The Dirty Smokers Thread

@Kyle: if you've only smoked when you've been drunk, my guess is that being drunk overrode any feelings the nicotine would give you. However, the two vices have a long tradition of going together; I long ago realized that to quit smoking I would also have to quit drinking, and I'm not prepared to do that yet.

I'm also like goodrich, I simply enjoy the act of smoking and I do enjoy the flavor of burning tobacco. Nicotine also helps me think; I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably ADD and there has been research which suggests that nicotine is beneficial to people with that condition. Now, the person who published this research spent a lot of time saying "I'm not advocating cigarettes okay?!" but everyone I met when I was younger who was legitimately diagnosed as ADD smoked like a chimney. So there's that.

As far as how it feels...for me, it depends on when I light up. In the morning, I sometimes don't enjoy the first cig...it can make me feel queasy, especially if I had too much to drink the night before. One of the features of a hangover for me is the inability to smoke without wanting to vomit. I actually quit smoking for a year once, and it started because of a three-day hangover. Go figure. :D

If I light up when I'm stressed it calms me down. Now, this could be due to several factors...to light up one generally has to go outside, so there's leaving the stressful situation to consider. There's also the comfort of indulging in a familiar ritual; find the pack, pull out the smoke, find the lighter, light the smoke, breathe, and so on. for a smoker the process of indulging in their vice might just be their version of taking a deep breath and counting to ten. Who knows.

To what extent the calming effect of a cigarette has on a smoker is a psychological placebo effect remains an open question...I don't think it has to do entirely with nicotine though, because putting on a patch or popping a piece of nicotine gum doesn't do shit in that department.

When I'm thinking hard about something - like, say, trying to figure out the next step for a writing project of mine - I make smoke like a refinery fire. I also tend to pace a lot; asking me to sit still and think is like asking a person to breathe normally with a hand over their mouth and nose...I simply cannot do it. But yeah, my coffin gets a lot of nails driven into it in moments where I don't know what next to do in a story, or dissecting any other problem.

When I'm drinking, I tend to smoke a lot as well...but I believe that's just the inhibition-lowering effects of alcohol, combined with the synergistic awesomeness of taking stimulants and depressants at the same time. I mean, synergistic drug interaction is a proven phenomenon, and so is inhibition-lowering. There's a voice inside every smoker which says "now would be a great time for a cigarette"...and when sober, that smoker can say "nah, I just had one" or "I'm almost out" or even "my throat hurts already, shut up"...but when drunk, you think "oh hell why not".

As to specifically how it feels...there's a nice burn in the chest I get which I would compare to taking a slug from a stiff drink, followed by a pleasant tingling in the extremities. Also, a feeling of well-being. Finally...since smoking has become largely a solitary vice, there's a sense of "taking a break" from whatever is going on. One cannot simply light up in polite company anymore, and I really enjoy the stepping-away aspect of being a smoker...I get to be alone with my thoughts for a few minutes.

Hope this helps.

I've been a cigar smoker for quite a while - it's been a part of the jobs I've been in before, although I've had to cut back recently and may need to stop entirely. I've always had a preference for Dominican and Mexican cigars - there's a few sorts of both which have flavors I love and almost hold dear to me.

Used to chain smoke until reccently, quit about a month ago. I used to love cigarettes, and I think I still do. Lighted up my first when I was finishing high school in 2007, last time I quit was between april/2013 and january/2015. I went back to smoking this year mostly because of emotional problems; cigarettes can be a nice crutch, and it seems to go hand in hand with clinical depression, a condition that I have. My favortite brand was Lucky Strike reds, loved the flavor. But I took the hard decision to quit because it makes my life much harder, the pleasure became too small compared to the inconveniece. I mean, there are less and less places that allow you to smoke, even in open areas (that's outright abuse), even moreso in workplaces not for the public, where usually there is a single squaremeter outside for smoking, if it's not completely prohibited. I think those prohibitions are much more of a punishment for smokers and/or indifference towards abstinence than a protection for non-smokers, but what can I do about it? Also, you have a much smaller chance at sucess in job interviews if you smoke, and girls hate it (that was a major reason for my decision of quitting). But even though I have decided that it's not worth it, I do respect people who haven't taken the same decision. I think people could stop judging the smokers, the belief that all smokers are dumb seems pretty common, and that's simple prejudice, a person shouldn't be declared inferior for having an unhealhy habit. Actually, many of the people who make prejudiced comments about smokers are regular drinkers, that's very much hypocritical

Dirty smoker here. Pack a day, usually, pack and a half on a bad day. Chesterfields are my poison now, after the government somehow banned Gauloisses in my country. -shakes cane at meddling bureaucrats-

I also have a pipe which I bought at an antique shop, which I smoke less often. This is because smoking a pipe is an aesthetic experience for me and I can't just puff at it while about on my business. I prefer sitting down with my philosophically inclined friends in a cafe to smoke it.

What gets me is the less and less places to smoke. Cruise ships have now pretty much outlawed smoking on your balcony (you know, the one you paid 600 bucks extra to have so you can sit with a drink and a cig) and now people are complaining that the casinos on the ship are too smoky..well give us SOMEPLACE to smoke!