Are Cigars actually healthier than cigarettes?

[Someone here]

Cigarettes are made for you to inhale the smoke. As much "bad stuff" as possible goes straight into your lungs.

Cigars (good cigars, not cheap garbage cigars) have no additives to "mellow" the smoke so you can't suck them down like cigarettes. Also I Read that Cigar smokers have a much lower rate of lung and throat cancer than cigarette smokers, but still have elevated rates of lip and mouth cancer from direct contact with tobacco and "tasting" the smoke.

I'm not saying anyone should smoke a Cigar , rather it's just the smartest of the two stupid options.

I've never smoked a Cigar. And I'm getting bored with regular cigarettes. I didn't smoke anything for a while. But now my brain is trying to trick me into trying something more exciting to get off like trying Cigars, maybe weed etc 

[Jannes]

55 minutes ago, Someone here said:

I didn't smoke anything for a while. 

You quit? For how long?

[Someone here]

17 minutes ago, Jannes said:

You quit? For how long?

Two months .

[Jannes]

6 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Two months .

Nice!

What I have learned from abstaining from addictions is that once you have it under control and forget how badly it affected you your mind will try to find ways/ justifications to sneak that addiction back in. Cigars will bring you right back to where you were.

[Nilsi]

8 minutes ago, Jannes said:

What I have learned from abstaining from addictions is that once you have it under control and forget how badly it affected you your mind will try to find ways/ justifications to sneak that addiction back in. 

So true 

[Someone here]

4 minutes ago, Jannes said:

Nice!

What I have learned from abstaining from addictions is that once you have it under control and forget how badly it affected you your mind will try to find ways/ justifications to sneak that addiction back in. Cigars will bring you right back to where you were.

I understand. Thanks for the reminder. 

Basically things become addictive because your brain learns to like things. These feelings arise because my brain likes them and makes me feel like doing them again so i can get that feeling the brain is looking for. 

For example you try ice cream and like it. What happens now is the brain will light up releasing a chemical that binds to a receptor in the brains reward circuitry. This process sends signals throughout the body that tell you mmm i like this ice cream it tastes nice. So now your brain has a memory of it and so you now have a feeling that if you do it again you will get that pleasurable feeling. Also each time you do it the memory is reinforced making you want to do it again and again.


thats why people find them hard to kick especially drugs because addictions are directed from the brain and the brain actually changes on a physiological and neurological level to adapt and influence whatever addiction is being developed. So addicts in all forms are a slave to their biology and thats why they just cant stop as many people think .

Their addiction is somewhat now a physical and psychological process much like being hungry is. You cant just say am not hungry when you are because it is an urge that happens naturally. Being addicted therefore is like being hungry with the compulsions of each addiction obviously being of different strengths. Thats why addicts cannot just make a decision right then and there to stop whilst being addicted. Their hunger is physical and they cant just shut it off. It requires help of a sort at a certain time that in effect allows the brain to recover from the addiction it .

I stopped cigarettes for two months ..but you know what...fuck it ..I'm gonna make a confession ..I did smoke this morning ?

But I'm getting bored of cigarettes..Im like drug addict who developed tolerance to the drug and now needs more novelty or increase the dose .so I'm thinking for trying Cigars ,Pipe cigarettes, shisha.,weed etc 

[Asayake]

Quitting smoking will generally get easier after 3 months of abstaining. I'm curious, did you think much about cigarettes/smoking/have cravings? 

It would be interesting to get a bit of an insight into what made you go back to smoking. There must be some cognitive dissonance going on in you considering that you likely quit for valid reasons of which you're aware in the first place.

Cigars are not healthy, anything where you are in direct contact with smoke is not good for you whether that's cigars cigarettes or weed doesn't matter. Even if you don't deeply inhale cigar smoke you'll still inhale some of it and it's also bad psychologically because similarly to smoking cigarettes it will give you an addiction forming dopamine spike and worsen your mental health by increasing your cortisol levels and increasing risk of disease.

People promoting cigars as healthy today are like doctors promoting cigarettes back in the day. It's dumb and there are immoral people out there looking to profit of your suffering.

[Ulax]

12 hours ago, Jannes said:

What I have learned from abstaining from addictions is that once you have it under control and forget how badly it affected you your mind will try to find ways/ justifications to sneak that addiction back in. Cigars will bring you right back to where you were.

@Jannes Thats because one is addicted to dissociating, and the thing used is just the current means of achieving that dissociated state imo.

[Osaid]

Quick Google search says Cigars are more likely to cause oral cancer, and cigarettes are more likely to cause lung cancer. Pick your poison.

[Eternal Unity]

Cigarettes are more addictive.

[Someone here]

On 11/02/2023 at 6:32 AM, Asayake said:

did you think much about cigarettes/smoking/have cravings?

Yes I expected that as time passes that I gets easier with time.  But it only got more difficult. I experienced intense carvings that literally I was irritated and can't socialize .

Unfortunately I'm back to smoking multiple cigarettes per day and I'm right back to where I started. 

[Someone here]

On 11/02/2023 at 1:10 PM, Osaid said:

Quick Google search says Cigars are more likely to cause oral cancer, and cigarettes are more likely to cause lung cancer. Pick your poison.

I wish I could quit man .its literally a poison. But I wish I didn't smoke at all .I curse the day I smoked the first cigarette.

For my luck Cigars are much more expensive and hard to obtain than regular cigarettes packs . So I tried searching for it yesterday but I couldn't find any local shops that sell Cigars. 

But I'm back to smoking cigarettes. 

I don't know when I'm gonna quit . I think I'm very stupid. I will only quit if I get heart attack or cancer. When it's too late.  

[Someone here]

23 hours ago, Eternal Unity said:

Cigarettes are more addictive.

I don't know . I didn't try Cigars yet .but I assume the taste of Cigars is much more  Intense and the nicotine is much more pure and unfiltered like cigarettes. So I guess that Cigars are more addictive. 

[Asayake]

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

I wish I could quit man .its literally a poison. But I wish I didn't smoke at all .I curse the day I smoked the first cigarette.

For my luck Cigars are much more expensive and hard to obtain than regular cigarettes packs . So I tried searching for it yesterday but I couldn't find any local shops that sell Cigars. 

But I'm back to smoking cigarettes. 

I don't know when I'm gonna quit . I think I'm very stupid. I will only quit if I get heart attack or cancer. When it's too late.  

You already quit for 2 months, it's very common to relapse atleast once before quitting for good, pretty much everyone does it so you did nothing wrong, it's just like having thoughts appear during meditation practice, it's not a mistake just a part of the process. The next step will be to give it another go, don't stop meditating just because a hindrance appeared, so to speak. If you want to get to the next level of well being quitting is foundational. It's a beautiful experience, it's ultimately a rebirth/rediscovery of your sober self, restoring the magic of the sober state and the healing of your body and mind. It's going to be an easy way for you to integrate some shadow aspects of your mind. Things will come up as you've already noticed and you'll be forced to learn how to deal with them properly, how to live with increased emotional instability for a while and learn to be okay with that. Quitting will increase your self acceptance and help you come to peace with yourself, it's a gradual process.

Quitting is challenging at times but it's also a beautiful spiritual experience. It's a deep dive lesson in maneuvering your mind. Instead of doing psychedelics or chasing spiritual highs in other domains, quitting smoking could be your psychedelic of choice for 2 years, that's how you could approach it. Quitting smoking is more than meets the eye, it's a personal transformation which will have positive ripple effects in all areas of your life. The longer you're off it entirely the more time and space will be opened up for healthier recreation to take place and it only becomes a matter of time before your new pursuits bear more fruit than smoking ever could. At that point cravings have no impact, you start to see through the trick your mind is playing on you, you see smoking for what it is, it's never really as good as you think it is, that's an illusion.

Your mind is tricking you to believe that other coping strategies won't compare to smoking, that it will be more rewarding to smoke than for example sober Vipassana practice or taking a walk in nature, or listening to music and cooking a healthy meal. You need to reprogram your mind in this regard. Your mind is tricking you by thinking about how good it would feel with a smoke etc, all of that's not true, smoking is not at all that pleasurable, you just think that it is and then your sober state feels bad because you're going through withdrawal alot of the time when you're not smoking. After a few months of abstaining the withdrawals will get significantly less severe and returning to smoking will become less and less tempting as it becomes clearer and clearer that it just leads to misery. Fatigue, phlegm, yes even cancer as you're aware of. It's not exactly heaven what's in store for you heading down that path.

Smoking is like replaying that same song you heard a thousand times before, you know how the song goes already and at this point you're looking for cheap thrills. It's like a toxic relationship you know you should have ended a long time ago. It's keeping you stuck in a place of delayed growth. That's fine, but know that the growth and rewards you can achieve as a direct as well as indirect result of quitting smoking is more worth it than you probably think. You need to look at quitting smoking more as a way of growing and cultivating love in your life, not as merely avoiding disease down the line, although that's nice too.

Sorry for the rant but I feel like you need it. You need to give it another shot or your 2 months were in vein.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Asayake

[Eternal Unity]

@Someone here You know what, you're right

[Basman]

My mom managed to quit smoking after being on the stuff for probably over a decade. Been clean for a couple of years.

One new years eve I get the bright idea to give everyone cigars as a gag, so we can smoke stogies like in the movies.

Now she's back to smoking again thanks to the cigars I gave. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Basman

[flowboy]

@Someone here  I made that mistake when I quit smoking in my early twenties.

Just ended up smoking cheap cigars, like 10 in one day at one point ?

I wasn't ready.

When you've just quit, I wouldn't mess with anything nicotine like for a good while.

Me, I smoke a pipe every once in a while.

I actually allow myself to smoke cigarettes once a month, if I want to.

Which I don't recommend you fool yourself into thinking you can because I tried it many times before and failed.

[Someone here]

19 hours ago, Asayake said:

You already quit for 2 months, it's very common to relapse atleast once before quitting for good, pretty much everyone does it so you did nothing wrong, it's just like having thoughts appear during meditation practice, it's not a mistake just a part of the process. The next step will be to give it another go, don't stop meditating just because a hindrance appeared, so to speak. If you want to get to the next level of well being quitting is foundational. It's a beautiful experience, it's ultimately a rebirth/rediscovery of your sober self, restoring the magic of the sober state and the healing of your body and mind. It's going to be an easy way for you to integrate some shadow aspects of your mind. Things will come up as you've already noticed and you'll be forced to learn how to deal with them properly, how to live with increased emotional instability for a while and learn to be okay with that. Quitting will increase your self acceptance and help you come to peace with yourself, it's a gradual process.

Quitting is challenging at times but it's also a beautiful spiritual experience. It's a deep dive lesson in maneuvering your mind. Instead of doing psychedelics or chasing spiritual highs in other domains, quitting smoking could be your psychedelic of choice for 2 years, that's how you could approach it. Quitting smoking is more than meets the eye, it's a personal transformation which will have positive ripple effects in all areas of your life. The longer you're off it entirely the more time and space will be opened up for healthier recreation to take place and it only becomes a matter of time before your new pursuits bear more fruit than smoking ever could. At that point cravings have no impact, you start to see through the trick your mind is playing on you, you see smoking for what it is, it's never really as good as you think it is, that's an illusion.

Your mind is tricking you to believe that other coping strategies won't compare to smoking, that it will be more rewarding to smoke than for example sober Vipassana practice or taking a walk in nature, or listening to music and cooking a healthy meal. You need to reprogram your mind in this regard. Your mind is tricking you by thinking about how good it would feel with a smoke etc, all of that's not true, smoking is not at all that pleasurable, you just think that it is and then your sober state feels bad because you're going through withdrawal alot of the time when you're not smoking. After a few months of abstaining the withdrawals will get significantly less severe and returning to smoking will become less and less tempting as it becomes clearer and clearer that it just leads to misery. Fatigue, phlegm, yes even cancer as you're aware of. It's not exactly heaven what's in store for you heading down that path.

Smoking is like replaying that same song you heard a thousand times before, you know how the song goes already and at this point you're looking for cheap thrills. It's like a toxic relationship you know you should have ended a long time ago. It's keeping you stuck in a place of delayed growth. That's fine, but know that the growth and rewards you can achieve as a direct as well as indirect result of quitting smoking is more worth it than you probably think. You need to look at quitting smoking more as a way of growing and cultivating love in your life, not as merely avoiding disease down the line, although that's nice too.

Sorry for the rant but I feel like you need it. You need to give it another shot or your 2 months were in vein.

Thank you brother. I really needed that reminder. I have started a new page. I will never put a cigarette in my mouth. I made the decision. 

3 hours ago, flowboy said:

@Someone here  I made that mistake when I quit smoking in my early twenties.

Just ended up smoking cheap cigars, like 10 in one day at one point ?

I wasn't ready.

When you've just quit, I wouldn't mess with anything nicotine like for a good while.

Me, I smoke a pipe every once in a while.

I actually allow myself to smoke cigarettes once a month, if I want to.

Which I don't recommend you fool yourself into thinking you can because I tried it many times before and failed.

It's no joke. My uncle had heart attack last year because he was a heavy smoker as well. Please don't play around with cigarettes. It's Extremely addictive. 

I just can't put the damn cigarettes down .even tho it's ruining my health .i need help. 

This is an absolute necessity. I cannot continue like this. im raping my health. Yet all this doesn't seem to make me stop. I have other reasons that I believe are making it difficult for me but I won't get into them here to not make this too abstract. 

it's affecting my physical.. Mental.. And psychological health to a very disturbing degree. It's not possible to live a healthy life without putting it down. If I don't quit.. It will catch up with me more and more and eventually I will end up having lungs cancer or whatever. I'm a heavy smoker. 4 packs a week or something is too much. And I'm already starting to feel the negative consequences. I can't run without feeling like losing my breath completely. My energy is getting lower. My appetite is decreased. And a lot more.

Time to take this shit seriously and stop. 

[flowboy]

@Someone here what happened, did you relapse or something?

Edit: oh I see you did.

Yes, I've been there, I have tried to quit smoking off and on for 10 years, since I was 19 or so.

I have written pages and pages in my diary about how it undermines my willpower, my self-esteem, and how it makes me depressed that it will make me sick, and still I'm not stopping.

It's a really bad thing for your self-image, because you're doing something you don't believe in, thereby constantly contradicting your integrity.

Are you desperate enough to open up to the possibility that you might have to heal some childhood trauma in order to become less prone to addiction?

Edited February 14, 2023 by flowboy

[Mada_]

Dude drop this shit, you know it is silly. 

You are exposing yourself and those around you direct to Antimony when smoking. 

 

Leo mentioned some sort of organic vape once, maybe research stuff like that as a transition. 

How can you self actualize whilst breathing heavy metals?