[Closed] Smoking...Good lord...

There's no point to smoking whatsoever. Your association with smoking and drinking is, most likely, purely psychological and based on social conditioning. Good effort on recognising this and keep up the good work. 😀

good luck quitting mate!!!i gave up the drink/smokes around 5 years ago(if i can,you can!!!) 😀

Anyone else a part time smoker..? What's the point.?

A constant battler with the weed salutes your courage in inviting the self-righteous to come along and give you a virtual beating sir.

Your association with smoking and drinking is, most likely, purely psychological and based on social conditioning.

Nonsense. Unfortunately it feels really nice to have a fag with a cold beer. End of. I've found myself on the patches for days, only to rip it off as soon as I order a pint and settle myself in a beer garden. That's not "social conditioning", that's because I know what I like.

[b]Quitting smoking[/b] is the conditioning part. Trying to tell myself that I will not enjoy the rollie with the pint, as I'll feel bad about it the next morning when I'm coughing up tar slugs. Problem is, I do enjoy the rollie with the pint. I can't kid myself otherwise.

Not nonsense and not end-of. You have to ask yourself why you enjoy a rollie with a pint, and I wouldn't dispute that you do. What exactly is it that makes it an enjoyable experience? The fag doesn't make the beer taste any better. Nor can it, as a stimulant, provide any form of physical stress relief.

It's just that our society has associated smoking and drinking together for decades, and many people find it an odd concept to do one without the other because it's what they're 'supposed' to do. As a non-smoker, I can easily enjoy a pint without a fag as it's an association I've never developed.

As a non-smoker

Talking as an expert then? 😉

I love a smoke but never when I'm drinking as I dont think it tastes nice and often makes me feel sick.
I dont smoke in work and now rarely even at weekends.
However when I'm on holiday I'll buy a pack as soon as I arrive.

Morning cig with an esprsso is just amazing and is an important part of my holidays 😀

Each to their own.

Sorry Sponging-Machine, but you are wrong. It's got nothing to do with society, conditioning or otherwise. Beer is nice, but a beer and a fag is nicer. What makes it an enjoyable experience is the combined chemicals floating through my brain at the same time. It's enjoyable, very enjoyable, and that's why even though I'd love not to have the long term health worries, the short term pleasure is still occasionally winning out. It's got nothing to do with societal conditioning for me, and if you met me you'd soon accept that.

Cup of tea = nice.
Choc digestive = nice.
Tea PLUS digestive, bleeding lovely.

No social conditioning there, just a combination that I love.

I'd imagine it might be the same as drinking and smoking.

Cup of tea = nice.
Choc digestive = nice.
Tea PLUS digestive, bleeding lovely.

Thats it. I'm off to put the kettle on. damn you!

I quit the fags just over a year ago. Went from 20 Marlboro Lights a day to nothing. never faltered (though I had many times in the past when trying to give up).

I find I have to associate smoking with the negatives. e.g. your sense of smell soon comes back and you realise how rank stale smoke smells. Focus on this every time you smell it and associate it with the cons of smoking. Along with the obvious health benefits, I found this was enough to condition my brain out of the old 'a fag would be lovely with this pint/coffee' scenarios which I used to create.

Giving up is only hard for the first 48 hours. the first week is still a bit hard, and then you are on easy terrain until you forget you ever smoked.

Best of luck to you.

Dr Dolittle - Member

Sorry Sponging-Machine, but you are wrong.

..you do know what his (s-m's) job is don't you?..... 😀

I smoked 10-20 a day from 13 to 30. I gave up on impulse and that evening I went to the pub and faced that association head on.

I still have the packet that I was half way through when I jacked it in and I never get tempted to smoke while drinking now.

And the claim that a beer is nicer with a fag is a myth. I enjoy my beer as much now as I did when I was polluting my lungs with cancer sticks.

What's the point.?

You enjoy it, so why not carry on?

I stopped about 10 years ago because I stopped enjoying it - but if you still enjoy the occasional smoke why stop?

neilsonwheels occasional-smoking can be worse than constant. Your bodies constantly readjusting.

Do you actually enjoy it? If not, or post-smoke its a bloody pain. Stop.

If you do enjoy it- nominate 4nights a month when you will have say just two. Like a treat.

All the best. Yes I am a smoking Nazi but I do understand everyones different.

..you do know what his (s-m's) job is don't you?.....

Seriously? You shouldn't have mentioned that on a public forum.I'd imagine he's a bit embarrassed now.

Dr Dolittle, am i missing something?

...s-m has mentioned his job a few times (probably not what i would remember about everyone on here but i know him 'properly' too) when he has replied to other smoking threads on here. I only have a fairly rudimentary understanding of the physiological/neurological rumblings of smoking but I am fairly sure s-m will have some proper science to back up his comments.

fwiw when I smoked, (and i did so regardless of whether or not i had a beer in my hand) I would start to find it a bit nauseating after a certain level of beeriness (usually 3-4 pints depending on my level of 'lightweightness' at the time). I wonder whether that was simple carbon monoxide, me not realising how much harder i was pulling on the cigarette, or some sort of push-me-pull-you of the different effects of beer and fag.

I think that for me, social conditioning was the larger issue in that after I gave up, I only hankered after a fag when I drank lager (as opposed to other alcohol). Surely my 'chemical' brain doesn't know the difference between lager and ale, but my preconscous brain probaly does?

I always thought that nicotine and alcohol combine "well" together as drugs. Pretty obvious really, since one is a stimulant and the other a depressant.

There is research available on this, [url= http://biopsychiatry.com/nicotine/alcohol.html ]here[/url] is an example.

For the O/P, not riding much for a few months is likely to be pretty detrimental to your ability too, but the fags won't help! It is a choice you have to make when you have a drink, but try and remember how shit you felt at the top of the climbs and that'll help when you're pished.

I guess you have to decide whether your riding fitness is more important than the buzz you'll get from smoking. I think it's good to realise that so much of smoking is habit - if you can break the trigger impulse (few beers, smoke goes with this...) then it's easy.

I can't say I associate beer and smoking anymore, as due to legislation one can not smoke in a pub / club.

I prefer to smoke when I've got home from the pub.

as I did when I was polluting my lungs with cancer sticks.

a report last week suggested that the rise in oral cancer is related to alcohol consumption 🙁

I think Sponging-Machine is spot on.
You might not think so and you might feel differently but don't always trust what you think and feel, especially when it comes to something addictive like smoking not to mention an activity that the advertising industry has spent so long and so many $s trying to make you think and feel about it.

Also thinking that you are not influenced by social conditioning or advertising can be rather fool hardy.

Each to their own.

not when your smoking is detrimental to the health of other people and when they're paying for your healthcare when you're getting treated for smoke related illness

sorry but I really detest smoking

Smoking is a not a "habit" but a drug addiction.
I really advise you not to bother at all as it's a bitch to quit.

I'd imagine he's a bit embarrassed now

I'm often embarrassed but not on this occasion. There are clear links between alcohol and nicotine in relation to Dopamine synthesis. However, these effects have been shown to be negligible in most human study participants - hence why I suggested that it was [b]most likely[/b], purely psychological in association. There are significant implications with this relationship in terms of relapse in which physiological action may play a major part.

Dr Dolittle, I suspect that no amount of debate on this matter would make any significant change to your opinion and it's certainly not my place in the world to convince you of anything. Perhaps it would be better if we agree to disagree.

Smoking is a not a "habit" but a drug addiction. I really advise you not to bother at all as it's a bitch to quit.

Actually, it's as hard or as easy to stop as you want to make it. People often build it up to be a big thing, when it isn't. Breaking the physical addiction requires a reasonable amount of will power, but not for long. Certainly for me the habitual side was more dificult, where you associate certain activites with smoking. If you can identify these triggers clearly, your brain can override the reflex.

There are clear links between alcohol and nicotine in relation to Dopamine synthesis.

Is that when using the two in conjunction could produce an effect greater than each considered separately?

I agree that people have a strong psychological link between the two. But I also see it as another example of people using two drugs simultaneously to balance themselves; some people might use caffeine or cocaine in conjunction with alcohol for a similar effect? Or maybe all 4 at once 🙄 Surely it would be simpler to be teetotal!

Is that when using the two in conjunction could produce an effect greater than each considered separately?

Pretty much. This has been proven in rat-studies quite well in relation to nicotine/ETOH. However, human studies mostly indicate that tolerance to this effect is normally quickly achieved, negating this response (at least, the ones I've read do).

As for using two drugs (or more) to balance yourself out, I have to say that this is an area I don't have a great knowledge in. I have read one study that focused on nicotine/alcohol and indicated such through observations of learning performance during drug use, but as I say, it's not really my area of expertise. It's certainly not something I have any personal experience in. Actually, I recall drinking too much coffee once and then trying to balance it out with some cider so I could sleep. Just made me feel doubly wretched.

Teetotal is definitely my personal stasis of choice, although I do rather enjoy the high of having just cleaned a tricky root section (probably because it's such a rare occasion).