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Covid

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Original poster

Friends who smoke

69 replies

Helpmechangemymindsetplease · 30/03/2020 07:54

Would you tell a friend, but someone you haven’t known that long, that now is the time to stop smoking given the increased risk of getting the virus badly?

He has smoked since his teens and is now in his early 50s - and is definitely addicted with brown teeth etc.

Don’t want to offend him, and of course he is an adult with a brain so he must realise all of this himself.

OP posts:

LangClegsInSpace · 30/03/2020 12:45

This preliminary analysis does not support the argument that current smoking is a risk factor for hospitalization for COVID-19, and might even suggest a protective role. The latter could be linked to the down-regulation of ACE2 expression that has been previously known to be induced by smoking. However, other confounding factors need to be considered and the accuracy of the recorded smoking status needs to be determined before making any firm conclusions. As a result, the generalized advice on quitting smoking as a measure to improve health risk remains valid, but no recommendation can currently be made concerning the effects of smoking on the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19.

www.qeios.com/read/article/554

It seems like common sense that smokers would be worse affected but that's not what the data shows, at least so far.

IronNeonClasp · 02/04/2020 07:38

I'm obsessing about smoking.
Then smoking to curb the obsession.

It's a very nasty circular addiction when I analyse it as I gave up booze beginning of January and I don't miss it at all.
I've given up a number of times - kids, health kicks, because I know it's so detrimental to my health and expensive. One year I quit 6 times.
My dad smokes cigars and my Mum vapes now. My ex-H smokes and weed. I could stop this morning as the obsession as soon as I woke up. And now I'm having one sat outside looking out over my town with the birds singing and this horrendous smog over us all of the unknown.
I really don't think I have it in me right now.
And of course I know the benefits of the initial stopping, what your body does in the first 12hours then 3 days. But still I can't. I'm not even sure it's the right time to. If it would make that much difference for if or when I get Covid..

Inappropriatefemale · 02/04/2020 07:46

I’m currently going to try and stop today and I’ve actually made a thread about it.

It’s going to be really fucking hard to stop at a time when the country is on lockdown and I have eff all to do except twiddle my thumbs and smoke, but I’ve always been the sort of person that makes a hard life for herself.

Please don’t underestimate how difficult stopping smoking is though as I feel many non smokers do.

I beat heroin so I’m damn well sure I can beat nicotine.

Just mention the risks to your friend and tell him that your worried and ask him if he has any plans to stop, don’t be surprised if he tells you that in no uncertain terms now isn’t the time to stop, it really is a very awkward time to stop but recovery from CV is hard enough without the extra pressure on the poor lungs.

Pelleas · 02/04/2020 07:46

If smoking is found offer any resistance to the virus, once the findings linked above have been investigated and reviewed, I suspect that news will be heavily suppressed.

Inappropriatefemale · 02/04/2020 07:47

@Ellmau I think stopping smoking does eventually make a difference to ones life span so it’s never pointless to stop.

Yester · 02/04/2020 07:51

It's not that fucking hard. Just stop. Both DH and I did. DH 15 years ago when he Mum had a stroke at 50. Stopped a 20 a day habit that he had had since 14 just like that. I took longer but smoked since 12 and gave up at the smoking ban.

Inappropriatefemale · 02/04/2020 07:54

@Ginfordinner you don’t know why people start smoking in the first place because we know the risks - well it’s not as simplistic as this, I was 14 when I started because back then (24 years ago) it was the in thing at school to do and back then the majority of my fathers side of the family smoked and had zero health issues with it, whereas my little brother has asthma and my mum has always been a non smoker so I thought to myself that health issues “wouldn’t happen to me”, I still have zero health issues because of it, apart from not being able to run very far at all before I’m spluttering and wheezing. I am trying to stop from today though because if I get CV then I want to live and it’s harder to recover when your a smoker.

To the pp that tried to stop yet got phlegm etc from her lungs when she did, well that’s totally normal as all the crap is leaving your lungs but I don’t know if this would make us any more likely to catch CV, I am away to google that because if it makes me higher risk then I won’t stop just now.

Notredamn · 02/04/2020 08:06

It's always the time to stop, smokers are killing themselves either way (not counting of course the ubiquitous family friend/neighbour/dogwalker's cousin who lived til 150 and smoking and neat vodka was the elixir of life)
It's what they want. Otherwise they would have stopped a long time ago. Just leave him to it, OP. I know it's baffling but he's a grown man.

Ginfordinner · 02/04/2020 08:07

One tip I read about when trying to quit smoking was to smoke three cigarettes, one straight after the other as soon as you wake up. Apparently it makes you feel quite horrible.

As I have never smoked I can't comment on how true this is or whether it works.

Aridane · 02/04/2020 08:16

No, I wouldn’t want to be that patronising smuggy mcsmugg person

Inappropriatefemale · 02/04/2020 08:20

@Ginfordinner it would be disgusting yes but you would know that it’s not normal to smoke them like that and so you just wouldn’t do it again but it wouldn’t help! Nice try though.

Original poster

Helpmechangemymindsetplease · 02/04/2020 08:20

No, I wouldn’t want to be that patronising smuggy mcsmugg person

Posts back I said I wasn’t going to do it - it’s just that the thread has been resurrected (which I am glad if it gives people a place to talk about the issue)!

Really not smuggy mcsmugg or patronising either!!

OP posts:

SimonJT · 02/04/2020 08:22

@Ginfordinner It feels great doing that, it’s even better doing it in the evening with a beer.

PertEllaTitsahoy · 02/04/2020 08:26

What baffles me is why people start the habit in the first place, given that they know how bad it is for them, how expensive it is and how difficult it is to give up.

It's because at the beginning they taste like shit and dont have much effect so you can fool yourself into thinking you wont get addicted, and the odd one wont hurt. Until the odd one becomes 20 a day.

Inappropriatefemale · 02/04/2020 08:51

When I started at 14 then I didn’t give one thought to what it would be like when I was ‘old’, that time would never come for me when I was that age!

Cornettoninja · 02/04/2020 09:33

Addictions are complex. There are people who can enjoy a few glasses of wine and are able to stop when their health is affected and people who can’t. Smoking is the same.

There’s lots of evidence showing that smoking creates certain responses in the brain and a lot of smokers are actually self medicating for other issues such as depression or anxiety. Nicotine doesn’t really do much in terms of a physical high but relieving the addiction provides a sense of calm and psychologically can be almost meditative in the fact that there’s a whole ritual involved and it forces you to stop and concentrate on doing it.

Ultimately if this situation hasn’t sparked a desire in someone to quit then it’s highly unlikely they can be talked into it without it being really stressful. It’s a doomed venture unless it comes from the person themselves.

Pelleas · 02/04/2020 12:56

One tip I read about when trying to quit smoking was to smoke three cigarettes, one straight after the other as soon as you wake up. Apparently it makes you feel quite horrible.

Not true in my experience - you are very receptive to nicotine when you first wake up after 7 or 8 hours without any!

There isn't an easy way to quit - vaping or nicotine products can lessen your physical cravings, but the psychological craving is difficult to beat.

Personally I don't think this pandemic is a good time to quit (unless it was something you were planning anyway), because any increased risk to smokers will be due to existing lung damage, not the day-to-day act of smoking, and trying to quit when you are stressed, anxious and bored from lockdown lessens your chance of success.

After the pandemic would be a better time, especially if it will be a period of getting finances back on track because the money-saving benefits of giving up produce immediate and noticeable results.

Yamihere · 02/04/2020 13:13

Don't bother. I am in my 30s and have smoked since a young teen. I do want to quit, especially since corona. But the thought of smoking, even quitting makes me want to smoke more. Whenever someone mentions it, even if to criticise I want to have a fag. That's psychology unfortunately, you can't think of a negative.
If you want to help them, say things to them like 'you are a healthy person' with an example of a way in which they are healthy. That is more likely to cut down their smoking than anything else as they will come to see the self as healthy and consequently reduce their smoking.

Soph7777 · 02/04/2020 20:00

Don't waste your breath.

The only way someone stops smoking is if THEY want to.

No amount of telling someone will change them.

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