CMV: Smoking is very similar to suicide, and smokers should be treated as people who need mental help, not as addicts

*It's obviously not the same thing, but they share some similarities*<br><br>I grew up in a family of heavy smokers. My father smoked a pack a day pretty much his entire life, my brother chain smokes, my mother used to. I would've probably smoked had it not been for asthma. I've known all types of smokers. People who smoked a cigarette after sex, people who finish a pack in less than a day, and people who smoked only in social situations. And I've been wondering, why the hell do people smoke still? What's the upside of it? What's the reason to do something like this to your organs and your health, when you can avoid it?<br><br>I'm sure that a smoker will be offended by this, and rightfully so. Nobody likes to have their habits compared to self-destructive ones. But the point stands. Why would you do it? You know it's bad, you know it's wrong, you know it's unhealthy. You know that you'll have to stop at one point, when you'll be old, and it'll be hard as hell, and you'll probably be fucked as well, with your lungs blackened and shriveled, and your brain filled with plaques. <br><br>And still I've seen every smoker do it for years and years until they die of old age, die of lung cancer, or quit before that. And my theory is, smokers don't smoke because they're addicted. Sure, the dopamine and nicotin's effects are very pleasurable, but you can feel the same by drinking and having sex. And ideally, this should stop at some point. <br><br>The problem lies in the fact that smokers, and I'm speaking as someone who's lived with them their entire lives, smokers want to die. Some of them, anyway. And when I say they want to die, I don't necessarily mean consciously. It's like something deep in them says it's okay if they die earlier than they should because they were stupid enough to do this to their body, and the brain just goes along with it, and smokes and smokes and smokes, trying to impress that feeling, because it's the only way they can make it go away.<br><br>Smokers don't smoke because they're addicted. They smoke because they have an urge to die, that they can't satisfy normally, as they're not truly suicidal. <br><br>Edit: Wow, I really didn't expect this blow up. I want to add, I'm not saying every smoker is suicidal or mentally ill. There is a very large number of people that just enjoy smoking and that's okay. I'm not here to judge them. I'm saying that there is a small minority of smokers that do it because of the reasons I've stated above, and they do need mental help.