to think smoking when you need an inhaler is a tad stupid?

[Northernlebkuchen]

Car next to us in car park today - two people get in. One uses a blue ventolin inhaler - dh has one and we recognise it. It's for symptomatic relief when you're short of breath. So the woman uses it and then both her and her partner light up a fag. AIBU to think you have to be very, very dim to use a device designed to relieve your compromised breathing and then straight after smoke?

is smoking in itself not stupid? inhaler or no

My DH's exW smokes, and insists that the doctor told her to

Their DDs are 12 and are only just starting to see through the crap she tells them. Until recently they really believed their mum would die if she gave up smoking

Northernlebkuchen -"no I've never done anything stupid Am practically perfect in every way."

Oh I don't know, you've just revealed your complete ignorance about the nature of addiction. You would need to be pretty stupid to not actually have a clue about that nowadays.

suchprospects she was joking when she said that. how could you not tell?

I used to know somebody who said that he had to smoke to regulate his breathing (asthmatic).

I have never and would never smoke. I think it's a vile, nasty, disgusting habit. But having never smoked, I don't know how hard it is to give up. I know somebody who gave up overnight and never, ever experienced a wobble in their willpower. My friend however, has been trying to quit for 10 years. She is intelligent, bright, switched on and doesn't want to smoke. She can't quit though. No idea why. I do know that an old man locally who smoked to the bitter end (oxygen/nebulisers/heart attacks) said that it was a pleasure he was hanging on to until the very end. Wasn't worth arguing the toss. He wanted to smoke. That was his choice. He knew it was bad for him.

Suchprospects - not a Mary Poppins fan then. Yes I was joking. Of course I have done stupid things - just not this stupid thing.

PMSL at SuchProspects accusing Northern of being "pretty stupid".

Roffle.

My FIL is bravely smoking through his pneumonia. He can't understand why we're all getting on his case about it. Even the heart surgery and leg vein stent he has had done aren't enough to make him quit. I'm furious with him, but nothing we say makes the blindest bit of difference.

i heard that a local hospital's cardiac dept puts smokers to bottom of the operation list til they stop and also the orthopaedic dept will not do knee replacements on people that are over weight as they consider it a waste of surgical time.

Sure she was joking when she said that. But the original post is very ignorant about the nature of addiction. It's mean, lacks empathy, lacks compassion, is smug and shallow.

I don't smoke, can't stand it and won't have people smoking in my home or around my DCs. But when I see someone who smokes struggling to breathe I am mainly sorry for them.

bibbitybobbity.....i bet all those s took ages

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As a very experienced ex-smoker and quitter, I firmly believe that the vast majority of smokers are just plain scared of giving up. Nicoltine addiction is not that bad, truly.

well, I am a secret smoker.

And I haven't had one since, erm, monday before christmas I think. Not sure. Kids off, Himself here all the time, been snowed in, nowhere to go. So I've not bothered.

And it's fine. Am thinking of cigs now and again, but no big deal.

The test will be when I get the chance. I normally just go straight to the garage and buy a pack. After not having had any for 2 days, 3 days, a week, a fortnight and not having been really that bothered.

i think I associate going out by myself with smoking. THAT'S the habit I need to break.

Happy, I bet it's not so secret. The smell gets so ingrained in your hair & clothes, people must realise!

Such - did I ever say she was addicted? How would I know that - or not? What I know is inhaler followed by fag - that's what I think is stupid. I don't like seeing people struggling to breathe either - that's the point of my op.

Ihave a friend who has quite bad asthma, she struggles up hills, puffing and panting, sucking on her inhaler in one hand, puffing on fag in other hand, literally takes it in turns.

If it wasn't so bloody foolish it'd be funny, like something out of a Little Britain sketch.

Yes, it's stupid. My MUm has COPD and has to use inhalers and has been smoking for over 40 years. She has spent forever saying she couldn't give up, but what she meant was she didn't really want to give up. Then she stayed with us during what wasa very stressful time earlier this year and went 'cold turkey' and gave up. She would have had to go outside to smoke here and I suspect that was a huge factor in her giving up. She has since started again (even more stupid!)

My DH's ex wife has pretty bad asthma and smokes. What is worse is their son has bad asthma, which required at least one hospital stay a year when he was younger and yet she still smokes in the house around him. Surely you'd at least go outside FFS?!

There where two girls in hospital and they were given nicotine patches to wear so that they didn't drag their oxygen masks outside for a ciggie, both girls where early 20's

I've had care home residents who've insisted on going outside for a ciggie, then being taken along to their room for a salbutamol nebuliser

Nicotine is highly addictive though.

Nicotine is highly addictive, its true.

It doesn't take long, not many cigarettes, to become addicted to nicotine.

However, withdrawal from nicotine addiction is not that bad. You feel slightly out of sorts, restless, edgy, irritable, have a feeling of not being quite right. This feeling comes and goes for the first three days and gradually lessens in frequency and intensity so that after a month you usually can see the benefits of not smoking and can cope with the now very infrequent pangs of wanting a fag.

The big problem is that another 6 months, 12 months or even 5 years or 10 years down the line, you can be hit out of the blue with an overwhelming desire for a cigarette. Ime this is usually when out for drinks with friends, some of who sneak outside for a few crafty ciggies during the course of the evening. Or halfway through doing some incredibly horrible and tedious domestic chore, you break for a coffee ... and you would kill for a fag. Even years after giving up.

The only way to stay a non-smoker is to combat those sudden out of the blue pangs.

The title reminds me of the threads along the lines of 'AIBU to think it is stupid to waste money on fags if you are low income?'

Smoking is stupid, we all know that now. But if it is legal there is no room to judge whether one smoker is more stupid than another because they are in a position where it is not wise to smoke, where money or health is an issue.

Northernlebkuchen - "Such - did I ever say she was addicted? How would I know that - or not?". Well no you didn't. But it's the most likely scenario You asked if you were being unreasonable to think it was stupid. If you are dismissing the most likely scenario in order to think it's stupid then you are definitely being unreasonable. If you aren't aware that addiction is a more likely cause than stupidity then you're being ignorant.

But addiction and stupidity aren't mutually exclusive? She could be addicted and stupid or just stupid to do this.

....it doesn't help that the cigarette manufacturers add what they call bronchial dilators to the tobacco etc in cigarettes.

These help to open up the airways slightly so that's one reason smokers are conned into feeling that a cigarette helps them to breathe easier temporarily. Pure evil....

(gleaned from my research before I stopped a 20 year cigarette habit so not just 'eulogising') :)