[Brenda]

I don't necessarily agree with that statement. Then again, maybe for those who one doesn't trigger it, it might just have been a habit, and not an addiction.

I thought I was addicted to smoking for 14 years. More than 2 packs a day... When I quit 10 years ago, I did it cold turkey. 6 weeks of grouchyness, and done. I had another, once, after 2 years, and I only found it gross, wondering what I had ever seen or felt in it for 14 years. So maybe for me, it was just a bad habit...

[poquas]

Brenda Brenda:

I don't necessarily agree with that statement. Then again, maybe for those who one doesn't trigger it, it might just have been a habit, and not an addiction.

I thought I was addicted to smoking for 14 years. More than 2 packs a day... When I quit 10 years ago, I did it cold turkey. 6 weeks of grouchyness, and done. I had another, once, after 2 years, and I only found it gross, wondering what I had ever seen or felt in it for 14 years. So maybe for me, it was just a bad habit...

Smoking is one of the addictions/habits that is the most difficult to explain. The nicotine addiction is very real and its withdrawal has obvious symptoms (just ask your spouse…….). But it’s also a behavioural habit that is very difficult to break.

Those people who quit cold turkey (I was one of those too) have found enough bad things about smoking or have been forced to make a choice to quit that they/we are able to go through the discomfort to get over to the other side. Once the nicotine withdrawal is complete, the habitual components and desires can last a lifetime. The desire to continue as a non smoker is very much a choice although after a few years the smell and effects often become less attractive which helps.

I no longer like the smell of smoke and if I smoked a cigarette, I’d probably fall flat on my ass, but if I was sitting in a bar and was able to get through a “few” cigarettes, I’d probably be hooked again. Like most former smokers, there’s a part of the memory of smoking that brings back that pleasant “reward impulse” that many smokers use cigarettes for.

The best thing about smoking is that it has become socially repugnant and very expensive. That helps to keep a lot of people from continuing to smoke and a lot from ever starting.

[Proculation]

Brenda Brenda:

I don't necessarily agree with that statement. Then again, maybe for those who one doesn't trigger it, it might just have been a habit, and not an addiction.

I thought I was addicted to smoking for 14 years. More than 2 packs a day... When I quit 10 years ago, I did it cold turkey. 6 weeks of grouchyness, and done. I had another, once, after 2 years, and I only found it gross, wondering what I had ever seen or felt in it for 14 years. So maybe for me, it was just a bad habit...

That's the point. You can be addicted psychologically and physically one time and then stop. After that, you're good. That's not the same as the real addicts who are for life like alcoholic.

[QBall]

poquas poquas:

The proof is in the pudding as they say.

Once an alcoholic, POTENTIALLY always an alcoholic. I'd go as far as to say very likely.

What absolute rubbish. Everyone is a potential alcoholic, just like everyone is a potential murderer, a potential anarchist and a potential saint. It all depends on what choices one makes in their life. To suggest anything else just applies unnecessary labels on individuals that can hamper their will to change. To suggest "Once an alcoholic always an alcoholic" is absurd and unhelpful in trying to get an alcoholic to change.
This, however is not what defines a disease. Will cannot prevent cancer nor can it cure it (however a positive outlook is important in treatment). You're not going to start someone on chemo just because their family has a history of cancer.

[llama66]

30 years ago Homosexuality was considered by some to be a disease, and therefore treatable, we of course know now that its genetic. This belief that addictions are not a disease is exactly the same thing, its written by some one who really doesn't understand that addictions are genetic, when children are born with FAS and addicted to coke because the environmental factors they were exposed to in the womb, or when people are obese, they are addicted to food, do you really think they want to be very large? they overeat because they are miserable and they are miserable because they overeat. some can kick the habit of excessive eating without help, but most cannot.

[Proculation]

A real alcoholic is always an alcoholic.