[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by vesperae Congratulations, you get to be my first interspersed reply here! "I don't think many new smokers give much thought to risk/danger. That's alot of background noise that's easily filtered out as inconsequential." If you are talking about being able to tune out ham-fisted hyperbole that starts to approach "take just one puff and you will get lung cancer", then I agree with you. But I believe that some part of us always remembers our innate revulsion to smoking, and the reasonably to extremely traumatic experience of deliberately inhaling cigarette smoke for the first time. I believe that these are deep sense memories that stay with the smoker long after she has been habituated to nicotine, because she experiences a faint echo of the transformative experience of starting to smoke every time she takes another drag and inhales it. Now, I'm not saying that I believe that most (or even many) smokers consciously think about their first time every time they smoke. But I do believe that on a very primitive level, the experience does follow the smoker, and provides a psychologically satisfying hit of Risk that can be as important, if not more important, than the satisfaction of a nicotine craving. "For girls who are just starting to express clothing and grooming preferences, the option to smoke is tied up with image. They ask themselves, "Will this advance the look I am striving for? Is this a ticket to acceptance in the group I want to join? Will I get noticed and appreciated by those who might not otherwise notice?" Absolutely. But young women are very body conscious to a much deeper level than just their appearance. On the whole, they are probably more concerned with their appearance, but they are also very aware of what is going on within their bodies. They just tend not to talk about it. A young woman will tell whoever wants to ask whatever they want to hear, if it will get them to take their attention off of her. And when it comes to something as very personal, and as very intimately sensual, as smoking, the vast majority of young women will offer up some vague reason why they do it because they don't want to discuss their more private feelings. Consider who is asking the questions that elicit the responses that you are basing your opinion on, and think about it. "When confronted face to face with disapprovals, it is easy to say 'Well, this is my only vice. It shouldn't have any effect on my health if I eat well and exercise.'" Well, this is just the garden variety superficial rationalization that just about any young smoker offers up in polite social conversation. "I think that is mostly correct if you remove those people with a genetic predisposition to illness and smoking become another negative exposure. Smoking and pack years mean nothing in terms of longevity when all the other lifestyle activities and base-line fitness levels are excluded." I agree with your assessment of genetics, but disagree that smoking means nothing in light of other healthy lifestyle choices. A Risk is a Risk is a Risk. And my premise is really about how we respond psychologically to the Risks of smoking, whether we win the genetic crap shoot or not, and whether we make other healthy lifestyle choices or not. It's not about the outcome. It's about thinking about the possible outcomes while you are still living your life and gambling with it every time you light up another cigarette. "When the body and brain are conditioned to smoke, the smoker has opened up another way to seek and receive pleasure." The transformation itself is powerful, and changes a smoker's relationship with her body in subtle and profound ways. "In exhange for a few days of startup difficulties, a smoker gets a lifetime of nicotine satisfaction." True enough, but this is a completely learned and unnatural behavior that you cannot begin to fathom the acquired pleasure of until you have forced yourself to endure these rather traumatic difficulties. When a young woman decides that she wants to smoke - for whatever reason - all that she cares about is being able to smoke like a "real" smoker. Because smoking like a "real" smoker is a badge of accomplishment and effort. And if cigarette smoke wasn't so toxic, and therefore so difficult to breathe into your lungs, what would the big deal be? Wouldn't smoking lose most, if not all, of it's allure? * * * * *vesperae
on July 6, 2006, 12:52 am, in reply to "Re: Welcome ( Back ) to The Sublime…"
Message modified by board administrator July 6, 2006, 1:16 am
Hi Wardner, 
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