couldn't agree more shadow walker. I always wonder if a successful non smoker telling a smoker they should quit are they bragging or complaining. sometimes it is hard to tell.
hi lessa so sorry to hear of your loss thats so sad, thats very hard, we had three deaths, my uncle, followed by my dad and just this week my aunt. Its cataclysmic isn't it? your world ends and know one knows until they have been through it them selves . I could not get over the numbness of it all, it doesn't stop, I did not expect flashbacks, visions of him that I cant control. And my sister who still smokes cant quit either, she has a chest infection, and I wish she could stop too, I cant imagine loosing a sister, who is like a rock to me. You are right we have to remember them as they were. I am so sorry if I stirred up sad memories. god bless you. [ As each avioli strains to take in more oxygen eventually the little air sac over extends its limited capacity and bursts putting more strain on the surrounding tissue, which eventually does the same. Just thought I would cheer you all up, what stuck me was my dads ward was full of men with COPD, coughing up phlem, having stints to try and get more oxygen, nebulisers and , non invasive respiration machines, which he told me wearing that was like sticking your head out of a car window 90 miles an hour. All because your organs and your brain need oxygen. How can you spot a smoker, they cant breathe, they sit with a nebuliser, and they cough phlem in to a tissue. They cant walk very far, just to the loo and back, they may have a walking stick, they struggle up hills and they are often in hospital with chest infections and pneumonia. And still they smoke. Sorry my internet keeps dropping out of range, I click post, then the signal goes.
Again - I've been smoking for over 40 years and none of those apply. However, I have relatives/friends and see strangers every day who are grossly overweight and yes, those things apply to them. Go to any hospital and you'll see the worse case scenarios. It's like picking up only the worm-eaten apples from the tree and saying apples are bad to eat.
...Don't know how to say it without sounding like an ass. So, if I sound like an ass, I apologize. It's not my intent. I guess the point is that there is always a risk. Some people smoke their whole life and never have health problems. Others, it's not the case. Sorry about your dad, rainshine.
@ shadowwalker, i think maybe you are just an exception along with others who might be out there just like you. I'm not saying anything about the right to smoke or not, but just from looking, whatever you can't willingly quit on your own- without great focus and determination- is a bad thing. I mean, you are inhaling SMOKE into your lungs. How good could that be for the average person in the long run? That's aside from the nicotine. Also, I always wondered, but why do people smoke? Is it a feel good thing (is there a pleasure or sensation that comes from it) or is it the same thing as those people who chew on sticks- just something to do?
The site wont let me quote you: Also, I always wondered, but why do people smoke? Is it a feel good thing (is there a pleasure or sensation that comes from it) or is it the same thing as those people who chew on sticks- just something to do? I have asked myself the same question. I know why people continue to smoke but have never understood its original appeal. People continue to smoke because it is physically addicting, and nicotine is a drug that has effects, just like every other drug. It produces a slight buzz and calming feeling that helps a lot of people with their anxiety. The problem is that they just light up again when they're anxious again and don't address the problem. Nicotine is also shown in prelim research to be a slight pain reliever / tranquilizer. In short, it's a just coping tool people use to get through every day life that turns into an addiction. Anyone who is a longtime smoker who says they aren't addicted is a liar. But as for why people start? I suppose back in the day there was more an emphasis on the cultural aspect. Social smoking, cool pipes, watching the smoke, etc, but now most of that culture has become tied to marijuana and not cigarettes. Now the cultural stigma around cigarettes is just that it's dirty, smells bad, inconvenient, and expensive. A lot of people start as a form of rebellion (I'm familiar with that one), because they feel depressed or overwhelmed (I know people who say they smoke because it is a passive-aggressive, slow, and relatively painless way to quicken their deaths), or because they simply grew up in a smoking environment.
^ yeah, they are crazy expensive. I lived in Virginia about a year ago and they were almost $7. I moved to New York and they are near $12. If you smoke nearly a box a day, that's 300 beans a month and 3600 a year. Ten years of that and you just committed $36,000 and a decade of your life to some considerable health problems for the rest of it. I've also heard of cool people being the ones who are most likely to smoke and drink. Can't argue with that, lol. I think so too. I also known cool people to cut class and pop wheelies on their motorcycles on the highway. Impressive, inspiring, but I'm not taking my chances.
"Anyone who is a longtime smoker who says they aren't addicted is a liar." Again, the generalization which isn't always true. I switched from cigarettes to cigars - cigars aren't inhaled - about 3 years ago. Where were the withdrawal symptoms of the physically addicted? Nowhere. (And I switched from cigarettes to cigars to get away from the huge taxes on cigarettes.) There have been times when I was smoking 3 packs a day. There have been times when I've gone for several months without lighting up. Why did I start in the first place? Can't even remember now. Why do I continue? Because I enjoy it. I enjoy the smell and the flavor of a good tobacco. And perhaps partly because of my perverse nature, which enjoys irritating the people who know how I should live my life...
hi thanks for your kind replies and thoughts My dad started smoking in 1950 he was 11, His father sat him on his knee and said here you are son have some of this it will do you good. I never met my grandfather he died of copd in 1968 age 64 never recieving his retirement pension. I was born three years after. My dad smoked woodbine cigarettes, if you live in England you will know they were the strongest on the market, no filters, at one point smoking upto 60 to 80 per day, later on he cut back he died of the same thing his father did.
Hi, My father passed away about fifteen or so years ago at the age of sixty three. His second heart attack. And before that he'd had a whole range of health problems some of them smoking related. He smoked two packs a day and had done since he was a kid, and even when told after the first heart attack that he had to quit, couldn't. He just hid it as best he could. I still miss him. To those who say they've smoked forever and never had problems, I'm happy for you. But you have to consider yourselves the lucky ones. On average I think from memory, smoking robs people of one to two decades of their life, and spoils a lot of the others. I think the way to think of it is like this. Every day, every year you're alive you're playing a game of Russian Roulette with death. You know that sooner or later somethings going to happen and that hammer's going to hit the bullet. When you smoke its like you've just put another bullet in the chamber, and the odds of dying or suffering some horrible debilitating disease just go up accordingly. Yeah some smokers will live full lives, but they are the exceptions. Anyway, I don't want to be preachy or anything, just felt I had to say something. As for how to spot a smoker, I'll always remember that terrible stench on my father, on his clothes, in his hair. He couldn't smell it but the rest of us could. And then the yellow fingers and teeth, and of course that horrible cough during the night. Maybe not every smoker has these signs, but enough do to make it a good indication. Cheers.
here to the person who asked why someone starts smoking. I started smoking when I was 18, I was in college and we would go to the bar on Friday nights and I was the one these stupid short drunks always asked to dance. I was told after complaining that I got all the short guys, that it was because their heads came to about my chest and they asked for slow dances so they could rest their heads on my chest. After that I would pick up a cigarette anybody's cigarette and have an excuse not to dance. I smoked for about a year and quit for almost 6 years. Started again one fishing trip, I was being swarmed by black flies and mosquitoes and my husband paddling behind me didn't have a bug near him. He said it was the smoke. I started again. Quit for a few more years then when I was working in a video store the owner would let smokers have a break more often than the one lone non smoker. Started again just so I could have a bit of a break during an 8 hour shift. Sorry Shadowwalker, I am not a liar. I pick them up or put them down at will. My father was the same way. He smoked for 45 years and then suddenly we never saw him with a cigarette again. No big fan fare about quitting he just did it. He couldn't give up the booze but cigarettes were no problem for him. I do the same and drive my husband and other smokers nuts. I never tell them to quit or tell them how wonderful I am because I did. It is just one day no more cigarettes. Cancer has many causes but in actual fact it is in your genes. smoking living in unhealthy ways add to the gene factor but if you don't have the gene you may escape the disease. In my family the genes for skin cancer and brain cancer are running high so I avoid the sun wear hats and sun glasses and light long sleeves. Not much I can do about the brain cancer since it is so hard to spot until the person has a seizure which more often looks like a stroke. No smoking in the workplace in some work places is just down right assinine. My husband is an underground gold miner and welder. he works with diesel equipment and smoke from his welding. He has his lungs checked every year and has never had any problem. But working where he does it seems stupid for someone to say smoking will kill you so don't smoke on the job. If he worked in a nice clean office with pure air being pumped through I could see and understand but working in the dirty air enviroment the rule just does not make sense.
One thing I have noticed is that if I'm sitting with colleagues who are puffing on a cigarette the smoke always drifts towards me(a non smoker)
You can't necessarily tell. I know a few people who smoke like chimneys, and none of them smell or could be identified as smokers until they light up a cigarette. They must put a lot of effort in keeping it so discreet, but nonetheless they manage it.
"Sorry Shadowwalker, I am not a liar" - lessa I wasn't the one who said that. The quote thing takes forever so I just put it in quotes. It was actually Mercurial who said it. I think tobacco is like alcohol - some people can take it or leave it, some people can't.
This topic brings to mind a memory I had back in high school where a kid tried to sell me a cigarette. Randomly. I'm leaning against the wall of the school waiting for the bell and the kid just strides up to me. "You wanna cig? You wanna cig?" he keep asking. I shake my head no, he shrugs and walks off like our little encounter had never happened. I actually breathed in second-hand smoke before. That burning sensation in my lungs was all I needed to put me off of smoking.
Lips are the main identity of a smoker. A smoker has always dark color lips and smokers also go out again and again for smoking. I think there is no problem to spot a smoker. I think I am a smoker that is why it is easy for me to locate a smoker.
