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Attn Smokers: Why do people Start smoking?

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posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 07:42 AM
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Why do people start smoking? I’ve been thinking about this and I can’t figure it out. OK, if you’re 40 or so or older, I can see why you started because back then, nobody knew that cigarettes will kill ya. It’s funny watching the old movies where you see doctors talking to their patients and lighting up or else smoking in operating rooms and all. Hilarious!!! Nobody knew that they were deadly.

But today, unless you live in the hillbilly backwoods somewhere where’s there totally NO connection to the rest of the world, you’ve got to know that cigarettes are totally deadly. And if you already smoke, OK I can see why people continue. Its very addictive and really, really hard to quite the addiction. So knowing all this, why do people even now decide to START to smoke? Its like they take a cigarette and say, “Yeah, this is something I want to do. I know it’s majorly addictive and causes cancer, but yeah, this is something I definitely want to get into. Someone get me a match, now!” So, is that actually it?

The only things I can think of is that someone has majorly, extremely low self-concept and has a death wish. Or, they are really weak and give in to peer pressure from the guys (or girls… I guess they smoke more than guys) that have the low-self concept and are lighting up. But why do it even if you know that its addictive and poisonous to yourself (and to the people around you too, I guess). Are people’s egos really that low? That’d be pretty hard to believe. So there’s got to be a reason. Smokers, what the heck is it?


Mod Edit: title

[edit on 1-10-2005 by kinglizard]



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 07:59 AM
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Rebellion is another answer to your question. Some think it is cool. Also every generation believes that a cure will be found, or it won't happen to me.

Roper



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 08:14 AM
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I once saw a psychological research which stated that males mainly smoke because it remebers them of good times while females smoke to fight depressions...

There are also differences depending on culture...as far as i know in the US you are marked as a rather weak person with, like you called it no self-concept if you are a smoker.
While in europe people just like to smoke and smoking isnt really connected to personal characteristics.
Also a lot of people like the feeling of smoke and the taste of it. I personally dont smoke a lot but if i smoke i really enjoy it...according to my motto: Lighting up a Camel makes the bus come!



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 08:33 AM
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Originally posted by Hangover

Also a lot of people like the feeling of smoke and the taste of it. I personally dont smoke a lot but if i smoke i really enjoy it...according to my motto: Lighting up a Camel makes the bus come!


Well yeah, people like the taste of it cuz they're addicted to it. It's like a huge relief when you can get a fix so they love the relief. I can understand that. But why would you start in the first place.

It's like a friend of mine say "All smokers have psychological Problems"



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 08:35 AM
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As a 'moderate smoker' i have a limited view on the subject and can only speak from experience.

First off, im a martial arts instructor and i smoke between 5 and 7 cigarettes a day total. In other words, im extremely fit and healthy - i eat well enough to keep my physicality in line with my mentality and spirituality (ie balance and all the blah blah)... yet i still smoke. Granted its not the pack a day or more (which more than 50% of smokers do) but i still have an insight here as a smoker.

On a deeply personal level that i share with no one - i smoke because of karmic carry overs from past lives. I have deep stresses that i can release in no other way yet carnaly experienced (but smoking comes close).

Think about it a minute. If past lives are a true characteristic of our entire being - think of all the horribly stressful karma's that must be happening among people... all the various maners of dying, of stressing, of living.. people like the holocost victims, all the people who ever fought in any (or each) war that has ever happened ever, slaves, native cultures crushed etc... (human history is full of it).

Some souls carry burdens that defy common rationality. I am one of them, and therefore can judge or condemn none of them.

And let me use this space for something that is far more important for just a quick moment - fast food will kill you in worse ways than smoking will any day, you feed that to your children and you are no different than a drug dealer. Investigate and you will find i speak the truth (search 'msg' and 'aspartame'). I am far more horrified at the accepted state of fast food than what has happened to the sacred smoke of the native americans any day.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 08:43 AM
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Originally posted by Master Wu


And let me use this space for something that is far more important for just a quick moment - fast food will kill you in worse ways than smoking will any day, you feed that to your children and you are no different than a drug dealer. Investigate and you will find i speak the truth (search 'msg' and 'aspartame'). I am far more horrified at the accepted state of fast food than what has happened to the sacred smoke of the native americans any day.


I agree with you TOTALLY on this one MasterWu. It's another subject that deserves it's own thread that I can go into in VERY GREAT detail about.

But that's not the point. Cigarettes, fast food, heck drinking battery acid will kill you... it's all a matter of degree. It doesnt make one OK to do and not the other.

What I dont think I understand is that the reason you smoke is because your "PAST LIVES" smoked? Where the heck is Shirley Maclaine when you need her?



[edit on 1-10-2005 by jupiter869]



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 12:53 PM
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Psychological problems? Low self-esteem? Depression?
Whaaaa?

I was a smoker for 5 years. I started when I was 21. Wanna know my sick stupid reason?

It gave me a reason to sit down for 5 full minutes (I am a mother of three) and not do anything. "No, Mommy can't get get you a ribbon to tie around doggie's tail, Mommy's smoking". "No, Mommy can't pick up your crayons for you, Mommy's smoking."

Yeah yeah, I know: EWW. That was my reason. And it was healthy for me in other ways, too...it made my stress level go way down, I ate less, and I was calmer in general. Now that I quit I am a nervous wreck who is stressed out to the max and 20 pounds overweight.

Where's my lighter?

Just kidding. I quit on New Year's Day, 2004. 1 year, 10 months, 1 day, 13 hours and 53 minutes ago. But who's keeping track?


[edit on 1-10-2005 by Rouschkateer]



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 01:19 PM
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Originally posted by jupiter869
why would you start in the first place.


In a word, curiousity.

It's human nature to be curious, and to want to "alter" one's state of mind.

Even young children will spin around untill they get "dizzy" and fall down.

Sure, everyone "knows" it will eventually kill you; but let's say you have a relative or friend of the family who smokes like a chimney.

One right after the other yet you don't see them die.

It's not instantaneous, so "just one" won't kill you.

People get curious as to what the "reward" is, so they try one and get that initial "buzz"; a lightheaded peacefull relaxed tingle.

If they like the buzz, they continue "on occasion" and before ya know it they are physically addicted.

It's been said that nicotine addiction is almost or as difficult to "kick" as heroin.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 01:20 PM
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why? because cigarettes provide a quick fix for stress, tension and other problems people face in their lives.

I also agree with some past karmic law coming into to play. I started at age 19 or 20, stopped completely twice for more than a year and picked up the habit again. I'm 30 now btw. I smoke about 5-7 a day too. I cannot see myself ever being a chain smoker or a pack a day smoker.

Cigarrettes provide for me, something to do when I'm bored, something to aid my digestion after meals, a wake up call, a night cap, and the most important stress relief. I have other ways of releasing stress, but not all methods are practical and as convenient as a quick light up and a few pulls.

But don't be mistaken, the above is simply my own excuses for why I cannot quit at this time, the true problem is that I am addicted to it. But I am also addicted to Coca Cola and must drink at at least 3 cans a day. No excuses, but vices comes in all methods and things and these are just mine. I'm still healthy, active, but my method of slow suicide is cigarrettes instead of alcohol, food, or pharmaceutical and non pharmaceutical drugs.

[edit on 10-1-2005 by worldwatcher]



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 02:28 PM
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Because we have lips and we can!



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 04:37 PM
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Originally posted by worldwatcher
why? because cigarettes provide a quick fix for stress, tension and other problems people face in their lives.

I also agree with some past karmic law coming into to play. I started at age 19 or 20, stopped completely twice for more than a year and picked up the habit again. I'm 30 now btw. I smoke about 5-7 a day too. I cannot see myself ever being a chain smoker or a pack a day smoker.

Cigarrettes provide for me, something to do when I'm bored, something to aid my digestion after meals, a wake up call, a night cap, and the most important stress relief. I have other ways of releasing stress, but not all methods are practical and as convenient as a quick light up and a few pulls.

But don't be mistaken, the above is simply my own excuses for why I cannot quit at this time, the true problem is that I am addicted to it. But I am also addicted to Coca Cola and must drink at at least 3 cans a day. No excuses, but vices comes in all methods and things and these are just mine. I'm still healthy, active, but my method of slow suicide is cigarrettes instead of alcohol, food, or pharmaceutical and non pharmaceutical drugs.

[edit on 10-1-2005 by worldwatcher]


This is totally HILARIOUS! Oh how misinformed we are about our own bodies. You are completely kidding yourself about your justification why you smoke. People need to wake up and realize what they are doing to themselves and their neighbors and the world around them. .



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 04:39 PM
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Originally posted by redmage

Originally posted by jupiter869
why would you start in the first place.


In a word, curiousity.

It's human nature to be curious, and to want to "alter" one's state of mind.

Even young children will spin around untill they get "dizzy" and fall down.

Sure, everyone "knows" it will eventually kill you; but let's say you have a relative or friend of the family who smokes like a chimney.

One right after the other yet you don't see them die.

It's not instantaneous, so "just one" won't kill you.

People get curious as to what the "reward" is, so they try one and get that initial "buzz"; a lightheaded peacefull relaxed tingle.

If they like the buzz, they continue "on occasion" and before ya know it they are physically addicted.

It's been said that nicotine addiction is almost or as difficult to "kick" as heroin.


Those people that start because they're "curious" are just plain "stupid". Stay away from them.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 05:04 PM
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Originally posted by Holden
Those people that start because they're "curious" are just plain "stupid". Stay away from them.


Ouch.
Well, spoken like someone who has never tried them. Good for you! However, your comment is one of ignorance. Please don't be offended. Whereas "stupid" means "Slow to learn or understand; obtuse", "ignorant" means "lacking education or knowledge". I wouldn't be so hasty to judge. I dislike drunks (but I have been one). I dislike drug addicts (but I was married to one). I dislike smokers, BUT I understand their addction, and have TOLERANCE for them. Perhaps if more people stopped questioning why we started, and figured out a way to help us quit, the world will be better off.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 05:12 PM
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I smoke heavily, and anyone that has a problem with that can kiss my arse


I smoke because it's relaxing. That's why I started, and that's why I keep doing it. Will I get cancer and die because of it? Maybe. But even if I didn't smoke, the odds are still something like four to one against that I'd end up with cancer anyway, and frankly the odds of me dying of something are considerably worse.

I may as well be a conscious participant in the process, no? And forty years from now, when all my non-smoking buddies are lying in a hospital bed dying of nothing, I'll have had a 20-year head start on them in hell



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 05:24 PM
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I can't say that I smoke because of "past karmic influences", I'm just not that "in touch" with myself. Frankly, I don't know that many could really expect that to be true with any certainty. All that I know is that I am addicted to cigarettes, to nicotine (and just maybe I might have a tad more than just an affinity for those delicious tars). Nevertheless, I am an addict. I have a monkey on my back. I am hooked on nicotine.

The odd thing is that I have tried a number of, ahem, other substances in an effort to get in touch with my "inner hippie". In fact, I have tried so many other substances and I have been so thorough in my "research" that I am surprised that I don't have a degree in psychopharmaceuticals! I only mention this because out of all of these "other" substance, cigarettes/nicotine is the only one with which I have a problem or difficulty managing.

I won't get into an argument as to whether or not I believe cigarettes should be illegal, that would only lead me to say something stupid like all of those other substance should be legal. I just don't want to go there and spark some sort of off topic debate. I just want to say that I must ask why cigarettes aren't illegal. No other substance has caused me as much personal grief and angst. No other substance has cost me as much money, inconvenience and even embarrassment.

What is most embarrassing to me is that I did not begin smoking until much later in life. I am 52 years old. I am sad to admit that I did not begin smoking until I was in my 40's. It was the stupidest decision/choice of my life. It started when I was working very long hours and coffee just wasn't cutting it for me. I noticed some friends taking a "smoke break". Tobacco seemed to "pep" them up and I bummed a smoke. Then i bummed another smoke. And then another and another....within a few days, I was hooked. Perhaps if I had stopped at that time, I could have stopped but within a very short time, I had come to depend upon the "kick" (albeit a small one) that each cigarette seemed to give me.

I have quit smoking on many occasions. Once I quit for about four months. However, it seems that every time I had faced with a stressful or anxious situation, I had turned to tobacco. Perhaps it was for the distraction or maybe I just like playing with fire (I certainly do feel naked without my Zippo lighter) but regardless, there was no denying that I was hooked. I know that I will keep trying to quit and maybe, just maybe, one of these times I'll make it. All I can say to others is that you shouldn't even try a smoke. It's not worth it and who knows, cigarettes just might be "your drug" and a big fat old "monkey" might be waiting to jump on your back and hang on!



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 05:53 PM
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I started smoking when I was about 16yrd old...(oh gosh 16 yrs AGO) I started smoking because (STUPID STUPID REASON) because I didn't drink.....and everytime I was out at a party it was something to be a part of the group without drinking...I KNOW like I said stupid stupid...

I quit twice when I was pregnant. After baby #1 it was hard since hubby was smoking within a couple months so was I...After baby #2 hubby ran off within a couple weeks, I started smoking again because of stress....average smoking about 1 pack a day sometimes more.

JUNE 2004, I finished a pack of cigarettes and decided I wasn't going to run out and get another pack..haven't smoked since! Yes its been really really really really hard. I put on a bit of weight and the cravings still hit me from time to time...This time no matter what I am quit for good!

Anyways, smoking was my only bad habit...dont drink, never did any drugs (not counting that ONE time...LOL) Plain stupidity for starting in the first place.....



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 06:02 PM
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Originally posted by Holden
Those people that start because they're "curious" are just plain "stupid". Stay away from them.


Have you answered the posters question?

Is "because it looks cool" a better reason?

I assume curiousity brought you to this site in the first place, Does that make you stupid?

Like I said curiousity is human nature, I wasn't promoting smoking, just trying to answer the posters question which you have failed miserably at.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 06:24 PM
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I'm not a smoker, but I do have one simple but important observation I have made to add. I worked in a psychiatric ward at a local hospital, and I noticed that more than half of the psych patients are smokers, and most are heavy smokers. I have since learned that it is proven fact that people with psychiatric illnesses are much more likely to smoke than other people.

I realize this doesn't answer the question originally asked, but I suspect that there may simply be something in some people's brains and/or genetics that predisposes them to smoking.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 06:50 PM
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That's stereotypical and actually incorrect. Dig a little deeper. I will bet that most of those same patients are from a low-income background, or are former (or current) drug addicts.

Angry people Smoke More
Genetics Involved?
Depressed Teens
Reasons To Start

It is easy to judge, hard to understand, and even harder to accept.



posted on Oct, 1 2005 @ 07:31 PM
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Perhaps some of the patients in question smoke as a means of coping with the stress of living with a mental illness. I know that if I was in a psychiatric ward, I'd want something a lot harder than nicotine...




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