Ask Lemmy

Do you really want to have a discussion about that? Because I am more than happy to explain my reasoning.

The biological body has the capacity to regenerate and self clean. If you live in a place with lots of smog, that's the equivalant of smoking cigarettes. It's like with any harmful thing, moderation is the key. If I smoke up to 5 cigarettes a day and live in a place with little to no smog, I'm much less likely to suffer adverse effects to my lungs and throat than not smoking at all and living in a place with lots of smog.

In addition, I suspect I have some genetic immunity. My great grandfather smoked more than a pack a day for decades, and he lived to like 95 years old.

Now, about the lung self-cleaning thing. As cells divide, new cells take their place, and old cells are either metabolised by the body or shed off like skin. Inside your lungs, tissue that's damaged by smoking can be healed, as long as it isn't too severe. Aside from that, lungs secrete mucus when irritated, which is then expelled along with the irritant (in most cases. Things like asbestos and fiberglass just stay in there). Through this natural process, the lungs clean themselves from the inside. As long as the rate of intake of the irritant does not exceed tha capacity for the lungs to expell that irritant, the situation doesn't get worse.

That is my reasoning. Feel free to give me your take.

Actually sure, if we're going to be earnest I do recommend some tactics for beating addictive behavior.

The most important thing you will ever learn about yourself and reality itself is the sheer amount of delusion your brain puts you in, no matter who you are or how smart you think you are.

We think of our brains as logical, calculating machines inside our heads where all our will and thoughts and ideas come from, but this is an illusion, you are not your brain, you're not even your language center. Your brain's primary and only job is to assemble your feelings into a narrative story. That story doesn't have to make sense, it just has to connect things so your feeling makes sense.

What this means for addictive behavior is that you can find the point where your brain starts reasoning things out that it wants, and cut it off because you know it's not you, it's another entity inside your head trying to get a thing it wants. Drugs fire off unnatural pleasure associations which your brain will make up a lot of excuses to keep getting, so learning to identify the stories your brain tells you to engage in behavior you don't want is key to reducing that behavior.

A huge part of this is preparing ahead of time for when you get worn out trying to argue with yourself and setting specific boundaries for your future-self. Get rid of the stuff you want to quit taking, make sure there's none in the house. Lock your money and credit card in a timed safe after a certain part of the day, because you will have a harder time resisting the "reasoning attack" as it gets later and later in the day, and resist the urge to think about tomorrow or how miserable you're going to feel as the night, week and year go on. This is why they say "one day at a time" because your brain will wear you the fuck down with debate and "ideas" and bargaining, and if you anticipate that lasting on and on, you will break easier.

All of this requires being very honest with yourself and examining the habit you want to quit, such as looking up the actual risks, the actual data about dangers and the actual amount of money you're spending on it, and all that stuff your brain really doesn't like incorporating into it's mental story-telling.

Understanding your brain isn't you and it will actually be your worst enemy and will childishly sabotage your whole life to get what it wants, and that it talks to you in your own internal voice so it's hard to resist, these ideas will be your best mental strategy for quitting because at least you have your actual enemy identified.