smoking

yes definitely worse for hangovers.

a friend of mine blames the public smoking ban on his brother's death. He suffered from schizophrenia and in the secure housing building he lived, the communal smoking room was his main social hub. Without it they all just smoked in their own rooms and he started drinking much more heavily on his own, till it took him.

https://media.giphy.com/media/641arBi22PAty/giphy.gif

(Sorry. So sorry.)

I have like 10 packs of cigarettes at home from the times over the years when I've bought a pack, smoked a couple, then just forgot about it for awhile

The kids don't smoke anymore! They vape or smoke weed.

my gf and i both started vaping to stop smoking habits which were mainly connected to drinking, with the odd cigarette here or there at other times. kind of a mistake because of course it's way more tempting, in the vancouver winter, to have a pull on your vaporizer while nice and cozy indoors, than it ever was to go out the front of the building for a dart. there's also something about the feeling of smoking that vaping doesn't really replace. oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yeah I'm not making the switch to juul specifically because I know I would consume more nicotine simply by being able to juul inside. feel good about smoking 4-5 analogs a day as is.

Are people smoking more now? Less? I'm smoking more. More free time, more need for small-but-satisfying pick-me-ups throughout the day.

My tobacco tale is one of gateway drug in reverse, because I smoked weed my whole life and hated cigarettes, but after a few trips to Europe and the realization that spliffs are awesome (and a far more sensible and grown-ass way to get high), I gradually began putting less and less weed in a spliff until 3 out of every four 'spliffs' was basically just a cig. I've only ever smoked ryo because it keeps me from smoking more (I average about 4-5 a day, skipping days here and there if I feel my throat getting dry or scratchy) and I find the rolling ritual very meditative.

Peter Stokkebye tobacco has spoiled me for all others. I used to just buy Bugler because it was cheap, and the light blue American Spirits when I was feeling spendy, but now I can't bear anything but the best. I'm all about the Stockholm Blend and the Turkish Export. Not so into the Danish Export or Amsterdam Shag, both of which I find a bit too moist, and I don't have the patience to dry out rolling tobacco.

So...more? Less?

Initially, I found myself smoking more. Then I realised that the lack of many of the usual social triggers, coupled with the relative calmness of my particular lockdown life, made this an ideal time to stop. So I stopped. This is Day 8.

Less but only bc I'm at home more, I like smoking cigarettes and walking. I very much believe in the David Hockney theory of between 1 and 5 cigarettes per day is actually good against the virus, given that it settles in the bottom of the lungs.

if you can't trust David Hockney who can you trust

sayin

I have not heard this theory but I will look into it now, if only for an excuse to keep smoking

I only smoke when I’m out drinking with friends so the last time I had a cigarette was a couple of months ago. I’m hoping it’ll stay that way even post-lockdown.

No smoking, no vaping since this shit kicked off

Vaping more than ever. Working from home is the culprit.

There seems to be no indication that smokers are more susceptible- if you havent developed copd, emphysema etc. yet. Even anecdotal evidence that smokers are underrepresented in the figures

well, David Hockney knew from bottoms

It's probably dubious science but I did find something from last month that suggested smokers might actually be better protected against de-oxygenation because of higher levels of ACEs. And trying to find it, I stumbled over this newer source: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86144

A recently published study from France showed similar figures. Daily smokers accounted for 4.4% to 5.3% of all COVID-19 infections, which compares to 25.4% of the overall French population who smoke. That study also noted an increase in the proportion of smokers with severe illness. These authors did not mince words in their conclusion which "strongly suggests that daily smokers have a very much lower probability of developing symptomatic or severe SARS-CoV-2 infection as compared to the general population."

I'm still smoking, but less. I slowed myself down and I reduced the amt of time I spend in situations where I would normally smoke.

Me, I still one a day after dinner. I get disappointed when I crack and on my wine-with-lunch day (Friday usually) I light one. I like anticipatory vices.

This is the best news

Well, huge respect for Hockney's medical knowledge, but (a) the virus enters via the *upper* respiratory tract (pharynx) which is why it spreads asymptomatically, and (b) tobacco smoke increases the chance of a viral infection by inflaming tissue and making the surface more permeable.
https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-3-health-effects/3-9-increased-susceptibility-to-infection-in-smoke
(it's literally the same argument as Trump's "can we get disinfectant into the body or the lungs?" by the way)

It's true, there's a lot we don't know

French inhalin’
nose exhalin’

anybody else that moved mostly/entirely to working from home also inadvertently or otherwise quit smoking since March? a bonus I didn't even have to try for. Smoking without walking is not the same

I was smoking a couple a day and sometimes much more for months now and was finding myself unable to concentrate and irritable which I'd attribute to a burgeoning nicotine addiction that wasn't being fed enough. So I have took up vaping now and am fair enjoying it. I'm quite surprised at how fast I've taken to blueberry flavoured smoke.

The deep freeze last week made me happy that I gave up smokes. The last time I tried smoking in single-digit temperatures on a trip to NY, it was absolutely not worth it.

shit now I'm a slave to an electric device that gives me nicotine. It has completely nullified my fiending for cigarettes but it feels like a backwards step compared to when I properly kicked the habit. Vaping is quite pleasurable though, but i just wish I hadn't been foolish enough to start the habit again.

I’ve never smoked. Should I start? My partner would probably break up with me but people sure look cool when they do it.

i've been at it 30 years and my advice to you, silby, is no

That’s what everyone says and I’ve taken their advice so far

silby, plz don't, thx.

it's a lot easier to start than is to stop. I've stopped 3 times in the last 30 years and it gets harder each time!

I’ve been meaning to start for at least 20 years now

try it, it's cool

I still find it impossible to drink/party without lighting one up. It's not ideal by any means, but I haven't smoked on a daily basis since my mid-20s (a couple of brief summer vacations notwithstanding).

I don't understand how people can just have the odd leisure cigarette without the creeping addiction, but my partner has one cig a week or something and often docks it half smoked. For me it's always a slippery slope towards 20 a day.

And by 'drink' I mean 'have more than 2-3 pints', otherwise I can abstain just fine.

xp

What 'helps' is that it automatically makes feel like shit. I can't cope with that for more than a few days at a time anymore.

If I'm drinking with friends, it's an 'ah, fuck it'-type scenario where I figure I might as well go the extra sacrificial mile, since I'm already messing up my liver. But otherwise it's all downsides for me.

yeah when aren't a seasoned smoker it really does often make you feel like shit. But when addiction creeps in you are still counting the minutes till your next fix.

I weaned myself off cigarettes by vaping, then eventually quit

I had a hard time with cravings after I quit, but years later I don't think about it too much. there is an ongoing dull desire, but it's not very strong at this point

That's def what it was like when I was younger. I was sick all the time because my colds would linger for a full month, sometimes more, and I just don't see myself going back to that ever again.

xp

Do you get cravings when you're drinking, Dan?

I don't really get cravings anymore. I remember on a remote level how pleasurable it was, and have always thought that if I am ever diagnosed with a terminal disease and it doesn't matter anymore I will take it up again. I can go for the rest of my life without it though

Smoking is going to be my end of life treat. If I’m given six months to live or an Alzheimer’s diagnosis I’m going two packs a day.

I'd probably do the same tbh.

One of the things I like about vaping is when I'm drinking and doing the vape equivalent of smoking too much - you don't feel so deathly the next day. Like as if you have been huffing on an exhaust pipe with a massively enhanced sickly hangover,

One thing I don’t miss from my intermediate stage of smoking when I drink but not otherwise is going to bed with my heart pounding because I had a pack’s worth of nicotine in four hours.

Oh yeah, it makes a huge difference. Rolling tobacco also helps on that front ime.

xp

going to bed with my heart pounding because I had a pack’s worth of nicotine in four hours

The temptation is to assuage that with a few extra downers… which only makes it worse, of course.