If you know smoking is bad for you and you know its bad for other people generaly... Why not quit. Now I understand that quitting is easyer said then done and for some people they are simply not at a place were they can effectivly quit without going mad. But honestly if you know that its bad for you and other people what reasons are there to keep smoking? I'm not trying to make this a shame on you for smoking thing because I really honestly have no problem with it people smoking I just would like to know what are the reasons for doing it IF you know its bad for you and others?

Have you ever considered the concept of "lesser of two evils"?

I used to be a hard-drinker. Not an alcoholic, but I drank like most Europeans do and consider "normal", but in America, that amount of alcohol is considered "alcoholism". I had a health problem unrelated to drinking, where I was bleeding internally and it was poisoning my liver (hemoglobin in the digestive tract leads to high levels of bilirubin, which is what turns people yellow when they get jaundice), and my doctor misdiagnosed the problem but correctly ordered me to stop drinking immediately.

I found that smoking cigars helped me quit drinking. Smoking a half a cigar is as soothing to the nerves as drinking about two ounces of alcohol, in my experience. It has nothing to do with nicotene, it's the carbon monoxide that soaks into the bloodstream through the mucosa of the mouth. (Never inhale when smoking a cigar! Just puff on it. The smoke should never get past your mouth.)

Now too much carbon monoxide will, indeed, kill you, but a little bit will soothe your nerves, just as a moderate amount of alcohol will soothe your nerves (and too much will kill you). Cigars helped me quit drinking, and I never went to an AA meeting in my life, although I know a couple people who have, and I think they'd have been better-off smoking cigars, like I did (and still do).

The dangers of second-hand smoke are overblown by people with a different agenda than concern about the health of people in proximity to smokers. It's a sleazy "end-justifies-means" tactic to get smokers to quit by trying to guilt-trip them about the health of the others in their household. The science behind it doesn't stand up to close examination.

In the "lesser of two evils" context, which would you rather have, people driving and smoking, or people driving and drinking?

I have been a smoker off and on for nearly all of my life. I actually tried my first cigarette at six years old...in a field behind grandparents house with my brother. It was a sort of rite of passage. Television lent such a allure to smoking at that time.
(1968) My brother and I adopted / imitated the sophisticated aires that we saw on the t.v. shows and movies that we watched nearly every day.

There could be something to a "psychological change" or change of demeanor in humans that seems to occur while ingesting a cigarette...often times. I am not approving of the habit of smoking, necessarily, but I am also not willing to take away rights to people who's culture has lent them a desire and a reason for doing something that has been found to often be harmful to people.

I like the lesser of two evils idea, and the comparison to harder intoxicants like alcohol which is at least equally un-healthful in higher doses. No one is going to die from having lets say ten drinks a year, but we all know it isn't healthy to drink ten drinks in a day on a weekend, and that that sort of binge drinking can ruin your chances for a long healthy life.

I also like the comparison to drivers of vehicles, choose intoxication from cigarettes, or alcohol.... which driver would you like to face on a raceway?
Maybe you are now thinking, what is she talking about, there's no real intoxication from smoking cigarettes, just a potential health issue!

Exactly! There is a problem with people who want to see cigarettes as if they are evil or something. Alcohol has damaged more lives if you ask me, why are we picking on tobacco? I wonder if anyone ever hit their kids because they had a few too many cigarettes? Do you drink ? And do you ever drink to intoxication? And do you ever drink and then jump in a vehicle to get your sloshy butt home from the place where you imbibed?

Maybe you should have just visited the place where people gathered, and had a few cigarettes together. Who's to say one is more damaging to society. than the other? Tribal people use tobacco as a sacrament at times. Shamen use tobacco to aide in vision quests. Cultural concerns, (and bias & stigma) are obviously catching on, just as cigarettes caught on. Try not to be too judgmental. Besides they are terribly addictive for some people. I have quit for months, & weeks, for years and years, i have allowed my body long stays of rest from smoking and gone back to smoking, and then most recently, over the last ten years i have even experimented with a system of one cigarette before bed. A pack lasts me over two weeks, and goes stale before it is finished...unless you add the extra two or three in any times of heavy stress...during the two weeks time.

Tobacco actually alleviates stress, yes it does. I began to smoke (hardly inhaling)
I was a mouth and throat smoker and a sometimes inhaler...there are various ways that people smoke. i smoked cigs, like wcelliott smokes his stogies. I was a very stressed out individual as a child, there were problems to deal with, cigarettes allowed me to stop, focus on an issue and think on it for about five to ten mins, a little more concentrated, and more deeply, and with a seriousness that was lent from this "psychological change" or force of reason, which I indicated at the beginning of this vent.

If a moment of reflection in a day while smoking is not of benefit to anyone, then perhaps it should be eliminated entirely from human lives. If it benefits anyone, even if simple alleviation of stress, then maybe it should merely be moderated or curbed as it may hurt the body. I just don't think smoking hurts the mind, see. I think it may harm the body, but it actually heals the mind. If people were not finding benefits to smoking, they would have all tossed them away when all the research came out about lung, tongue and throat cancer and such. Since it helps people much, even if psychological...they continue to smoke knowing that they might be risking their bodily health.

You can get on a soapbox about anything these days, as indicated in posts above, but when you choose a subject like smoking, you are asking a large group of people to give up their small moments of clarity breaks too, their time to reason, and their stress reducers.

What do you suggest they replace those with, I say the best way to lose a bad habit is to get a new beneficial one to replace it with. Once I made mayself stop smoking by getting up every morning and getting into the garden, getting physical is great, it's hard to throw a pick-ax with bad lungs...after a week of two without smoking, no problem. Smoking is bad for us, I believe that, just don't go round judging the people who do it, because they each have their reasons they keep doing it.

One is they have found it is difficult to stop. One good way to stop too, is to simplify, if you love cigarettes, but want to quit them, you can try rolling your own for awhile, it's the tobacco you want right? Maybe not, maybe it is psychological...maybe it's about image, you are Kool or a Malboro Man...or an animal lover, LOL (Camels) but whatever the reason you smoke, it does not make you a bad person. "bad people" may smoke, but so do amazing people, winners, do-gooders, peace activists, and even vegetarians, with their purity issues, will keep a smoking habit sometimes. They won't indulge in eating the beasts of the forest and field, but they still want to ingest the smoke from the leaf in the field.

Well...one would think I'd been drinking a lot of coffee...but I just blather off at the mouth a lot... guess i am pretty opinionated, always considered myself a thinking girl...woman of the world and all that, it helped to smile through a cigarette.

If I ever go back, I am going to use the methods I used before, to be totally moderate, smoke one at night before bed, one or two when stressed, and a few when I actually drink alcohol, like five times a year. That makes me a happy smoker, and no one made me do it more moderately, or shamed me into it. Everyone accepted me as a smoker. I did that for me alone, for a love of myself, & for my children, hoping I will live to know them longer.

Anyway...What's the next big thing to hate?
Jump on the band-wagon before it's too late.
Or
Be a leader and don't fall into stigma "trends",
relax and accept that the fun never ends.
A really positive Attitude will save your life.

Nothing can hurt the person who meditates on love.


be well!

Oh I used to say I didn't drink in here, only because i didn't drink then. Now i drink very moderately again. Life moves~ I go with it!