any smokers? come and talk to me about it-i don't understand.

[themildmannneredjanitor]

i didn't want to hijack faq's thread so i will start my own.

basically-why do you do it? how do you sleep at night when you know what it does to you?

i know about the addiction thing but i know some smokers don't want to give it up as they enjoy it too much.

it's bizzarre!!!!!

[[http://www.freewebs.com/soaring_sphincter_travel_agency/smokers%20lungs.jpg this] is a good reason to stop surely?

Why do you find it so bizarre?? I find that a strange comment tbh.

I don't take heroin but I don't find it 'bizarre' that people do. And, like people who smoke, I don't imagine for a second that people who use heroin don't know the health implications. I would imagine that they do it because they are addicted.

Aitch, I think I love you!! I am definitely a more interesting person because I smoke, as I like to tell myself... glad someone agrees with me.

But, mmj, the addiction takes that over. I mean, I would too, now that I have quit, but it's different. The need to smoke is so great that you convince yourself that it is necessary to your life.

Plus, it's not necessarily going to kill you, everyone knows smokers who live to 90, getting through 40 a day all their life....that's what your little smoky brain tells you.

that's brillaint zephr cat!

i had THE best anti smoking education ever.

i watched my grandfather die a long slow painful, dignity free, death from smoking induced cancer when i was 10/11.

he had a lung removed, then half his stomach, then half his other lung.he couldn't breathe properly, he was coughing up the most disgusting stuff ever, and then he died.

And I didn't quit because I might get cancer. I quit because DH wouldn't stop harping on at me, I didn't want to smoke around any children I might have (got PG 2 months after quitting) and finally, after trying to quit for months and failing, I finally got to that point where I didn't even like the taste, would take a drag, feel sick and stub it out, light another......I realised that it had to stop.

I also hate the fact that it makes the dc's fascinated with smoking, and pretend to have a cigarette. They know what to do with cigarette papers and tobacco from seeing DP years ago.

My uncle used to smoke when he was driving and I used to have to lie down on the floor of the car to breathe! At the same time I used to sit on the floor if he had a cigarette in his hand and blow the end to see it burn down..it was strangely fascinating as a child and that is partly what made me start smoking in the first place. I don't want to be the person that makes my children smoke!

Marla, I had the same control revelation, how strange it was to be so attached to something that controlled every single part of my life, did I have any on me, when would I need to get some more.

Although I still occasionally dream of smoking

Aitch - love the comment about the theatre of a cigarette. Makes it much easier to believe you are Lauren Bacall instead of er...me. But don't do it now since I do feel it brings me immediately closer to an early grave and no mother for the children etc. My Dad died at 61 of lung cancer so I have seen the effects at first hand. Still, if I make it to my 60's I might have the odd cigarette and hope I get a voice like Jeanne Moreau.

Ok, I can see the idea of it being theatrical. No I haven't smoked! I could never see any reason to even try. My mother smoked and coughed her guts up every morning, and I resented the fact that our house stank of smoke, all my clothes stank, I just hated it. I would have liked my mother far more if she had not smoked. It didn't make her more interesting to me, just added an element of stupidity (sorry)

it is totally bizzarre!!!!

you spend huge amounts of money on things that you set fire to-that make you smell bad, and make you unhealthy, are full of poisons .
how is that not bizzarre?

I don't spend huge amounts of money - I probably spend less that a lot of you non-smokers do on bottles of wine or coffees out a month.

I smoke roll-ups because while it's still bad for me, will make my teeth fall out, give me cancer and make me old and wrinkly (damn thin looking at my family - all non-smokers that would have happened anyway - it must be in the genes ), there's less other nasty stuff in them that cigarettes.

I will ocassionaly smoke a cigarette (used to smoke them all the time and no roll-ups) - and they taste foul (I cna now taste the extra crap or whatever it is they put in the tobacco in the cigarettes to keep it fresh), and while of course they do still smell - they're not half as bad as the smell that a normal fag leaves.

I used to love smoking.
Firstly as part of the 'in crowd' in the drama department at uni.
Then spending half of my working day chatting in the smoking room with my manager, and his manager.
It will be three years next month since I last had a cigarette.
I know that if I have one, that will be the slippery slope to starting again, as I have an addictive personality.
Sometimes I would love to be able to hide myself away outside, and have five minutes and a cigarette all to myself.
Instead I have taken solace in chocolate, and now have 1.5 stones to shift.

I really enjoyed smoking, I stopped last year when I was pregnant.

I still miss a coffee and a fag, but more for the relaxation part than the fag. If you are smoking you can't be doing anything else so it is totally removing yourself from the rest of your life.

I was a nurse then too and saw people suffering greatly from smoking related diseases but it never put me off, it seemed normal and there were just as many patients suffering just as much who had never smoked.

Now I've got the little ones though I wouldn't smoke, my mindset about it switched overnight and I couldn't do it now.

It was my single person thing.

i smoke.its my 'crutch' if you like.sooths me when i need soothing.i gave up a while back but ended up going back to it.i know its not good for me but theres nothing quite like that hit at the back of the throat and the feeling of relax when you exhale!

Yes mmj, it is I agree. But you don't see it when you smoke. When you are a non-smoker, what you see is it stinks, but as a smoker, you can't smell it. So much so, that you convince yourself that it doesn't smell. My mother still smokes and I know she is convinced that her parents do not know that she smokes. Of course, this is impossible, as it reeks, but you can't smell the smoke on yourself when you smoke. I used to nip out for crafty fags and be totally deluded that no-one would know! Of course now I know otherwise.

Whats sexy/alluring/mysterious about a person who you can smell before you can see? Doesn't have as much money to spend on you/them/children. Is playing russion roulette with their lives and yours but without the luxery of a quick bullet to the head but a drawn out painful disease that hurts those that love you. And thats not to mention wrinkles, yellow teeth and fingers, nicotine stained walls, regular colds and erectile dysfunction. But its an addiction so we'll let you off.

I smoke. I don't know why. I am addicted and if I quit the first few days are hard. Battling cravings for nicotine that your brain is constantly reminding you of. If you can get through this then a little bit of depression sets in for a week tops, then you are OK.

However, just one lapse and you're back on them. I've given up a few times and honestly cannot explain how I fall back into it. The extra few pounds may explain it, knowing it will drop off again if I smoke. Also just generally missing it, missing the doing something extra on that night out when others are happily puffing away. Its a powerful pychological addiction.

If you feel well on it then you don't think that the health risks are going to claim you, yourself. Keep thinking I will quit again but not really sure I want to go through the process just to fail time and time again.

CvQ - imagine the look in your childrens eyes when they lose their mother to a smoking related illness because thats the risk your running. I wonder if it feels so relaxing now?

surely it must be easier now that you can't smoke in the pub? that you have to go outside and stand in the cold and the wet to have a smoke?

someone mentioned heroin addiction and it's just the sme.

i don't understand that either tbh! how can someone risk putting something so dangerous into their bodies for the first time?

I also applaud the OP for asking a serious question, which I have been happy to answer.

It was only last week I was in the thick of aruging here about smoking so am going to ignore all this pain in the arse, you smell, have yellow teeth and are killing other people crap.