I found this article called learning to smoke. It’s about a forty six year old man called Tom Chiarella who decides to do a thirty day experiment on the effects of smoking. Having never smoked a cigarette before he started the experiment, the article makes interesting reading. It charts Tom’s progress from non smoker to someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. At the start of the experiment the cigarettes induced vomiting and coughing but by the end he finds he enjoys smoking and starts to crave his next cigarette. When he does finally quit at the end the experiment he experiences withdrawal symptoms being unable to think and suffering an endless headache.
I find the article interesting because as a former smoker myself and someone who regularly smoked more than a pack a day, I tried quitting the habit unsuccessfully for four years. Eventually I threw out any cigarettes I had left in the house and went cold turkey. Although that worked and I have now not been a smoker for about eight years, I still get that craving every now and again and have to admit to having had at least five cigarettes during this eight year period, in moments when I was rather drunk. That said, I could never go back to being a smoker, and find that now I cannot stand the smell of cigarettes. Whilst the article was very interesting, I can’t quite understand why someone would want to undergo an experiment like this when kicking the habit is so difficult.