the smoking ban? I hadn't noticed

AgentZigzag · 16/09/2011 22:34

I've never been able to fathom why people would take the risk to go to a gym.

I mean, why would you do that? Confused

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 16/09/2011 22:35

Oh I love those! I always laugh at the sad cartoon of budget orange juice at the back.

notherdaynotherdollar · 16/09/2011 22:35

i dont care if they are killing themselves and their kids tbh, i just wish they would do something to minimise the terrible stink

farewellfigure · 16/09/2011 22:35

Smoking, alcohol or prescription drugs. Someone told me the other day that they don't know of a parent that doesn't use some sort of crutch. Oh go on...flame me. We all need something...Maybe not one of those but a social network to get them through...maybe just toddler group or the local church.

At the moment my DH is sitting next to me finding new music on the other computer. Maybe that's his crutch?

BreeVanDerTramp · 16/09/2011 22:36

Glitter have one for me will you, DH has gone out and taken back door key so can't get into garden and am gasping Grin

icooksocks · 16/09/2011 22:36

I'm not crazy thank you. I like to smoke, but I dont drink. Each to their own. I think people who spend money on wine are slightly crazy-its foul tasting stuff on the whole (my mum's told me for years I'll grow into it-I havent yet)

AgentZigzag · 16/09/2011 22:36

Boasting about your extravagance there Usual?

Mine get the scrapings from a Netto warehouse floor, and are grateful.

wigglesrock · 16/09/2011 22:37

Because they want to [shrugs] Because they like it. Because it tastes nice. Because there is just something about that first drag.

MiseryBusiness · 16/09/2011 22:38

icooksocks, I am exactly the same and my mum has always told me I'll grow to like it. Never have!

AmberLeaf · 16/09/2011 22:38

Cor only page 1 and talk of benefits already!

southeastastra · 16/09/2011 22:39

it keeps you thin

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 16/09/2011 22:39

*carton, obviously!

Gyms are dangerous places...... They cause terrible chafing you know.

Original poster
carriedababi · 16/09/2011 22:39

i suppose i just cannot imagine being addicted.

perhaps thats why i just can't understand it

OP posts:
shakey1500 · 16/09/2011 22:40

I am addicted to smoking. I also happen to like it. I can afford it.

bibbitybobbityhat · 16/09/2011 22:40

Carri - don't even try to understand it.

It's just addiction, pure and simple. And people carry on smoking because they are scared of what they need to go through to give up.

And that is all.

Honest.

tittybangbang · 16/09/2011 22:41

"It's silly and irresponsible but I can easily afford it. I spend £3.99 or something on the one small pouch of rolling tobacco I buy a week. I don't buy vacuous magazines any more though. This week I have loads left in my pack anyway so I think smoking cost me about £2 last week"

Don't want to be mean Dial, but I was reading something in the new scientist last week about how risk of heart attack doesn't decrease or increase proportionately with amount of tobacco smoked. Apparently people who only smoke a couple of cigarettes a day still have a massively increased risk of heart attack because those first couple of fags cause a vascular spasm that can trigger a heart attack. Also, even minimal exposure to tobacco causes the blood to thicken and put you at risk of a clot.

Which is why since they've banned smoking in public places the heart attack rate has gone down. Not because smokers have smoked less, but because non-smokers have had less exposure to cigarette smoke.

Sorry to be a miserablist. Here, have a Brew and a Biscuit instead

norriscoleforpm · 16/09/2011 22:43

I have tried and tried and tried to stop smoking, I have stopped for three years but re started - have been to the doctors three times for a 'course', tried NRT, tried it all. My family hate me smoking, I hate me smoking. It is shit. I have wasted thousands, I cough and I feel rubbish. So why the fuck do I do it? :( Because, it is addictive, it is weirdly 'enjoyable'. I have no idea. But I would rather gouge my eyes out than go clothes 'shopping', and I really don't understand how women get turned on by shoes! So, there we go. Obviously shopping is less harmful but I don't get how it can possibly be enjoyable, the same as 'never smokers' don't get smoking!

HairyGrotter · 16/09/2011 22:45

I'm fucked then.

  1. I love smoking
  2. I love wine, any alcohol really, not whiskey though
  3. I love shoes
norriscoleforpm · 16/09/2011 22:46

Explain the 'shoes' thing. you wear shoes, you go out, you come home, you take them off

tittybangbang · 16/09/2011 22:47

"I am addicted to smoking. I also happen to like it. I can afford it"

You only like it because you're addicted to it. You have an itch. You scratch it. It feels nice. You associate the smell and the sensation of drawing the smoke into your lungs with the pleasant feelings caused by sating the need your addiction has created. And you do it over and over again, usually in a fairly ritualistic way so that you end up with a habit and an addiction.

I'm really scared of getting cancer. I can't believe that you're not scared of it too.

moonferret · 16/09/2011 22:48

I look back on my time as a smoker and ask myself the same questions. It's an absolutely ludicrous thing to do. I really cannot believe that for years, I voluntarily paid to suck cancer causing smoke into my own lungs.

If I was forced to explain it, I was curious about smoking which caused me to try it (and strangely, persist until addiction) and then it was a tough fight to break that addiction.