<p>Do you smoke? How long have you smoked? Do you experience long-term consequences from it i.e. a smoker’s cough or voice? Do you ever think long and hard about what is going to happen to you most likely? Have you watched anyone die of lung cancer or COPD? Is there anything that you think could make you finally quit?
I smoked for 10 years and luckily had terrible morning sickness with my first pregnancy so that it smelled so gross and made me sick that dh and I both quite. I am eternally grateful.
My cousin just died from lung cancer. I know a few hard core smokers in whom it’s obvious from their appearance and voice that they smoke. It certainly seems like the worst denial, along with people steadily eating themselves to diabetes. People also die from lung cancer believed to be from second hand smoke.
Just hoping for honest answers. On another message board, some discussion got bitter push-back from some smokers about how unfair it has gotten for them. SMH.</p>
<p>I don’t smoke. I have never smoked. But smokers DO bother me. I don’t know what it is about it, but I just can’t stand cigarette smoke. I remember when I was little and lived in another country, where smoking is very common. I remember going home to my family’s 5th floor apartment, and all the landings were filled with smoke (people would smoke in the building, and this time was particularly bad). I felt like I couldn’t breath - it was just a horrible experince that I still remember to this day. I don’t know if I am unusually sensitive to it.</p>
<p>When people are outside on the sidewalk in front of their buildings, or in front of me, I have to either literally run to pass them or hold my breath until they are out of range. I really wish smoking laws were even tougher, because it has such an effect on other people.</p>
<p>I’m the poster child for second hand smoke from my mom. Asthma, hearing loss, chronic ear infections, pneumonia several times growing up, the list goes on. My grandmother died of lung cancer in her early 60s.</p>
<p>I literally had only one rule growing up: don’t smoke cigarettes. I honored it. </p>
<p>I hate cigarettes and I am not a huge fan of smokers. I live with four smokers and they are not permitted to smoke in the house but it still constantly reeks. I hate it. Not to mention trying not to have an asthma attack at a bus stop or something. </p>
<p>^^^Sorry, this is completely off topic, but I love your dog - I am happy every time I see that face :)</p>
<p>Back to the original thread.</p>
<p>I smoked my first cigarette in the 6th grade I can still remember the exact spot, on the walkway next to the elementary school cafeteria. That set the wheels in motion and I was a nicotine drug addict by my mid teens. By my best calculation, I smoked at least a pack a day, every day, for 38 years.</p>
<p>Nobody makes a choice to become a nicotine junkie. There’s no denial. People smoke for one reason and one reason only: they need another hit of the drug when their nicotine levels fall. Every other “reason” to inhale the smoke of burning leaves is just a junkie rationalization. It is a horrible way to live, with the drug addiction controlling your behavior, all day, every day, until it kills you. Unfortunately, the drug addiction convinces nicotine junkies that they get something beneficial from it, in fact that they can’t live without it.</p>
<p>Nicotine junkies think about “giving up” cigarettes. Giving up? Yeah, like in giving up a broken leg when it heals maybe. There’s nothing good to “give up”… it’s all 100% benefit… freedom from the drug addiction. Tough leap of faith for the junkie mind to accept, however. </p>
<p>And, the completely misguided smoking cessation public health policy/guidance these days just makes it worse. The message is that quitting smoking is so impossibly wretched and awful that you shouldn’t even consider it without planning months in advance and taking pharmaceutical nicotine to soften the “cravings”. Totally ridiculous. More the half of the people who have ever smoked have successfully quit, so it’s clearly not impossible by any stretch. The message should be “yes, of course you can quit… it’s not even that bad…” And, of the people who have quit, the overwhelming majority (close to 90% in all surveys) just quit. Quit with no “quitting aids”, no nicotine replacement, no drugs. And, almost always completely on the spur of the moment, not planning to quit at all, not even a day ahead of time. I quit five minutes after driving to the store at midnight to buy cigarettes. Came home, walked outside, opened the pack. LIt the cigarette, took one puff, put it out, and never took another puff again. Doesn’t get much more spur of the moment than that.</p>
<p>It’s absurd to think that continuing to use nicotine will get rid of the cravings that come from a nicotine drug addiction. The only way to permanently eliminate the cravings is to break the physical addiction and the only way to do that is to stop using the drug.</p>
<p>I smoked occasionally during high school and college, and as a regular smoker for a few years during grad school. When I found out that I was pregnant with my first child (which was a bit of a surprise!), I quit that day and have not had a cigarette since. I hate being anywhere close to cigarette smoke now. I don’t know even one smoker among our friends. One of my Ds has a good friend who smokes and who has been trying to quit for years but with no luck, yet. Smoking is taboo in most places in Canada, especially in Ontario, and cigarettes are very highly taxed. No smoking in any workplace, restaurant, even bars, for many years now. I think it should be made as difficult and unpleasant as possible for smokers.</p>
<p>I watched my father really struggle to quit when I was a child (it was mandated by his place of employment), and it had an impact on me. In middle and high school, I smoked once in a while but more as a curiosity/rebellion thing and never enough to overcome the initial distaste (cigarettes are pretty nasty to the unaccustomed).</p>
<p>I saw my great aunt with emphysema (I guess now they call it COPD) unhook her oxygen so she could have a cigarette. It was absolutely pathetic. That image also had an impact on me.</p>
<p>Despite the legislation and public health campaigns, I see many young women now turning to smoking to stay thin. They know the risks and they just don’t care, as long as they look good in their skinny jeans.</p>
<p>Don’t smoke - never smoked - can’t stand the smell of smoke and hold my breath if I walk past a smoker (or leave if the situation warrants it). I love smoke free restaurants, airplanes, and shops. There are only a couple of smokers in my extended family and I don’t see them often.</p>
<p>But not smoking doesn’t guarantee no major health issues…</p>
<p>I don’t smoke. Will never smoke. I don’t see the allure of the inhalation of smoke. (Although, I must admit, some cigars look really BA…)</p>
<p>Just earlier today I was walking to class and the guy in front of me was smoking while walking…Hello, I’m pretty sure you didn’t ask me if I wanted to have my life expectancy decreased today!</p>
<p>I would NEVER. Never. Smoke, do drugs, or stop eating to get skinny. I love food too much and I don’t like being uncomfortable. I’d rather work it off or just continue to be miserable about my current body type. </p>
<p>I watched my dear brother-in-law die of oral cancer 2 years ago at 52. He left behind a beautiful heartbroken family. He hated himself for smoking, but sadly he quit too late. As a result, I do feel “angry” (secretly) at people I know who smoke - especially those that say they don’t want to quit. I just don’t get it.</p>
<p>I also hate walking through smoker’s smoke when walking into a building - grosses me out. I can’t stand the smell of someone who smokes - it’s just awful. All in all, I hate everything about it.</p>
<p>I quit smoking about 25 years ago after smoking a pack a day for 20 years.</p>
<p>I am now in a social circle with many smokers. Because we live in NYC, they have to go outside to smoke and I admit it’s disheartening to be sitting alone or almost alone at the table while they all feed their habit. But I have found that I can’t keep talking about it. I know that many of them have really tried to quit but most have gone back to smoking. They don’t have kids so I guess they aren’t as motivated. Some of them have terrible health problems and some of them spend much too much on cigarettes (here in NYC the home of $10+ packs of cigarettes). But they can’t stop. Once in a while I’ll say something and I know they know how I feel but so it goes.</p>
<p>I used nicotine gum to help me quit. Of course after my 3 month prescription was finished (it was a prescription drug then), I had to quit the gum. While I think the jury is out, I think that e-cigarettes may be a reasonable compromise for those who can’t quit.</p>
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<p>At what cost? How many more teens will become nicotine drug addicts from the “cool, socially acceptable” drug use method? Honestly adult nicotine junkies will take care of themselves. They’ll either quit or they’ll die. It’s stopping the cycle with children and teens that is really important.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I don’t know the answer to that. But adult nicotine junkies are often the parents of children who deserve to have their parents around. Maybe stronger controls on purchase?</p>
<p>It is stopping the cycle with children and teens that is really important. Why e-cigs are “safer” and “better” than cigarettes, it should not be a compromise. Stop the addiction.</p>
<p>I smoked for over 20 years and quit about 8 years ago. I was always sick with some sort of respiratory ailment or another, I hardly ever get sick now. I find it shocking how much a pack of cigarettes costs in Massachusetts now and am not sure how I could justify the cost these days. I was at a large family gathering a few months back and every time a few people slipped outside to smoke, I was reminded how happy I am not to be doing that anymore. It sucked being the mom hiding behind a tree 
But I understand how difficult it is to quit, when people ask me how I did it I say you’ve just got to keep trying, and one time that will be the right time and you will make it.</p>
<p>I don’t smoke but like many kids born of the late 60’s both my parents did. My dad could and did quit at the drop of a hat. Mom struggled and quit and restarted several times, she has been a non-smoker now for about 10 years. </p>
<p>I know two women who have died of lung cancer. One was a smoker, 70, and this week is the first anniversary of her death. In one year she went from vibrant to a horrible death. The second was younger, with kids, and not a smoker/no risk factors. Both hit hard for different reasons. Lung cancer is my secret middle-of the night cold sweat fear. </p>
<p>My Mom was a chain smoker who started at the age of 16. She quit at the age of 48 when I had my first child. A few months later, she had the first of many strokes. She had a horrible quality of life after “the big one” in her late 50’s. She died 12/12/12 at the age of 69, a mere shell of the person she once was (an incredibly intelligent, well read, articulate, witty person with a great sense of humor). </p>
<p>I’m so happy I never smoked. I’m not the best at kicking habits, and I’m sure I would have been one of those “quit a hundred times” folks. Thank God neither of my Ds has ever shown any interest either.</p>
<p>I smoked around five cigarettes a day in my mid-20s, but quit when I met my DH. Quitting was not a problem for me at all; perhaps I never became addicted. I thought smoking would make me/keep me thin. I was absolutely stupid to start smoking: My mother started smoking when she was 14 and smoked until she died, at age 74. The last time I saw her, she told me she had “a touch of emphysema.” I liken that to being “a little bit pregnant.” She actually died of thyroid cancer.</p>
<p>I kissed a smoker when I was in college; that was the last smoker I will ever kiss-- what an unbelievably foul experience…</p>
<p>I don’t smoke but I watched my grandfather die of lung cancer and my grandmother die of COPD from his second hand smoke. I wouldn’t wish that suffering on anyone.</p>