To think that you are weak.....

[Saltycopporn]

If you smoke and won't give it up.

Surely other than being stupid that is the only reason to persist with such a vile habit.

I smoked myself until five years ago and I will admit that I found the thought of a life without cigarettes terrifying. I tried to convince myself and those around me that I enjoyed smoking when the truth was that due to being addicted I hated the feeling of not smoking. Five years down the line I feel just like you do after a cigarette all the time.

As a former addict I can say that although you don't think it's that bad you do smell. Those you say it's not that bad are being polite or they are used to it. When your kids are at school it is likely that people will know you smoke just by being near them.

Also do you want to meet your future grandchildren? I've just left the home of someone who will never meet his and it is heartbreaking. He used to say that it helped him relax but now he tells me that his throat was so dry and agonisingly painful that he hasn't slept since Monday afternoon.

I'm aware that in being contentious with this post but why else would you carry on knowing all of these reasons and more?

Excellent Salty

So, now you're all clever and strong and fragrant, are you going to solve some other problems for people?

Alcoholism?
Drug Addiction?
World Hunger?
Peace?

Are you my mother at all?

The thing is it's human beings you're dealing with - loaded with hormones and chemicals and receptors that drive wants and behaviour.

People:

Drink
Drive to fast
Eat the wrong foods
Take drugs (legal and otherwise)
Sit in positions at work that cause injury
Don't take enough care and damage themselves
Don't sleep enough
Stay in emotionally damaging relationships

Etc etc

Some of us get it right all the time, most of us some of the time and some don't get it right at all

Then there's crime, war, polution, general overuse of world resources, abuse

Unfortunately people will smoke - posts like yours won't stop them - humans as a rule are weak imo - whatever the poison.

Quirrelquirrel I think it's because smoker bashing has become such an acceptable pastime and more often that not includes snidey remarks such as 'you stink', 'duh, you know you'll die?'. It is insulting, I'm not surprised smokers automatically get defensive, so would you if it was a constant source of negativity directed at you.

saltly I'm sorry you're having to go through the stress of watching someone die, but it really does come to us all. My mum passed at 41 from breast cancer that she was positive was caused by the pill - she never smoked btw. I don't now go around telling people they're irresponsible, selfish articles for using hormonal contraception.

We all do things that probably shorten our lives and are probably doing things right now that in the future will be linked to dramatic illnesses, point is we're all heading the same way. Good for you if you decrease your chances of dying in 10 years, it's still just chances and odds.

It's not very nice to go around blaming people for their own uncomfortable demise when in reality very few if us will be lucky enough to slip away peacefully. You don't sidle up to the bedside of an rta victim and tell them it was their own fault for not using the zebra crossing.

Offer me an alternative then. Or maybe you like spending such a huge amount of money?

It was you actually worra. If you smoke knowing that you will die earlier and leave your family devastated but you were strong enough to give up and also smart enough to know the danger why would you smoke?

I don't smoke?

Why have you made that assumption and where did I say I spent a huge amount of money on anything?

How does exercising one's free will make one weak, exactly? I think what OP means is "Am I being unreasonable to think if you smoke you are the scum of the earth?". Have the strength to say it honestly, OP!

YABVU. I myself was a 20 a day smoker up until about a year ago, smoked for 7 years. Quitting was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I was still smoking when drinking up until I fell pregnant, so I suppose you could say I was still a "social" smoker until I got pregnant. I would never say someone was weak if they felt unable to give up. Perhaps they have other things going on in their lives and feel that smoking is the only thing they can hold on to as an outlet for their stress?

You smoked until 5 years ago so you are a hypocrit.

It is stupid to start in the first place, but not weak because you cant quit. People cling on to it for different reasons. My Grandad refused to quit. He smoked from the age of 11 right up until he was hospitalized for 9 weeks prior to his death 4 months ago. He didn't continue smoking because he was weak. He knew the damage it had done and was still doing, but he didn't want to quit because he was an 82 year old man whose wife had died and it was his one pleasure left in life. So before you start bitching saying people are weak for not giving up, maybe take a look at the bigger picture.

And I bet at least 80% of you drink alcohol. That also shortens your life. Are you weak for drinking? No. You are doing something that you enjoy and as it is your body, and it is legal, who is to tell you to stop?

Salty - sorry you are going through a tough time right now.
I can't offer you any comfort as I really can't understand what you must be going through.
Chin up!! xx

Sorry - read that back and the last bit sounds very patronising.
I am so so sorry for you.

Ok I am about to attempt to climb down as gracefully as I can manage.... I came across like a bit of a twit in the op. I am sorry because I do sound like my judgypants are hoiked up a bit too far.

I am not smug about my own success in giving up. It was difficult and sometimes it still is hard. Maybe watching my uncle in the state he is in has made it a bit too much of a black and white issue for me today. My ds loves my uncle so much but I won't take him to the hospice because he is too young to understand what is happening so therefore he will never see My uncle again and it is too sad.

However from being a smoker I do know that Id have given up sooner if I had been strong enough at any stage. Therefore those who choose to smoke knowing what is in store are not strong enough to quit.

Or does anyone think the enjoyment they derive from smoking is worth the eventual suffering?

I smoked until 5 years ago too OP. It was was easy for me because I don't have an addictive personality and none of my friends smoke. MIL has had a constant battle giving up smoking, eating healthily and generally avoiding being addicted to things. She is amazingly strong in so many ways though.

There is something about addiction that is nothing to do with weak vs strong. It is a combination of characteristics and genetics that enables people to give up.

Sorry to worra I was sure that you had said you smoked on other threads. My mistake.

You're still managing to sound preachy and superior OP. Lots of people are going through shit. How anyone else chooses to get through life is fuck all of your business.

But we know what's in store if eat too much and get obese.
We also know what's in store if we take drugs or drink too much.
We take risks every time we drive a car or get on a plane.
I gave up for 20 years then started again, so you can be judgy now but you never know!!!! - I don't smoke much and I'm actually now only having 1 a day.
I like it and I will keep doing it until I really WANT to quit.
People have to WANT to do it and not just do it because they feel they SHOULD.

Sometimes until you see someone you love suffering the effects, it does not occur to you at all....

you see the warnings, you see the tv ads and programmes about it, but until you see someone struggle in pain for every breath you do not think it will happen to you.

It was the easiest thing in the world to stop smoking (just about instantly!) when I saw my FIL dying in his 70s from emphysema brought on by his smoking habit in his 30s and 40s.

It is sad and you have my sympathies

All I can say from my own pov is that I quit smoking for financial reasons, the health aspect was neither here nor there. As I said above, we all go due to something so it never correlated in my head to think that not smoking would guarantee me a long life or easy death, therefore making absolutely no difference whether I smoked or not...

Maybe I'm a natural pessimist though, I just don't believe there are any guarantees and if your number is up it's up, if it's not a smoking related illness it'll be something else around the same time if your body is inclined to start malfunctioning/mutating.... No evidence for that at all, just how my head justifies it.

You are such a stereotypical former smoker. You quit,well done

Salty, you are not telling anyone anything they dont already know so I dont quite understand this thread, apart from smugness, but there is truth in that the worse non smoker is the ex smoker.

No one looks to their future, how terrifying would that, everyone dies and healthy people dont always die nicely in their sleep at 100, so you point about enjoyment from smoking vrs eventual suffering is mute really.

Oh, whatever.
I like the odd cigarette.

You don't smoke "knowing you will die earlier"

That's your mistake.

Most people who smoke think it will never happen to them.

They close their eyes to the potential that it will kill them.

Never underestimate people's ability to rationalise/disregard/excuse/ignore. It's what gets us through life a lot of the time

So what's in their head? Well, stuff like this...

I might get cancer when I'm 40/50/60? - I'm 20! That's too far away for me to see as part of my life
I could get run over by a bus tomorrow
loads of people who've never smoked get cancer
my uncle fred smoked 200 a day from when he was 12 and he died peacefully in his sleep aged 103, never having been ill a day in his life
something will get you in the end
I'm really stressed and it's more harmful for me to give up. Even my doctor says so
I'll get really really fat
I feel fine, I don't even cough...

People don't smoke and with each drag go ahhhhh, one step closer to my death...

Death is something that happens to other people.

Unless you understand that, why people smoke will continue to baffle you.

Weakness and addiction aren't the same thing. It's so much more complicated than that. You could argue that given the social pariah status of the average smoker these days, it takes more strength to resist the anti-smoking message than it does to give in to it.

No, I gave up years ago using an E.Cig

Sorry about your uncle though.

I've watched both of my GMs die from smoking related cancer, I continue to smoke, I'm addicted. I will give up but it will be when I am ready not when I'm told I should. When I do I won't be a sanctimonious knob.

Again I wasn't trying to come across as smug although it's obvious I did. It's almost entirely what I've seen today that informs my opinion not my own struggle with quitting. The element of the op was more about prompting a lively response

I have namechanged this post due to the fact I don't want people associating my personal life problems with my nickname.

Look it is awfully rubbish that you have had to say goodbye to your dying Uncle and I offer my deepest condolences. I am truly very sorry about this.

BUT... After quitting smoking I watched my Grandad die, my mum break down over it, had to get my dog put down and watch her die in my arms, my brother get arrested for a disgusting offence he hasn't even commit, stood in Court twice to defend him on this, and one of my best friends hung himself at the age of 27, supported a very close friend through the death of her 6 week old baby. All the while being pregnant. And all the while not smoking any more. Have I once sat there on a high horse telling people if I can not smoke during all that then they are just weak for still smoking through all this. But believe it or not, my problems are not other people's problems and going through shit does not give you the excuse to sit on your high horse hypocritically judging other people.