There goes my streak.

[Balcan]

About 2 weeks without a single cigarette and my buddy brought me a pack of cigarettes from Russia for the new year. Vanilla cigarettes. It's my first semi-serious attempt at giving up the habit. It's just become such a commonplace thing for me. Everyone's trying to get me on the vape but it's not a good substitute. You're supposed to puff yourself full of nicotine from the vape without all the cancer-inducing substances in cigarettes but you really don't know just what kind of chemicals the vape contains.

Discuss - smoking, vaping, good cigarettes, etc.

[Maro]

i'm a smoker but i don't smoke nearly as much as my grandmother that's for sure.


i agree they don't really know what's in a vape and sometimes it can be just as bad or worse than a cigarette itself. >v<;

[Balcan]

Practically every guy in my family is a smoker. That's never been an influence for me though.

My friend just returned from Russia with a pack of Ziganov, which I haven't been able to find anywhere in the US.

What I do like about the vape is that it doesn't leave a smell and you can do it anywhere undetected.

[Maro]

that is the only thing i like about them as well to be honest mihailo.

i've tried flavoured cigarillos before but never got to try a flavoured cigarette other than menthol.


a lot of people in my family smoke but honestly i only started to help with coping with stress caused by a multitude of different mostly personal factors >v<;

[Balcan]

In my area Black & Mild is really popular. Marlboro has some good menthol flavors though.

The reason I started was because I was really unhappy as a teenager and I was willing to try pretty much anything as long as it made me feel better. When I was a kid I didn't have any access to anything so this one time I decided to get high off of nutmeg. Yeah, that's a thing. I assume it's legal because people think no one is stupid enough to try it. Anyway, it was a horrible trip (if you could call it that) and the aftermath feels like god taking a shit on your soul.

[galled]

Sorry you "fell off the wagon."

I started smoking when I was in 4th grade. By the time in I was in 9th grade I was smoking a pack a day (unsupervised teen). I quit many times over the years, but was finally able to do it in my early 20's.

As a rule, I think any habit is counterproductive, but one that harms you and/or others is the worst thing a human can do because it is controllable despite the definition of the word. Smoking is a proven cancer risk factor and money pit and looking back now, I don't know why I ever smoked really. I tell myself I liked it, but that's a purely emotional answer with no basis other than a preference. It's not a reason--if that makes sense.

Vaping is an industry attempt to remove one of the major drawbacks to acceptance of a substitute addicting product. For me, the issue was a matter of control (the major cause of addiction is a result of depression, depression is a result of unhappiness, which is typically a result of perceived loss of control). I came to the conclusion that I should, and want to, no need to, control my own life--not the companies, not the products, not the people I hung around (who smoked). When I was a kid and started smoking, I probably felt like I was in control, but in reality, I gave up control to these things.

Most things will kill you if you do it too much. I wish good health and long, productive lives to all. (Happiness is a choice--another discussion.) But once you lose control over something (e.g. it controls you), it is very bad on all levels and should be corrected ASAP regardless of whether it'll kill you or not IMHO.

I wish everyone great success with their choices and hope that these choices are good ones!

[Maro]

that's a pretty good perspective on it galled

[Balcan]

The reason I'm quitting - I don't want a dependency. On anything. I don't want to have to smoke in order to feel "normal". For me it was a coping strategy. It's not a constructive coping strategy, but it helps alleviate the stress and tension, even if only temporarily.

[galled]

That's awesome! You're on the right track! We're here for support, but I think you have it under control.