The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I'll be in a country where all ADHD medication and stimulant drugs are extremely illegal, so I'll probably start smoking again to manage my spaz brain. Can't vape because nicotine juice is banned too. Any recommendations on cigs or patches?
Also, please share your experience if you've ever self medicated with nicotine or caffeine.
This post raised a few interesting points for me.
Despite being online for many years at this point, I don't think I've ever seen a cigarette recommendation thread.
Nor do I ever hear people talking about the different brands and their properties. Not even smokers. People have serious preferences about Coors vs. Miller etc., and will discuss them, but I'm not sure that's the case with cigarettes.
I realize I actually don't have much of a vocabulary to discuss the nature of different cigarettes with. I would be really curious to know if people had better ways of talking about them 60 or 80 years ago.
Anyway, here's what I can remember:
Pall Mall: Seriously offensive and nasty. If somehow this is all they have, go to another store.
L&M: Just barely acceptable.
Chesterfield: Probably the best really cheap cigarette. They taste fine, but they burn very quickly, you don't get a lot out of one.
Parliament: Pretty harsh. The recessed filter doesn't do anything and you will quickly cease to notice it. Too expensive for what they are but I guess they do look cool.
Camel (Red): The best cigarette. Once I found these I stopped buying other ones. This is probably what most people do, they find the one they like and they stop shopping around. But what if there's a better one out there?
Camel (Blue): Doesn't taste or feel like anything. I would extend that to pretty much all light cigarettes. I suppose that's what some people are going for.
Unfortunately I can't report on the self-medication aspect. I just like stimulants.
Which always strikes me as pretty weird, given how similar American adjunct lagers when considering their place in the overall beer spectrum. I'm not here to take shots at the style and I do have my own favorite of the bunch (PBR), but they're sufficiently similar that I'm confused by people that straight up won't drink one of them. I guess it's more about developing brand identity than anything specific to the flavor.
It didn't strike me as weird until they started putting cigarettes in featureless boxes and I saw that very few people really gave a shit what brand you smoked unless it was menthol or white ox (for the unfamiliar, it has a distinctive taste and odour that isn't that much worse than normal cigarettes, but is also the brand of choice of convicts, with associated social stigma) or one of those cheap Chinese brands that smell like an electrical fire in a peat bog. I know some people who are obsessed with status, and they still smoke benson and hedges or marlboros, but most people switched to something like chesterfields or parker and simpson to save $10.
I questioned a lot of the branded products I bought after that - does pepsi Max really taste better to me than coke zero or la ice or store-brand cola? (yes) Is xxxx gold any different to vb or coors it heineken? (nope) Do I have any appreciation for the expensive pour over coffee bags my brother sent me from the States over my breville dripper and a $5 bag of grounds? (nope). It's a good thing to do, I managed to cut about 15% out of my grocery budget with it, but I was pretty alarmed at how easily I had been led to believe branding was important.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Is this what they call Silvers these days? Because Silvers were the best of the lights. And the reason you go with the lights is after the first time you get drunk and kill a pack of cowboy killers in four hours and viscerally feel the damage you're doing to your chest.
I disliked light cigarettes I tried because it felt like the only reason they were “light” was because the filter was too hard to draw from.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link