Smokers?

[midlifeaspie]

I was thinking about addiction and addictive tendencies this morning and became curious about this groups experience with tobacco.  Answer if you feel like it.

["couldbecousin"]

  Good topic, but I don't fit any of the voting categories.  I have never
  had a  habit  of smoking, but out of curiosity I have smoked sporadically over the years
  (between ages 19 and 33).  I have smoked less than a pack in my life.  I'm sure I looked
  really badass standing by the side of the road in a neighborhood far from home,
  awkwardly puffing where no one I know could see me. 

  I have to say, as little as I've smoked, I do "get" the addictiveness of it, somewhat. 
  I remember my vision suddenly getting sharper for a moment after taking
  the first drag, and years after my last cigarette I have occasionally, out of nowhere,
  recalled the taste and/or craved the taste. It's a good thing I've never gotten
  hooked!  I congest easily and have bronchitis almost every winter, accompanied
  by a worse cough than I've heard from any of my smoking co-workers. 

[TheoK]

I smoke cigars to and fro' 

[midlifeaspie]

  Good topic, but I don't fit any of the voting categories.  I have never
  had a  habit  of smoking, but out of curiosity I have smoked sporadically over the years
  (between ages 19 and 33).  I have smoked less than a pack in my life.  I'm sure I looked
  really badass standing by the side of the road in a neighborhood far from home,
  awkwardly puffing where no one I know could see me. 

  I have to say, as little as I've smoked, I do "get" the addictiveness of it, somewhat. 
  I remember my vision suddenly getting sharper for a moment after taking
  the first drag, and years after my last cigarette I have occasionally, out of nowhere,
  recalled the taste and/or craved the taste. It's a good thing I've never gotten
  hooked!  I congest easily and have bronchitis almost every winter, accompanied
  by a worse cough than I've heard from any of my smoking co-workers. 

I added an option for you

["couldbecousin"]

  Thank you for the option!  I smoked my last cig at least a dozen years ago,
  so I think I'm safely non-addicted.  I'm grateful neither parent smoked. 

[midlifeaspie]

I quit 5 years ago and used a website support group with a handy gadget that sends me stats like this every couple of months:

1851 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds smoke free.

37033 cigarettes not smoked.

$12,038.00 and 9 months, 12 days, 21 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 9/16/2007 6:00:00 PM

["couldbecousin"]

I quit 5 years ago and used a website support group with a handy gadget that sends me stats like this every couple of months:

1851 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds smoke free.

37033 cigarettes not smoked.

$12,038.00 and 9 months, 12 days, 21 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 9/16/2007 6:00:00 PM

  Those are wonderful numbers, congratulations. 

[Peter]

I started smoking at uni and gave it up 9 months later or thereabouts.  I think it started with accepting the occasional offer of a cigarette while drinking in the bar and enjoying the buzz of the nicotine (feels much better when drunk than when sober), and soon I was buying pouches of tobacco and getting to practice my cigarette rolling perhaps 10 times a day.  It helped with the stress at uni, but I didn't want to ruin my health, so I gave it up.  It took a couple of tries to quit, since I was pretty well addicted to it, but I made it and was free from cravings after a few months.

[midlifeaspie]

I quit 5 years ago and used a website support group with a handy gadget that sends me stats like this every couple of months:

1851 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds smoke free.

37033 cigarettes not smoked.

$12,038.00 and 9 months, 12 days, 21 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 9/16/2007 6:00:00 PM

  Those are wonderful numbers, congratulations. 

They are pretty close to the same amount of time that I spent as a serious smoker, so when you look at the numbers in reverse they are kind of stomach-turning.

["couldbecousin"]

I quit 5 years ago and used a website support group with a handy gadget that sends me stats like this every couple of months:

1851 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds smoke free.

37033 cigarettes not smoked.

$12,038.00 and 9 months, 12 days, 21 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 9/16/2007 6:00:00 PM

  Those are wonderful numbers, congratulations. 

They are pretty close to the same amount of time that I spent as a serious smoker, so when you look at the numbers in reverse they are kind of stomach-turning.

  I hate to see my friends smoke.  I once estimated that one friend would save $6,000
  in one year if she and her husband quit.  I will keep encouraging her to quit! 

[Peter]

I quit 5 years ago and used a website support group with a handy gadget that sends me stats like this every couple of months:

1851 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds smoke free.

37033 cigarettes not smoked.

$12,038.00 and 9 months, 12 days, 21 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 9/16/2007 6:00:00 PM

  Those are wonderful numbers, congratulations. 

They are pretty close to the same amount of time that I spent as a serious smoker, so when you look at the numbers in reverse they are kind of stomach-turning.

  I hate to see my friends smoke.  I once estimated that one friend would save $6,000
  in one year if she and her husband quit.  I will keep encouraging her to quit! 

I'm pretty sure I wasn't spending anywhere close to that amount when I was smoking, but that's because I was using rolling tobacco; a £5 pouch would last me a couple of weeks or something (the cigarettes I rolled would be a lot smaller than the ones that come in packets, and I couldn't pack too much tobacco into them or I wouldn't be able to draw air through them).

['andersom']

Don't know what to fill in in the poll. 

I've smoked, on occasions. Liked the taste, did inhale, but, it did not make me crave for more.
Found it ideal, when going out with friends, after one fag, smoke in bars didn't irritate my eyes any more.
Liked the taste of cigars even better. So, may have bought three tins of cigars, in my life. (yeah, really heavy user....)

Smoked a bit more around my twenties and forties, when I used cannabis using tobacco as a flammable. Was not hard to stop with that either. Disliked the effect of the tobacco.
Somehow the smoking things, and alcohol are not the hard addictions.

Chocolate though, that's way harder.

And, when agitated, under stress, or what ever, I crave dairy and sugar, and, it isn't doing me any good when I'm in that mode. Downward spiral, making me crave for more, etc.

Funny, when everything is OK, sugar and milk don't have that hold on me.

[Peter]

Don't know what to fill in in the poll. 

I've smoked, on occasions. Liked the taste, did inhale, but, it did not make me crave for more.
Found it ideal, when going out with friends, after one fag, smoke in bars didn't irritate my eyes any more.
Liked the taste of cigars even better. So, may have bought three tins of cigars, in my life. (yeah, really heavy user....)

Smoked a bit more around my twenties and forties, when I used cannabis using tobacco as a flammable. Was not hard to stop with that either. Disliked the effect of the tobacco.
Somehow the smoking things, and alcohol are not the hard addictions.

Chocolate though, that's way harder.

And, when agitated, under stress, or what ever, I crave dairy and sugar, and, it isn't doing me any good when I'm in that mode. Downward spiral, making me crave for more, etc.

Funny, when everything is OK, sugar and milk don't have that hold on me.

I avoid chocolate since once I start eating it regularly, I get withdrawal effects when I stop (headaches and feeling lousy for a couple of days and cravings that last a few weeks).  The headaches and lousy feeling from quitting caffeine is worse than for chocolate, but the cravings for caffeine are much milder.

["couldbecousin"]

  I have always loved the smell of cigarette smoke mixed with fresh outdoor air.
  I foolishly expected my first cigarette to taste like that.  I sure got a surprise! 

[midlifeaspie]

Don't know what to fill in in the poll. 

I've smoked, on occasions. Liked the taste, did inhale, but, it did not make me crave for more.
Found it ideal, when going out with friends, after one fag, smoke in bars didn't irritate my eyes any more.
Liked the taste of cigars even better. So, may have bought three tins of cigars, in my life. (yeah, really heavy user....)

Smoked a bit more around my twenties and forties, when I used cannabis using tobacco as a flammable. Was not hard to stop with that either. Disliked the effect of the tobacco.
Somehow the smoking things, and alcohol are not the hard addictions.

Chocolate though, that's way harder.

And, when agitated, under stress, or what ever, I crave dairy and sugar, and, it isn't doing me any good when I'm in that mode. Downward spiral, making me crave for more, etc.

Funny, when everything is OK, sugar and milk don't have that hold on me.

I added an option for you too, but am out of space for any more