Edit: note, I haven’t smoked myself, so this is second hand info
Like seriously
Short term it
calms you
let’s you focus
feels good
can be used fairly consistently while leaving you capable to do work
is minimally intensive to use, just requiring cigarettes and a lighter/match/fire of some sort
Compare that to alcohol or drugs and such. The only thing comparable is tea/coffee.
Long term it
gets you seriously addicted
Gives you over a dozen different cancers and other diseases
massacres your lungs
And so on, not to mention what it does to underage smokers.
And I get why it happens medically, and I’m not denying it [obviously]. But it’s almost on par with those random creeks filled with brain eating amoebas. Like, if there is a god, why did they decide to design earth like that?
Smoking does not calm you or make you focused. Withdrawal causes distraction and anxiety. Relieving the craving returns you to baseline stress levels.
Nicotine is expressly a stimulant that makes people more focused and induces a calm state by flooding the brain with dopamine.
That’s what makes nicotine addicting, no one would want to smoke again after their first time if the sensation wasn’t pleasurable.
Withdrawal is a factor for constant smokers, but the effect is real, though much lighter than something like weed. I sometimes chain smoke, and I even get some of the same side effects I get with some analgesics.
Its lighter than a good cup of coffee.