6 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

It makes clothes stink. I remember pubs in the 90s. Clothes would stink afterwards.

if you're a smoker, get hitched up with another smoker and they won't think you smell bad.

and save money on perfume.

Just now, FolkGuitar said:

Various Smoking Session organizations have polled on that issue among smokers.

No, quitting is NOT easy. That's why so many people fail. Most smokers would love to quit, but believe they can't and aren't willing to do the work to make it happen. Hell, I must have tried to stop 25 different times over my smoking years.
Boredom has very little to do with the problem. It's just the most visible.

I've been a member of an internet smoking session group since before Facebook, back in the Usenet News Groups, about 26 years in this same group. We've watched hundreds of people over the years come to us for help with quitting, and we've seen hundreds of successful people! We've also seen hundreds who keep coming back again and again over the years, trying in vain not to smoke, but getting nowhere, just as I did.
There is a reason for that. Smoking is a DOUBLE ADDICTION; physically addicted to a drug, and emotionally addicted to a habit. Oddly enough, it's NOT the nicotine addiction that causes the biggest problem. That's pretty much finished after the first two weeks. It's the emotional side of the problem that makes most people start smoking again.
If one is NOT a heavy smoker, one really can't appreciate or internalize the problems. Only give platitudes that fall on deaf ears.

I agree with the emotional side of it. At work that is often linked to boredom. At home could be frustration.

Quiting is easy if you think it is easy. Quiting is hard if you think so.

As Henry Ford said whether you think you can or can't you're right either way.

Dr Phil says you replace a bad habit with a good habit. Otherwise there is a void.

Smoking is a substitute for something missing in life.

5 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

yep, i lived with a smoker.

started grabbing a cigarette here and there, then got addicted.

i will not live with a smoker again.

I'm amazed that I was able to have a good social life when I was a smoker.
Who would want to kiss someone who smells and tastes like a stale ashtray?
I guess I was lucky in that almost all the women I dated or lived with were smokers too. Otherwise, why would they want to kiss someone who smokes?"
When we get into an elevator with a cigarette smoker, we know it immediately. Some don't smell quite as bad as others, but they all stink.
People spend a small fortune on deodorants, colognes, aftershaves, etc., but never realize their clothes, their hair, and their hands reek of old nicotine.

2 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

I tried smoking. Didnt do anything for me. Seems like the dumbest habit around.

No, not at all. You have to understand that people have different habits. Good and bad. What doesn´t do anything for you, might be ok for others. You need to learn, that what´s the dumbest thing for you, might not be the dumbest in the eyes of the majority. I can tell you what might be dumber. That is to always judge people based on your own thoughts and believes. Something that you keep on doing on a daily basis on this forum. It very sad and pathetic.

Just now, Gottfrid said:

No, not at all. You have to understand that people have different habits. Good and bad. What doesn´t do anything for you, might be ok for others. You need to learn, that what´s the dumbest thing for you, might not be the dumbest in the eyes of the majority. I can tell you what might be dumber. That is to always judge people based on your own thoughts and believes. Something that you keep on doing on a daily basis on this forum. It very sad and pathetic.

So smoking is amazing for some but not for others? I've never heard a smoker say cigs were amazing. Most say they want to quit. Your post is actually very strange and not supported by evidence.

Just now, Gottfrid said:

No, not at all. You have to understand that people have different habits. Good and bad. What doesn´t do anything for you, might be ok for others. You need to learn, that what´s the dumbest thing for you, might not be the dumbest in the eyes of the majority. I can tell you what might be dumber. That is to always judge people based on your own thoughts and believes. Something that you keep on doing on a daily basis on this forum. It very sad and pathetic.

20 minutes ago, FolkGuitar said:

I started smoking when I was 11yrs old. By the time I was 12, I was smoking a pack a day. At 14, I switched to non-filtered Camels (they were cool, right?) tucked up in the shoulder sleeve of my T-shirt. At 17, I switched to unfiltered, menthol 'Kools' because I was a guitar player, and all the cool black blues and jazz players smoked Kools.) I smoked those for the next 42 years.

Now, I call myself a 'smoker who hasn't smoked a cigarette in 27 years.' I'm afraid that if I say I've quit, I'll be tempted to smoke 'just one.' I don't want just one. I want the whole pack. I want a carton. I'm an addict... as is just about every smoker. Can you think of any other reason to stand outside of a restaurant in a cold, pouring rain just to smoke a cigarette? We've all seen people standing around in parking lots, looking bored, finishing a smoke.

I'm a nicotine addict, and have to treat the addiction that way so I don't relapse. Every smoker can tell you tales of the many, many times they tried to stop and failed.
If you want to finally stop smoking, I can help you. No, I do NOT have an easy way to stop. I just have some effective ways. Just ask.

It's like all other addictions, both physical and mental, that people hold onto. Many want to quit but can't, and it does take a lot of will power. I remember a friend who I met at a gym in New Jersey. He was an alcoholic who was sober for quite awhile. He got into the weights as a reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

I drank mostly wine all my life after the usual teen rebellious times trying a lot of other things. He told me he tried a little wine and thus began his downfall into drinking again. If you don't trade that addiction to another more positive a lot go back.

Quitting many things isn't easy, as many don't already have the will power. Millions gain a lot of weight being addicted to certain foods. Food is a necessity but still there's an addiction to it, just like those cigarettes. A certain percentage of people have addictive personalities, and for them it's hard when they start a bad habit.

1 minute ago, Harrisfan said:

So smoking is amazing for some but not for others? I've never heard a smoker say cigs were amazing. Most say they want to quit. Your post is actually very strange and not supported by evidence.

When did I mention amazing? I thought I wrote the below:

5 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

What doesn´t do anything for you, might be ok for others.

3 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

That is to always judge people based on your own thoughts and believes.

Smoking is a dumb habit. That does not make the person dumb. Some smokers would have a 150 IQ and they would say it is a bad habit and should quit. Tattoos are also stupid but again some owners have a high IQ. Humans are flawed.

But we can discuss it without making it personal. You like to make it personal I have noticed. You attack the man, not the subject.

3 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

When did I mention amazing? I thought I wrote the below:

It is a bad habit with little benefits. Fact.

2 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

I tried smoking. Didnt do anything for me. Seems like the dumbest habit around.

But you're not the same as everyone else, fortunately. But it is a dumb habit.

I smoked casually between 1975 and 1978 with a second attempt between 1981 and 1984 and a final, more intense +40/day round between 1990 and 1994 where quitting cold turkey finally worked.

The first time, it was a socially acceptable university thing but after heading overseas to work (and being unable to find a decent Camel in Saudi) I stopped. Work-related stress and a weak will got me started a second time in Australia, but once again quitting when I just didn't like it as much (and my source of US-made Camels dried up). Aussie smokes didn't taste nice but after relocating to work in China, it was easy to quit as their local smokes really, really all smell and taste awful.

The third rodeo was triggered when reunited with some former workmates on a job in Jebel Ali and one of them, remembering that I smoked before, offered me one during 'smoko' and I inexplicably took one and lit up.

I stopped for good in Cuba when my squeeze, hearing me coughing my lungs up over the pre-everything morning ciggy, cried that if I died, she would be alone. So I quit there and then with no relapses. 60 to 0 in 3 seconds.

The cigar thing started when I worked in Houston but it was, and still is, limited to maybe one or two a week. For example, the half-time ball game break in the members area at the Superdome where my mate brought his RV. Or the whole second half if the Oilers were getting spanked (which was often). Nowadays, it's usually a smaller robusto that lasts as long as a couple of pints outside at the pub or a couple of tinnies in the patio at home.

Guilty pleasures.

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

People keep smoking because it gives many comfort from stress. Something to do while they're bored.

Sums up my on again, off again cigarette addiction. In my line of work, it was usually long spells of brain-deadening and boring routine, where a ciggy helped, interspersed with short bursts of stressful, high-intensity drama...where a ciggy helped.

Just realized that my final break from the nicotine treadmill roughly coincided with my career shift from being a worker bee to self-employed consultant.

16 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

It is a bad habit with little benefits. Fact.

I disagree!

There are great benefits to the smoking habit... just NOT for the smoker. He/she is the biggest loser.

Think of all the peripheral businesses, generating millions, that revolve around smoking: lighter manufacturers, ashtray makers, room deodorizers, gum-disease doctors, lung-disease doctors, heart surgeons,

Fortunes are made because of smokers. And no one even thanks them.

Just now, FolkGuitar said:

I disagree!

There are great benefits to the smoking habit... just NOT for the smoker. He/she is the biggest loser.

Think of all the peripheral businesses, generating millions, that revolve around smoking: lighter manufacturers, ashtray makers, room deodorizers, gum-disease doctors, lung-disease doctors, heart surgeons,

Fortunes are made because of smokers. And no one even thanks them.

Fair points. Lots of money in it.

A number of trolling posts and their replies have been removed. Please keep the discussion on topic.

Thank you

Similar to FolkGuitar, Started in the 60's at age 10,

why?, you could go down to the local milkbar and pickup a packet of Turf 10 pack for pennies, all the billboards were covered with different bands, it was advertised on tv, everywhere you turned someone was smoking, movies, in newspapers, if you did not smoke you were looked down on, smoked at home in the lounge room until the ceilings went yellow, it was in the furniture, carpet, but being a smoker you could not smell the fowl odour, ate like a pig and put on no weight,visitors would come over and the home was like being in a thick toxic cloud, with butts overflowing ashtrays, I lost a few friends due to smoking, decided to give up in 2005', it was difficult for the first year but after that smooth sailing, never again will i touch one.

All of us that lived in the US saw the Marlboro man, who I'm sure got quite a few started with that cowboy image. Actors like Steve McQueen also, and it did him in too early. I remember a friend going to his ashtray to find a tiny part of a cigarette to smoke, along with actually finding cigarettes others had put out. That's addiction. I also remember my dad coughing when I woke up. That smokers hack and not one you hear from those who have allergies. They finally ended all cigarette ads in the US, after getting millions addicted.

1 hour ago, Harrisfan said:

Fair points. Lots of money in it.

2 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

All of us that lived in the US saw the Marlboro man, who I'm sure got quite a few started with that cowboy image. Actors like Steve McQueen also, and it did him in too early. I remember a friend going to his ashtray to find a tiny part of a cigarette to smoke, along with actually finding cigarettes others had put out. That's addiction. I also remember my dad coughing when I woke up. That smokers hack and not one you hear from those who have allergies. They finally ended all cigarette ads in the US, after getting millions addicted.

Clever marketing. McDonalds sells junk but loads of it. Amazing how people consume such bad products on mass.

"Giving up smoking is easy - I've done it hundreds of times."

In the 70's and 80's the smokers were the cool people at parties. I didn't smoke (and wasn't cool) but used to stand in the smoker's area at parties as that's where the banter was the best. From the 90's on only sad people who couldn't kick the addiction still smoked, so I avoided the smoking areas.

5 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

If I'm in a dusty environment it makes me sick yet smokers chuff down 20 to 50 a day. How can they enjoy it?

Nicotine is highly addictive. My entire family smoked before I started in High School. However I was also athletic. And smoking and sports didn't mix well. On top of that, later in life I found I had asthma. The asthma is offset by better than normal lung capacity.

Anyway - nicotine is HIGHLY addictive. Then that addictive drug gets Classically Conditioned with behaviors: wake up - light up. finish eating - light up. have a beer - light up. finish sex - light up. study - light up. get ready for bed - light up. So when you quit, the actual physical addiction is relatively easy to break - about three days. But after that you have to break all of those ties to the reward of a nicotine hit that you spent a lifetime building.

I quit at 25. It was one the the most difficult things I've had to do. wake up - urge to smoke. finish eating - urge to smoke. have a beer - urge to smoke. finish sex - urge to smoke. study - urge to smoke. get ready for bed - urge to smoke. Decades later I'll still get a "urge to smoke" nudge on occasion. There's no power to it, but - there it is!

So to answer your question - smokers are hard-core nicotine addicts. That's why they smoke.

2 minutes ago, connda said:

Nicotine is highly addictive. My entire family smoked before I started in High School. However I was also athletic. And smoking and sports didn't mix well. On top of that, later in life I found I had asthma. The asthma is offset by better than normal lung capacity.

Anyway - nicotine is HIGHLY addictive. Then that addictive drug gets classically conditioned with behaviors: wake up - light up. finish eating - light up. have a beer - light up. finish sex - light up. study - light up. get ready for bed - light up. So when you quit, the actual physical addiction is relatively easy to break - about three day. But after that you have to break all of those ties to the reward of a nicotine hit that you spent a lifetime building.

I quit at 25. It was one the the most difficult things I've had to do. wake up - urge to smoke. finish eating - urge to smoke. have a beer - urge to smoke. finish sex - urge to smoke. study - urge to smoke. get ready for bed - urge to smoke. Decades later I'll still get a "urge to smoke" nudge on occasion. There's not power to it, but - there it is.

So to answer your question - smokers are hard-core nicotine addicts. That's why they smoke.

Some researchers argue that nicotine alone may not be as addictive as once believed, suggesting that the habit, ritual, and other chemicals in tobacco smoke (like acetaldehyde, pyrazines, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors) significantly enhance its addictive properties. The act of smoking itself—including the hand-to-mouth motion, flavors, and social cues—may be a key driver of addiction, with nicotine acting more as a "vehicle" than the primary cause.

Sugar is addictive yet i enjoy coke zero. I think habits in general are addictive.

Never understood tobacco smoking, as trying, and coughing was enough for me, to realize, it's about the dumbing thing a person can do.

Amazing I smoked weed, but at least you get a benefit from it. Though not really worth the cough any more, and don't need to escape life, or deaden and pain.

On the 'attraction' level mentioned, and when on the prowl, nothing turns me off, more than a cute chickie lighting up a cig. Holy Buddha, if they only knew what they missed out on 😎

5 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Post a scientific link to show smoking reduces stress long term. I worked with heavy smokers and they were always more stressed than non smokers. My dad was 2 packs a day. Been a non smoker for 40 years and far more relaxed. Their is no science to show smoking reduces stress long term.

Anecdotal observation regarding "stress."

Heavy smoker doesn't smoke for a couple of hours. His/Her/It's body begins to enter withdrawal (nicotine has a half-life of about two hours). Smoker lights up. The "stress" of early onset withdrawal is relieved.

See, smoking relieves my stress.
Of course it does.

7 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

If I'm in a dusty environment it makes me sick yet smokers chuff down 20 to 50 a day. How can they enjoy it?

Some people have common sense, others do not

Some people can see beyond their nose, others can not

Some people are smart, others .. well really stupid comes to mind

7 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

I tried smoking. Didnt do anything for me. Seems like the dumbest habit around.

Had a choice when I joined the military: give up smoking or beer. Most start smoking because it is cool and they want to be part of the in crowd or their friends smoke. Then they get addicted. Going to be interesting to see how many get addicted to snus

7 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

How can they enjoy it?

Matter of taste, life-style and being addicted to nicotine. Both due to addiction and life-style smoking can be hard to stop (I'm an ex-smoker myself).

I was always a smoker but there was one place I refused to go, that was upstairs at 7.30 in the morning on a double decker bus on a cold day when all the windows were closed. I doubt if there are many people left that have experienced this.

35 minutes ago, The Old Bull said:

I was always a smoker but there was one place I refused to go, that was upstairs at 7.30 in the morning on a double decker bus on a cold day when all the windows were closed. I doubt if there are many people left that have experienced this.

Or the frosted glass walled smokers lounges at Narita. The sliding door opens to reveal grey-looking people, hunched over while sucking desperately on a 'gasper'.