Isn't it funny? We HAVE to see smoke

[Katoo]

I never really understood that before. Inhalers, gum, patches, drugs, none of em are good enough.

But being able to keep the rituals - smoke rings, deeply inhaling, hand-to-mouth, we are able to feel normal.

What has always driven me back to analogs in my many quit quests, is I grow so fatiqued of constantly feeling abnormal, and that there is something missing nagging continuously, even once the initial craziness of nicotene withdrawal has long gone.

It's why we are willing to put up with dead atomizers, constant battery charging, paraphernalia boxes, cleaning scuzzy carts, carrying vials of liquid, odd looks, constant questions.

Because it keeps us in balance with ourselves doesn't it? Just seeing that puff of smoke.

Odd.

Wonderful.

2 weeks e-smoking. I still smoke the occasional analog. They seem to be just naturally tapering themselves away.

[Frankie]

It is also connected with a very different type of breathing we execute when smoking, which is said to be deeply relaxing of itself. And we do not have to give it up when vaping. That is why some people can go to lower or even zero nic without much fuzz or problems.

[RainbowznStarz]

lol. I think it's mostly the ritual of the whole smoking experience. After 17 years of smoking analogs I had convinced myself I NEEDED a cigarette for just about any reason. Kinda like we all get that credit card just for emergencies and somehow someway, everything all a sudden becomes an emergency. The $300 coach purse I bought because my other purse had a teensy rip in the lining would be a great example of this Now with the e-cig I've learned it wasn't that I had to have a cigarette, I wanted the ritual. I wonder if my shopping is ritualistic too? Crap.

Seeing the smoke helps. a LOT.

The brain is a strange thing.

[Mufftrix]

Isn't it funny? We HAVE to see smoke

Agree all the times i`ve tried to packup always had the craving for the experience you get from smoking. So after trying gum worked for withdrawal symptoms but couldn`t do without it! tried inhaler but didn`t get enough of a kick am trying the e-cig as a way to at least cut down! tried a sample kit and only smoked 6 cigs until battery ran out and usually smoke 20+ a day and didn`t even notice how long was going without a normal one!

[satake]

I think the way we're used to getting our nicotine makes a huge difference too. The delivery method(smoke), the way we meter our inhalation(puffs), and the rituals that go with it(like smoking after meals). These are things that are near impossible with a patch, not the same "kick" with gum or a lozenge. To me e-smoking is just a cleaner way to smoke, no smell, fewer chemicals and best of all is it doesn't matter if you can't find your lighter.

[Chris From Cali]

I think the way we're used to getting our nicotine makes a huge difference too. The delivery method(smoke), the way we meter our inhalation(puffs), and the rituals that go with it(like smoking after meals). These are things that are near impossible with a patch, not the same "kick" with gum or a lozenge. To me e-smoking is just a cleaner way to smoke, no smell, fewer chemicals and best of all is it doesn't matter if you can't find your lighter.

Amen to that! Last night not only did a break my darn lighter (the stupid flint shot off some place) it was raining. and cold... I found my self imagining what it will be like with my new nifty e-smoke. Not having to leave my office.

[Stemple]

I think there's also a "generational" thing, if you will, about the image of smoke as well.

I've been saying "generational" concerning this for most of my [young] adult life. And I've honestly never really gotten down to explaining why I use the term. So, let me try to hammer this out so it makes sense:



There are certain images, be they symbols, expressions, or otherwise physical occurrences, that haven been ingrained into humans and/or human societies. Some carry relatively neutral connotations and are simply accepted by most "human nature", such as the tranquility of river valley in spring.

Others, however, carry either heavily positive or negative connotations, are most generally exclusive to certain societies that form such connotations (the exposing of ones foot sole in Arab cultures), or have formed/changed upon the advent of the "global community" (such as the Swastika changing from an ancient religious symbol of peace to that of evil, hate crimes and genocide after World War II).

The latter notions on certain images can rise and fall quickly, depending on the strength of a society's view on said image(s).

Smoking, however, is a ritual that has been passed down for millennia.

Millennia.

This ancient practice of assembling the tobacco leaf and rolling it into another combustible material, lighting the product on fire, and inhaling the result has had the rare privilege of often transcending, yet also defining the class system at the same time, a status also held by alcohol and sex. Those with money and status indulge, and those who have little status and begin to gain more money indulge based upon what the people who already have money and status have indulged.

Thus, we see dignitaries, artists, actors and other "higher-class" people who have money, status and SEX smoke and we form a connotation around the image of whisps of fog trickling out of an open mouth.

This is not even to mention the id based attractions humans find in the very act and substance behind smoking! We not only master nature by draining from it a substance that invigorates our bodies, but the elegance of a slow, dancing, curvaceous exhalation of tantalizing smoke being brought in and out, in and out, in and out of our mouths is so sexual it may as well be a striptease.

It has only been in recent times that a mass deconstruction and demonization of the image of the cigarette and its smoke has taken place. Of course, this is largely in response to the discovery of the incredibly harmful side effects of prolonged use of tobacco cigarettes. And perhaps rightfully so.

But I wonder: Can - or better, Why should - such a reconstruction of the connotation behind the image of smoke so suddenly change the way we have viewed such an image for thousands and thousands of years? Is there more, perhaps subversively, behind the change? An attempt to break away from dependence upon class evaluation, allowing an individual to assess "trends" for his or herself? An attempt to also demonize Freudian urges and responses to subconscious oral fixations and stimulations that could lead to more open sexualities?



...*Ahem*

So. Yeah. It's a generational thing.

[Chris From Cali]

Holy crap, best forum post I've read in years.

[Bertrand]

Smoke, in terms of "index", means "there is a fire - you probably want to run away." In terms of "symbol", it means whatever the media make it mean.

It became sexy simply because smoke just happens to look really great in a black and white film, and they needed something to symbolize sex back when you couldn't show it. It stopped being sexy because various lobby groups reacted to the health implications and consciously began a propaganda campaign to change its image.

Very few people watch films more than five years old. Shame, really.

[Weegie Burd]

I happen to enjoy the physical act of smoking, I swear I'm as addicted to the routine as much as I am to the nicotine. Ohh that rhymed, Rabbie Burns eat yer heart out.

Seriously though, any time I tried patches, gum, willpower etc, the one thing I missed was the physical act of smoking. Now I can have the best of both worlds.

I remember seeing the inhalers and they were being marketed as allowing you to feel as though you're smoking by having a device you put in your mouth, you inhale/suck on it, and it delivers nicotine to your system in the way that a cigarette does etc. Tae Hell with that, it looked like a bl**dy tampax applicator, as if I'm gonnae be seen walking about with that dangling from my mouth.

I actually like the fact that the e-cig can be as discreet as you want it to be. Tonight my Mum & I were shopping in the pet shop, one of those ones that's more like a department store it's that big (buying a £35 bed for the dog from Santa, Santa must have more money than sense ) . Anyway, I walked about the shop happily vaping away and nobody batted an eyelid. Granted, they wouldn't have smelt anything given the stench that greated you as you walked in the door - why does pet supplies have to stink so much?
If however I wanted to stand out, I could happily puff away on my e-cig and draw (pardon the pun) plenty of attention from the smokers.

E-smoking, it's a win win situation.