Smoking

[silentsoul]

Ok, about a year ago I quit smoking cigarettes. I've kinda, sorta, maybe started again and I've been thinking about the good and bad of smoking.

Everybody's got their own opinion. It's a proven fact that it's bad for you, terrible even. But so is about 90 % of the worlds evils. You only live once and if you don't have some fun AND take chances every now and again it gets to be not even worth living anymore.

My opinion of smoking is that it's a dirty habbit, it stinks, it's a great way to waste 5 minutes, and when the worlds stresses get to you it's an easy chrutch.

So what's your opinion?

[lonelyarmywife]

Smoking sucks monkey balls...it is stinky and gross, not at all healthy and a waste of money.

This is coming from a former smoker. Quitting was one of the hardest things I ver did, but totally 100% worth it.

[osuche]

I dislike smoking too. Although I admit to enjoying a couple of cigars about every 6 months...while drinking scotch :D

[cherrypie7788]

I don't smoke, never have and never would..Never dated a smoker either, but it's a matter of personal opinion I guess. People generally don't get to smoke in my house either, just a pet peeve of mine. If I really liked someone and they smoked I could deal with it.

[Sharni]

As a former 50+/day smoker.....i'd say its a filthy expensive addictive habit

One that any smoker could well do without

[Lilith]

I'm glad I quit.

[campingboy]

A pack of 25 smokes is $11.00 here. I could think of a lot of other uses for that money. All public places here went smoke free. It is nice going out and playing some pool and not having to look through a haze of smoke, and returning home not smelling, well like an ashtray.

[fzzy]

I've never smoked, but have had family members who did ... they each have told me that it is the hardest habit they ever had to break and when they were smoking, they hated so much about it! The other thing I've only recently learned is that smokers have a much more difficult time healing (from anything) that with broken bones it makes the healing almost impossible. So let's see ... costs a lot, smells, is unhealthy and makes your body weaker ... not to mention the yellow nails and teeth, the stale stagnating smell that gets into your clothing ... hmmmmmm what did you say you liked about it again???? :)

[LixyChick]

It's not a habit at all...but an addiction. There is the physical addiction and then there is a mental addiction. The mental addiction is the hardest part to quit. I've known people that have quit for 20+ years and still have the memory of "the good part" of smoking...whatever that was to them. They still have cravings and sometime cave to that craving (fall off the wagon, so to speak).

I've said before...I'd quit if [they] could give me a hemi-lobotomy and sever the nerve to the part of my brain that says there is something I like about smoking.

Good news for the future...I've heard there may be a pill coming that will do something similar to my so called hemi-lobotomy. It won't cut the nerves to my brain, but quite possibly block the signals that say I want to smoke. In addition, it is suppose to help you lose some weight in the process. Weight gain is a probability when quitting, so it is a bonus if this "miracle pill" can do what it says.

I don't make excuses for my smoking but I will say this...I am an addict, just like any other addict, addicted to a drug. This drug, known as nicotine, is the most powerful drug I've ever known. For those of you who have never known the addiction...and for those who have quit...cudos to you! For those who simply say to just stop...it's bad for you and disgusting...so just don't do it anymore, I say... you know NOT of what you speak! If it were that simple, don't you think we would take advantage of the simplicity?

Yep! That's what I think!

[jseal]

silentsoul,

In addition to the other features mentioned above, smoking also can cause emphysema, a cruel and nasty way to spend the last years of your life. If that doesn't dissuade you, cancer surgery can be very disfiguring. If you’ve stopped smoking, I recommend against resuming.

[cowgirltease]

You 're right jseal. My dad and my step dad both had emphysema. one is dead and the other is now on oxygen. It causes hardening of the arteries. Can you say high blood pressure? I have smoked for 30 years and doing my damndest to quit. The Nicoderm CQ 21 mg. nicotine patches are the best I have found for the nicotine craving. I hate cigarettes. The smell, the taste, and the fact that I can't breathe afterwards. But I'm addicted to nicotine.. I hate to tell you this silentsoul but your marijuana is harder on your lungs than a cigarette. I talk from experience here. You better get off both of them. I was a 2 pack a day smoker now i'm down to about 5 a day.

[BIBI]

I quit smoking for 5 years once.

I stopped during both my pregnancies too, not because anyone told me it was bad for the baby back then but because I couldn't stand the smell or taste AND no I am not going to get preggers again lol.

I want to quit but as Lixy has said it is one of the hardest things to kick as far as addictions. My doc says it is worse than heroin.

Now back to my first point. I quit smoking and it nearly drove me crazy but I did it. I started up again the day my mother was rushed to hospital.....sitting outside with my brother he offered me a smoke and I just automatically took it and smoked it. Halfway through I realized what I was doing.... I didn't even cough, get light headed, nothing at all...just like I had never stopped.

I have to stop.....I keep trying the patch and I continually give in! HELP!!!
Lixy, let me know when those pills are available.....;)

[cowgirltease]

BIBI... I'm smoking and ON the patch! :rolleyes: I've been on them for about 4 months now. I know it's dangerous but the patches don't last 12hrs like they say. About 8 is all I get out of them. I can say this..... I put a patch on at night and I don't wake up craving one and that helps ALOT!

There is a Nicotrol nasal spray that is potent as hell but, the first few times you use it, it burns like hot peppers and makes you sneeze and your eyes water. You don't inhale it. you just spray it inside your nose when you crave a cigarette. Your Dr. Can get you a prescription for it.

[Pita]

Stud and I both smoke and talk all the time about quitting this nasty and very expensive habbit. Maybe someday we can get strong enough and just do it. I do hope so.

[BamaKyttn]

I had my first cigarette when I was 12. Now at 21 I still smoke. During my short stint at college I smoked maybe 2 packs a month, now I smoke and it takes about 2 months to a pack. I'm such a control freak I feel when my body says "ooooh! I NEED a cig!" and I just clench my hand and smile in the satisfaction that I control me..... I think that was why I enjoyed aenorexia..... hate that I gave that up.


honestly it's not healthy but neither is driving with the windows down.


Kyttn
ok we all know I'm a sick fuck.

[LixyChick]

silentsoul,

In addition to the other features mentioned above, smoking also can cause emphysema, a cruel and nasty way to spend the last years of your life. If that doesn't dissuade you, cancer surgery can be very disfiguring. If you’ve stopped smoking, I recommend against resuming.
You needn't tell me about the cruel and nasty deaths that smoking can cause. My mother died of cancer (though, she didn't have cancer of the lungs...ironically...but nearly everything else) and my father had emphysema (which he was hospitalized for...and in the hospital they found a blockage of his arteries and operated and he bled to death).

The part no one seems to understand (and I don't know if you've ever smoked jseal...so I'm directing this to everyone) is that when I (we...smokers collectively) started smoking, we didn't envision our parents, or anyone for that matter, with lung cancer or any other disease caused by smoking. I was just hanging out and fitting in and gagging and puking and making myself like this shit so I could look cool! It may have been boredom from living in a town with nothing much to do. It may have been peer pressure. It may be that I saw both my parents do it and it looked fun and cool. It may have been any and/or all of that...but it happened. I started smoking and now I can't stop! I don't want cancer! I don't want emphysema! I've seen the horrors FIRST HAND! I'm not a stupid person. I know what smoking is doing to me...and yet I can't quit. I could quit eating easier than I could quit smoking. I don't have any other vices to quit...but if I drank coffee, I could quit it. If I smoked pot, I could quit. If I took narcotics, I could quit (and I did...a prescription for pain that I stopped on my own cause I hated the addiction). Think of anything and I bet I could quit it. But I can't quit this and I've tried so much it'd make your head spin! The need is ALWAYS there...and I don't want that need anymore!

To be totally open and honest here, I'll divulge something that I've never said here at Pixies. I've been smoking since I was 7 years old (started at 6 and started inhaling at 7)...I will be 47 in one month...and the longest I've gone without a cigarette in all that time is 2 months and 3 days. I've quit a total of 32 times in my smoking carreer and I've never made it past 2 months and 3 days. It's tremendously upsetting to fail at something so many times! I don't take failure (for myself) very well at all. This has been one...no...make that THE...hardest thing I've ever tried and failed at in my life!

If words and advice and warnings and tsk tsk's from those in the know could make me/help me quit...don't you think I would??????? I don't want to die like that...and I surely don't want to lay it all on my family to see me die like that!

Give me the antidote!

Damn...this is a touchy subject...eh?

*hugs to (((everyone)))...smoking or not*

[cherrypie7788]

My mom was a pack a day smoker from age 18 to 35. She quit right around the time the patches and gum came out. She said it was the hardest thing she ever had to do, and at 10 years later, she still wants them. I'd advise you to NOT start back, silentsoul. You're just causing problems for yourself later on.

[osuche]

((((((lixy))))))

[Sharni]

(((Lixy)))

When i was smoking i said the same thing Lixy....and many times failed to give the damn things up....but for me i think subconsiously i DID'NT really want to give them away...there were times i really enjoyed a smoke....even knowing full well the consequences of what i was doing

But after many failures...i finally got to where a truely wanted to stop for me.....not because every other person was telling me i should....and when i was in the right frame of mind it, for me, was easy to stop (well fairly easy *LOL*) I just went cold turkey and made it

I havent smoked for 8-9yrs now....and it was the best damn thing i ever did!

[jseal]

silentsoul,

I do hope these recollections and confessions help steer you away from smoking again. It has been 19 years now since I kicked the habit, and I too had a very difficult time doing so. As you can read here, the combination of the short term physiological and the long term psychological habituation to smoking cigarettes can be almost insuperable. As LixyChick has commented, the final problems are not worth the initial values.

When you read these posts, I think you’ll find none in support of resuming smoking. Good luck.

(((Lixy)))

[maddy]

I'm glad for myself that I was just a drunk "fashionable" smoker... actually inhale... are you kidding me? I would have puked on the spot. My dad was a heavy smoker... he went in for surgery one day, came out of recovery and was wheeled past a smoking lounge in the hospital ( yes, in the early 80's they still has them IN the hospitals ), he puked all over himself and hasn't touched one since. He gets an upset stomach even from the smell. Of course I've been thankful that he was able to kick the habit.

[cowgirltease]

You needn't tell me about the cruel and nasty deaths that smoking can cause. My mother died of cancer (though, she didn't have cancer of the lungs...ironically...but nearly everything else) and my father had emphysema (which he was hospitalized for...and in the hospital they found a blockage of his arteries and operated and he bled to death).

The part no one seems to understand (and I don't know if you've ever smoked jseal...so I'm directing this to everyone) is that when I (we...smokers collectively) started smoking, we didn't envision our parents, or anyone for that matter, with lung cancer or any other disease caused by smoking. I was just hanging out and fitting in and gagging and puking and making myself like this shit so I could look cool! It may have been boredom from living in a town with nothing much to do. It may have been peer pressure. It may be that I saw both my parents do it and it looked fun and cool. It may have been any and/or all of that...but it happened. I started smoking and now I can't stop! I don't want cancer! I don't want emphysema! I've seen the horrors FIRST HAND! I'm not a stupid person. I know what smoking is doing to me...and yet I can't quit. I could quit eating easier than I could quit smoking. I don't have any other vices to quit...but if I drank coffee, I could quit it. If I smoked pot, I could quit. If I took narcotics, I could quit (and I did...a prescription for pain that I stopped on my own cause I hated the addiction). Think of anything and I bet I could quit it. But I can't quit this and I've tried so much it'd make your head spin! The need is ALWAYS there...and I don't want that need anymore!

To be totally open and honest here, I'll divulge something that I've never said here at Pixies. I've been smoking since I was 7 years old (started at 6 and started inhaling at 7)...I will be 47 in one month...and the longest I've gone without a cigarette in all that time is 2 months and 3 days. I've quit a total of 32 times in my smoking carreer and I've never made it past 2 months and 3 days. It's tremendously upsetting to fail at something so many times! I don't take failure (for myself) very well at all. This has been one...no...make that THE...hardest thing I've ever tried and failed at in my life!

If words and advice and warnings and tsk tsk's from those in the know could make me/help me quit...don't you think I would??????? I don't want to die like that...and I surely don't want to lay it all on my family to see me die like that!

Give me the antidote!

Damn...this is a touchy subject...eh?

*hugs to (((everyone)))...smoking or not*
I know what you mean lixy.I quit the drugs, the pot, the alcohol, but this one is a bitch.:(
My first cig was down the alley behind the school when I was 13 and just to be cool. But I liked that first cigarette.

[LixyChick]

(((Lixy)))

When i was smoking i said the same thing Lixy....and many times failed to give the damn things up....but for me i think subconsiously i DID'NT really want to give them away...there were times i really enjoyed a smoke....even knowing full well the consequences of what i was doing

But after many failures...i finally got to where a truely wanted to stop for me.....not because every other person was telling me i should....and when i was in the right frame of mind it, for me, was easy to stop (well fairly easy *LOL*) I just went cold turkey and made it

I havent smoked for 8-9yrs now....and it was the best damn thing i ever did!
(((osuche))) (((Sharni))) (((jseal))) (((CGT)))

You guys are terrific! TY for "getting it" and for passing the message along to silentsoul!

Sharni? I hear ya g/f! *hugs* for being able to stay quit! Here's to it happening for me someday soon! P.S. There are very few times in a calender year when I actually enjoy a cig! Blahhhhh!

It drives me wild to see a young person smoking now-a-days! The warnings are right in your face on the side of the packs. In my day (OMG...now I sound like my mother...arrrrgggg!) the side of a cig pack said, and I quote, "Caution, cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health". Today it says stuff like, "Smoking can kill" and Cigarette smoking is addicitve". I've actually seen harsher warnings on packs of cigs from Germany. The U.S. could get a bit more specific, in my opinion. But the point is, the cigarette companies have been obliged (through law suits) to make the warnings more specific...and they have. To see someone so young, like you silentsoul, smoking a cig....well, my heart aches for you!

For once, especially in this instance, I wish the younger generation would take advice from us old folks and believe we are saying it for their own good instead of trying to control them.

I hope all of this soapbox action is helping you ss!

[jseal]

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia; Luther Terry (1911-1985) was the Surgeon General here in the States from 1961 to 1965. His claim to fame is for sending out the first official warning that tobacco is a health hazard.

This warning was issued on January 11, 1964. (http://www.pixies-place.com:81/forums/showthread.php?p=812522#post812522)

[Lilith]

I quit using the Nicorette but when it was in clinical trials (they were deciding on how much Nicotine was needed/safe and everyone had dif amounts in their gum packets). The entire inside of my mouth broke out in blisters and I could not eat, drink, or smoke. Best thing that ever happened to me :D The nurse running the trial said they had already pegged me as being unable to stop because all indicators suggested I was highly addicted (duh!). Fate working in my favor for once I suppose

[cherrypie7788]

Jan 11 1964 (exactly 41 years ago)
The US Surgeon General warns against smoking for the first time.

Thought that might be interesting to some of you since that is today.

[WildIrish]

I gave up smoking when the price increased to 85 cents a pack. It was taking too much of a bite out of my allowance. :p

But think about it. That was 25 years ago. Imagine how much money I would've spent on smokes? Don't get me wrong...I've obviously found something else to spend it on because there's no gigantic pile of money in my basement, but still. That's some serious change.

Damnit...where's PF? He's great at these things! :D

[cowgirltease]

Jan 11 1964 (exactly 41 years ago)
The US Surgeon General warns against smoking for the first time.

Thought that might be interesting to some of you since that is today.
I was 4 years old I couldn't read then. :p

[cherrypie7788]

I wasn't even BORN then :p hehe

[silentsoul]

I've been doing some serious thinking since I first started smoking again. The first cig was nasty but that nicotene buzz hit me for the first time and ever since then it's been hard to see enough of a reason not to smoke. Basically I forgot how bad it is for you. Since that first smoke, I've bought 3 packs. First pack I smoked like 5-6 and threw the rest away but then a couple days later I wanted a cig. Finally I broke down and got another pack and did the same thing. Same thing all over, I wanted some so I got some and then I threw them away.

First thing I did today was smoke a cig. I started to smoke one a while ago and I was just disgusted at myself so I put it out. I'm really REALLY hoping that it was my last one.

[dicksbro]

Seven years ago last Christmas Eve I smoked my last cigarette. Glad I did. The cost. The smell. All the things others have mentioned. I lost my brother to cancer of the esphogas (sp) caused by smoking and my dad due to a heart attack. Kinda hope maybe that same fate isn't in store for me ... at least at their ages ... dad was just about 65 and my brother had just turned 65 when they died.

I hope you can quit, silentsoul. Wouldn't preach to anyone and know lots of folks who do smoke ... but I no longer see what attraction I ever felt for the stuff and I smoked for about 34 years.

Good luck.

[cowgirltease]

Well I guess if you can do it, I can DB. I've been at it 30 years.

[silentsoul]

ok, first of all, I REALLY want a fucking cigarette right now. However, at this point I think it's just a mental battle. For the past two days I've woke up and all I could think about is how much I want a cig. I don't even feel as though it's to actually smoke a cig, just something to pass the time. I can't afford to start smoking, I might have like $30 to last me a months and that's no where near enough to cover my previous habit of nearly a pack a day.

I don't know what I'm gonna do, I keep having these thoughts of "just one to hold you over for a while" but then every time I smoke one I end up feeling like I could smoke a foot long cigarette. Because I only smoke one I always end up feeling so bad that I smoked period, like it's another in a long list of failures. When I quit before, it just seemed so easy. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to smoke anymore, bought me a box of "commit" and by the time the box was empty I barely wanted a cig. What little bit I did want one, will power was able to control.

Well this time will power can just go to hell, I want a fucking cigarette! I don't understand why it's so hard.

wish me luck is all I can say I guess.

[nicole2309]

good luck, when I quit it was all about keeping busy. I always had gum or hard candy around to pop whenever I wanted a cig.
Good Luck again

[campingboy]

One of the warning on packages here in Canada is of a limp cigarette. Under it is says "Smoking can make you impotent". I would think that would make most males sit up and take notice.

[campingboy]

Why should I stop?

There are many good reasons, but you need to find the ones that will motivate you.

Good for your health

* Within 20 minutes after finishing a cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse rate return to pre-cigarette level.
* After 8 hours, the oxygen levels in your blood will return to normal.
* Within a day, your risk of having a heart attack decreases.
* After 3 months, your circulation will improve and your lung function will increase.
* After one year, your risk of having a heart attack will be about half of what it would have been if you had continued to smoke.
* After 5 years, your risk of stroke will be greatly reduced.
* After 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease will be the same as a non-smoker's.

Taken from the Health Canada Network
http://www.canadian-health-network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1103466943639&pagename=CHN-RCS/CHNResource/CHNResourcePageTemplate&c=CHNResource

[silentsoul]

ok well I only had two cig left in the last pack that I bought. I threw it away but my mom got them out. Anyway, I was kinda drunk and my wife who's a smoker pretty much shoved the cigarette into my mouth so I "smoked the last two to eliminate the temptation" True, right now smoking isn't and a possibility because I simply don't have any cigs. But the 24hr store is right up the road so what's the biggie? I haven't smoked or REALLY wanted a cig all day. It was stupid of me to ever smoke that first cig, I don't know why I did and I really don't know why I though I could quit, again. Right now, I know their bad for me but the only thing keeping me from starting up, what ever it takes I guess, whatever it takes to keep me from smoking.

Again, wish me luck

[cowgirltease]

Oh it's worse for me if I don't have them around. Then I freak! If theyre laying around i'll leave them alone. dammit I wasn't even thinkin bout one til you brought up this thread! Now i got to have a smoke. :p
Oh okay I'll go get a new nicotine patch instead. *sigh*

[cowgirltease]

Hey why don't you ask her not to smoke in the house? It will help alot if you can't smell it.

[BamaKyttn]

One of my coworkers told me how she quit.... She tracked her somking habit ie 10:15 had a cigarette with coffee

10:45 had a cigarette as I went to get the paper
etc then she took the number of cigarettes she smoked in an hour and cut it in half 2 cigs an hour...... first week 2 or 3 cigs an hour second week one cig less per hour than the previous until she was smoking one a day and >shrug< whats the point then..... the main thing she did was during those times when she was most accustomed to smoking ( with AM coffee, walking to the mailbox, etc) she paired a different behaviour to compensate for the loss of the nicotine crutch such as doing a crossword with coffee or >giggle < a hand clap rythm as she walked to the mailbox, yeah she looked silly but compared to how dumb she was with a cancer stick in her mouth...... make sure all smoking paraphanelia is out of the house. gone, poof. Otherwise the temptation will be too great. Personally I would ask my SO to 1 not smoke around me. 2 not smoke in the house. 3 support and help me achieve my goal.
if said SO would not I would ask 1 Does SO want to help me put on my oxygen mask in the next 10 years? 2 Does SO realize how offensive I/she/we smell to the general nonsmoking public? 3 Does SO realize that their lack of support is killing me literally and figureitivly?

Kyttn

[silentsoul]

well my mom smokes and will always smoke, theres nothing that anyone can do to change that. So the fact that my wife smokes also isn't that much of a biggy. My mom smokes lights and ultra lights and shit but my wife smokes yummy yummy marlboros so they are kinda tempting, just the sight of it is as bad as anything. I gotta stop talking about it, I'm starting to want a cig and I'm drunk enough I'd probably let myself if I got real tempted. Anyway, it's a never ending battle but for me, nuthing makes it easier and everything makes it at least a little harder.

I'll quit, I'm sure of it, just takes a little time to test myself. hopefully I can do it.