4 ms·
Former smoker here. One good thing is the ritual. I never thought of it as "brainless" before but that's a great way of putting it. Smoking is relaxing because
by bad-joke 11y ago
Former smoker here.
One good thing is the ritual. I never thought of it as "brainless" before but that's a great way of putting it. Smoking is relaxing because you turn off your brain and go through the prescribed motions. When you finish the last motion you go back to life. It's not really relaxing in the chemically induced way (in fact smoking increases anxiety), it's more like meditation. You're allowing yourself to take a break from life for a few minutes. In fact, you're really being /given permission/ to take a break by the external mandate of addiction cravings. You can use this time to reflect, strike up a conversation, examine your surroundings, whatever you want.
Another good thing is bonding with smokers. It's a shared activity. The act of smoking serves as either punctuation for a conversation, or the background noise that substitutes conversation. A cigarette can be a prop used for emphasis. Bumming a cigarette is a sort of friendly offering. Most importantly, misery loves company. All smokers know they're addicted. When you smoke with someone else, you're acknowledging each other's weakness and demonstrating acceptance. That's one of the main reasons being a smoker is like being in a big, secret club. It's very romantic.
I haven't smoked in a very long time, and I realize now that it was a really stupid and damaging habit, but I do miss parts of it. I've promised myself that I can take up pipe-smoking as a reward for surviving into elderly age.
- greggman 11y agoI would love all those positives you mentioned. I wonder if anyone could get a new custom started that provided those positives but not the negstives. Dumb idea, carrot breaks (yea I know really really dumb but there's got to be something)
- vollmond 11y agoI smoke pipes and cigars for exactly the reasons you've mentioned. It forces me to hang out on my deck for a couple hours doing nothing (because my hands are busy). It's fantastic introvert time to regroup after a long week. I know pipes and cigars have lower risks of most health issues (mainly due to much lower frequency of use for many people, and because most people don't actually inhale), but I would be elated if that risk could be eliminated entirely. The experience is extremely useful for my mental health.
- richardjdare 11y agoWhen I worked in crap jobs, smoke breaks were a life saver. I worked at one place (a growers in rural England) where we only had 15 minutes for lunch (probably illegal) but we could take smoke breaks if we wanted. Everyone smoked super kings to maximise their break time. I think something about smoking cigarettes is intimately linked to control of time, particularly in regimented industrial environments / crap jobs where you have to clock out to take a shit. When I smoked at work, it was like I was free for the duration of each cigarette.
- gaius 11y agoThat's definitely a thing. I like to get up from my desk a few times a day and go for a short walk, stretch my legs, get some fresh air, clear my mind, maybe run a minor errand. That's weird, but if I was going for a smoke, no-one would bat an eyelid.
- abalashov 11y agoFormer smoker here. I used to take like 10 smoke breaks a day at my day job and it seemed completely normal at the time. I was a minority, but certainly not the only one. Looking back on it, it seems completely insane, though; I am baffled that it was tolerated, especially since a major theme in my job description was being on hand in case bad things happened (monitoring alarms).