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I don't think either cigarettes nor cigars are addictive in the classical sense of the definition, but of the two cigarettes naturally harder to shake.

From personal experience, I don't find nicotine to be addictive. My example: Prior to college, I never took a drag off anything. In college, during a mode of self-destruction, I took up smoking a pack of cigarettes a day (I know, WHAT A REBEL!! ;). That lasted for two months until I noticed my once bright white teeth turning a faint shade of yellow. I immediately gave up cigarettes cold-turkey with no withdrawal effects whatsoever. While smoking, I didn't "crave" cigarettes, it was just a thing to do. I think the whole mystique with cigarettes and their "addictiveness" is a combination of different factors, pick and choose from the following; 1) oral fixation 2) an alternative to nervousness and figgitting/figiting 3) repetetive stress disorder and 4)not for nothing, but it does still look kind of cool/gives someone the feeling that they look like James Dean while smoking :) That's just my opinion/observation. If I had to give cigars up tomorrow, I'd do so pretty easily, but why would I?

Sounds like a good explaination to me. Probably the same thing for drinkers. Some can drink socially, and others become alcoholics. Everyone is different, and I believe some are more prone to addiction than others ...

This post was written actually for earlier "Smoking at Home" thread. How can you possibly say that the danger of smoking cigarettes are understated. C'mon, that is totally ill-advised as well as ludicrous considering what we know today. Clinically speaking, yes, there are those who are much more susceptable to differing forms of addiction or dependancy if you like. It is a fact that children of alcoholics are much more likely to have problems with addiction to alcohol. We believe the same is true of most forms of addiction, that it may be gentically acquired. I think the facts about nicotine addiction speak for themself. This country has spent billions of dollars arguing that same question about "social smokers" with no real clear-cut answer. One answer is for sure and that is the conspiracy by tobacco companies to continually increase the amounts of harmful substances in cigarettes that in themselves are addictive. Now, dependacy is another issue. One can become dependant on ANYTHING, cigars included. To be dependant, a person is fixated on acquiring and maintaining their "object of dependancy". That could be anything. People who are dependant feel incomplete without the object they are fixated on. For some, its food, sex, or love. Addiction requires that it is physical and psychological. There is no doubt now the effects of nicotine on the central nervous system as well as the respiratory and cardiac system. Just watch someone die from emphsema for awhile and tell me that cigarettes are not addictive. These patients will tell you they would have stopped if they could. Heck, I even saw a woman taking a drag off a cigarette who had a tracheotomy in! Don't even try to say cigarettes are not addicting....Brent

I’m more “addicted” to the nightly ritual than I am of the tobacco / nicotine.

Ditto.

Smoked cigarettes for years, years ago. They were kinda tough to quit, but also mainly because of the habit more than the chemicals.