MovieChat Forums > Thank You for Smoking (2006) Discussion > Are ciggarettes really addictive???

Are ciggarettes really addictive???


Just a question, because in tons and tons of movies that you see, the actors are made to smoke for their role; like in pulp fiction or Mad Men or something, and the actors never seem to get addicted to smoking in real life. So all this talk about how you can get addicted after one ciggarette, is it true? Because from what I see in Hollywood and such, its not true.

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no. but cigarettes are.

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whatever, can't spell very well. But any actual answer?

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one cigarette is not going to be enough to get you addicted

but they are addictive after a while...you don't need to smoke much to get addicted

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In some movies/tv shows the actors use herbal cigarettes.

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[deleted]

It takes smoking for at least a month to get addicted, and thats if you smoke alot of cigarettes. you dont get addicted from a few cigarettes. you can get addicted mentally if you really like them but physically they dont get addictive for a while.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

He may have been being a douche, but he kinda has a point.

What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here

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Going back to the OP, the answer is no, absolutely not. Not for me, at least. I smoke cigarettes socially - that is, once or twice every couple weeks - and I'm not addicted at all. I would almost like to think that addiction is a frame of mind; once you start using them to "relax" or avoid certain situations, etc, then you're addicted by your own choice entirely. Conversely, if you just like the taste and enjoy smoking occasionally, then you don't HAVE to smoke all the time.

I realize this is naive and there's scientific proof that cigarettes are chemically addicting. But I know a lot of people who have quit just by simply WANTING to quit, people who, one day, decided to never smoke another cigarette again. It seems like a lot of it could be attributed to strength - or weakness - of will... but, again, that's just me.

"And poof. Just like that, he's gone." - The Usual Suspects

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Nicotine is an addictive substance and since you can get decent amounts of it from tobacco, yes, cigarettes can be addicting. But it requires long consistant exposure to it, the kind actors/actresses wouldn't be getting even if they actually smoked and inhaled actual cigarettes.

As for cigarettes killing 2/3rds of its users...did you get that statistic from an actual study or just make that up? Because it seems pretty absurd.

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Its completely absurd, 2/3 ? more like 100% smokers die. So do non smokers, go figure
__________________________________________
Any last words ?
Shut the *beep* up

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Those numbers aren't accurate. Off topic, there are more people that die early or getting a disease from eating a lot (obesity, diabetes, hart diseases). So ban all KFC's, McDonalds, Burger King's etc. in the movies.

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From your description of your smoking habits, you haven't ever hit a threshold of physical addiction. If you have never been physically addicted to nicotine, it's easy to see it as a purely mental addiction. Try smoking 10 - 20 a day for a year or two and quit cold turkey and then you'll have a qualified anecdotal opinion on whether cigarettes are physically addictive or not.

Strength or weakness of will plays a big role in being able to successfully deal with the physical withdrawal symptoms, but they most definitely exist and are pretty substantial for the majority of those who have become physically addicted.

One thing is for certain, no one here gets out alive.
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http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=26583036

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As a smoker i know for a fact that they are really addictive.

You know, my grandmother and my step-grandfather have smocked since they were like 14, and they are about 70 years old now and they still got their health and they are going around traveling and whatnot. I've seen them smoke two packs per day sometimes, everytime i see them they got a cigarette between their lips.

You know alot of smokers are gonna live long healthy lives. Don't buy into all that politically-correct whiny BS that you hear everywhere.

_______________________
"They're crabs, they're eating him... nature sucks."

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"Cigarettes cause horrible painful death to 2/3 of those who use them. It detracts life by 15 years to the remaining who do not get lung cancer"

My 98 year old grandmother who's smoked since she was 13, been 3 packs a day since 21, would obviously live to be older than 113 if she didn't smoke. Obviously.

Stop spouting uneducated *beep*

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Yes, because statistics always apply to 100% of the population, right?

Protest the Top 250, vote this a 10!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227672/

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[deleted]

15 years huh? Wow. So I guess I'm going to miss out on the years where I get to sit in a wheelchair and have someone wipe my ass for me because I'm too senile to remember that I just took a shyt a minute ago.

Man that sounds dreamy, I'd better stop smoking right now....

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[deleted]

No you pretty much just get sick and die fairly fast (which is the case with my family anyway). So if there is any wheelchair bound pants shytting going on it's usually just the last few months of their lives, and I can't confirm the pants shytting.

But in the case of old geezers, I've seen people live 10-15 years in that state. So based on my experience, I pray for cancer.

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There's a LOT of BS flying around about all sorts of health scares. The truth is that one cigarette is all it takes for some people to at least acquire the habit, and some people choke their guts up enough to never try another.

As for the health aspect, my non-smoking grandmother died of lung cancer 4 years ago and my grandad has smoked 40 a day for the best part of 70 years and is still ticking along nicely. Smoking isn't sensible and I'm not going to argue that it's 'safe' in any way, but its not an automatic death sentence for a lot of people. I just hope I got my grandpa's genes. . .

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

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[deleted]

And?

The same can be said about alcohol. And your average person knows these things. And that doesn't change the fact that people make things like cigarettes and alcohol seem a whole lot worse than they really are.

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Well, smoking tobacco is the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries.

What are people commonly exaggerating in regards to smoking and alcohol?

I think alcoholism is certainly viewed much more negatively and is more taboo than being addicted to smoking tobacco. Admitting you are an alcoholic is without a doubt more difficult than admitting you are addicted to smoking for example. Moderation in drinking alcohol has also proven to have positive effects while this is not the case with smoking.

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Hmmm... by that maths my granddad would have lived to 108 if he hadn't smoked. Not too sure that's true.

I'm guessing you work for Renew Life.

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for Peter-175
man , relax ...... ur wanting to hardsell it just makes it worse.......americans r paranoid about smoking anyways , soon kids will start fearing a single puff will kill them , why man why ..........
ppl who smoke know wat they'r doing , i do ............

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I think you are the first person to ever entreat and cajole smokers to stop smoking. I am so glad there are prohibitionist temperance types like you around; people that want to control the habits, tastes, and choices of others have always made the world a better place. :)

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an actor will never be asked to smoke in a film unless they are actually a smoker

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From what I recall, the actual physical craving (as opposed to the mental one which can be overcome with willpower, but you mast master both to kick the addiction) starts after a couple of months of smoking regularly. Especially if the person in question comes to associate certain daily habits with the act of smoking - after meals or while drinking alcohol are popular ones.

Do bear in mind that nicotine and several other lesser chemicals in pre-packaged cigarettes (i.e. the ones you don't roll yourself) are not addictive to all people - I think the figure is something like 65% of people do get addicted, 35% of people don't. This explains why I can smoke a dozen a day every day for a year and then completely stop for months and not care to inhale another. I think I've stopped for about two months now and have yet to be bothered by it.

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Yes, cigarettes are definitely addictive. Sadly I am addicted to smoking.

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I've smoked a good amount of cigarettes but never felt a craving for them. I think they smell bad and don't taste great, but I like the nicotine buzz I get. I hear those who are addicted don't get the buzz, so I don't want to get to that point.

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I am very sorry, but you are incredibly wrong. Nicotine is the substance that all smokers are addicted to even the so called social smokers. The illusion here is that smokers think they made a choice of smoking and that they are addicted to the actual cigarette or blowing up smoke, and they minimize it by saying is a habit, but in fact the smoker is just another drug addict denying its addiction to what? He doesn't even know. Smoking a cigarette is like injecting yourself with heroin, but in this case the device is a cigarette and the method is smoking it and the substance is nicotine. You can categorize smokers to how they started smoking in just a few categories, i.e. parents smoked, "socially smoked", curiosity, perceived smoking as cool. And you my friend, you are lying about what you do.

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As said, having a cigarette or two occasionally isn't going to get you addicted. It's when it becomes a second habit and when you start doing it at home and/or work that it becomes a real addiction, at which point it can be far more addictive than alcohol due to the ease and frequency with which you can smoke and the fact that you can do it without getting drunk/hungover and hence avoid losing time from work.

I was surprised when I first started smoking at work. Before that I only smoked on the weekends when I was at a bar or club (it gave me something to do to pass the idle time). It helped me work better and longer than ever before and I could stay more focused on the task at hand without my mind wandering (which it often does). As a result, I started smoking to help me get through the long work hours, and that's when it became a real habit and an addiction. I can go 3 months without alcohol, but it's a struggle going 3 hours now without a cigarette unless I am doing something to really occupy my mind.

For people talking about the dangers of second-hand smoking, I tend to think those efforts would better be directed towards alcohol. While it is a problem, second hand smoking causes 3000 deaths a year which dwarfed by alcohol which is already attributed to 25,000 deaths just from drunk driving and over 100,000 from other alcohol-related causes (suicide, e.g.). Aside from deaths, it's also a common factor in sexual abuse, rape, assault, and a significant cause in nationwide reduction in productivity. I'm also generally considered an alcoholic, and always wonder why people divulge so much effort against smoking.

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[deleted]

There are such things as herbal cigarettes which non smoking actors use for parts that require the character to smoke. Apparently they taste awful, but, are harmless. Besides, smoking a cigarette doesn't make you instantly addicted. Final point is that many actors and actresses smoke in real life anyway, either for weight control or because they think they are invincible because the industry and their own ego makes them think they are, sadly, as PAtrick Swayze proved, they are not.

Life isn't a rehearsal, so make this one your best performance

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I think that there are probably a lot more actors that smoke than you think.

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Well yes, it's not as addictive as drugs or even prescrption pills but it's more adictive than alcohol. So you should be carefull!

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I laughed out loud when I saw this.

--
RIP, Heath Ledger.
(April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008.)

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[deleted]

[deleted]

Yet we still choose to do it... Go figure
It doesn't make us lesser bings,
It doesn't make us less intellegent,
It doesn't mean that our opinion means less than any other.

We each have our vices, each to their own, shut the *beep* up.

Thats my motto anyways!

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[deleted]

Most difficult to quit substance ever? What are you talking about?
I stopped smoking on my first try, after being a smoker for 10 years smoking 21/22 cigarettes per day and i m fine, i can handle it quite easy, no nicotine patches, no electric cigarette, nothing. I just stopped. Its all in your brain. All you have to do is wanting to quit. if you dont really want to, then you wont quit i guess.
While i agree that smoking is quite addictive, its definitely not the most difficult to quit substance ever.....

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[deleted]

Anecdote?
Well, you contradict your self with your own post. You said that nicotine is "Probably the most addictive, difficult to quit substance ever". Now thats what you said your self in your previous post.
And now you re saying that nicotine is number 3 on this particular list...
So its not the "Probably the most addictive, difficult to quit substance ever"

Anyways.....yes i smoked 20+ cigarettes a day for 10 years. I didnt said anything about cigarettes not being addictive. Ofcourse i was addicted. I really liked smoking. I enjoeyd it a lot. I just stated that through my personal experience i dont feel that cigarettes are the most
addictive substance ever, because i stopped smoking without any great difficulty.
Are/were you a smoker? do you have any personal experiences with cigarettes or only stuff that you read about on the internet?

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[deleted]

Just proves that you re a clueless jack***


Hahaha....Okayyy...Cya Troll.

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[deleted]

Is that all you can come up with? really? jeez
Well, next time do some actual research before trying to act like a smartass, or dont try it at all.

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[deleted]