Smoking?

[LJH]

I got the aversion therapy as a kid: both parents chain-smoked. My favorite was going somewhere in the car with the two of them, all windows up and no where to hide. My mother chain-smoked the whole time she was pregnant with me and I suspect that's the reason I'm such a scrawny little specimen. I try to blame the ugly on it too, but that's a stretch. :laughing: And the ciggies back then, in the 40s & 50s, weren't nearly as toxic as the additive-laden cancer sticks of today.

 

[aczlan]

I got the aversion therapy as a kid: both parents chain-smoked. My favorite was going somewhere in the car with the two of them, all windows up and no where to hide.

I worked for the neighbor doing HVAC work when I was 16ish, riding in the back of a crewcab pickup with one guy in the front who chain smoked got me plenty of reasons not to want to smoke.

Aaron Z

 

[eray1066]

I have never smoked and used to be really intolerant of smokers. I still will not subject myself to second hand smoke and appreciate the banning of smoking everywhere in this country. A few years ago I heard a story on the radio about a man who had grown up with obsessive compulsive behavior (licking light switches, licking the doorknob three times before opening it, licking every third stair tread on the way upstairs, generally unacceptable behavior.) Somehow this kid made it through school and into college where he took up smoking regular cigarettes. The drugs and the rituals involved in cigarette smoking provided treatment and an outlet for his other antisocial behaviors. So I realized that my brother in law (who is not the guy in the radio story) who is a wonderful human being on all levels other than his smoking is self medicating. Some people are wrecks without smoking even after the physical dependancy has passed. It would be nice if there were a simple pill to take but there has not been much research and it is a complex problem perhaps different for each individual.

 

[niemeyjt]

As I type, it is a week to the hour that my FIL died of emphysema - caused by a lifelong smoking habit. Now SWMBO and her brothers and sisters have to work out what to do with MIL who relied on him for everything. Two lives wrecked.

J

 

[vabiker23518]

My father died in 1992...had lung cancer. He smoked cigarettes, then cigars and a pipe. My Mom quit smoking in 1964 after the Surgeon General warnings...she is 82 and going strong. Realize this is a small sample and can't draw general conclusion, but to me it's clear. Smoking will kill you!

 

[mjarrels]

But... the government loves the taxes and law inforcement loves the crooks trafficing from low tax states to high tax states.

mark

 

[bigtiller]

I wouldn't mind smokers so much if they would put the butts in the astray of their car (instead of on my lawn or the side of the road) or in the ashtray outside the building (instead of just flicking their butts in the general direction of the ashtray so that you have a 3-4' ring of butts around the ashtray)...
I hate the whole "the world is my ashtray" mentality that many if not most smokers which I have observed seem to have.

Aaron Z

When I was a smoker, I didn't always use the ash tray in the car, unless there was a car behind me. Then I used it because I didn't want to take a chance on being turned in for littering. But if that car started tailgating me on the highway for a long time trying to goad me into driving faster, especially after dark, he would git my lit cig butt bounced off his windshield every time.

 

[Bikewanderer]

It's amazing how the times have changed attitudes regarding cigarettes. Went to the bank today, the old branch downtown. They had cigarette receptacles at the counter inside! I can't imagine walking in a bank and lighting up!

 

[sam5570]

I read an article once concerning Smoking. There are over 100 additives in Cigarettes, other than the nicotine. There is even a chemical added to make the cigarette burn evenly all the way around. Mice in Labs were given the choice between Cocaine and Nicotine, and the Lab mice chose the Nicotine over the other powerful drug.

this should give you some idea how hard it is to quite. i agree it is a awful habit but for some it's just not a option to quit. i spent a few months in the cancer units down at winston salem with my uncle and there were people there that had just totaly lost it when they quite smoking. alot of them were on 10 or more types of drugs after they had quite. so yes it's a awful thing but in my opnion the worst habit of all to break.

 

[Car Doc]

I smoked for about 10-12 years from teenage to mid-late 20's and simply put them down. Twice is what it took to beat the habit but I did it and I may well suffer later for it but it is what it is a nasty habit that will kill.

I know folks that are on oxygen and still smoke. Fact I knew an older gal that set her clothes on fire from the oxygen and nearly toasted her and the house. Lucky her non smoking husband was home to throw a blanket over her and her chair put it out. She died later of lung cancer still smoking up to the last minute of her life pure stupidity and weak mindedness and selfish imo.