Why do people start smoking if they weren't addicted prior?

[RickyRetardo]

Some people smoke for the cognitive benefits they get from nicotine. Check it out.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1579636

Smoking is very bad for you. But nicotine has benefits to thinking and reasoning abilities. It also can help with stress and anger problems, and it's actually not very addictive at all EXCEPT when it's combined with MAOIs--which happen to naturally be in the tobacco plant, hence the addictive nature of tobacco.

Nicotine itself (as opposed to tobacco) is barely addictive at all. It's the combination of nicotine with MAOIs in the tobacco plant that make tobacco so hard to quit.

[Wolfeye]

While I do believe that smoking tobacco helps the brain as long as you don't overdue it, I don't entirely believe that thing about nicotine. Seeing as my mother has been chewing that nicotine gum & sucking on those lozenges for years & she still hasn't quit. Also, there's the potential that the isolated substance doesn't work the same individually as it does as a part of a whole. That's true with vitamins, as well (vitamin c, for instance- just "ascorbic acid" doesn't work the same way). Plus, sometimes the product isn't the same as the thing it's labeled as being.

Also, there's the concept that the additives & various chemicals that are added to these cigarettes not only cause problems on their own, but also make things more addictive. Wouldn't be surprised if there were situations where there's a synergistic effect with chemicals, too. Like the idea of a vitamin in reverse.

[Ava777]

What about nicotine vapes? I'm trying to quit smoking. Frankly speaking, this is my third attempt. But this time I decided to try vaping in the hope it will help me. Looking through a vapingdaily site, I found out that vape pens can be nicotine free. At first I thought they were created for those people who don't want to quit smoking. But having read your info, I understood that such pens are not harmful. Or did I miss something?

[Fanny412]

Most smokers began when they were adolescents. The individuals who have companions and additionally guardians who smoke are bound to begin smoking than the individuals who don't. A few youngsters state that they "simply needed to attempt it," or they thought it was "cool" to smoke.

[dancilley]

Wow...I regard cigarette smoke as 100% disgusting. I don't understand how anyone would ever try smoking. I am offended by inhaling someone's cigarette smoke from 150 feet away.

I did not know she smoked.

Avoid all women who smoke!

Smoking is ridiculous.

[Mercury]

I have some questions about smoking. Perhaps some of you who are, or were, smokers can answer them?

1. How do people start smoking, when prior to starting, they were not addicted to it?

I mean, the first few cigarettes do nothing for a newbie, so why would anyone continue on to the point where it becomes addicting? I don't get it. It doesn't seem logical.

2. Why would anyone want to start smoking when they know it's bad for them and becomes addicting?

3. Dianne has a smoking problem. If she got one of those electric cigarettes that do not contain nicotine, would that fulfill the craving and solve the addiction problem? They are sold at malls in the Philippines now.

4. Is it true that people who die from smoking do so from the anxiety and stress of trying to quit, rather than the nicotine itself? Why is it that people in the 1800's and in Germany today, where people smoke a lot, they do not die of lung cancer like smokers in America do? Is it because if you don't worry about it, it's not as harmful as if you keep worrying about it? Is this theory true?

They do it to fit in. On the whole, the United States of America is a smoking country. Smoking has become a part of American culture. In America, if you don't smoke, and if you are not in a gang and you don't do drugs and alcohol, you will not fit in. America has become an all around violent and unhealthy country.

[Winston]

Interesting new video by Matt McKinley about why the Notnilc system (Clinton spelled backwards) is now punishing smokers instead of encouraging them like it was before. Some big thinking here.