Eagle Eye

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

I keep saying i NEED to quit smoking but the reality is i don't WANT to quit. That being said my kids always have food, shelter, and are at school, and i have been known to scrounge for change to buy a pack of cigarettes before the paycheck gets cashed the next day, but I can honestly say when i don't have the money then I don't smoke. I don't steal for it, lie for it or try to kill someone over it... although I can be quite grumpy about it. I can go hours without a cigarette and be just fine, unlike some people who HAVE to go for their cigarette every hour or what not, I can sit through a movie, an airplane flight but i hate driving any long distance and not being able to smoke because it's a HABIT. It all is, coffee and a cigarette in the morning etc etc etc, but Allu's right. Her neighbors sound typical of a lot of smokers I've met as well (although a bit on the extreme side, I can't say anyone I know would pick cigarettes over say baby formula). I have 5 bucks, do i buy food (for myself, lets say lunch)or cigarettes ? Cigarettes will win out more then half the time for most people

[Alluveal]

You can smoke and keep a steady job, pay your bills, have healthy relationships and be responsible - junkies can do none of that.

I hate smoke, I don't like being around smokers, but I've never seen people not functional over them...until they get lung cancer, but people do a lot of unhealthy things killing themselves. I don't really see food-addicts that kill themselves with the crap they put into their bodies and lack of exercise compared to street junkies.

I agree with you completely. And even when some smokers do get cancer, they continue to smoke. Nothing like seeing an old woman sitting at the bus stop with an oxygen tank and a cigarette in her mouth. But yeah, I think street drugs trigger things in the brain in a more immediately and urgent manner? Maybe someone else knows the chemistry behind that all. But, you see someone do crack and they become insatiable. They keep going and going on these binges and become so frantic when they run out that they will do anything to get a fix. I just don't see that with cigarettes. I mean, people can chain smoke, but most just have their cigarette, then go do their thing for a few hours.

[Klast Brell]

I think it's a reach to say junkies and smokers are anywhere near the same ballpark.

SicTim, AKA Tim Mitchell and I had a talk about that. He kicked heroin over 10 years ago. He still smokes.

And even though I quit smoking 2 years ago, you can bet your ass that if I found out I had a terminal illness I would run out and buy a carton of smokes immediately.

[Garrdor]

I gawtz a phat blunt hangin out mah mouth

[Taxious]

#2) Add Robert Downey Jr

Harlowe, have you ever seen Two Girls and a Guy?

[Harlowe]

I think it's a reach to say junkies and smokers are anywhere near the same ballpark.

SicTim, AKA Tim Mitchell and I had a talk about that. He kicked heroin over 10 years ago. He still smokes.

And even though I quit smoking 2 years ago, you can bet your ass that if I found out I had a terminal illness I would run out and buy a carton of smokes immediately.

I wasn't speaking with regard to which is more addictive or insinuating it wasn't an addictive drug (if that's what you mean), but which causes more problems - within families, personal life, emotionally, socially, legally? Junkies and alcoholics, not smokers. Tim is alive today to still smoke. If he wouldn't have kicked his heroin problem 10 years ago, what would his life be like now - if he was even still alive? Most likely he would have died years ago.

Also, people give up a lot of shit but keep smoking because they are addictive personalities and need something. Why do you think AA is filled with smokers - hell a lot of them became smokers when they quit drinking. Not because smoking is more addictive, but it's the lesser of their evils.

Taxious - yep I saw that movie! I think Heather Graham was even in it and she didn't suck.

[Klast Brell]

You're right. I hadn't considered that other side of the equation.

Now I'm just thinking out loud here. Speculating. (Talking out my ass) But it just struck me that if we can say that someone is prone to addiction no matter what the source, then they would have equal difficulty kicking their addiction no matter what the source. Thus the difference in ability to kick one thing over the other might be the incentive to quit. As you said. Heroin is much more self destructive.

Is there such a thing as a non-addictive personality? Someone who can put down smokes, or heroin and suffer the symptoms of withdrawal like they would suffer a bad case of the flu. And then go on with their life never being haunted by cravings and fear of relapse?

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

I'd be more inclined to believe everyone has an addictive personality in some way, be it to exercise, soda, coffee, chocolate, cigarettes, street drugs, booze or whatever the case may be. Everyone has something they do. Maybe it's not self destructive but does that make them any less addicted ?

I realize that doesn't totally answer Klasts question, so to answer his I think yes. It's not even a matter of will power so much as it is simply person versus person. Not to say maybe they won't have a craving for a drink or a smoke, but there's a difference between on occasion having a craving and still being haunted every other day.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I'd be more inclined to believe everyone has an addictive personality in some way, be it to exercise, soda, coffee, chocolate, cigarettes, street drugs, booze or whatever the case may be. Everyone has something they do. Maybe it's not self destructive but does that make them any less addicted ?

I tend to agree with this statement. Harlowe could probably attest to this... keep a runner of his or her feet for a few days and you will DEFINATELY see withdrawal symptoms (I think its related to the lack of endorphins released during exercise). Addiction has both a mental aspect, and a physiological one. Most of the cravings/withdrawals/pleasure aspects are purely physiological. What you do with them is the mental aspect of it.

Here's a question that is often applied to people that are being evaluated for addiction. Have you ever re-arranged your life to make room for your *insert substance here*?

Well, open up that question to:
Smokers
Drinkers
Drug Users
Gym Rats
Religious zealots
Triatheletes (some of the healthiest junkies I know)
EQ (did you ever play hookey from work/school to enjoy the new expansion? How is that different from playing hookey from work to get high?)
Workalohics
Over-eaters
The list goes on...

My point is many lifestyles include elements of addiction. Some aren't as heard on the body as others, but maybe they are harder on relationships. I think our society paints a darker picture of addicts (and maybe thats the wrong word here, maybe obsessives is more accurate), who use outside chemical influences, and gives a pass to those that rely on endorphins for their high.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

My ex husband would tell you EQ broke up our marriage. We all know people who DID break up over EQ. In the end he and I had more of a misunderstanding about EQ (and other aspects of our marriage) but we all know most of us lived normal lives, albeit playing EQ for insane amounts of time to hit that lvl, that AA that raid, that last piece of loot (that fucking Mage staff from Maestro ?) etc etc etc. Embar hit on my point exactly. Ask Minute about the gym or Harlowe about running, it's all an addiction regardless of how it's painted. Ask any woman who craves chocolate during PMS when normally she could really care less about chocolate. Isn't giving in to that craving falling prey to the addict within, even if it's only a temporary addiction ?

Anyway glad to see I made a worth while contribution Embar =)

[Harlowe]

There is some truth to that. I've become okay with other activities when I can't run, but it took me a long time to be "ok" or get the same kind of feeling of well-being or high from doing something else. I think I like running because I can easily measure my effort in time and distance and I'm outside, I love the smell and atmosphere, it's meditative quality, which all adds up to making it feel life-affirming (at risk of getting overly sentimental about running), I could almost call the act of long-distance running spiritual to me. Also, knowing your body in relation to that activity makes it easier to push yourself. It's motivating to know all the stats and facts of what you are doing. Sure you can read shit on a machine or you can do it with weights and reps, but that doesn't motivate me like running, probably because I've never pushed my self to the limit with anything like I have running and I hate working out indoors.

When I had to switch it up due to plantar faciitis, it took me a long time to get over that depressed-because-I-wasn't-running feeling. But since I was forced to for a year - I can now switch it up without feeling that depressed and anxious feeling I had before. But nothing comes even close (for me) to being as fulfilling mentally and physically. It's never affected relationships detrimentally because it doesn't take that much time (in fact less than going to a gym, working out and coming back home) other than the one day a week you do a long run while marathon training - but I run one at most a year now (there were a few years I did 2-3), sometimes I even skip a year.

So I guess I'm a functional running addict.

[Partha]

Have you ever re-arranged your life to make room for your *insert substance here*?

Definitely, if the 'insert substance' is sleep.