First cigarette at 13, first taste of alcohol not long after
I didn't wake up back then and think "Something seriously lacking in my life, must be cigs and booze." No.

Peer pressure and relentless, brilliant advertising were the main factors.

The downhill slope of addiction is pretty mild. And pretty boring. Like a really shit go-cart on a very gentle slope.

Cold turkey, on the other hand, wow.
(roysin, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 13:53, 19 replies)

yeah, boxing day is shit

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:14, closed)

Nah, the turkey in that is probably pretty warm.

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:17, closed)

i don't know what you mean
*whistles innocently*
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:26, closed)

oh you!

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:31, closed)

The mild effects of disappointment
can be assuaged by foresight; both of which vied for supremacy in my head whilst typing my original post.
(roysin, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:29, closed)

hah
what you did there, i see it
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:29, closed)

'Peer pressure and relentless, brilliant advertising were the main factors'
Of course they were.

Nothing to do with you being genetically predisposed to addictive behaviour?
( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:44, closed)

Not at all
*hopes next QOTW provides something more EXCITING!!!*
(roysin, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 14:55, closed)

^this

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 15:05, closed)

Seconded on the ciggies.
That's something I regret starting.

Booze fortunately never had a problem.
(username failed moderation, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 15:13, closed)

turded^^
Fuckers had me for years I would give up then relapse, repeat, cough over and over again.

"Giving up smoking is easy I've done it 100's of times"

Hopefully this time it's for good

Although I used to drink every day. When I decided just to limit my drinking to a couple of days a week I did it no problem. So it was more out of habit rather than addiction
(sittingduck Attention seeking, bullshitting fuck-knuckle, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 16:04, closed)

Cigs provide a warm, mild, temporary relief
from whatever ails you.
On the other hand, since quitting, my concentration has leapt considerably, I am more productive, whether at work, leisure or qotw-ing. Higher energy levels, blabla good stuff.

Smoking is nice, but not a fair result of whatever one does in life. The American Indians considered tobacco sacred, a communal, ceremonial agent. Europeans made it an addictive carcinogen (paraphrased from Robin Williams).
(roysin, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 17:21, closed)

Tobacco smoke:
only carcinogenic in Europe!

Are you an agent of the US travel board?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 18:22, closed)

Sorry, rather
Some Europeans, a few centuries back, made a lot of money from tobacco. They saw that this was good and resolved to keep the punters addicted by nefarious methods.
(roysin, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 18:33, closed)

I don't know how far removed from the truth it is, or whether there's any basis in truth at all
but I found the 'smoking churches' bit in Cloud Atlas (the book, no idea if it's in the film) quite worrying.
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 4 Mar 2013, 19:10, closed)

I'd like to think that's true,
but only because it somehow excuses my own stupidity in starting.

But I have to put my hand up to that one. I'm the idiot who started, and the idiot who hasn't got the willpower to stop.

Big tobacco might be all sorts of bad things, but they didn't hold me down and force me to start smoking.
(username failed moderation, Tue 5 Mar 2013, 9:02, closed)

So, just a weak-willed fuckwit blaming everyone but yourself for your failings?
Welcome to QOTW, you'll fit in well.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 5 Mar 2013, 1:58, closed)

Think I made a mistake
I thought this was Question Of The Weak.

Sorry.
(roysin, Tue 5 Mar 2013, 8:19, closed)

In difference to a rude and disrespectful cunt
who probably doesn't realise that getting jostled on the train to work each day is the hardest thing he's ever had to deal with.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Thu 7 Mar 2013, 4:28, closed)