Smoking

This happened a few years ago, but the absurdity and trauma of this haunts me to this day, and I think it needs to be shared. So here goes.

'Twas the summer solstice. My then-boyfriend and I, being woo-woo hippies and lovers of psychedelics, thought it a grand idea to drive up to his cabin in the country, spend some time in nature and perhaps dabble in some substances that might enhance said time in nature. And I'm not talking about smoking a little joint in the woods (though we'd undoubtedly do that too). I'm talking about ingesting one of the biggest granddaddies of psychedelics: DMT. For those of you who haven't had the joy/terror of getting your ass handed to you by technicolor elven deities and geometric alien gnomes for 10 incredibly intense minutes - that's what it's like. Short, powerful and fucking insane.

So we get up to his land, get a fire going outside the cabin, and walk a few hundred feet to my BF's specially christened smoking spot - a mossy little clearing overlooking a pond. The ground is soft, the view is beautiful, and I'm feeling pretty good about blasting off on some DMT. My BF reaches down toward a small enclave in the rocks on the pond's perimeter and retrieves the smoking apparatus. It's a beaker looking thing with some strong science-lab vibes, and is completely blackened on the inside. I remark that he really should clean the thing, but he says he had used it recently and it was fine. I don't push the matter - I don't want any petty quarrelling to deter my grounded, DMT-ready state of mind.

He loads up the pipe and lights for me as I inhale through the mouth of the beaker. "Keep going," he says, pushing me to inhale deeper, and again. "Keep going." and I inhale more. I feel about ready to be done with my hit, but he says "Keep going" one more time, and since he was the more seasoned tripper, I obliged. Now, DMT does not taste great, but I don't do it often enough to really remember exactly how it's supposed to taste. But this last hit did not taste right at all.

I cough and hack like I'm going for a gold medal in some kind of respiratory malfunction olympics. Like my lungs are child prodigies of expulsion. My throat feels like it has been chemically scorched by Satan himself. The DMT is creeping up around my brain and turning all of it into an amped-up psychedelic nightmare. I was downplaying my condition as best I could, but managed to sputter out that I didn't think my BF should use that same pipe. So he whipped a regu

I guess this is more of a positive fuck up, but still a fuck up.

Anyway, I've been smoking (just cigarettes) regularly for a bit over 4 years now. I really like smoking, it relaxes me, clears my head, and I love the taste of different tobaccos. Well, loved.

I don't smoke a lot unless I'm out with friends, which as you can guess it's something that's just not happening during this pandemic. As a result, I've spent the last month or so smoking just a couple of cigarettes a day, which really enhanced my sense of smell.

Well a couple of weeks ago, I've had a terrible sore throat, to the point of not even being able to talk; smoking was out of the question, as it was simply too painful. My cravings were easy to manage, as I already didn't smoke a lot.

Fast forward 10 days, I'm feeling alright again and I finally grab a cigarette. I light it up, inhale... And it tastes like absolute shit. It feels like I've licked clean my ashtray, nothing at all as what I'm used to! The smoke itself that's coming from the cigarette has a barely tolerable smell, I just can't stand it.

So here I am now, almost a week later. I'd really like to smoke, I loved it so much, but it's just so disgusting I can't bring myself to do it. I've tried, but it's just horrible and the taste just seem to get worse. I had no plans to stop smoking anytime soon, this was 100% not intended and I'm actually pretty annoyed by it.

I guess it's good for my health and everything, but I'm probably one of the only idiots in this world that accidentally quit smoking. This whole thing sounds so stupid.

Edit: holy hell somehow this reached r/all I’m getting a lot of comments and while I might not be able to reply to all of you, please know that I’m reading them all. With so many people sharing their positive experiences about quitting and showing support, I’m actually quite happy this happened to me now. I might be pissed off today but I’ll probably be happy about it in the long run. Thank you!

Edit 2: I’ve literally just received the results of my Covid test: I’m negative!!! I saw a lot of you guys were worried since altered taste and sore throat can be Covid symptoms, so I thought I’d update on my test results here. No Covid for me, the cigarettes taste bad for real!

Tl;dr: Had a really bad case of sore throat that forced me to give up cigarettes for 10 day. Now they taste like absolute shit and I'm actually pretty pissed of because I had no intentions of actually quitting.

This happened on Friday but it is somehow still an issue and it is driving me insane.

So on Friday, my team had a virtual happy hour after work. It was a nice day so I was sitting on my deck while doing it. Nearly everyone was drinking and it was good. I had a couple of beers and I like to smoke when I drink so I had a cigarette. I want to stress that NO ONE commented on my cigarette during the happy hour. I mean, why would they? It's not like they can claim secondhand smoke hurts them.

So the problem started when I logged in to work on Monday and saw an email that was sent out by one of my coworkers after the happy hour on Friday. This woman is older (she's in her forties, I'm 26) and has always been nice to me but is definitely uptight. She is also, important to note, NOT my supervisor. It was a pretty passive aggressive email where she said that she was "surprised" that I smoked a cigarette in front of "everyone" and then she went on to describe the dangers of smoking (as if I had never heard of those before) and that I was setting a poor example to the younger employees, especially the college interns. She advised me that I shouldn't do it anymore but that if I chose to "destroy my life" (SERIOUSLY), that at least I should keep it private.

I was obviously pissed off. Smoking is legal and it is completely within my rights to do it in my own place. I sent her an email where I basically just explained that and told her that if my boss had a problem with it (and he was present during the happy hour) that he could tell me but that it really wasn't any of her business. It wasn't the nicest email in the world but I didn't straight up tell her to fuck off, even though I wanted to. I did straight up say "My smoking is none of your concern."

But yesterday, my boss called me in for a private Zoom meeting where he said that she complained about both my smoking and my "aggressive" email. He said that she doesn't want me disciplined (what a fucking saint she is!) but just wants an apology. He said that he understood where we were both coming from but he asked me if I would apologize just to smooth things over. It wasn't like "you have to apologize", it was more of a suggestion. I said that I wouldn't because I didn't do anything wrong and she was the one who overstepped. He said that he understood. He also said that he didn't give a fuck if I smoked during happy hour but he just wants everyone to be happy.

I feel a little guilty because my boss is so nice and w

So that is another reason why you are insanely powerful doing this. Keep going, you got this.

Idk if it's just my age group or something, but the majority of profiles I come across talk about nothing except that they like to smoke weed. I'm not even against it or anything, I just wish people talked about other stuff in their bio/questions so I could get a better feel for what their personality actually is. Anyways, I just needed to vent, so sorry in advance.

Edit: I see some people misinterpreted what I was saying. I was referring to the profiles that talk about how they smoke weed, and then literally have nothing else on their profile, not the ones who mention that they smoke weed along with other stuff.

What is up with people smoking on the train? I've never seen it this bad and I've been going to work through the pandemic. 1-2 people smoking in my train car, no mask, not giving a shit. I've even moved cars to come into a wall of smoke. I understand having a warm place to be but at least don't smoke. Idk maybe I'm out of touch.

Three weeks ago i quit smoking weed after around 10 years of daily use. The first days i felt amazing, the only thing bothered me was that it was hard to go to sleep. Other than that i had better mood and had more energy. Now i feel sluggish and tired, i've read about this from others who quit that they start to feel depressed/heavy after a couple of weeks.

But it's not only that, i look like shit! Dark circles around my eyes and my face looks like ive been on meth for days. I can even feel my face being "tired". Is there anyone who have had a similar experience while quitting or know any explanation to this?