A Humble Question.

[Mace MacLeod]

I'd just like to ask a question of the non-smoking population of the active posters here. As I am now five days into quitting smoking cold-turkey (again...), I would just like to ask:

 

HOW THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS????!!!!!!

[woogiee]

I know the feeling, I quit smoking cigarettes like a month ago. The Third day into it was the only day that I had a hard time. Just keep yourself busy and try not to think about smoking. I also started drinking green tea shortly after and that seemed to help a little, if I got an urge to smoke id just go make some tea.

[Hayden Kered]

How can you not live without smoking? It's bad for your health, a waste of money, and harmful to others. I admit I smoked once, but I'm glad I quit. Good luck though! Hope you can get past the cravings.

[Jeff]

HOW THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS????!!!!!!

I'd like to ask you the same question. I can maybe understand the high or buzz or whatever, but besides that, they smell nasty, and they're bad for your health. I don't have anything against people who do smoke, but I don't know how they enjoy it.

[Q]

The jones doesn't really hit me until day 4 or 5.

 

No, I haven't been able to quit yet, either.

 

Q

[woogiee]

I'd like to ask you the same question. I can maybe understand the high or buzz or whatever, but besides that, they smell nasty, and they're bad for your health. I don't have anything against people who do smoke, but I don't know how they enjoy it.

 

I felt the same way before I started, and at first it was only when i was drinking, then i just started to smoke all the time. When i noticed I'd get winded going up and down 1 flight of stairs that was it.

[Mace MacLeod]

I'd like to ask you the same question. I can maybe understand the high or buzz or whatever, but besides that, they smell nasty, and they're bad for your health. I don't have anything against people who do smoke, but I don't know how they enjoy it.

 

You don't do it for the buzz, generally. That wears off within the first little while. It's like any other addiction--you don't do it to feel good, you do it to feel normal and avoid the withdrawl. Like every other smoker, I started at what...13? 14? You start when you're young and stupid, then the addiction takes over. I quit for what, about 7 months last year. But like an idiot, I started again. Just with a few beers at first (again), then just after a big meal (again...), then before I knew it, it was back to the good ol' pack a day (yet again). RRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH. I really hate having an addictive personality sometimes. Over the years, I've had to detox from booze and drugs on more than one occasion, but damn, the ol' nicfit is just the worst. My temper is never very good at the best of times, but this free-floating homicidal mania is really getting in the way. SO glad I always managed to stay just smart enough to avoid the hard drugs. I'd be dead in a ditch by now for sure.

[milo]

Man, that sucks Mace. I hope you can boot the habit. My grandpa was a smoker and he died of lung cancer He quit cold turkey too, but I guess it was too little too late. Yeah, so I hope you can stop.

[Achilles]

Hang in there buddy. I quit about 3 years ago (after smoking for more than a decade) so I know what you're going through. It's tough but you can do it. Just remember 2 things:

 

1) Quitting requires some major lifestyle changes. If you have friends that smoke or frequent places where there's a lot of smoking, it's going to be tougher for you. You may want to consider a hiatus while you change your habits. To some degree you have to make a choice and if that choice isn't a life without smoking, well...

 

2) You can't just get rid of a habit, you have to replace it with another one. Don't think of this as quitting smoking, think of it as living healthier. Instead of trying to focus on not having a cigarette, focus on being a non-smoker. I know this sounds like hocus-pocus, self-help BS, but it's how it works. Really.

[The Seeker]

Just think of it as instead of paying five bucks a day for a pack of smokes, give that same five bucks to a random passerby to kick you in the nuts. You'll quit thinking of cigarrets for a few minutes, and you will no longer be killing yourself with the main event, nor others with the love you pass along with every smoke tinged exhalation. Win win to me.

[The Doctor]

Q: What do cigarettes and uranium rods have in common?

 

A: They both kill you when you suck on them.

 

I don't get smoking. People are taught from a young age that it's bad. You see anti-smoking ads on TV, in the street, etc. Even the boxes you buy them in have **** on them about how it slowly kills you fom the inside out. After all that, you still smoke, then there must be something wrong with you. I'm sorry, but it's the only explanation I can think of. It doesn't make you cool. It doesn't make you better than other people. It smells like crap, you look like a moron, and you not only kill yourself, but the people around you. The easiest way to quit smoking? Don't start in the first place.

 

If you've already started, then quitting is not easy. But I guess you know that. When you get a craving, think about something else. Go for a walk. Draw something. Start a conversation with someone nearby. Hell, even grab a chocolate bar wrapper and start reading it, if that's all you have within reach. Just do something to distract yourself.

 

Good luck.

[milo]

 

I don't get smoking. People are taught from a young age that it's bad. You see anti-smoking ads on TV, in the street, etc. Even the boxes you buy them in have **** on them about how it slowly kills you fom the inside out. After all that, you still smoke, then there must be something wrong with you. I'm sorry, but it's the only explanation I can think of. It doesn't make you cool. It doesn't make you better than other people. It smells like crap, you look like a moron, and you not only kill yourself, but the people around you. The easiest way to quit smoking? Don't start in the first place.

Well, maybe it's stupid to start smoking these days, but Mace is like 30 something or other. If he started when he was a teen, that's like 20 years ago. Things were probably different back then.

*shrugs* Though, I don't know. I wasn't even born then.

[The Doctor]

Alright, I'll give you that. Smoking awareness has increased considerably in the past few years. I apologise.

[Achilles]

Things were probably different back then.

Joe Camel anyone?

 

Suffice it to say that things were different back then. Anti-tabacco campaigning didn't start in earnest until the mid-late 90's.

[Jae Onasi]

We got some anti-smoking stuff in elementary school back, well, awhile back. But the ad campaigns were far more obvious and aggressive than any of the school anti-smoking campaigns. Everyone was more scared of heroin and coke when I hit the high school scene, and smoking was not considered as important an issue.

 

Mace, I can't relate directly to the smoking, but I do have to deal with a weight issue, and a lot of these things I suggest work for both.

First, talk to your primary care doc. There are some things that make the withdrawal easier, and s/he will be thrilled that you're quitting. If you did it for 7 months, you can do it again.

Join a support group of people quitting smoking. Studies show quitters are more successful if they're in a group.

If you're not already exercising, find something you like and do that. It's hard to justify putting things in your body that cause damage when you've just worked your tail off trying to make it better. I'm a confirmed exercise hater, but found I really liked taekwondo. If one exercise doesn't float your boat, try something else.

Stay away from places where there's a lot of smoking going on. There are certain things I know I can't bring into the house anymore, and there are places I don't go to because it's just too much temptation. I drive a certain route to work so I _don't_ pass by the fabulous bakery, because otherwise I'd want to stop. Out of sight, out of mind.

Find your triggers, and replace them with another activity. I found some activities that I can't do while eating, like scrapbooking with 100 year old pictures and tin types.

Save the money you would spend on smoking and put it in the bank. I knew a lady who quit on Jan 1 and saved all her money, and at the end of the year she took that money and went on a Caribbean cruise, and that was about 10 years ago before the prices _really_ went up. She said it was the best reward she could have given herself.

Good luck!

[RevanA4]

I live my life day to day like anybody else.

 

why the question. seems rather silly.

 

I mean people who don't smoke can ask people who smoke the same question.

 

I personally don't smoke because my grandpa got a heart attack from it. and it eventually ended up killing him even though he quit that day.

[Hallucination]

While I don't smoke, my mom used to and it really smelled up the place. My brother and I convinced her to quit when we were five and six, and she did. I won't start smoking because I've seen what cancer does (my aunt died of it last year, after having gone into remission for about 25 years) and I'm not about to raise the chances of getting it.

 

@Jae: A great way to get fit is to meet someone online (preferably in another state) and get them to tell you you're fat and your kids are ugly. Then you get the pleasure of walking a few kilometres and beating them up with the skills you learned in taekwondo (sp?).

 

<_< Edit: P.S. The word heroine ends with an 'e'. >_>

 

No it doesn't Hal, Heroin is a drug, a Heroine is a female hero. -RH

 

Edit: Um..... I didn't get that because I don't do drugs..... >_> <_< [/poor cover-up]

[Jae Onasi]

@Jae: A great way to get fit is to meet someone online (preferably in another state) and get them to tell you you're fat and your kids are ugly. Then you get the pleasure of walking a few kilometres and beating them up with the skills you learned in taekwondo (sp?).

 

<_< Edit: P.S. The word heroine ends with an 'e'. >_>

 

You're assuming that I would actually bother to spend the time and energy on someone that idiotic. Besides, my children are beautiful, and if I went and beat the snot out of someone for calling me a name, I'd get kicked out of the dojang immediately.

Taekwondo, Tae Kwon Do, etc. are all accepted spellings.

 

If you're talking about a female hero, yes, heroine does end with an 'e'. However, I was talking about the drug, heroin. Unless that's a joke, in which case I'll just

 

You spelling junkie, you.

[Mace MacLeod]

1) I've never been able to smoke inside anywhere I've ever lived, so no big deal in that area.

2) The last time I quit, I was on Zyban which made withdrawl a lot easier. For those of you who don't know, Zyban is in the same chemical family as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc, only it's recommended for smoking cessation, not treatment of depression. Once my body got used to it and the (bizarre, horrible, nightmarish) dreams subsided, it was much clearer sailing than the cold-turkey route.

3) I really do think that anti-smoking is one of the last socially acceptable forms of bigotry left in western society, certainly in Vancouver where I spent most of my life. Cigarettes are legal to buy, legal to sell and they're sure as hell legal to tax, but smokers are often afforded less courtesy than junkies. They're creating safe-injection sites, but if you go to a bar and ask where the smoking section is, more often than not the waitress looks at you like you're Osama bin Laden.

 

Yes everyone, even in the mid 80's everybody knew smoking was bad for you, duh. Thing is, that isn't stopping teenagers from lighting up even now. Drinking and drugs are even worse, but they're doing that too. Sure it's stupid, but you don't think about that when you're 14 or 15. Everybody always thinks "I won't get hooked, it can't happen to me, I'm a bad boy/rebel/cool/against polite society/whatever" when they start. And also, my grandad smoked cigars and swilled wine like a dozen longshoremen and he lived to 97. Go figure.

[HerbieZ]

I've never smoked and i never will. My mum is a smoker and she lights up one after the other and so i have pretty much breathed smoke since i was born as she has zip all consideration for people who don't smoke. My dad also smokes, he gave up but he started again because of stress. To be honest Doctor, i think your first post was moronic. Smoking is addictive and even though i don't smoke, i have seen what it does to people because anyway you look at it, it's a drug. An addictive drug and the media and the companies that make them should be blamed and not the users.

[TSR]

a humble question...

HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE SMOKING?

tried it, its a bloody disgusting habit. ycuk. why/ does it make you feel cool or something? made me feel

sick, and a right t*t

[The Seeker]

The "bigotry" against smokers really stems from the fact that by smoking in public, you are endangering my life as much as your own. I personally don't care what bad habbits people do as long as it doesn't affect my health or comfort. For instance, I know several people who don't smoke, but use that nasty tobacco snuff instead. That has an equal chance of killing them by cancer, or heart attack, or any other related disease, and yet unless I go and lick up what they spit out, I am blissfully unaffected. Smoking on the other hand is unavoidable unless I put on a gas mask.

 

So yeah, you can call it bigotry if you want to. I call it self preservation.

 

Smoking is addictive and even though i don't smoke, i have seen what it does to people because anyway you look at it, it's a drug. An addictive drug and the media and the companies that make them should be blamed and not the users.

 

While I agree that the companies have no scruples, and are about as greedy and heartless as a person can get, anyone who lights up shares equal blame. I doubt the companies came knocking on a non-smoker's door, held him down, and shoved a cigarrete in his mouth to get him started. It all comes down to a personal choice of whether you will light up that first time, and no one can "make" you decide to start. Your choice. Your funeral.

 

Now, back on topic. Just keep at it Mace. This is by far one of the best things you can do for yourself. And like Jae Onasi said, take the cash you spend on cigs, put it in a savings account and do something cool after a year. Let us know how you do.

[Sabretooth]

I don't see the point of it. They emit nasty smoke, they blast your internal systems, smell bad and don't even spare the guy standing next to you. The cons obviously outwiegh the pros and so I say - I shall not smoke.

[mimartin]

Good Luck. While I never smoked I do know about the addiction having used smokeless tobacco since I was around age 9 or 10. Grand Mother, Grand Father and Father all died of lung cancer. After my father’s death about five years ago I decided to quit cold turkey (having decided I did not need to support a product that could kill me or others). Lasted a little over a year till I was fishing one day and decided one dip would not kill me. Next thing I know I was doing a can of Skoal a day again. My only suggestion is once you quit never do it again.

[ChAiNz.2da]

wow.., I guess I'll go hide under my rock and give you people a chance to put your nooses away.. hehehe

 

@Mace, good luck buddy, I admire anyone who has quit or is taking the steps to do so... follow Achilles' & Jae's advice and ignore the ignorance of some of the other posts...

 

Not all of us smokers are "out to get" the general populace. Some of us don't smoke around non-smokers, in cars or public places and keep it to our own personal space

 

Let's not classify all smokers in one group next time, some of us do respect others and their choices, and I personally expect the same respect as to my choices...