If smoking seems not to have any benefits for the body then, why do people smoke?

Answer 1

I've been smoking since the early 1960's I also used to use heroin & be an alchoholic I quit those 2 but smoking is much harder to kick, at least for me it is! Some times I wish I did quit other times I say hell with it & gimme a smoke!

http://www.total-knowledge.com/~willyblues/

Answer 2

For some odd reason, they think it's cool or rebellious. They probably started when they were teens, got in the wrong crouds to rebel from their parents and began smoking. It's a disgusting habit, but problem is, most of them wish they could stop, but they've got little or no will power to stop. I've heard it's difficult, but it's still achieveable. The way I personally see it is they have weak willpower, as they were roped into smoking in the first place. I know peer pressure is difficult, but If I can get through my teens without even touching, let alone smoking a cigarette (or any other drug, for that matter) then anyone can. It's all a question of willpower.

The thing that really annoys me about smoking is that you can passively be poisoned by it too. Anyone who says "It's my choice, I'm not hurting anyone else" is mistaken. I hate walking into a smokey room and struggling to breathe, especially as I know that every breath is hurting my body. Other addictions/pastimes (eg sunbathing tv etc) that are not beneficial don't actually hurt others, but smoking does. Even alcohol doesn't directly hurt other people. You don't inhale the fumes and damage youself when you're talking with someone drinking a pint.

Seeing a woman smoke severely puts me off of them. I find them much less attractive with a cigarette between their fingers or lips. Not attractive at all.

Answer 3

Actually, for me, it had benefits. I have a chronic disease and this would take away some of the pain. Even 1/4th of a cigarette would help. (In fact, they were putting nicotine patches on some patients to see if it helped). I did that for years...just smoking a little bit and only if I really needed the relief.

Then it became something I did to relax. Perhaps it was the breathing. Or the ritual. I'm a closet smoker - I don't do it in public. And it was the only time - out of 24/7 - that I was morally obligated to be away from my children.

I stopped smoking 4 days ago and I'm dying here! I am jittery and cranky.

But it's worth it!

Answer 4

Smoking at one time was a very social and sociable thing to do. The majority of people smoked and it was quite accepted everywhere. There wasn't a lot of knowledge about the health impact of smoking. Obviously, that's no longer the case. Now, it's hard to imagine why anyone would smoke.

Answer 5

I am a smoker, and I started smoking as a teen. And yes, I dare say it was peer pressure. Everyone was doing it. And low and behold, after years of saying "Oh, I won't get addicted...I can stop whenever I want to"...I have become a slave to the cigarette. I know it's bad for me, yet now that I'm addicted, everytime I get a little stressed or it's just been too long, I must have that cigarette.

Answer 6

I started smoking out of rebellion mostly. People like the current anti-smoking nazis are too much fun to agravate. Outliving them is even more fun. Seriously too many people are WAY too uptight about the whole issue. They'll go stand by a campfire which has every ingredient of cig smoke then claim to be allergic to cigs. That is too hilarious. They will put up with petrolium based perfumes and colognes that to me often smell like somebody squeezed a week old dead skunk. Of course somehow the cancer risks despite being highly documented of breathing petrolem fumes doesn't bother them. Undocumented supposed second hand smoke risks scares them to death. Despite that they'll wander up next to a BBQ which has ten times more carcigens than a Cig and not be phased or allergic at all.

Until recently smoke was a dailly part of our life. The trains we rode in spewed it back into the cabins. The stoves we cooked on, the fireplaces that heated our rooms, the ways we made our goods. They all spewed smoke and lots of it. It has not until technology has cleaned up our sources of such goods and services that smoking cigs/pipes/cigars was even a noticable source of anything.

It is also recently that America has become obsessed with purfumes. The ladies have worn them from ancient times however the sources were usually whales, flowers and other natural ingredients. Men bah that was unmanly to wear perfumes even if you call it cologne, somehow the name change making it ok. I'm not real sure how the scent of oil got to be favored over the scent of sweat. It has though.

So now we have this nice sanitized environment. In all this isolation from life people notice little things. Smoking for example.

The health risks are grossly exagerated and the lack of research into the actual causes of those health risks is outright murder. People besides smokers are exposed to these things and die from them. To attempt to ban smoking is like saying cars kill people and attempt to ban cars. In reality poor road designs, car designs, poor driving and a host of other factors kill people in cars. By going after those causes you make driving safer for all. Just as finding out exactly what it is in Cigs that causes smokers to have a higher risk of cancer you will also save non-smokers exposed to the same things. Smoking is only the leading cause of lung cancer not even the majority of lung cancer sufferers are from smoking. Yet it's convient to blame cigs and sweep it under the rug rather than do something usefull like actually try to prevent cancer.

No I don't recomend smoking. It's addictive. VERY addictive and not healthy. While the risk are exagerated they are real and people do die from them.

As for me personally. I never expected to live this long. I'm serious. I came from a poor area and lots of other things should have long ago killed me. So if Cigs eventually kill me, I've already outlived my life expectancy. Nor do I want to live to 70 or 80 anyway. Age to me is more horrifying than death. Always has been. To be less than I am, substantially less in mind and body. That is a death of it's own.

Answer 7

Technically there are some benefits BUT the risks outweigh them. Nicotine has a calming and cooling effect on the body. People smoke because they try them and the nicotine is highly addictive, especially because it is also an oral stimulant.

Answer 8

Basically because they want to, or because they are addicted and can not stop.

It doesn't benefit the body, but it does give them an upper type feeling and therefore does something for the mind. Usually doing something for the mind is more important to people then to the body, because they feel the immediate effects.. and not the long term damage.

Answer 9

Its an addiction and it's hard to learn to live without it like any drug. Most people start smoking in there teens to look cool and to follow the crowd later on in life they are addicted and enjoy the high. My health visitor told me nicotine is harder to beat than heroin. I know i shouldn't smoke because it is bad for me but it is MY body andi don't tell others dont eat that its bad for you, don't drink that it's bad for you because it's there body and there choice.

Answer 10

Once they start, it becomes an addiction...either a physical/oral addiction or because of the nicotine.

If they'd realize they're killing themselves slowly and maybe visit a hospital to see the lifelong smokers being wheeled around with oxygen tanks, maybe they'd quit. Although the typical response to this is "Well, everyone has to die of something". True...but smokers hasten that process and PAY FOR IT.