What does cigarette smoking do for people?

dan1101@lemm.ee to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 74 points –

I've never smoked, but I've been around people that do. What do people feel during/after smoking? It doesn't seem to make people high or hallucinate or anything. It maybe mildly relaxes them?

90

Former heavy smoker here, quit two decades ago. It creates a strong craving, which briefly supplies pleasure when you appease it. It provides (or at least used to) social connection with other smokers, particularly at "smoking breaks".

And it gives you something recognizable to do while waiting for something. Rather than sitting there, staring out with a stupid look on your face, you instead sit there smoking a cigarette.

It's an incredibly difficult addiction to break, it's expensive, and these days identifies you as either very old or more or less a loser. Avoid, avoid.

Mentioning smoking breaks is a big part, I think. At a place I used to work if you smoked you basically got free extra breaks to take care of it that other associates did not, and depending how tough your job is it could be an incentive.

Yes, where I worked they generously gave you a 10 minute mid-morning break. Unless you were a smoker, and "needed" to slip out 5 minutes every hour. I often wondered if I could get away with just "smoking" a straw.

Nicotine creates a temporary feeling of well-being and relaxation, and increases heart rate and the amount of oxygen the heart uses. As nicotine enters the body, it causes a surge of endorphins, which are chemicals that help to relieve stress and pain and improve mood.

After you've experienced all the above, it's incredibly difficult to stop. Never start smoking!

In retrospect it’s amazing how the nicotine addiction causes you to accept hocking up giant wads of brownish-black phlegm every morning as entirely normal.

I smoke a cigar once every year or so and this sounds about right to me.

Who are you the Marlboro Man? Nothing you wrote is correct at all. You don't get any feeling other than nicotine withdrawal. Relieving the nicotine withdrawal will of course feel good but if you never had any nicotine in your body to begin with, nicotine does nothing to make you feel good. It does not cause a surge of endorphins. For sure it makes your heart rate go up, because it contracts your blood veins, but that's not good either...

Nicotine feels great. It's why I still crave it after giving it up a while back. Everything else involved is horrible but there's a reason people get hooked to begin with.

7 years smoke free still crave it, but it nasty and I have desire to start smoking again. Definitely an addiction that hard to overcome.

Gave up 27 years ago, got cancer anyway, still have dreams about smoking. Once you’re hooked, the cravings never go away.

Thanks for confirming my fear. 20 years for me. My dad been quite for going on 20 and only smoked for like 15 years and still gets craving.

I did not find that at all.

I'm sorry you have that - I didn't. I was quit with no cravings for five years, what got me back in was spliffs with tobacco. (Now I vape, because I do intend to occasionally smoke weed with tobacco.)

The reason you still have cravings is because you never deprogrammed yourself. You still associate gaspers with relief, relaxation, pleasure.

If you can reframe the sensation of smoking as the tense tickly feeling of "god I could use a fag", which no-one would claim to enjoy, the rest is plain sailing, and within a few weeks you'll be past any cravings. The bulk of the cravings are done within a few days.

I don't mean to suggest that it's easy to quit - most people fail. But the trick is not too withstand cravings for the rest of your life, it's too break the paradoxical association of fags with pleasure, which is a one-time thing.

I'm going to disagree with you on that. Prior to smoking cigarettes I would have a cigar every couple months. This wasn't nearly enough to develop dependency, but I could feel a sense of well-being and relaxation when I had one.

Same. What @willya@lemmyf.uk said (temporary feeling of well-being and relaxation, stress relief, improved mood) describes rather well how it felt back then for me.

Back when I did smoke I only ever really got that feeling from the first cigarette of the day, which is probably why I didn't have trouble quitting.

I progressed from cigars to cigarettes and that effect eventually got replaced by a more basic feeling of satiating a craving.

No but my dad let me redeem his Marlboro miles when I was a kid.

I have a folding bike that was originally meant to be part of a Marlsboro rewards program. Apparently smokers weren't all that interested in exercise. Who knew?

Initially you get pretty buzzed.

But that wears off. It becomes nothing but jonesing for the next one.'

The moment you are done you want another, and the anxiety builds until you feed the craving.

You're not getting anything but a very temporary relief from the need.

Source: Quit 2 years ago after over 25 years.

There's a mild light-headed "high" when you start.

It surpresses appetite (at first).

It can help make "going to the bathroom" easier.

It pairs well with coffee, marijuana, and alcohol.

In social or work situations, it's a way to get 5 minutes to yourself, or at least break off to a smaller group with just the smokers.

Due to the addiction it's a constant vicious cycle of cravings -> appeasement. It's terrible for you and costs a fortune. Prices have doubled in the last 10 years in my area. Besides the cost of your health which has always been high.

I would get a slight buzz if it had been a while since my last cigarette, but otherwise it was a satisfying of cravings. It's been about 10 years and I still miss being able to smoke a cigarette during or after stressful situations, such as watching sports.

It's kind of like sleep. If you get enough sleep, you don't necessarily feel good, just normal. If you don't get enough sleep, you feel bad. If you regularly don't get enough sleep, you might think getting enough sleep feels good, because you're so used to feeling bad and you have something to compare it to. If you're currently in a state of being tired, it feels good to lie down and go to sleep.

The act of smoking is like waking up and snoozing your alarm and going back to sleep. It feels good to go back to sleep, but only because you're tired and you're satisfying that need. Someone who sets their alarm early on purpose in order to get that "go back to sleep" feeling when they snooze might seem crazy to people who just get enough sleep. And, like smoking, it might piss off the people around you because they have to listen to your alarm go off constantly.

The "high" is about as noticable as caffeine.

Mostly it just gives you a sort of proverbial itch for the rest of your life that's nice to scratch.

The two things I actually gained from it are that I appreciated the weather more, and I understand a smoking addiction.

It's not worth carrying around the craving for a decade after you quit. And waking up with cigarette smoke in your sinuses was the absolute worst.

This is a great description of nicotine addiction (I'm a vaper, but have smoked). I'd highly recommend anyone who's considering it to not bother even if you're impulsive and having a stressful time. Imagine adding another biological need like sleeping to your plate when after a few months all it'll do for you is allow you to stop thinking about it for a bit. No more buzz. Just cravings and knowing where the exits are.

When you first start it can relieve stress and be relaxing, but that is a trap. Those effects will fade and what will be left is a habit. A habit that your brain will do some pretty large mental gymnastics to justify.

Being a stimulant, I used it for many years to self-treat my ADHD. I did the same with caffeine. Coffee and cigarettes got me through highschool.

Edit: The reason you see people in movies smoke after sex is because it combats the post bang sleepies. It also contributes to the high.

It also contributes to the high.

When I was smoking I found that they enhanced the effects of other drugs. Since it's a stimulant it keeps you from getting sleepy when you're drinking or smoking weed. With coffee I found it smoothed out the jitters and let me work a lot longer without needing food.

That being said, the constant stink on my clothes and the huge price of cigarettes got me to switch to vaping, and I'm reducing the nicotine concentration to help me kick it entirely.

From experience, once you're genuinely ready to stop and you're already down to 0mg, at some point you'll just randomly get too lazy to change your coil and that'll be it.

I haven't smoked in years, but in the off chance I go out for a beer, I will usually bum at least one from somebody.

It reduces anxiety and suppresses appetite. It satisfied both oral and digital fixations. It looks and feels cool as hell.

Now, all that is more than overcome by the significant downsides, mind.

I have an RDA mod that I hit on occasion, although it seems like everybody just uses disposables now

Nothing good.

Source: was a smoker for 35 years. Quit last year.

Hey, congrats. I've been a smoker for 20 years, and I'm getting sick of it. I hope I can quit soon.

You absolutely can! What helped me immensely was Wellbutrin. Was on it for about 2 months. NO cravings at all. That shit is like magic!

Interesting. I've been on Wellbutrin before with no results; maybe I'll look into it again. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

There is also Chantix/Champex depending on your country. I found it to be extremely effective in turning me off of cigarettes. It made me nauseous and I think it changed how my brain felt about cigarettes until they disgusted me.

I have heard a couple people say the same thing about Chantix. Sounds like it kinda Pavlovs you into hating cigarettes. I'd be down for it.

I don't get why there are so many pro-nicotine people here. I guess they have to defend their addiction?

If you try nicotine for the first time, you will feel dizzy and sick. But you will start to crave more nicotine. When you redeem that craving you will feel "good". But that "good" is actually just feeling normal. Think of it as if you put on too tight shoes, walked around with them, and then took them of again for a little while and then put them back on.

I smoked and used other nicotine products for 10 years, but after learning the truth about nicotine it was easy to quit. It's a very pointless drug but also very lucrative for those selling it...

I didn't see much in the way of pro-nicotine comments. People just answered the question about what they got out of it. Most also said it was a terrible habit.

Your experience with it being easy to quit doesn't seem to be typical, but it was great that it worked out that way.

Because lying to people doesn't make them want to avoid smoking. The best antidote is telling them the whole truth, "good" and bad.

The DARE program didn't work.

It works as an appetite suppressants

It does or is one of those myths created by the tobacco industry to market cigarette consumption with women?

It makes food taste like shit and by extension you want to eat less. At least, that was my experience with smoking for years. When I quit I gained like 40 lbs.

The coffee and smoke combo in the morning tho, I used to love it so much

Oh yeah. Marlboro Reds and black coffee got me through some rough fucking mornings in my early 20s.

I could go until the late afternoon without eating with the power of nicotine. I would say it's about the same as coffee but you can smoke more frequently than you can drink coffee (usually).

It did supress my appetite during the first year or so, but after that the effect wore off.

Like other stimulant drugs (including caffeine and amphetamines), nicotine suppresses some of the signals your body uses to register being hungry.

It's a little bump of energy and a calming ritual that's all too intoxicating. Perfect for when you wanna sip a cup of coffee and/or do yoga or something to decompress but only have like 3 minutes to spare or else your boss will yell at you. I've found cannabis to be far more effective and safer-feeling.

With a hidey lidey lidey and a hidey lidey lay We work and we make cigarettes all hidey lidey day So folks can get a breaky from their stressful lidey lives And relaxy with the cigarettes we make all day and night

I like to have a cigarette every now and then It makes me feel calmer when the day is at an end.

And if it gives me cancer when I'm eighty I don't care Who the hell wants to be ninety anyway?

So with a hidey lidey lidey and a hidey lidey lay We work and we make cigarettes all hidey lidey day So folks can get a breaky from their stressful lidey lives And relaxy with the cigarettes we make all day and night

Most of the smokers I've known don't even get close to 80, and are often very sickly when they do. Two family members that didn't make it to 60. A healthy looking co-worker who dropped dead in the parking lot. A former boss who didn't get to enjoy more than two years retirement.

Cigarettes are the only consumer product that, when used as directed, kill their consumers.

Nah, alcohol shares the same boat. There are lots of examples if you really dig into the effects of various things. Alcohol and tobacco just kill you so slowly that it doesn't drop profits.

No. Smoking is way more personally dangerous than alcohol, except for auto accidents. Tobacco hurts you in so many different ways -- with sagging skin, lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, stained teeth, strokes, hypertension. Also, alcohol addicts only represent about 10% of the drinking public, whereas about 90% of smokers become chain-smoking addicts.

And, as I mentioned, smoking often kills people a decade short of retirement. Drinkers, on the other hand, often reach old age.

Not justifying alcohol, but there are so many downsides to smoking. But you can't explain that to an addict.

Nicotine is an awesome drug. Increases your focus and provides a mild euphoric effect. Of course it's not good for you, and if you've got to do it, it's better to get it in some other way than to smoke cigarettes.

Edit: lots of people are suggesting that you don't get any benefit once you're addicted, except satisfying the cravings. That's not true. Nicotine feels good even after you've been using it for a long time.

I think people saying that think the "feel good" only comes from satisfying the craving. And that is a big part of it.

Nicotine is a shit drug, it just happens to be one of the few that are legal.

Everyone here is forgetting one of the main things: It gives you an escape from work and awkward socaial situations

It also gives you a way to interact with social situations where you feel awkward. Or if you're like me and you are awkward it gives you positive learning social situations. Makes it much harder to quit when you get suicidal interactions that you're craving and don't otherwise get.

Yeah, I've definitely met interesting people at work or outside of a bar that I never would have said two words to otherwise.

I guess cell phones can substitute for that now to an extent.

I never smoked but know smokers who could not sleep through the night. They would wake up ever couple of hours to smoke. That is miserable.

What does cigarette smoking do for people?

Gives them an assortment of cancers with a side of breathing and cardio issues.

Nicotine (the main active ingredient in tobacco) is a mild stimulant. It can help people relax or focus better. You can also get a bit of a headshot if you smoke intensely

There are also cultural benefits. Hanging out informally with others, especially at work can be useful. A 10 min informal tea break every now and again would be better but that's the world we have got in many workplaces.

I started smoking because I realized I'd be disadvantaged (and miss out on friends) by not participating in my former office's smoke breaks. It's really hard to understate the social aspect. I met so many people by just standing places with a cigarette. Potential dates/partners, work connections, etc... Standing out with a cigarette is like a beacon for people to chat with you or ask to bum one. It's a shortcut to socialization.

But don't do it. They're awful, take all your money, and make you feel and smell like death. It stops being fun after like a week, tops.

The feeling of taking a drag of a cigarette when you're craving is unequal to any pleasure I've had in my life. Of course that's due to the addiction, and I don't recommend anyone smoke. But gott damn, it is bliss.

Fortunately I no longer need to smoke usually. But the second I drink the first sip of my beer, the craving hits very hard. Then I give myself in, and it's so, so goddamn good I cannot even describe it. Fuck smoking. A hate that I love it when I drink.

It's very satisfying, kinda like how you feel after you just finished eating a big meal. A significant portion of that satisfying feeling is caused by the chemical dependence that the nicotine addiction itself caused in the first place, but that doesn't change the fact that the feeling is very satisfying.

It satisfies the craving for nicotine, if they're already dependent on it. Others need a smoke to poop.

It relaxes and grounds you. I started during a particularly stressful exam phase and it helped with managing stress.

I never smoked for any length. What everyone says is pretty much correct. I did occasionally take a few puffs when I was younger. Did give you a bit of a short rush but also could make you feel bit gross after.

Nasty habit though and seriously hard to break.

It forces you into addiction. It alters the feel-good hormones in you brain. And every addict will tell you the same thing, their poison will give them relaxation and clears their mind. Same as alcoholic, watching frequent porn, frequent coffee drinker and drug addict. The difference is how strong/mild and how harmful it is to the human body. The more they do it, the more they built up tolerance, hence doing more of the same activity.

People usually start from peer pressure or when they face stressful conditions. And when they do it, it gave them the temporary relief from that stressful condition. But the fact is they're just too weak and their mind too maliable unable to face the stressful condition.

Nicotine high is very heady and can be relaxing. However the body quickly develops a tolerance and nicotine is physically addictive, meaning that smoking turns from a relaxing voulentary experience to a entirely habitual one that does nothing for you but ruin your lungs really quickly. Most cigarette smokers start in very early teens, by adulthood they haven't had a true nicotine high in years and chainsmoke out of physical addiction. Smoking weed is much healthier by comparison as the high is much 'nicer feeling' to me and is not physically addictive. Smoke is still bad for your lungs but can be mitigated with edibles or dry herb vaporizers. source: parents and many friends were chainsmokers and I picked up the habit for a few months in late teens.

I've been smoking a pack a day for the last 12 years or so. At first smoking felt great, these days it only gives me a "high" when I smoke after waking up. Been trying to switch to nicotine pouches instead to break my habits first and then quit nicotine cold turkey.

It's easy to get into conversations with strangers.

But the topic is always the same: Habits around smoking and the inability to stop.

Risks from smoking:

  • Head or neck cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Leukemia
  • Stomach cancer
  • Kidney cancer
  • Pancreas cancer
  • Colon cancer
  • Bladder cancer
  • Cervix cancer
  • Stroke
  • Blindness
  • Gum infection
  • Aortic rupture
  • Heart disease
  • Pneumonia
  • Hardening of the arteries
  • Chronic lung disease
  • Asthma
  • Reduced fertility
  • Hip fracture

"[Smoking and oral] Tobacco use is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally."

Yes. Smoking is bad and people shouldn't smoke. But you didn't answer the question that was asked.