Do you smoke, but aren’t addicted?

37 comments

1. For me it wasn’t the nicotine, it was the hand-to-mouth, pointing/doing-something habit that was hardest to break for me.

2. When did you start smoking?

3. I’m pretty much like that as well. Just a enthusiast not an addict

4. just stop then

5. I’m a bit like this. On a sunny day/holiday I love a nice fag in the park reading a book. Then I can go ages without one. Completely pack it up in winter cause there’s no way in standing in the rain for one.

6. I’m like that too. I usually smoke when I’m out and I never smoke at home but I have gone months without smoking easily. I have noticed I’m the same way with some other drugs too.
   It’s more like a habit than a physiological dependence for me. I suppose you can call that addiction as well but is rather easy for me to put off if I want to.

7. I’m the same as you. I only have baccy in joints but otherwise don’t smoke. Then 3 months later i’ll fancy a fag and have one. I feel like that could still be some sort of addiction though or maybe it’s just a response to stress.

8. Yup.

   I used to drive my friends crazy by just stopping smoking every now and then no issue.
   I swapped out tobacco for other stuff in joints so it’s been a while now, it’s never been a craving

9. There are people who are more resistant to addiction than others, sounds like you are highly resistant to nicotine addiction, give your brain to science when you die, and if i were you i’d offer to have them run scans and shit you might be able to help them come up with something that helps people who want to quit, quit whenever they want to.

   Don’t forget that most of the nasty effects of smoking have nothing to do with addiction and more to do with deliberately breathing in toxins

10. >I’ve never once craved a cigarette in my entire life.

    >I only smoke when I feel like it.

    How is “feeling like it” different from a craving?

11. Yeah, you’re addicted. You’re just crafting a narrative that makes you think you aren’t.

12. My dad is like this, he has a completely non-addictive personality (except maybe ice cream)

    he can give up smoking or any drug on a whim and has done many times

    he’s had a few joints in the last 6 years but that’s it. yet he’s also had periods of heavy smoking and drug taking. when he quits he never seems to have the cravings that my mum, step-dad and brother get. he just enjoys smoking so occasionally took it back up

    any time he’s prepared to do a court custody battle he’s quit everything cold turkey ready for the hair drug tests (he shaves his head bald until he needs to grow it for testing)

    there are huge variances in how easily and deeply people get addicted. Genetically we know that the Dopamine D2 gene can mediate how easily people get addicted to things. there’s also a big difference between a physiological dependence and a psychological addiction. people can have physical withdrawal symptoms from Gambling addiction (self reported they’re actually more sever than those reposed by people withdrawing from heroin) so its very possible to be addicted without any external chemical that makes you addicted. anything can be addictive.

13. Addiction often involves a lot of delf deception and the illusion of it just being a personal choice.

    Most alcoholics for example experience the same thing, go for periods without drinking and remark about how they really don’t need to drink they just enjoy it so.

    Unfortunately it’s a progressive disease. Although self limiting with smoking because there are good odds you will either be dead or have a massively reduced quality of life in roughly half the time of people who don’t smoke.

    A good experiment is to take a year off. See how easy that is.

14. I mean, there is literally no plus to smoking. The body gets is nicotine, there is no logical reason to want to inhale burning leaves otherwise. It doesn’t taste nice, it makes you thirsty and smelly. I would suggest you are addicted in a subtle way, you don’t need to have cravings but the lure is there that keeps making you return. I would also be very careful as if you do find you “fancy” smoking and this gets more and more regular then you find you *are* addicted, that is a problem. I’d just cut it out. Saves a hell of a lot of money if nothing else.

15. Not to piss on your parade, but everyone who smokes is like this. You are classic addicted, you just don’t understand addiction. You’ve internalised the cartoon/childrens explanation of addiction and found it doesn’t apply to you. This is part of the addiction. It sounds like a cliche but addiction is difficult to recognise, that’s all part of what makes it so difficult to beat – it doesn’t work how you think it works.

16. My friend was telling me there are certain people who just don’t get addicted to nicotine – something to do with brain receptors or something. Apparently she’s one of them, as like you she can take or leave it.

17. I was like that for most of my smoking ” career” .
    I started smoking fags at 13 in 1983 and cannabis soon after could take or leave both and often did for days , months at time with no bother until I hit 40 .

    Ran out of baccy one time and was climbing walls within an hour I’ve been trying to quit ever since with little success .

    Im now 52 and vape im down to 3ml vape oil for nicotine and use a dry herb vape for weed .I hope to completely cut nicotine from my life but weed I’ll continue with .

18. I wouldn’t say I’m addicted, I smoke when I’m bored or stressed but can easily go days without having one with no issue. I never find myself craving a cigarette

19. Yup I buy a pack of Marlboro every 5 months or so, finish it in 2 days, then I don’t think about smoking for months again.

20. If you enjoy smoking you are addicted

21. I’ve always been like that. Don’t smoke much at all now but might go through a packet every 6 months. I used to smoke more, maybe a packet a week at the peak in my 20s, mainly as I was going out a lot more then.

    What killed it for me was the smoking ban. I just don’t like smoking outside – it tastes different to me and I don’t like the flavour.

22. I only smoke when I drink alcohol, sometimes I go weeks or months without drinking alcohol, but I always end up smoking again when I do. Am I addicted? Yeah probably, just not in a conventional every day fashion.

23. I smoked at the bar/ pub when drinking for most my 20’s. I thnk I have bought a pack of smokes a handful of times my entire life and that was mostly to go to the pub when my friends started telling me they were sick of me bumming smokes lol.

24. I smoked very lightly on and off for a good 16 years. I could go on holiday with a friend who smoked and have 2 or 3 a day and enjoy them. At one point I moved back in with my parents for 6 months and didn’t touch a cig the whole time as they’re very anti and I didn’t want to worry/upset them. At other times on the odd night out with heavy smokers I’d go through 6 or 7 over the night. Etc etc all just influenced by who I was hanging around with.

    Got to about 34 and suddenly went off them altogether, just didn’t fancy it and it’s been 5 or 6 years now since I’ve had one, don’t think I ever will again.

25. If you feel like having a cigarette you’re craving it.

26. I am a bit like this. Im not sure if I’m not addicted, but I can decide to stop smoking and be fine, although lately I have been ‘stress smoking’ a bit more frequently. When my head is in a better place, I smoke a lot less/not at all. I smoke socially as well. Then I have periods where I just don’t fancy it so I don’t.

    My dad was the same, he smoked for years and then one day just stopped and never touched them again. Never experienced withdrawals or cravings, just decided it was too expensive to keep doing so
    Quit. Maybe there’s a certain gene that causes it as I know of no other person who is similar.

27. I smoked for four years and I swear I never got addicted either, I had to stop for a couple weeks because of pneumonia and it just felt like being a little hungry, after that I didn’t care to smoke and I would get ill even attempting to smoke. It was more the ritual than any type of high, you don’t get any high off nicotine after a while.

    And all my life I had smokers acting like crack addicts whenever they couldn’t smoke, it’s like a placebo effect, it’s no surprise at all anti-smoking ads and addiction propaganda are funded by the tobacco companies.

28. Always been like this for me.

    I properly smoked (as in 5ish a day) from age 15-17, then stopped the day I moved for uni. No reason for stopping, just couldn’t be arsed going to shop and buying more fag one days. Every year or so I’ll buy a pack and smoke them over the course of a month, then don’t think about smoking for another 18-24ish months.

    Like this with booze and other drugs too. Caffeine included. I just don’t get addicted easily.

29. Smoking is bad for your health and a huge waste of money. So it would be better for you not to smoke and as you’re not addicted you can do that at anytime. So why not stop?

30. My wife is like this, she can smoke 10 on a night out or smokes 1 with me maybe once a week but she’s not addicted at all just smokes whenever she fancies it.

    I used to be like that and still sometimes I am, back when I was very busy and lost in my hobbies I’d just not smoke because I had something to do I enjoyed more and couldn’t be bothered to walk to the shop to buy them or go outside in the cold to smoke.

    These days I’m so stressed it’s the only thing I look forward to.

31. The things is if you’re smoking bud everyday and using baccy then that’s what’s causing you not to crave the cigs, try not smoking either…

32. If you’ve ever served in the military, you would understand what the OP is saying. New soldiers were forced to quit while in training and about half of them went back to their normal habits. Others became social smokers and the rest quit all together. The social smokers would only smoke at a party or gathering where alcohol was involved but didn’t smoke the rest of the time.

33. I knew a couple of people like that. “Social smokers” as we used to say. They cadge fags when we went out but never bought them themselves, so didn’t smoke the rest of the time. My partner smoked when we went out but when I stopped he did, he didn’t need them just enjoyed one with a pint.

    If you can go more than a few hours, you’re not addicted to my mind. I wonder if it’s often psychological not physical anyway, as I smoked by association ( when I had a cuppa, after dinner etc ) or just when I could. If I was stressed, I’d reach for the fags but that could mean it’s all in my head. I never had physical issues in withdrawal ( unlike opiates as mentioned , whole different ball game ) . It’s hard to say as I gave up by vaping ( so withdrew nicotine very gradually, no cold turkey ). I missed to action of lighting up a fag though that was a good replacement.

    I often want to test it as I’d love the occasional one but dare not risk it.

34. I’ve been smoking for years and I struggle to go without. If you can control the urges or they’re not apparent then more power to you.

35. I go days every week without smoking but if I have some pints in a beer garden I like to smoke a few fags. I usually have a pouch around the house, but typically smoke about 4 fags a week if I’m not going to the pub, which I rarely do. I smoked regularly between 15-25, in the many years since then it’s been about what I described above

36. Yep – I go weeks and months without smoking, and then sometimes, I’m speaking with someone who I associate with smoking and I have a cigarette. Or I have a drink in my hand and I feel like a cigarette would go nicely with that and smoke 20 in one night. And then I don’t smoke for another few days/weeks/months.

37. I’m like this. It’s great!