think of all the things that people do that have time and time resulted in dire consequences:

smoke cigarettes: lung cancer
tanning: skin cancer
alcohol/drugs: addiction
unprotected sex: AIDS/other diseases/unwanted preganancies
not wearing seatbelts/helmet: serious injury/death

why do people have a "that won't happen to me" attitude?

Humans are flawed.
Emotions are flawed.
Escaping from reality is deemed as necessary.
People cant handle limitations.
Defiance is sometimes the equivalent of freedom.

DarkKnight1 said:

true.

although I think there are more things at play here.
it's all part of a self-destructive way of life with
smoking drinking or drugs just being one factor.

i notice that when i quit smoking, that also makes
me pay more attention to everything else i'm doing
which is unhealthy.

like eating more healthy, getting more sleep, doing
more sports.

but once you drop one of those things and something
goes wrong, you just drop the entire package and go
back onto your self-destructive path again until an
outside factor propells you to do better again.

self-destruction is one of the most easy ways of
taking "control" of your life indeed. it's one of
the few things you can do and keep up.

living unhealthy is so much more easy than living
a healthy, balanced life.

still, it's worth it to keep trying to do better

what's so fun about not wearing a seat-belt?

meltwithu said:

Because most people live their lives thinking that bad things happen to other people. it's that immortalty thing, we tend to think we can win every battle.

imo.

why do people perform dangerous stunts or take part in extreme sports, it's the adrenalin rush too, the exhiliration, feeling alive. A friend of mine who climbs said that reaching the top was better than sex.

go figure...

...
[Edited 11/5/05 5:26am]


as somebody said too, escaping from reality and mediocrity.

...
[Edited 11/5/05 5:46am]

Answer: They think bad things can't happen to them.

...falling in love....

like worship the devil ?

DiscoDiva said:

or join a occult

I think that perhaps most (and indirectly all) of these distructive things listed are by-products of evolution. Sex for example feels good because our brains contain certain 'pleasure centra' that are triggered by certain neurotransmitters. When you use certain drugs, those drugs mimick the effects of your endogenic chemicals, making you high and giving you a sense of euphoria.

Strangely when talking about not-so-extreme cases, such as enjoying junk food, isn't it strange that our brain works in such a fashion that it would rather enjoy the pleasure then remain healthy? I mean I thought the supreme animal instinct was survival. So can the need for pleasure surpass the need for survival?

JDINTERACTIVE said:

Sometimes, absolutely.