I actually have an interesting story that has to do with this. Last summer I was taking a newer smoking cessation drug named Champix. The drug works by binding with the same receptors that nicotine does, and prevents nicotine from having its effect. You take this drug while continuing to smoke, and about two weeks later, cigarettes lose their lustre. You still want the buzz, but you don't get a thing out of smoking.
Now here's the interesting bit. Without the buzz, cigarettes tasted gross again. I mean really gross. I didn't want anything to do with them. They smelled differently as well. Obviously I'm only relating a personal experience, and I can't say whether other people experience the same thing.
And to whom it may concern, I found the drug had other side effects (which may have also been related to smoking cessation), which lead to my smoking again. I lasted about two months, all in all, but throughout the entire period I was mood swinging like crazy. In the end, I found the solution worse than the problem, and decided to stop taking it.
DON'T DATE ROBOTS.
Kicked it cold turkey almost a year ago. :)
I'm not a regular smoker, but most of the cigars/cigarettes/pipes/hookahs I've puffed on in my life have been in a social context.
Pity about that whole lung cancer thing.
As I got a little older, the "cool kids" smoked, so it gave a shy kid some openings for socialization.
I quit 5 years ago, and it was easily the hardest thing I've ever done. Some mornings I still wake up and reach for my pack before I'm fully awake
I think this is a bit off. The best explanation for smoking the first time is social pressure. Maybe the first few times. After that, the best explanation for smoking is nicotine addiction. When you are used to the effect of nicotine, smoking a cigarette makes you feel good.
Also, not that I advise smoking cigarettes, but you can avoid burning your throat and lungs with good technique. Don't just suck on it like you are sucking juice through a straw; you will inhale too much smoke too quickly. Instead, only loosely touch your lips to the end of the cigarette, and inhale slowly. That will both let air mix with the cigarette smoke and give it some time to cool. If you do it right you should not burn your throat or lungs at all and the experience should be purely pleasurable.
(Damn... I'm going to talk myself back into smoking if I'm not careful.)
There are certain things some people enjoy that I do not understand the appeal of. Among those are smoking cigarettes, drinking urine and self-flagellation.
Wow. One of these things is not like the others... I mean, drinking urine?!
:)
I find all of those things about equally difficult to understand. Perhaps empathy is not one of my strengths.
Pretty sure that if you enjoy self-flagellation, you're doing it wrong.
It's worth starting and enduring the pain of quitting just to be able to come back and feel that glorious mind blowing forbidden pleasure of the first one back. The power trip in not starting again is also delightful. I like having a cigarette about every year or so. A few times I quit, I was lured back, but I've only had one full cigarette since June of 2008.
Smoking is definitely not a good lifestyle for the long term. But as very occasional guilty pleasures go, it's truly top-notch.
The smoking itself didn't do that much for me, so I pretty quickly gave it up.