Smoking concern.

[Asha]

My parents have been smoking for like 50 years. Roughly 40 a day.
Now my sister has started too.

Everywhere I look I'm being reminded how they're going to die a slow and painful death.
Nothing I say will ever make them stop.

Just had to get that off my chest. Anyone else have this trouble and know how to deal with it?

[Apotheosis]

I quit smoking for 3 weeks and then STARTED THE FUCK UP AGAIN GODDAMNIT.. I don't quite know what to do about it.

:(

I quit in December. Cold turkey and havn't touched a cigarette since then. I just convinced myself they went out of style and were a lower class thing.

- Arkans

[Asha]

I could be a smack addict for all I care, it's my parents and sister I can't get to quit.
It's heartbreaking.

[Leetahkin]

Smoking is one of those things that I don't take the time to get someone to quit from doing. Smokers really know what they are doing to themselves, and accept it.

My mom has tried for years on and off to quit. Hell, I don't know if she's currently smoking or not (living 1000 miles away keeps me out of the loop).

Your sister though, she's subjecting cig smoke around her child? It's not fair for the child. That would be the only thing, to convince them smoking is harmful to the child.

[Miss X]

Maybe I should change my avatar/sig. :( I can't help being an anti-smoking vigilante though!

Like with any addiction the only way to get someone to quit is if they want to quit. Pressure too much and they get resentful.

- Arkans

[Miss X]

You know what though, when you have spent time with people in their 30's and 40's dying of lung cancers/end stage COPD you really see the reality of the damage smoking does. I hate it, I don't associate with smokers and I view smokers in the same way I view any other drug addicts.

[Asha]

They are well aware of the effect it has on the child, NC.
The thing I hate is they still don't quit. They're total bastards for that.
I do love them though. But it doesn't seem they care enough to stop. Not even for the lil girl.

It's alright Vic.
I already know how dead they're gonna be.
:sloppy:

[StrayRogue]

I liked the analogy in Supersize Me about Overwieght people too. But yeah I agree, they're retards with some form of mental deficiency.

[Edited on 5-6-05 by StrayRogue]

I swear, the guy had a point in that documentary, Stray.

- Arkans

[StrayRogue]

Totally Arkans. While them being fat isn't killing us, persay, it can be off putting and only a few steps away from others asking people to put their cigs out in a restaraunt.

[Asha]

People who fill their faces constantly, making themselves obese, piss me off as much as smokers.

Another point was the meal sizes at these places. I remember when the guy actually threw up after eating a super size meal.

- Arkans

[Miss X]

Yeah, I have to admit, the last few weeks I've been studying lifestyle effects on health and illness at uni and I've become a little obsessed with healthy eating, excersise and not smoking/drinking. I also find myself preaching the gospel of living a healthy life to my friends and family far too often. Hehe

[Asha]

Wait till they don't listen and see how it feels.
It's a nightmare.

[Gan]

Originally posted by Arkans
Like with any addiction the only way to get someone to quit is if they want to quit. Pressure too much and they get resentful.

- Arkans

Exactly. It all has to come from within.

[Hulkein]

Originally posted by Miss X
I hate it, I don't associate with smokers and I view smokers in the same way I view any other drug addicts.

Coming from a non-smoker... I think that's pretty low and a little twisted.

[4a6c1]

Cig's pwn me. :no: I quit for a year, smoked again. Quit for 3 months, smoked for 3 months. Quit for 2 years, now I'm smoking again.

[AnticorRifling]

Saying someone is commiting suicide one cigarette at a time is like saying a woman is bleeding to death one period at a time.

[Vixen]

Unfortunately the only thing I seem to have been able to do is hope my parents eventually get it.
I thought after my mom watched my grandmother slowly fade because of her smoking related lung problems, that it would wise them up.
But they are still puffing away, so I stopped bitching about it cause it just makes them defensive anyhow.

[Kainen]

My Dad, Mother and sister all smoked.. my sister and Dad quit, but my mother still smokes and will never stop. There is nothing you can do to make them stop. Arkans was 100% right, they have to want to.

[Edited on 6-5-2005 by Kainen]

[Vesi]

The only bad habit I've never had.

When I was a kid and my grandmother would visit, she would sleep in the other twin bed in my room. She went to bed early but she would smoke in there so by the time I went to bed the room smelled AWFUL. This is probably why I never started smoking cigarettes.

My parents smoked. My dad stopped when he had a heart attack at age 41 and my mother stopped off and on. She was a smoker when she passed away at age 39, but her death wasn't due to smoking. My dad still says that after all these years he would love to have a cigarette. (but he never started back)

It's much harder to get a smoker to quit because lots of society 'accepts' that smoking is an okay thing to do and smokers are quick to point that out. (I'm not doing anything illegal ... blah, blah, blah)

Vesi

Originally posted by Arkans
I quit in December. Cold turkey and havn't touched a cigarette since then. I just convinced myself they went out of style and were a lower class thing.

- Arkans

There is no lower class in Mother Russia.

[4a6c1]

:rofl:

[Jennaen]

I am 32 years old. I started smoking when I was 16. I've sort of tried to quit a few times the past, oh, five years, with my thoughts on becoming a mother. I wasn't really ready to quit, though.

I quit on Thanksgiving last year. And made it until December 10th, when I lost my job. The first thing I did after leaving my office was buy a pack of cigarettes.

Why? Because a cigarette in hand is like a pacifier, or security blanket. Stressed, upset.. a cigarette smooths the edges, with five minutes of calm, stepping away from whatever.


I've tried quitting since, and make it for about a day and a half each time. I have major life stress going on right now, and that makes it incredibly tough.

Now, for those of you who have never smoked, who don't understand why we smokers, who know full well what we are doing, won't just up and stop smoking...

This is what 'pwns' me. Smoking is not just a chemical addiction. It's a mental and physical addiction. My attempts at stopping have been done using the patch, and lots of gum and candy to keep my mouth busy. I don't crave the nicotine. I crave the physical ritual of smoking.



Let me repeat that. I don't fail to end my smoking habit because of nicotine withdrawals. I fail to end my habit, because I enjoy the ritual of lighting, holding, and actually smoking a cigarette.

It's not a conscious decision, most of the time, to grab and light a cigarette. It's habit, laced with chemical addiction, and psychological calming signals as well as chemical calming.



For those who have never smoked. Yay for you.

For those who have, and have managed to quit, congratulations.

For the rest of us deemed weak pathetic fools, well.. I wish us all luck in being able to rewire our thinking, break the habit, break the addiction, and trying to remain smokefree, when that old friend sings its siren song, no matter how long it's been since ya quit.


And for anyone trying to get others to quit... Feel free to have the conversation, ONCE, explaining why you are concerned about their habit, what it does to their health, and to those around them. After that, you're wasting your breath, because making a smoker defensive over their smoking won't do a damned thing but make them want a cigarette. A smoker truly has to want to quit, all on their own steam. Harrassing them will have quite the opposite effect of your intentions.

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by Jennaen
Why? Because a cigarette in hand is like a pacifier, or security blanket. Stressed, upset.. a cigarette smooths the edges, with five minutes of calm, stepping away from whatever.

That's very true. It's going on four years now that I had my last cigarette. Sometimes I still want one. And unlike some ex-smokers who can't stand the smell, any time I walk by an office building with someone smoking outside I want to go over and just stand there while s/he blows smoke in my face.

And now I'm talking about it, I want one right now too. So I'll stop.

Raven

[Asha]

I've traded smoking for urban dance lessons.