Many addictions are thoroughly enjoyable but ultimately harmful. Smoking is one such addiction. Some people shy away from the term "addiction" due to all of the

Many addictions are thoroughly enjoyable but ultimately harmful. Smoking is one such addiction. Some people shy away from the term "addiction" due to all of the horrible connotations, but absolutely everyone is "addicted" to multiple things. The addiction might be a substance like nicotine, or the addiction might be a mannerism, or the addiction might be over-eating, or the addiction might even be a way of thinking, but none the less, human beings are always creatures of habit. There's an old and jaded phrase, "You're unique, just like everyone else." The same can be said about addiction, "You're addicted, just like everyone else." When put in such simple and straightforward terms, the commonality of harmful addictions like smoking shines through. You're not the first person or the only person with a harmful habit. The good news is that we can change our habits. The bad news is that changing a habit takes effort. The problem is not smoking itself since if only done on rare occasions it can be exceedingly pleasurable, instead, the real problem is the habit of smoking. It's the _repeated_ and _extensive_ exposure to smoke entering your system that eventually kills you. The rates of emphysema and cancer (lung, mouth, throat, stomach, colorectal, ...) due to smoke exposure are extremely high in poor places where people cook their food over open flames or burn wood for heat without adequate ventilation. If you are a habitual tobacco smoker, then you're certainly not the only one killing yourself with smoke, and unlike you, many must endure the smoke to get the food and heat they need to just survive. You have it easy. You have a choice. The harmful habits are reinforced by the positive feedback of pleasure. Another old and jaded phrase, "Too much of a good thing," comes to mind, but the misguided phrase, "All things in moderation," is dangerous. The trouble with the idea of all things in moderation is some things are simply too addictive to even try, so they pose an irrational risk of addiction. Nicotine is _immensely_ addictive on a chemical basis. In fact, the neurotransmitter receptor often used to measure the addictive qualities of substances is actually named after nicotine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinic_acetylcholine_receptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinic_acetylcholine_recept... You may, or may not, understand all the biochemistry involved, but most people can understand the logic of how a simple chemical compound like nicotine can cause a pleasurable response, and the pleasure can lead to a habitual addiction. If you are already addicted to a pleasurable but harmful habit, a mental trick to solve the problem is to decide to never quit, but also decide to break the _habit_ of pursuing your addiction regularly. You can harness your inner procrastinator to your advantage by simply saying, "Maybe I'll have a smoke later," when the urge hits you. Over time, the beneficial procrastination gets easier and easier. The common "Smoking Cessation" products, both prescribed and over-the-counter, like nicotine patches, gum, and mints may be helpful in your procrastination efforts, but be wary of the all too common problem of replacing one addiction with another. Some have claimed that "electronic cigarettes" (e-cigs, vaporizers, vape) are useful for smoking cessation, but I have not personally seen any peer reviewed research results to support such claims. Similar to the proven "Smoking Cessation" products (patch, gum, mints), the e-cigs can provide nicotine in a form other than smoke, but since the nicotine itself is addictive, you still have the same substantial risk of merely replacing one addiction with another. The common claims nicotine infused e-cigs being harmless are pure bullshit -- There is a reason why all the major tobacco companies now have their own brands of e-cigs; they want you to become addicted. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26270431 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26270431 http://www.ccjm.org/cgi/doi/10.3949/ccjm.82a.14054 http://www.ccjm.org/cgi/doi/10.3949/ccjm.82a.14054 >ABSTRACT >Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes)—devices that generate a nicotine vapor that can be inhaled by the user in a fashion that mimics the experience of smoking—are increasing in popularity, and many people seem to view them as reasonable alternatives to nicotine replacement therapy to help them refrain from smoking. Physicians should not encourage such a view. E-cigarettes are unregulated nicotine delivery systems that have never been subjected to any kind of testing of safety or of efficacy as nicotine replacement therapy. Moreover, for young people who have never smoked, these devices could potentially serve as a gateway drug. The claims of nicotine itself being harmless are also bullshit. Nicotine itself causes cancer (i.e. it's carcinogenic). You don't need to be a genius or even particularly adept in chemistry to realize how nicotine is carcinogenic due to how it reacts in the body. Without being too fancy or confusing, when Nicotine loses its methyl group, it becomes Nornicotine which when exposed to mild acids (syliva, digestive tract, lungs, or even acids in blood) becomes Nitronornicotine (NNN) which _IS_ classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a Group 1 Carcinogen. Smokers die of colorectal cancer, but it's not due to being assholes, instead, it's due to simple chemistry that everyone can understand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Carcinogen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Carcinogen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nornicotine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nornicotine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Nitrosonornicotine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Nitrosonornicotine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_1_carcinogen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_1_carcinogen Yes, wikipedia disagrees with me about nicotine being a carcinogen, but wikipedia is dangerously wrong. The above linked pubmed paper is a good place to start reading (references) about the role nicotine plays in carcinogenesis, but there is a lot more research out there if you dig. The tobacco (and e-cig) industry is continuously doing everything it can to prevent nicotine from being properly classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The editing wars on the wikipedia nicotine page between the tobacco industry and health (research) professionals are staggering and notorious. You do not need to be a conspiracy theory kook to see all the blatant corruption and manipulation at work under the guise of fake "neutrality" on wikipedia. Additionally, since nicotine is an effective appetite suppressant, you can expect to be hungry. Unless you can avoid replacing the satiation pleasure of smoking with satiation pleasure of eating, you will gain weight, possibly a lot of weight. In this overly image conscious world, the very idea of possibly getting fat(er) can be reprehensible enough for some to chose smoking over weight gain -- This is a false dichotomy. Using a fallacy of false choice to justify a continuation of a harmful habit is simply irrational. Human biology has evolved to both crave salts, fats, proteins, and sugars for survival, so the risk of replacing a harmful smoking habit with a harmful eating habit is very significant. Once you learn to harness your inner procrastinator to defer smoking (indefinitely), you may need to also harness it to eat less by deferring eating until later. Also, when you do mistakenly gorge yourself on food, you'll notice something extremely odd, namely, you're still hungry, so you'll eventually learn how eating fails to actually solve the (new) problem of a perceived hunger sensation/craving. Small snacks of low fat cottage cheese (or tofu) and fruit may help, and some healthy salt cured foods like olives and pickles may also help. The goal is to have a small amount of reasonably healthy food that checks off all the required boxes (salts, fats, proteins, and sugars). Your friend may be (rightfully) skeptical, but one of the know ways to stop smoking is refusing to quit, and surprisingly, the procrastination method works well for breaking or changing all sorts of harmful habits. I wish your friend the best of luck.