Health Implications of Smoking

[laserman]

What damage would smoking one cigarette per week do? I have this friend who has been doing this periodically for the last 7 years and claims they are not addicted, and to be honest I think they might be right because they can go for weeks and have one and go weeks again before having another.What do you all think?

[noxlumos]

Perfectly true, some people don't become addicted to cigarettes, my wife being one of them. She works in film and most actors smoke, so when she's working she often does and when she's not she doesn't and it really doesn't bother her whether she has a cigarette or not. I was addicted to lots of things when I met her however, and she helped me kick all of them with a technique a lot like NLP but entirely her own weird creation which, just boiled down to basics, works on the lines of deciding your not an addict and amending any addictive things in your personality not just whatever your trying to give up (like I used to incessantly tap my foot when I was sitting down). I found it hard to give up some things but not as hard as I'd previously imagined and I do know that she's 100% confident that she could never become addicted to anything and never gives a second thought to whether she smokes or not or drinks or not etc.

[Ethmer]

"What damage would smoking one cigarette per week do?"

To some people, because of genetics, smoking can be a poison that can cause serious problems down the road. For them, what damage would just a little bit of poison do?

It's all about risk. Is the risk of what "could" happen as a result down the road worth any potential benefit that might be offered today? And is that potential benefit real or just imaginary?

[4getmenot]

Probably same damage as passive smoking. Still a killer.

[Lonnie]

I may be wrong, but its possible that your friend doesn''t inhale the smoke, what I call 'social smoking', my wife did this for years while I was smoking, (I don't now), but smoking in this way, means the harm it its doing to self is minimal, and also means it doesn't bother you whether or not you smoke at all.

[whiskeysheri]

Lonnie, I remember being told that if you don't inhale the smoke you give yourself much higher chances of developing mouth cancer

[Lonnie]

Hi whiskeysheri, I don't know about that at all, worth checking up on though.