As a youth, I made the classical mistake of not separating the smoker from the smoke – as a consequence, my responses were often received as if I resented both, which unknowingly, I probably did at the time.
Whilst I find smoke from cigarettes very, very unpleasant, I would not be asking the question of a surgeon “are you a smoker?” before he operated on me.
So, smokers and non-smokers are from all walks of life and as with anything, I have found that I need to take the good with the bad; life is about balance. I’m sure that we non-smokers have habits or attitudes that smokers and non-smokers alike find offensive, so consideration, understanding and compromise appear to be the way forward. I have flaws and my wife understands these, even though she would prefer I didn’t have them. In much the same way, I would prefer that people did not smoke around me, but I have found it sometimes difficult to approach them for several reasons:
Often, they are friends and I don’t want to hurt their feelings.
My internal response is often strong, giving rise to feelings of annoyance, irritation and anger which colour my response to the person.
Smokers are people and can pick up on this, so it puts them on the defensive – gets their hackles up.
Added to that, no-smoking areas have increasingly been implemented, herding those that smoke into other places.
Perhaps as a consequence, I have found some to be hyper-sensitive, much as I am to the smell of cigarette smoke, or snoring or excessive late night noise for that matter!
Maybe unfairly, I judge that if smokers are not responsive to the effects that smoking may have on their own body and well being, is it reasonable for me to expect that they would concern themselves with my comfort and well being?
So, all that I ask, is:
Please smoke your cigarettes well away from me, my clothing and my optics.
I do not think any less of you as a person and will continue to welcome your friendship and other qualities.
I understand that smoking is addictive and therefore I do not judge you; I haven’t walked a mile in your shoes.
I wish those that try to kick the habit every success, plus some.
When we bring our enormous focus and attention to a single topic like smoking, the risk is that the discussion blows up out of proportion, to an almighty calamity. Emotions tend to run high, parallel with those reserved for when a mad axeman is breaking down our front door to murder the family.
I was a smoker in my late teens. Gave up just before I got married at about 21. Got divorced 12 years later and started again. Smoked for three odd years after that, and then gave up again. Been about 4 years now. Its strange, although now I couldn't handle going into a night club full of smoke like they used to be, I still on occasion get the urge. Of course being smoke free for so long, its easy to not relent, but its still trys.
I guess what I am saying is, I feel for those who want to give up, or are giving up, because it is very very hard. But most of all don't give up on giving up!!
If you fall off the wagon, get straight back on and keep going. Don't feel guilty about it, as this only makes the craving worse.
I mean, lets say you were a 20 a day smoker, and you tried to give up, but then relented after two days and had a smoke.
Well there are two ways to look at this......
I failed so I may as well keep smoking.....or
Wow, I dropped from 20 a day to 1 every two days. Lets see if I can last longer than two days this time. Eventually you get to 1 a week, and by then the job is almost done.
Smoked for 30 years, and 60 a day, or a packet of makings and half a packet of tailor-mades to zilch, "cold turkey", 25 years ago.
It's not only your life at risk, other people have to contend with the "passive" smoking thingo. Walking past a line of smokers outside a supermarket is something I don't look forward to.
I'm a smoker and hate the things. I wish i could give up. I have try so many times. The government should just ban the dam things. I have never smoked inside or in my car. Because people around me should not have to put up with the smell or the damaging smoke.
Any help on giving up would be good try ed all the patches gum etc.
Phil
I used to smoke a packet (25) a day. One day i went to the doc with a throat problem. He said, "If you don't stop smoking you'll die". Next day was 7 cigs, Day after that was 3 cigs, 3rd day was 1 cig.
the 4th day was none & I haven't had one since.
That was 13yrs ago.
I used to be a smoker but managed to give them up about 10 years ago. Funny thing happened the other day. I was walking around the house looking for something but not really thinking(not hard for me to do) and realised that i was looking for smokes and a lighter. lol
I'm 17, at 15 I tried a cigarette, along with a cigar, hated each so I probably will never be a smoker. Now...one other plant I wouldn't mind smoking if it became legal.
If you switch off the TV and start to use your your own brain to think with you will come up with some disturbing facts.
1/ Exhaust emissions are very deadly and you probably breath far more vehicle exhaust emissions in a given week than cigarette emissions. Just consider the thought experiment of spending an hour in a closed room with 30 chain smokers, or that same hour with one small car with its engine running. The car would kill you in about 5 minutes. Add to this the disturbing fact that catalytic converters were added to cars because of the toxic nature of unleaded fuel ( they add industrial wastes to it ) And that these converters have a lifespan of 3 years. Ever know anyone to have changed one out? No. There over $1000 to replace. As an experiment I emailed BP once, told them I was running an old car on unleaded and asked them if I needed to have a converter fitted. No reply.
2/ Tobacco companies don't make the most profit from tobacco, neither does the government. The biggest profits go to the Medical industry. I'm not talking about treatments either, I'm talking about direct profits from the use of tobacco in gums and patches. They pay no excise and the market for them is huge. They have a vested economic interest in scaring people into switching to their products and often, as in the case of gums, people use them for years and years after quitting.
Sure smoking is bad for your health, but so is sitting on you backside eating too much food and not exercising until you become obease and can't run across your backyard without getting winded. Smoking is bad for you but so is drinking diet coke. Diet Coke has Aspartame, or phenylalanine in it. A chemical proven to cause all manner of health issues. Stick it in google if you like. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0707/S00131.htm
Why isn't it on the news every night? Because Coke is a huge advertiser and has a lot of political clout. Not nearly as much as the pharmaceutical corporations do, Pharma is the second largest business on the planet after Arms dealers.
Whenever you go to a doctor now the second question is "do you smoke" They ask this because if you do, or live with a smoker, or live next door to a smoker... They can blame a whole gambit of woes on it. Just don't blame diet coke, or drugs in chickens, or exhaust emissions, or ......
If you switch off the TV and start to use your your own brain to think with you will come up with some disturbing facts.
snipped...
Whenever you go to a doctor now the second question is "do you smoke" They ask this because if you do, or live with a smoker, or live next door to a smoker... They can blame a whole gambit of woes on it. Just don't blame diet coke, or drugs in chickens, or exhaust emissions, or ......
I'm sorry - but you need to start using your brain.
Cigarette smoking is a leading preventable cause of premature death in this country.
Doctors ask you for one main reason:
* they care about your health - by getting you to quit, they know you will most probably do better in terms of longevity and quality of life. If you do quit, the doctor makes less money from you. Smokers help put doctors kids through school. Especially during flu season.
If the drugs in chicken, or exhaust emissions or diet coke bother you - don't eat chicken, live in the bush and drink water - smoke all you like, just not near me please.
This may be of some benefit to those looking at giving up the smokes. Some years ago I heard the great screen actor Kirk Douglas talking about how he became totally addicted to cigarettes and how he ultimately quit.
It went something like this. When he decided to quit he smoked his last pack all bar the last cigarette, which he then kept in a shirt pocket. Whenever the cravings came he knew he always had this last cigarette on his person. He would take it out, look at it and declare to himself and the cigarette that he was stronger than that cigarette and then he would put it back into his pocket. This is will power at it's best, by keeping that cigarette on him he obviously could have smoked it anytime but HIS WILL to quit was stronger than the cigarette craving, apparently he never smoked since that day.
Maybe useful
Peter M
Working in the rural industry I use farm chemicals regularly,
Over the years many products or groups of products have been removed from sale ,mostly because of there toxicity,sometimes they are replaced by others sometimes not.When you first do a farm chemicals handling course they , irony intended I think ,point out THE most toxic farm chemical ever used ,and banned long ago was indeeed extacted from the tobbaco plant...But you can still buy it to consume from the corner store ?
I've given up smoking more often than I can remember. Seriously.
On one of those exercises in self flaggelation I gave them up (cigarettes) for twelve months - a whole year for crying out loud. I fell over when my mother-in-law, who smoked, stayed with my family for a few days. I'm not blaming her, so don't get me wrong, I blame myself. One evening I botted a couple of cigs from her and then, feeling somewhat guilty of my sponging, ducked down the road and bought my own packet. I still feel so stupid; all that effort and aggravation undone in one evening.
As others have said I turn into a short fused twit when the withdrawal symptoms raise their ugly heads. It's one of the reasons I haven't tried again. I hate myself for the silly, and oft times irrational, outbursts that afflict me - so much so that I'm loath to become serious about giving up the weed again. What makes it worse is that I remember that during that short period of cleanliness I detested the smell of cigarette smoke and felt a sort of pity for those customers and friends who still were addicted. My father, an ex-smoker, died at the age of 59 (heart attack) and my father-in-law, who smoked his cigarettes with a filtered holder, died of lung cancer at the age of 63 (my current age).
I have tried the nicotine patch path and it hasn't worked for me, although I have managed to get my daily consumption of the rotten stuff down to around the 35 per day level. That's somewhat of a victory for me.
Will I put my wife through another few months of purgatory should I go cold turkey again? I doubt it.
Twenty months and still going strong. (see start of thread) This would have to be one of my proudest achievements. I've felt quite calm, relaxed and found it quite easy over this time. I put this down to the fact that I really wanted to give up this time.
I found it quite strange actually, that every now and then over the past year and a half, I would notice that I hadn't even been thinking about cigarettes, whereas once upon a time I would have gotten quite panicy when I was getting low on tobacco.
Also while I don't like the smell of tobacco smoke, I don't find the smell greatly offensive anymore, though I did for quite a while. I do however choose not to be around it.
You so need to turn off the tv. Doctors are one of chief causes of death in the world these days.
From the SMH.
"I see a lot of elderly people in the wards on crazy combinations of medications," says Dr Peter Hunter, the president of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine. "People started on drugs to counteract the effects of another drug; illogical combinations of medications. I tell my medical students the three main causes of acute confusion in older people are drugs, drugs and drugs." http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...857771586.html
I have been smoking since I was 12 years old and I’m 60 now. No ill effects so far. Yes I’m going to die eventually, same as everybody else. I was always politically incorrect and intend to remain this way to the end.
It is sad that so many people in the western world let their lives to be run by propaganda. It is fine if you smoke or don’t smoke because it is your decision. But if you smoke because of peer pressure or you don’t smoke because of advertising you have seen on TV, well what you are going to do if and when governments decide to reduce population and start 15 years advertising campaign telling people that the should commit suicides? Are you going to jump of the bridge because you have seen it on TV?
Fortunately it may not come to this, as the intolerance of various groups pushing their petty issues will fragment western societies to the point when societies more coherent in purpose will take over. Most of great empires disintegrated from the pressures within, not from the conquest.
As for the comment about doctors, I agree. In about 38 years I have been to doctor about 7 times. Then I had work accident. I have great admiration to the surgeon who wired together my shattered wrist. But then my problems started. It took doctors 3 weeks to find out that I got broken ribs, 2 months to find out that I got torn ligaments in the shoulder and 2 years to find out that I got fracture in my spine. At $ 450 initial visit to specialist and $ 175 for following visits that’s pretty poor value for money.
never smoked tobacco could never see the point, marijiuana on the other hand...not for a long time but gave it a decent nudge when I did - ah the blissful ignorance of youth
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