In article ,
"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote:


What I find interesting is the strong hold tobacco has on smokers. I'll be
perfectly honest and say that I liked smoking my pipes, but the health
issues associated with tobacco were very instrumental in my quitting.
Because I never smoked cigarettes, I didn't inhale (very little, anyway),
but I was still very concerned about the possibility of cancer---mouth,
throat and stomach, which, for pipe smokers, is a serious concern.

It seems odd to me that well educated, brilliant people (RCM people) still
gamble on that issue. There's no doubt about the connection between poor
health and tobacco-----which has no redeeming qualities as near as I can
tell. Considering the price today, I'm totally mystified why smokers don't
quit and enjoy better health and wealth. I love the people, hate their
habit.

Comments?

It's quite simple: Addiction plus habit.

Habit is bad enough on its own.
Addiction is also plenty bad.

Put them together, and you've got a recipe for relapse.

Some of us have the habit.
My mother, the rapidly anti-smoking ex-smoker, would be one example of
that type. After 20-odd years of pack-and-a-half a day, she put 'em
down, and said "that's that". She took up needlework (particularly
knitting), and never showed sign one of any sort of withdrawal.

Some of us have the addiction.
My stepfather, who mother badgered into quitting along with her. He had
no problem with "replacing" the habit, as he's always been intensely
"hands on everything" anyway. But boy, did he get the sweat-dribbling,
shaking, mood-swinging "OHMYGODINEEDACIGARETTENOWDAMMIT!" withdrawal
syndrome kicking his ass for days.

Some of us have both.
Me. Just shy of two packs a day for the last 20 years. Habit up the
wazoo (No other way to explain going out to the car to get a pack of
butts out of the console, lighting one on the way back into the house,
then realizing there's one burning in the ashtray - and yes, I do use
the oversized "safety" ashtrays, for exactly that reason) Addiction -
I've made a serious effort at quitting three times now. All three have
ended with people who had to share space with me for some reason buying
me a pack and telling me to light up or get out within 48 hours of my
last butt. I turn into a raving mess without nicotine. People have
described me as intolerable to be around if I don't have it. And I
understand why - I become a strung-out junkie, and there's no other
nicer way to put it. My temper (what little there is of it to begin
with...) goes completely out the window, and things go downhill from
there - cramps, shaking and sweats, the "creepy-crawlies" on/under the
skin, the ever popular green-apple two-step - The only thing I haven't
noticed from trying to quit tobacco is hallucinations and vomiting.
Otherwise, it's a full-blown case of the screaming heebee-jeebees.

Between the two, I currently don't hold much hope for getting rid of the
damned things, though I wish I could. I managed to cold-turkey off
ritalyn years ago - Four days of being afraid I was going to die,
immediately followed by about two weeks of wishing I'd died back on
about day two - I got "the works" from that... the critters, the
projectile vomiting, the demons and even less-namable shapes jumping
around and screaming at me non-stop... It was truly ugly. I didn't find
out until afterwards that it's classed as being just slightly less
addictive than heroin or cocaine, but being out of it, with no realistic
source, I got through it. I managed to get off that, but cigarettes seem
to have me by the balls.

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