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

[carriedababi]

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?

One of the things that keeps my resolve to stay off the cigs is the thought 'I don't envy smokers, they envy me'

I went down the pub a couple of weeks ago and my mate a hardened smoker (of stronger stuff than plain tobacco too) asked if I had still given up when he was on his way outside and then said he hated me.

I also find looking at the workers stood outside smoking makes me feel a bit glad that I've quit.

Also find that I forget about smoking once I've had a couple of wines. Guess I'm just lucky in that respect.

I used to be under the illusion that smoking supressed your appetite until someone pointed out that there would be no fat smokers if that was true. Again I think I was using it as an excuse to keep on smoking.

bibbity - nicotine is more addictive than heroin or cocaine - google it.
This is fact.
Check out PubMed. Which is a database of scientific Journals.
If that flummoxes you I'll be glad to help you out.
The fact that millions of smoker give up is spurious.
More people smoke than take heroin - so more of them kick the habit proportionately. That's not rocket science.

Spuddy, with all due respect, you are not a smoker and sounds like you don't like smoking much or you would do it more. 200 cigs last you a year and you are sharing them. Why do your parents buy them for you when you don't really smoke, bit odd.

And so to bed ...

I smoke once or twice a year. No interest at any other time. I do it just because I like it.

It will be skin cancer that gets me I am sure of it. I have very pale skin and grew up in the outback before anyone had ever really heard of it - have had many moles removed and will probably need more done. My father died from skin cancer. It ate him alive.

So I am obsessed with sun care. My DS's both have very pale skin and have never ever had even the slightest sunburn. I intend to keep it that way.

If someone wants to smoke that is there business, mostly it doesn't bother me, only if it somehow becomes my problem.

Oh, goody! A smoking thread! And I'm drunk as well.

Sits back, reads.

Nothing to see here.

Goes back to YouTube and Facebook.

My mam died of lung cancer aged 48 in May this year. She would smoke 20 a day since she was 14ish. Fair enough if you feel you dont care that you may die at a young-ish age but what about the people who love you? It was horrible watching this young, active person turn into a underweight, frail thing who couldn't even walk. (this was about 4 weeks before her death) She never got to see her son have kids or her 2nd grand-daughters 1st day of school. Whenever you die, is too young. My grandad was 79, died of old age but he was still too young imo.

My eldest DDs (21, 19) both smoke. One of my nieces (17) also smokes. Loads of their friends at university smoke. There's no pretence that they aren't addicted. Still, they don't seem to use any of the more dangerous rubbish that's out there and widely available and they like it, it helps relax them. I expect they'll give up relatively soon, probably when they decide to have children and if they don't, well that's not great but that's their choice.

I smoked heavily from the age of 14 to 19 and gave up and am not an advocate of smoking but I do quite like the idea of adults having some freedom. It would annoy me if they smoked inside because that affects others, but they don't.

Both my parents smoked heavily and both died of multiple cancer aged 73 and 84, horrible deaths, but neither of them had any sign of lung cancer. Almost everything else, but not lung. I'm fatalistic, like Fabby. Milk floats and all that.

zelda I am so sorry to hear that. I'm 48 next year and really need to get this damn thing under control :(. I have three kids, youngest is 5 and the thought of not being here to see her grow up kills me. I'm starting again today starting stopping I mean for at least the eighth time this year and I will really try. Comments like your and images I make myself look at from time to time work to a point, but then...it''s never going to happen to 'me' is it? A very dear friend of ours died of lung cancer 7 years ago. He had been a pub landlord and a very heavy smoker and drinker all his adult life, but the tragic irony was that he had given up smoking 18 months earlier.Diagnosed in April and dead by July. Awful.

How funny, what is the point of the question? Maybe it's just something you don't get. I don't get why smack heads inject heroin, but who cares? You can't know everything in life.

norris good luck with it. When i was younger i used to beg my mam to stop (ive always hated it) and that she'll get lung cancer etc, she also said it'll never happen to me :( I figure its like playing a longer version of russian roulette, may take time but at the end of the day you've got a 50/50 chance of dying from it and its just not a risk worth taking when you have loved ones.

You could also say..I don't know why people drink alcohol... They become deluded and think that their conversation and behaviour is interesting and amusing.

Why do people smoke, drink, eat too much? The reasons are obviously invisible to me and you.

I don't think its that people can 'afford' it. It's just that if you're addicted then you prioritise what you crave over other things.

I'm not a smoker, and have no great wish to smoke for all the obvious reasons- skin appearance, health, finance . What strikes me among people I know who are smokers is that they really hate the idea that their own teenage kids might be smokers. Thats another good reason to put me off frankly. I would hate to feel I had contributed to something I wouldn't want my kids doing (evidence shows kids of smokers are more likely to smoke themselves). Then there are those who sneak around pretending to their kids they don't smoke... Yet still claim they'd be Very upset if they discovered their kids were smokers..

You cant hide it anyway- it's usually pretty easy to tell when someones had a fag. I'm a teacher and it's so obvious from the stale smell when kids have sneaked off in their breaktime for a smoke

Yanbu, I say that as an ex smoker. I never realised how much I must have smelt either until I quit. I did go through a phase of a few months where I would have a few on a night out but never felt the need in the morning, stopped that when started ttc, as did DH.

I'm on day 2 of giving up! I bloody love smoking and have smoked since I was 15, a good 30 odd years with gaps when I had and bf my 2 kids. I so want a fag right now.

Why I smoke:

Because I like it. I like the smell, and the taste. I like the social aspect. I like the moment of opening a new packet. I like the way it goes with beer, I like the way it goes with tea. I love the first smoke of the day, quiet in the garden before the house wakes up, and the last one of the night out under the stars.

If it wasn't going to kill me, I would smoke forever.

Actually, my friend is talking about growing his own baccy, which might kill us a bit less (fewer carcinogenic chemicals) so in that case, I shall smoke more.

Custard, most people I know who smoke, smoke rollies.
There's no way I could afford cigarettes at that price.
Rolling tobacco cost's me about £12 a week, so is affordable.

sorry adam i thought the thread was more 'why would anyone smoke ever?' kind of thing rather than why are people addicted.

I totally understand your point, i am not a 'smoker'. However, insurers and doctors consider me one; if you even have one cigarette occasionally you are considered a smoker (on the forms i have filled in anyway).

My post was more in response to the ones saying the only reason people smoke ever is because of addition, rather than choice or because they like it - i am just one person (in a minority i'm sure) who does so for just those 2 reasons.

My parents buy them for me because (altho they don't smoke) they are not 'anti' smoking. They understand i smoke so little - for 18 years now, that i am unlikely to become addicted, and it is something i enjoy which is legal (they also buy me booze). However, I have never asked them to bring me any back.

A lot of people now smoke tobacco because it is much cheaper, it more than halves the cost.

oh and if i'd have to smoke rollies i'd rather not smoke (little bits of tobacco in my mouth/everywhere, i'm crap at rolling and it takes too long), also some brands (b&h/embassy - bleeeuuurrcchh) are so disgusting i wouldn't either.

I also love random odd chats with strangers outside pubs (smirting i think it was dubbed a while back) - people i'd never have normally got to speak to.

The cost of smoking to the NHS would be far higher than the tax raised by sales of cigarettes. Some one earlier said that the government don't want people to stop smoking, I think they do, it would be cheaper in the longer term.

The arguments about cost never add up because statistics about the extra taxes raised by smokers and the nhs costs usually conflict.
I think the answer is probably quite simple- most smokers do it because they have an addiction to a greater or lesser degree. Whether you feel you're addicted or feel you just 'enjoy' it isn't really the point anyway. If you enjoy a morning cuppa first thing and sitting under the stars with a glass of wine last thing and you enjoy the experience less without a fag, then some people would call it a 'choice' and some would describe it as less choice than need. Its a continuum isn't it?

I kind of see where the op is coming from- I don't understand why in this day and age when people are more educated and knowledgeable about health issues, and the risks to children (not so much the passive smoke argument because people tend not to smoke around their kids nowadays but more the fact that children are far more likely to smoke when a parent or both parents smoke). I also feel I pay enough taxes to the govt without wanting to line their pockets further!

I'm very much addicted, physically and psychologically.

I also really do enjoy it; I enjoy snatching 5 minutes of me time 15 odd times a day. I really missed that time when I quit, as I use that time to reflect. It keeps me regular too

When I quit I felt very isolated as I worried about nights out, lapsing etc. I was a lot more erratic in my thoughts; I missed the time out that smoking gives me. I was trying to explain how my days had changed since quitting and a friend summed it up very well, it was as if my days had lost their punctuation. That may not make sense! I also hated crying on the loo at random hours of the night desperately wishing I could just do a poo. Horrible! I put on weight too, and when I looked in the mirror I saw a chubby, miserable woman.

DS said seen first hand my many attempts to quit, and understands that I am trapped, and that to avoid being in my shoes he must never start smoking.

The worst thing about quitting? My temper. Anger just erupted from me with very little warning. I've worked too hard on my mental health, and I'm scared of rocking the boat right now.

It does scare me, I worry about the health implications.