It's not just that it's "addictive"...
...it's FIERCELY addictive. Nearly everyone who smokes wants to stop (unless they don't have any cognitive ability). But, if you've never smoked then, trust me, you don't understand how taking them away sends your brain into a screaming scattery spiral of want and need. Took me three years to stop properly, and I still crave the fucking things now and again. Wish I had never started...only did it because my mates did when I was 16.
(Super Jet Shoes, Tue 20 Oct 2009, 14:27, 1 reply)

I do kind of understand that
I have never been really addicted to anything myself before so it is hard for me to truly empathise, but I would have thought that having 2 small children and a serious family history of heart disease would be enough to make even the most addicted person stop.
(Tom Jones's Mojo Hasn't had any since, Tue 20 Oct 2009, 15:11, closed)

Impossible to empathise
It's all about the helpless, relentless nature of the addiction. It turns intelligent rational thinkers into primative beings responding only to chemical signals. When the craving comes, the children and the family history are erased for that moment from the brain. As soon as the smoke goes into the lungs and the chemical fix is satisfied, then rational thought returns. The smoker feels like a pratt for failing. Consider in the history of smoking, how many attempts have made to give up. Billions. Emperically we are destined to fail.
(Hansdown, Tue 20 Oct 2009, 16:54, closed)