Tell me why people think smoking is addicting or "enjoyable"?

Question

Okay well I am 13 & I smoked for the first time recently. & I have smoked a couple times since. I dont think it is enjoyable what so ever. I did it socially anyway. Its not so much peir pressure, I just dont see the wrong in it because I know I am not going to get addicted. But why do some people have the urge to smoke all the time. Why is it enjoyable? Even my boyfriend smokes a lot. He usually "has to go out for a smoke" its like annoying. He said that I wouldnt understand because I only did it a few times. but someone answer me. WHAT IS SO ENJOYABLE OR ADDICTING ABOUT IT!?

Answer 1

Honey, it's nice that you think you aren't going to get addicted... but research proves that the younger you start smoking, the more likely you are to become addicted. It's not just a mental thing, it's a physical thing as well - your body is changing rapidly at this age and your body chemistry is very vulnerable to addiction right now.
And just smoking "socially" IS a form of peer pressure, even if your friends weren't pushing you to do it. You did it because other people were doing it, it seemed more polite to smoke than to refuse.
So you really need to be on your guard if you don't want to get addicted. If you're lucky, you can be one of those people who doesn't smoke herself, but doesn't mind being surrounded by people who do.

From what I understand, smoking is enjoyable precisely *because* of the addiction. The nicotine has created a need in your body for a cigarette, and when you smoke, it fills that need. Think of it this way - the average healthy body is addicted to food, right? If you don't eat all day, you get really antsy and nervous and don't feel good, because you body is saying "give me food!" So when you eat, you fulfill that need, and your body sends out signals that it's happy and full again, and tells you to stop eating.

Of course, even smokers realize that it would be healthier, cheaper, and (in the long run) easier to just remove the nicotine addiction in the first place. But that takes a lot of effort and dedication, and most people can't beat that struggle.

Answer 2

Well to begin you must understand that pleasure is subjective. I may find reading the Bible pleasurable and you don't. You may find it completely inconceivable that it would be such.

There are sadomasochists that find it pleasurable to inflict or have pain inflicted upon them during sex. I think this is strange behavior but to them it is not.

As far as addiction, you are wrong. Cigarettes ARE addictive. Nicotine (the active agent) is what people become addicted to, and as it is a stimulant, some people not only become physically addicted to the agent, but mentally addicted to the fact that they are stimulated. Increased heart rate can induce feelings of euphoria and such euphoria (also being pleasurable) could be what many people are addicted to.

The physical aspects of the addiction are very real however. You should not take them lightly and assume that YOU will NEVER become addicted. This is the plight of EVERY smoker. We all say we will not become addicted, then years later we can't even identify the second we became addicted, we just know that we are.

Nicotine mimics a neurotransmitter in the brain (a neurotransmitter is like a message that gets passed from brain cell to brain cell) the specific neurotransmitter that is being mimicked tends to make people be calm. After a while of smoking (or chewing for that matter), the brain realizes that this synthetic neurotransmitter is being brought into the system and thus stops or slows down the production of its own actual neurotransmitter.

Then, when the smoker stops smoking, or goes a while without smoking, the brain feels the deficit. This deficit of such neurotransmitter is exactly what the feeling of ADDICTION is. The brain is able to slowly begin natural production again, but it takes some time. In the mean time, the smoker (assuming he/she has quit) feels "withdrawals".

This is the exact same way how heroin, other opiates (even ones that doctors give you like morphine) work. They mimic your brain's endorphines (natural pain killers). The difference with heroin is that it’s much harder for your brain to begin production of such endorphines again after it has been stopped. So when the heroine addict stops shooting up, the lack of the natural neurotransmitter and the lack of the heroine leads to EMMENSE PAIN. It hurts to walk, breath, beat your heart, anything! This is exactly why most heroine addicts as well as pain killer addicts must go through a detoxification process in order to quit (much like the methadone clinics meant for heroin addicts). Without such programs, most that try to quit (assuming they haven’t committed suicide due to the pain) die from organ failure, or cardiac arrest.

Seeing the similarities in the way both drugs work (Nicotine and Opiates) we now know that Nicotine is JUST AS ADDICTIVE, AND ALMOST AS HARD TO QUIT AS HEROIN.

Please rethink your "social smoking" habit.

Answer 3

Nobody starts out smoking believing that they will become addicted. But nicotine in cigarette smoke is powerfully physically addictive, and some tests and studies have shown that cigarettes are as addictive as cocaine and as hard to quit.

Your boyfriend is physically addicted. If he goes more than a certain amount of time without a smoke, he feels a physical craving that can become so all-consuming that he is driven to smoke. If he tries to stop, he will undergo physical withdrawal symptoms that are very, very, very, very unpleasant, as any smoker who has ever quit cold turkey will tell you.

My dad started smoking at about your age, and he's 77 now and has a bad heart and emphysema. He's in an old folks home and we don't buy him cigarettes, but he's so badly addicted that he picks them up off the ground and out of ash trays and smokes the butts.

If you have the smarts that god gave a flowerpot, you'll ditch the cigarettes and the boyfriend too, because neither of them is going to do you any good.

Answer 4

Well hopefully you don't keep trying it or you will find out soon enough that it becomes enjoyable and then it becomes very addictive. I have been smoking for 25 years I really wish I could quit but I can't. My mother has tried to quit a million times, she has tried the patch, the gum, and is now on a pill to try to quit, but she still smokes.

If it were not addictive do you think anyone would put thier lives in danger every day to do it?

Answer 5

The more you smoke the more you will become addicted to it. It is just the way of the human body. The more you smoke the more nueroreceptors in your brain are made that crave nicotine.
So it builds and builds up and then you need to smoke to keep those receptors full.

Also some people believe smoking reduces tension, this is for those that are addicted because of how the body changes because of smoking.

Smoking is addicting. That is just a fact.

Answer 6

You don't get addicted after a couple cigarettes. Ive smoked for years and I'm trying to quit.you don't start to get addicted until you smoke to deal with problems. eventually the only problem it helps with is your addiction. take some advice: people might pressure you to smoke, but a little peer pressure now is completely worth not dealing the frustration, cost, and sometimes pain that comes with smoking. and i honestly doubt your boyfriend honestly has to "go out for a smoke" he probably just wants you to think he's cool. or hes like 20, and that would wrong for a completely different reason. jk

Answer 7

I find that smoking to be totally disgusting and wonder why they would even want to start. I'm told it's a relaxation technique.
All you're really doing is inhaling air with all the other stuff in the cigarette, cigar or pipe. Inhaling straight from the air is the same thing, but without the chemicals.

Answer 8

Smoking is addictive because my doctor told me to stop or die & I'm still smoking. I wake up in the morning & it takes me 10 minutes to be able to breathe right after using my inhaler again & again but a**hole me has my tea or coffee & a cigarette as soon as I can breathe

Answer 9

Does gitsliveo...response answer your question? If not do a search and read up on the dangers of nicotine and how the addiction takes hold.

Answer 10

STOP NOW KID.

the addict comes slowly - first a psychological one ( wanting to fit in... to just habit when you get in a car, then the physical addiction starts, and you don't realize it until you go a few extra hours without you get cranky and mean real fast )

smokeing is bad. period. please stop.


- Smoker for 5 years and i try to quit every few months...