What do you think of smokers

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z16vhtjWKL0[/youtube]

Plenty of people try electronic cigarettes. Most of them go back to tobacco because nicotine in isolation, without MAOIs found in tobacco, isn't particularly pleasurable. Not even pleasurable enough to be significantly addicting, as evidenced by rats not self-administering. Only a much smaller number of people can stick to it, as they do little more than keep the withdrawals away and allow them to maintain the "smoking" ritual. It's no different than NRT; if they could easily switch to electronic cigarettes then they would have all been chewing Nicorette by now.

Well, since nicotine is both stimulant (ie agitating) and also depressant... and also since fags are both expensive and health destroying (as well as deterrent to many others), then it seems somewhat counter-intuitive if people are smoking them for the extremely mild (below therapeutic levels) anti-depressant effect of the MAOI content.

As the doctor who made the video remarked (did you watch it ?) a large number of people can quit smoking without needing to keep taking nicotine, and there's medication which is also recommended for helping people to stop smoking, which was originally developed as a form of anti-depressant.

But well, people do need to actually want to do it in order to quit smoking.... and not in a half-hearted and vague "gee, I wish that I magically wasn't a smoker" way.... but they need to want to do it in a meaningful and diligent way, so that they can stick at it until they've stopped.

This seems to me to be stereotyping smokers a bit too much. I smoke, and I have as much disgust for the type of smoker that you describe. They aren't the majority, though (at least in the US), just the most visible, since they don't care who they bother. I know now exactly how terrible they are for you, but when I started I really didn't know any better. I hate that I smoke, but I cannot stop. Addiction is a terrible thing, and most methods of assistance to quit rely heavily on the smoker's willpower, which is why the success rates for quitters is so low. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine, so a person who has anything less than rock solid willpower and a good social support system is lucky if they can stop.

As for the stress, the way I used to deal was to get completely drunk and harass (physically and mentally) whoever was convenient. Smoking does keep me from being a total a-hole and saying things that I feel shame and regret for for a very long time. At least with smoking I only harm myself.

There are actions that we all partake in that could negatively impact our health. Granted, smoking is probably one of the most dangerous and noticeable, but there are plenty of people out there that cover their food in salt, eat fast food every day, drive drunk and/or drink their liver into oblivion, have sex with many strangers, take so many vitamins that retained minerals in the body start causing some nasty side effects (even too much iron and/or copper have recently been found to cause some serious long term effects), work construction jobs that expose them to things like lead paint and asbestos, do not exercise ever, use massive amounts of aluminum based deoderant, eat large quantities of fried and fatty foods, eat large quantities of ice cream and milk chocolate, etc, etc.
Even some seemingly benign lifestyle choices increase health risks (like texting, putting on makeup, or eating while driving).

Is anybody even watching that video ?

As the doctor says, he reckons that 2/3 - 3/4 of people manage to quit smoking fags entirely on their own (ie purely with willpower).
I would say that's actually quite a high number.

Most of the lifestyle choices which you've listed don't affect anybody negatively other than the person who chooses to do them.
So, there's a big difference between that and what most smokers are doing.
(shrug) Plenty of people don't do most,or any, of those things anyway.




Have you ever really tried ?
Which method/s did you use ?

So, I have just done a small informal survey of both me and my mum.
It turns out that neither of us do these things.
Well, she does a small amount of texting... but not enough to develop RSI, or anything like that.
And, OK fair enough... you got me... I do sometimes eat a normal amount of ice-cream or milk chocolate.

My mum has astutely put her finger on the point I was making by remarking that if I were to be covering everything which I eat in a layer of salt, have a constant stream of ready-made chips either on my plate or in the oven, go out on joy rides late at night (in my own vehicle) when nobody else is on the roads (while drunk) , while in the process obliterating my liver with alcohol.... and if I was taking handfuls of multivitamins with every meal until they come out of my nose.... while shagging all sorts of strangers (who I pick up while driving drunk late at night, having plastered myself with petrochemical based make-up), refused to do any form of exercise other than the shagging (which really negates the 'no exercise' clause a bit, though) , while stuffing my face with take-away meals constantly while I'm driving about on the pull, and if I chose to store up energy for my sex marathons (orgies, maybe) by eating 1 kilo bars of milk chocolate and 1 litre tubs of ice-cream after each extended multi-stranger session.... and also spraying myself with an entire can of aluminium deodorant to cover the sweaty smell which I work up while enthusiastically shagging.......
Well, she says that even if I were doing all of that, then so long as I wasn't shagging very loudly or in the same room as her..... then it wouldn't really be a problem to her.
On the other hand, say me doing those things negatively affected her..... say, if I was sat right next to her and started shagging away with some stranger who I'd just picked up... well, that could be quite upsetting to her, she says..... or say, if my diet of constant junk-food caused me to constantly stink due to farting all the time.... or if she saw people shagging away in public, littering the place with their used condoms when they're done.... she says that would be problematic, as well. On the other hand, say they were doing that in private and then disposing of their litter like grown-ass responsible adults, well she wouldn't mind that at all.


Kind of like smoking fags, then.

Really though, while the roads at night are pretty clear of people it couldn't be guaranteed that there would be nobody around.... especially if I was driving in the kinds of areas where strangers likely to want to start shagging might be.... so I'm not entirely sure that your comparison is legitimate.

The bottom line is that if somebody is doing something which bothers others or negatively affects their health, or is polluting a public area.... then it is reasonable of the other people around them to expect them not to do it... and to be annoyed with them if they continue to do it (or brattishly insist on doing it even more, if asked not to).

I agree with this 100%. There are not very many people that know I smoke because I am considerate about it. I know quite a few smokers who are the same.

Those numbers are for those who have successfully quit, not for those who have tried to quit. The majority of successful quitters have gone through many attempts and relapses prior to success, and many are able to quite for a period of months before falling off the wagon.
From the American Cancer Society:






I have been trying ever since I gave up drinking around 10 years ago (which means I had been smoking for more than 10 years). I have tried cold turkey (which has the highest success rate and kept me tobacco free for the longest), gradual decrease method, hypnosis (which was a complete waste of time for me), aversion therapy (truly terrible), the patch, the gum, Zyban (which made my seizures more frequent), Chantix, group therapy (Nicotine Anonymous - which was an unpleasant experience which actually led me to smoking more), individual substance addiction counseling, chewing cinnamon sticks and using toothpicks as a substitution, St John's Wort, and most recently e-cigs (which left me irritable and short-tempered). I am thinking of giving accupuncture a try next. My sister used it to quit, but she had only been smoking for a year or so.

I will admit that I have very little willpower. I also come from a long line of addicts (of one sort or another). It does not help that I live with a smoker, as that makes quitting that much harder. I am embarrassed and ashamed that after 10 years, I am just as bad as I was. Cigarettes cost around 5 times what they did when I started and I can't really afford them, which really upsets me as I am in all other ways a very frugal person.

I'm smoking right now,like a dragon.Mmm,the rich and satisfying taste of Turkish tobacco.Yes,those native Americans that gave the world tobacco should be punished and thrown into the pits of hell. If you really want to clean up the air we breath I think industrial polluters cause more damage than smokers.
I have quit before,I didn't smoke when I was pregnant or nursing.

Well, I guess...
A lot of smokers never even try to quit, but obviously they're never going to have any success with that kind of approach / attitude.



Well, as you would know if you watched the video which I posted.... 53% of the people who quit that were surveyed said that it wasn't very difficult.
So they probably didn't do too much failing and relapsing most likely.

As for "attempts" to quit smoking, well who even knows what that means.
A lot of people probably go about it in quite a wishy-washy manner.... for all I know they're all like, "Oh, I've giving up smoking now (has a 'last fag' to celebrate) .... (2 hours later) gee, never mind... I'm starting again.

I agree that it won't help matters any if you're trying to quit an addiction while living with a person who's addicted to the thing you're trying to stop using.
Have you ever worked with a doctor's support to quit smoking fags ?

I don't smoke, so I like to put money into a jar regularly to show the money which I have due to not smoking.
Then, I spend it on nice stuff for myself. Usually computer games, big high-quality art books or suchlike.
It's awesome.

It's exemplary of the fact that smokers have no compassion for others; when was the last time you saw a non-smoker light up in a room where infants were sleeping? How often do non-smokers throw their cigarette butts onto the ground where children play (beaches, parks, playgrounds, et cetera)? How many non-smokers blow smoke from their lungs into other people's faces?

No ... it's the smokers who have no compassion for others; only concern for themselves and their precious "rights".

Well, I don't use an industrial polluter of any kind.

Frankly, I don't give a damn how polluted the air which you breathe is....
but I don't want smokers polluting the air which I breathe.

Hell is a ridiculous notion invented by Christians, and nobody even mentioned native Americans until you did.
So yeah, that comment was pretty idiotic.

I completely agree.

I have never seen a non-smoker make somebody else feel ill by blowing a cloud of toxic crap into their face.... whereas the number of smokers who do that.... well.....

I have never seen a non-smoker burn somebody else by witlessly flailing their limbs about near them in a darkened room while holding a burning object, either.

It's rare for non-smokers to have such bad BO that everybody within a 10-foot radius can smell it.... unlike many smokers, who frequently reek and often couldn't care less.

A lot of smokers also casually injure and kill wildlife by throwing crappy fag-butts on the ground, which look like the food which many birds eat.

That's not true of all smokers.I wouldn't light up around kids.And I never throw my butts down.
Why would I blow smoke in someone's face?
But if you want to burn me at the stake for being a smoker,be sure to pile some tobacco leaves up around me so I cam have one last smoke.

Yeah... I guess that your facetious attitude let you down there, though.... either that or you never intended to keep it up
In other words, you probably never intended to quit smoking at all... but just stopped for a while.

I have native blood,people are suppose to bring me tobacco when they visit.Its a tradition.
My Uncle E. Lived to 98 and smoked.That's not even what killed him.
I also quit once when I was too depressed to smoke.
And chewing tobacco gets rid of intentional worms,a poultice of tobacco is good for bee stings.
And since it cuts years off ones life,I will die before I get to the nursing home.Those last years usually suck anyway.
As they say around here,something's gonna kill you.