Pipe Smoking and Addiction

[wayneteipen]

I know what addiction is. I smoked cigarettes for 12 years starting when I was 16. I remember the times I would try to quit and the cravings being so strong I would smoke my roommates cigarette butts out of an ashtray. I kicked that habit 15 years ago. I truly enjoy smoking a pipe but have never felt that urge to smoke. I've never felt that need to get a fix. I can go days without smoking without any physiological effects.

 

[baronsamedi]

I typically smoke one or two bowls a day. I have nowhere the level of addiction that I had when I smoked cigarettes. Also, I am still able to run a 9-1/2 minute mile up hill for more than 2 miles and do my weight training, which would have been impossible for me to do when smoking cigarettes.
With the nails, I could go scarcely an hour before needing another smoke. With a pipe, if I miss my daily bowl, it's no big deal and I can go for weeks if necessary without the insane cravings.
It's night and day for me.

 

[cigrmaster]

I smoke my pipe all day long because I am orally fixated( not that there is anything wrong with that), but seriously folks, pipes and cigarettes are completely different animals. When I smoked cigarettes I needed that fix because my body was craving the nicotine. My pipes give me no where the nicotine a pack and a half does, so I am smoking all day for the taste and the relaxation aspect.

 

[keith929]

I smoked cigs and a pipe for over 40 years. When I quit the cigs it took me almost a month to shake the craving for that hit of DR. Nic. Now that I smoke my pipe exclusively I don't feel that craving. If I don't smoke a bowl in a while. My cig habit was just that,a HABIT. Now I am free to enjoy my pipes without that need fueling me.

 

[colcolt]

I smoke my pipe all day long because I am orally fixated( not that there is anything wrong with that), but seriously folks, pipes and cigarettes are completely different animals. When I smoked cigarettes I needed that fix because my body was craving the nicotine. My pipes give me no where the nicotine a pack and a half does, so I am smoking all day for the taste and the relaxation aspect.

Therein lies the problem. I started with cigarettes at an early age of 13-that was 53 years ago and despite patches, hypnotism, cold turkey Welbutrin, etc., I never could shake the physical need not to mentioned the psychological need that they bring. I love the pipe and am currently enjoying it more than I did years ago when I dropped it. Why did I quit the pipe then? I just wasn't getting the nicotine cigarettes gave. I'm doing both now but hope to slack off drastically with the cigarettes. For me, there just not only a habit but provide a physiological need.

 

[flippinbird87]

I have a huge addiction with nicotine, due to my addictive personality. I use other tobacco products for my nic fix i.e. snus and nasal snuff, and smoke my pipe because of the relaxation and reflection it brings me. I hadn't smoked a pipe for two years and only recently started to gravitate back. I could stop again for two years but my nicotine addiction would stay and I would still satisfy it by my other sources of tobacco. It's just the way I am.

 

[captainbob]

I smoke about five to eight bowls per day for the last 50 years. I never smoked ciggarettes and I do not inhale. The pipe is part of me. It is who I am! I can spend 8 hours in continuing education classes now and then and puff a little bit on breaks and have no problem if hours pass. I smoke my pipe because I like it. I do not have that addiction so common with ciggarette smokers. I can survive without the pipe. However, I choose not to and therefore, I will smoke my pipe whenever and wherever I can. The nicotine is properly absorbed through your mouth tissues rather than your lung tissues. That is less harmful to your health, no doubt. I walk two miles per day every day on the treadmill while I puff on my pipe. I am in very good physical shape at age 62. I am an expert downhill skier in the Winter months and ski about 24 days per Winter. I do not walk on the treadmill on those particular days as I must preserve my energy for skiing. Besides, I am up very early to make the two-hour drive to the ski hill. I had to quit the pipe for a year and a half after sinus surgery. I found that to be no problem. I resumed smoking my pipe and my sinus problems have never returned. That was thirty years ago! It was not the pipe that caused sinus problems.

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[goalee1]

I too have gone days weeks without smoking my pipes or cigars. Even when I have a lot of free time (which is far and few), I choose something that I really want to smoke and relax at the end of the day. I'm not a morning smoker, never have been as I'm going from early in the am but when I'm done or nearly done with the day and time permits, I indulge. Don't drink so its always been a cigar and recently pipes which has given me a great variety. G1

 

[rigmedic1]

I put the pipe down for 6 years, out of the past 37. Did not smoke 3 weeks out of 6 for years due to the job. Cannot say that I could have accomplished that with cigarettes. I love the feel of a pipe in my hands and in my teeth, and enjoy the taste and smell of tobacco smoke. My kids wouldn't know me without a pipe, heh heh. I don't know why there is more to a pipe than being a simple tool, but there it is. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[cachimbolove]

What I worry about is that pipe smoking will draw me back to smoking cigarettes, a habit that I've abandoned with much suffering close to 12 years ago. Any thoughts on this? I've recently become interested in pipes but haven't smoked anything yet.

 

[krizzose]

I smoked cigarettes for several years and then quit. For me, the nicotine addiction was very strong, and I have no doubt I could easily get re-addicted if I had a few cigarettes. A couple of years after I quit, I started smoking cigars recreationally (i.e., not every day). I never experienced anything which poked my old nicotine dragon from cigars or pipes. I think the degree and speed of nicotine ingestion is simply much less for pipes/cigars than cigarettes. I know very well what nicotine addiction felt like, and I've never once felt that with pipes or cigars. I don't smoke everyday, so that may have something to do with it, but the important part is I've never felt like I wanted to smoke everyday. I can put the pipe down for weeks without a problem. Unless you're inhaling or smoking bowl after bowl every day, I think it would be difficult to pick up a true nicotine addiction from pipes alone.

 

[plateauguy]

Addicted? Since most of us don't inhale, I don't think it's possible unless you have a addictive personality. But, you will begin collecting pipes, and tobacco and that IS an addiction.
I have puffed for over 40 years, sometimes leaving the hobby for a couple of months to a couple of years.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Personally I'm convinced it's not the nicotine that gets people addicted but, the chemicals cigarette companies add. I typically have about three pipes a day but, if I have a cold or something I'll go about a week without having a bowl. So I could put it down tomorrow and not be physically effected by it. For me I like the ritual and the relaxation that it brings as well as the flavor.

 

[cachimbolove]

krizzose: Thank you so much for your input, I truly appreciate it.
plateauguy: even if you don't inhale, and I am not planning to, nicotine will get into your system. I worry that it may trigger the addiction to cigarettes and hence my question. Thanks!

 

[murf]

I've been chewing tobacco since I was 16 (so about 9yrs). I've quit several times, months at a time. I always come back to it eventually, because I enjoy the taste of Copenhagen.
"Addicted" and "dependent" are 2 very different words. Dependency is needing something on a regular basis (coffee, nicotine, etc). Addiction is using it recklessly (think of a coke addict going a few months w/out and then "blowing" his entire savings in one night).
That being said, I've been dependent on chewing tobacco at times, and been fine for others. However, when I have a pipe, I'm usually set for the day. No idea why, since nicotine content is less. Could be any number of things.
That being said, I do inhale somewhat. I like the buzz I get from it. Very mellow. I need to take it easy on VA, sometimes that can be like getting hit in the face with a sledgehammer.

 

[plateauguy]

I was raised in a family of heavy (non filtered) smokers. Never had the desire to smoke a cigerette or cigar in my life. I started the occasional pipe in my early twenties - like lordofthepiperings said, it is the ritual and relaxation.
On the other hand, my middle brother smoked cigerettes and a pipe from a very early age. My older bother has never smoked. We were all raised in the same house, under the same circumstances, same blood.

 

[numbersix]

Personally I'm convinced it's not the nicotine that gets people addicted but, the chemicals cigarette companies add.

+1
Myself, if I had to give up the pipe tomorrow - I could with minimal distress. I'd miss it, but I am not addicted to it. I am probably more addicted to purchasing pipes than smoking them!

 

[uberam3rica]

I definitely have a nicotine addiction. I'm an ex cig smoker. I started smoking a pipe because I saw a cheap one at ahead shop and thought why not? Now that I am serious about pipes, I dropped the cigs and smoke mostly for flavor. I do like stronger blends as they satisfy my nicotine craving

 

[phred]

I'm a fairly new smoker, currently smoking 1-2 bowls a day because I've got time opportunity (weather permitting). While I suspect I've experienced a nic buzz a couple of times, I haven't really noticed any serious cravings. When sick with a cold, I can forego the pipe without a problem. Weather can keep me from enjoying a pipe (as I only smoke outdoors, or in a designated smoking lounge), so I don't think I'm particularly addicted. It's like alcohol for me - I can take it or leave it, but I choose to enjoy it at my convenience. In moderation, of course...

 

[chagovatoloco]

It really depends on the individual. I go for days with out a smoke with no issus, but I know others that can't.