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Tags: cigarettes - cigarette - smoked - smoking - smoke
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To Smoke Or Not To Smoke
Views: 1,000Added: Sun. May 31, 2009 8:44pm
Posted in: Health
Smoking is the one choice you can make that can save your life but for most of the 32 years I smoked, I liked to smoke and enjoyed it. When I started out smoking I was young. I wasn’t thinking about saving my life. I saw all the commercials, read the package but continued to smoke. If I was stressed I’d light up a cigarette and felt a sense of relief. It was a habit. A cup of coffee came with a cigarette. A phone call grabbed a cigarette. Driving in a car had to light up that cigarette. As the years went by so did the amount of cigarettes that I smoked. They did get more expensive but hey, there were generic cigarettes. Well, the generic cigarettes didn’t have the kick so you’d have to smoke more. Cheaper cigarettes equaled smoking two packs a day. I started to feel that I wanted to quit but never took that first step. Needless to say I was one of those people who had to have a “life changing” illness to be able to put the cigarette down. I am happy I made that decision and am now 9 years smoke-free.
My husband on the other hand has emphysema and has battled the decision of whether to smoke or not. He started smoking when he was 12 years old. Started out on cigarettes with no filters and has smoked them for many years. With Emphysema comes oxygen and tubes and listening to how your husband, the man you love, gasps at times to draw a breath. He compares Emphysema to having a plastic bag over your head and trying to breath. He is not smoking now but the damage is done. We used to love lighting candles in the house but the candles have been replaced with oxygen canisters. I wrote this blog not to feel sympathy for what has happened to us because we had choices and have to live with the ones we made. However, you have choices you can make-to smoke or not to smoke? That is the question. Is your life worth it?
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Katy
GB Staff
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Posted 10:01am June 2nd, 2009I hope that my generation is the last one that considers smoking cool -- I have high hopes that through education and changes in entertainment, today's kids are smart enough to know that there are no upsides to cigarettes!
My parents smoked when I was little, because everyone did. They quit when I was 8 or so, and I'm so thankful they did. I want every single day that I can get with them!
Ginger!
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Posted 1:24am June 1st, 2009I started smoking in the 60's when I was just 11 yrs. old. Back then we really didn't know as much about the dangers of smoking. I continued to smoke until, while trying to gain employment at a 'stop smoking' clinic, I was told that to work there I had to stop smoking....completely....not just during work hours. I went through the program for a half hour a day for 5 days. (The program used 'aversion therapy'.) I got the job and worked there for 1 or 2 days but I just couldn't work with the man running it, so I quit. I also never smoked again, and that's been over 20 yrs! So even though I stopped for the wrong reason, it worked for me.
My father was told back in the mid-60's that he either had to stop smoking or they would wind up having to amputate his hands and feet because he had Reynaud's, a disease of the circulatory system. My sister had to stop smoking when she was diagnosed with COPD.
My son, however, has tried at least a dozen ways to stop and has so far been unsuccessful. Now before you say 'he isn't ready to quit', let me assure you that he really does want to quit. The difference between my son and I is this: he has an addictive personality and I don't. For those of you who have never smoked: BRAVO. But it also means that you can't understand that it is a habit and an addiction.
It involves more than most people realize: first there's the addiction to the nicotine but there's also the physical habit you need to break. You have to replace the action of smoking, which means you have to do something else with your smoking hand. Aversion therapy taught you to either use a straw to emulate the action of smoking, or play with a rubber band....anything to stop you from reaching for the cigarette. But you also had to change other habits associated with smoking; i.e. stop drinking alcohol and caffeine while trying to stop smoking, as they are perfect partners with nicotine; talking on the phone or driving required the straw or rubber band; if you smoked immediately after a meal you should do the dishes right away instead, or take a shower, or anything that was not conducive to smoking. So it's not just putting the cigarettes down, it's replacing a negative habit with a positive one. There was much more involved in the therapy but it would take much longer to go into that.
Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who is currently using the aversion therapy form of smoking cessation. If anyone reading this does, please let us know. I sincerely wish anyone who is trying to stop smoking all the strength and conviction needed to be successful.
Ann
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Posted 10:50pm May 31st, 2009It is so sad for people to find out too late what cigarettes can do to them. The movies make smoking look glamorus. Being a non-smoker (I never smoked)it is hard for me to understand why anyone would just all of a sudden want to smoke, especially when you hear all the damage smoking can do to a person. I sure wish school children could read your story and maybe some of them might think twice before they light that first cigarette.