Why are some young people so desperate for cigarettes?

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I think that people who start smoking due to peer pressure are VERY VERY weak.

I don't smoke AND I don't drink alcohol despite people at uni etc doing it and pressuring me into it. So what if they do it. By me not doing it, I am (a) not a sheep and follow the crowd; (b) I am unique, in the sense that I am a minority of people who don't do both and (c) I am man enough to live life.

Get off your high horse.

Reply 21

username1456920

Original post by clubber

Same! Was taught in school and know for a fact that it is very bad for you. Can lead to lung cancer, bad teeth, bad breath etc.

I heard its a stress reliever. Bull$h1t.

Its a cancer stick with the potential to kill you.

Its the fact that some people will go to extreme limits just for a cigarette. Its incredible

Do you sleep everyday for the recommended number of hours, without fail? Do you diet exactly according to your lifestyle making sure you get the exact amounts of macronutrients and micronutrients you need to function optimally? Do you monitor how much sugar you intake so you don't develop diabetes? Do you live a perfectly optimal life in terms of health?

People make decisions that are sometimes not the best for their health. Get over it.

Reply 22

MagicNMedicine

I actually think young people today are less impressed by smoking than they were when I was a kid back in the 1990s.

Back then, well before the smoking ban, it was a kind of signal of being independent and rebelliousness: everyone knows all the health warnings, but it was like you were saying I don't care, I follow my own path I don't take decisions from anybody. Also I think a lot of people when young would make a kind of rational risk decision like well I'll probably give up when I'm about 22 or 23, so if I'm smoking for 6 or 7 years of my life that's not as bad as spending my whole life smoking.

But back then it was before the smoking ban so when you were out in pubs and clubs everybody smoked and smoking was very much part of being out: the non smokers were frowned on if they started to complain about people smoking. You'd be sat round a group of your mates and if there were 6 of you it was a good bet 3 or 4 smoked. They didn't have to go outside, they just sat there smoking one after the other.

The smoking ban has obviously made it more difficult by isolating smokers socially: whilst on one hand its a good way of meeting new randoms if you are outside for a smoke, if you need a smoke it breaks social interactions....if you're chatting to a girl and in the middle of a good conversation, then need to go out for a smoke, if she doesn't smoke too then she might start talking to someone else while you're away. You can still smoke but it makes it more of a hassle and inconvenience, and now the non-smokers generally dominate by society's rules, as you can't smoke around them in public places.

Also though I don't see quite as much incidence of smoking amongst younger people today compared to back then, there are still people that smoke obviously but I don't think it automatically carries the cache of being a badass as much as it used to. Nowadays as non-smokers are less affected by smokers, its not as noticeable so its more like yeah if you want to smoke go for it, it doesn't bother other people any more. Which has lessened some of the badass image of it.

Reply 23

Georgiina_Tee

Original post by clubber

Calling yourself the minority is a major exaggeration lots of people at uni do the same. Only people on TSR believe its like some sort of blessing.

Reply 24

Trustno1

I smoked a few times because I thought I was cool and it made me feel good lol I was immature.

Obviously this was a phrase and it didn't even last a month and I only really had one or two full fags and rest were puffs

Looking back I regret it because I think it was stupid and I didn't need to do it. I wasn't pressured I just wanted to do it to look good. In another way I'm happy I did because it was an experience I guess.

I didn't do anything else never tried drugs or drinked and i don't plan too

Posted from TSR Mobile

It feels good

They actually have significant beneficial effects for people suffering from (at least some kinds of) mental illness. Though, it is mainly if not entirely the nicotine that helps - so if you're going to do it then at least use an e-cig. No need to involve tobacco in anything.

Reply 27

moutonfou

Original post by DiddyDec

You will never understand until you are addicted to something.

This. I've never smoked, but it seems to me if it was that easy to give up, people just... would?

People have plenty of motivation to give up smoking: it's expensive, cancer-causing, smells, forces you outside in the cold and rain, increasingly frowned on by society, gives you a cough, pushes your insurance up, stains your teeth...

If it just came down to 'a bit of willpower' there wouldn't be 10 million smokers left in the UK...

Reply 28

Jabberwox

Addiction, my friend. It can make you do the most whacky things out of desperation.

Reply 29

TroyAndAbed

With weed, it gets you high. With alcohol, it gets you drunk. With cigarettes...? I don't understand why someone would start. I get that once you've smoked for a while it becomes addictive but why do people get to the stage of being addicted?

Reply 30

TakashiLaSkunk

Well with cigarettes you can get a nicotine rush as well...

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 31

Clez

I smoke roll ups.

I started when I was 16, then quit for a year and a half when I turned 18.
I started again because I was bored in my uni house and it killed a couple of minutes and was a reason to leave my room and go outside to the shop or into the garden.
Im now 23 and trying to quit, but I do find it calms me down if Im having anxiety. However Iv also started putting off having one when i get up because the world seems clearer when Im not constantly nicotine powered!

Reply 32

Birkenhead

Original post by ItsJustMe17

What I don't understand is why people start in the first place? Like you know it's bad for you so why begin??

Posted from TSR Mobile

Original post by Georgiina_Tee

Curiosity I just think people start off indirectly peer pressured and start off doing it socially before they realise they're addicted

Posted from TSR Mobile

It's not as simple as all that. Cigarettes are expensive and have negative health effects, especially for your gums and teeth for almost everyone who smokes, but like lots of bad things some people weigh up the risks to the benefits and make an informed choice. Because there are benefits: enhanced concentration, improved memory, increased motivation, reduced stress and anxiety, acting as a social ice-breaker which can be particularly helpful for the socially anxious and even medical purposes such as reducing the risks of Parkinson's disease and a particularly vicious female genital cancer capable of making women infertile whose name escapes me. As Ronove said they have been found to be beneficial for the mentally ill; about 80℅ of schizophrenics smoke. There are others and ongoing research may uncover more. Cigarettes are nothing near to being as evil as they're made out to be.

Your chances of getting lung cancer, the flagship scare of the.anti-smoking brigade, is about 1.5/10 for lifetime smokers.

On phone so if you want sources and/or more statistics just ask.

Frankly I get the strong impression that most of the loudest opponents and ridiculers of tobacco smoking are jumping on a bandwagon and going purely on what has been drummed into them by the media rather than having looked for themselves at independent research.