poll on smoking

“Yeah, I do...Wish I didn't, though evidently not enough!”

“what's it like to have your life controlled by a weed that has been genetically altered to enhance its controlling effects on you? I always was very curious about that. I never got the "I'm addicted" addage. Take responsibility for your life and stop being addicted to saying "I'm addicted".

Cigarette smokers start forest fires...flick the butts out the car window...potentially starting a forest fire.”

“I woke up on March 1st and could not breath. i stopped rigth there and then.
went to the doc and was told I had asthma.
Nov 1st will be 8 months!
im glad that i did, cause im not paying $7.50 per pack”

“Stikmon, it is not that easy to quit. Give these people some credit. It took my mother most of her adult life to finally quit. If everyone was clear on how hard it is to quit, maybe fewer people would start in the first place.”

“I watched my mother die at the age 56 of
Emphysema

I quit when I got preg.
but then lost my mother and best friend with in a very short period of eachother and went back to smoking.
I guess to much stress but it was a very dumb thing to do.
but I did quit”

“My 4th anniversary's coming up here in about two weeks... smoked for 30 years, eventually got up to 2 packs a day. Finally, one day - it was the day before my birthday - I just turned into a grocery store parking lot, and went in, walked directly to the NicoDerm counter, and bought enough to carry me through a month.

I continued to smoke the rest of the day, but that night, before going to bed, I had my last smoke, then put on the patch. According to the directions, this should have been a 13 week process, but I asn't going to enrich them when, after a month, I was able to claim victory, and do away with both.

Those early days were tempestuous, at best, for there were times I REALLY wanted to have a drag. But I didn't, and now, my health is better, I'm at far less risk for so many things, and, I smell better.

Another thing: Since I'm also in the insurance business, I can tell you that one of my favorite jokes is that I give smokers a discount, because they don't live as long... the reality is, folks, smokers - in some cases - pay about double for life insurance, and about 20-30% more for disability income plans and long term care. If you quit smoking, most companies will lower your rates after 12 months of quitting.

Finally, those life insurance plans that build equity - you'll accumulate a LOT more of it as a non-smoker. And in today's economy, that ain't no small thing.

Trust me.”

“I quit a few years ago after smoking for about 20 years. It was really hard. The patch didn't work for me because it dispenses the nicotine all day. I needed a rush so the gum worked for me.

I still smoke when I go hiking sometimes. Since I am outside my normal environment, I don't have withdrawal when I come home.”

“I smoked 2+ packs a day when I was in the service. Mostly quit in 92, but was still a "social smoker" when drinking alcohol, or camping. I think I may finally be completly done now though. During my trip through the bighorns this summer with strat(who smokes) and the boys, I never had the urge to smoke.”

“I smoked from age -9 months to about 18 years, when I moved into my college dorm. Of course, I got to smoke the unfiltered smoke, while Mom & Dad got the benefit of the filters. I have never deliberately smoked, nor will I. If you smoke and want to quit, you can. [Dramatic part coming up.] Do everything you can to stop, starting with begging your doctor for help (doctors know how bad it is for you AND how addicting it is). If you continue to smoke, you may die earlier or (less likely) later, but you are virtually guaranteeing yourself of years (months, if the cancer is strong enough) of agony, gasping for breath through your destroyed lungs. If you don't believe me, ask your doctor to direct you to a hospital or nursing home that treats people dying from smoking. It's not pretty. [End dramatic part.] Seriously, just because you weren't able to quit in the past doesn't mean you can't now. The techniques and drugs change from time to time as rapidly as every year or so - check it out!”

“quit 2 1/2 years ago. I still miss it, but not smoking really makes me feel better.”

“I'm like Garfum. I've never regularly smoked, but I do sometimes socially smoke. I've never felt like addicted.”

“newgirl - yet...”

“I don't smoke and continue to wonder how people who like to hike so much, and get out in that clean fresh air, can smoke. I suppose it is quite addicting.

Typically, if I am with some one who smokes (it won't be in our house or car), I'll move away from them, or move up wind. Problem is they always walk up to me after I move, and I have tell them to enjoy their cigarrette- I don't want to, and I'll move away from them again.

Visiting smokers is another issue, my kids and her kids all smoke, and heavily I might add, without ventilation. When we do visit, it's quick, and when we get home, we have to launder our clothes....

Nothing personal, I choose not to smoke, as much as I can. Sitting around the campfire is ...uh... I HATE RABBITS.”

“I smoke a few cigars per week. If I'm gonna smoke a cigar, it had better be a GREAT cigar. I don't smoke cig's.

I'm planning on bringing a few boxes of cigars to TC2...for sharing.”

“Never smoked, never will.
Never could understand why anyone would want to either.”

“I would have to agree about some things . . . I would never smoke in my house, even if there was a social event going on there. My baby lives there. I have smoked in my car a few times. Nights long ago, before Newergirl was a gleam in my eye, when I was bar hopping w/ friends. Now, I would never smoke in my car. My baby rides in there. I never smoked during my pregnancy and I never smoked during the period that I was breast feeding. I guess, now, I usually have a cig. or two every couple months, when I get a chance to go out w/ friends. It is my "mommy-free" time and I try to enjoy myself (in moderation). On the MTpalooza, I think I had 2 or 3 cigs. at Aero's cabin the night before and at camp the 1st night. I really can not understand actually smoking while you are hiking. I think that sort of defeats the purpose.”

“newgirl, I guess that's why I am not smoking while hiking. I can't say for sure though, never have hiked with a smoker, so if he/she lights up, I may do too. (cravings...)
I am really going to stop all this soon. I am just not ready yet.”

“...and everyone else who quit!

Sometime this month it'll be 14 years for me - wahoo!
I quit cold turkey every time I quit, which was about a million times. For those who are still trying, keep quitting and one day you'll do it! IMO it won't work until your're ready though.”

“But I was subjected to cig smoke from the very start of life at the zygote stage until I was 17 1/2 and moved out of the folks house. And actually I did try smoking as a teenager but never really got into it.

Now I really hate the smell of cigs only not so much if it's natural tobacco without additives but so few folks actually go to the trouble to get something like that....

We are lucky here in Oregon to have indoor no-smoking rules in many of the cities. I can go out to a tavern and hear music and dance without having to wash my clothes and hair when I come home.
Didn't used to be that way.”

“I am sorry to say that I like cigars too much to give them up so whatever happens to me happens!

8)”

“I grew up with a chain smoker. When I moved out, I went through withdrawal. That was bad.”

“ close italics”

“I don't use those cancer sticks. I hate people who smoke in "no smoking" zones.”

“

If that doesn't show up, here's
g2Fa> the link to today's Bizarro comic.”

“Oops, some sort of html goof there.

”

“CMB, lot's of people think that - whatever happens to me happens - but it's not just you your smoking affects.
If you don't get cancer, great, but if you do, someone who loves you will have to take care of you and watch you slowly die.
not fun.”

“Don't really feel like reading the whole post but yep... smoke whenever I want... turkish a fav...

It's America the beautiful no one can tell me to not smoke...

YET!”

“I find it amusing when I pull out my smokes on a group hike and several peeps approach me a'bummin: "If I'd known other smokers were gonna be here, I'd brought my own".

I stop on the trail to smoke - I don't puff while huffin' down the trail.

I've never avered that I smoke for the sheer pleasure - I'm plain addicted. But I must say that I THOUROUGHLY enjoyed my smoke while resting at Paintbrush Divide, Tetons. What a view, and what a tasty smoke.”

“Gojo, I could say the same thing about Hodgeman's Crown Royal on Montanapalooza. To each his own!”

“I don't smoke, and I hate people who smoke at no smoking zones.”

“i started smoking when i was 14....i lit one in each hand and held them in my pockets like handwarmers when i was walking home from school at night after wrestling practice....soon i started puffing on them and then inhaling them and then i was addicted to them....it became a psychological addiction as well as a physiological addiction....if i answered the telephone, instinctively i would light up a smoke....if i sat down with a beer or a cup o' joe, my hand would reach directly for my front shirt pocket....if i woke up in the middle of the night, i would need a cigarette in order to go back to sleep....

i smoked for twenty years and it took two things to motivate me enough to quit....watching a good friend die an agonizingly slow, painful death from emphasema, and my interests in running and backpacking....

i quit smoking and drinking at the same time....i was a mess for about a year (well, i'm still a mess, i guess)....i had to find almost all new friends because my entire existance at that time revolved around getting drunk as often as i possibly could (and the smoking was a huge part of that scene)....

now, 18 years later my lungs are all clear and pink and i NEVER get the urge to smoke....i smoked a cigar on a whim on a canoe trip and i HATED it....i still crave alcohol, but i realize that the whole deal hinges on me having enough will power (won't power??) to realize that i can NOT drink or smoke in moderation....this is what works for me....jerbear and anybody else who is quitting, hang in there and remember that your mind is in charge of your body and that you want to be like the guy in that other thread (the 78 year old backpacker) and that the only way that it's a gonna happen is if you take good care of that (oh! soo fragile!) body....


enough out of me....GOOD LUCK to all of you who are struggling to control your addictions!!”

“CMB- Your cigars STINK and need to be smoked in PRIVATE. Thanks. I care if you die.Take your meds. LOL”

“I was the victim of my own mother, you know, she would smoke in the car, it's too cold to roll down the window, in the house, while pregnant with me....

My brother and sister would complain and were told to shut up, by both our parents. It was hard, brutal, in fact, and we had no choice in this health related issue.

We all hated it, being forced to smoke. One day we put some loads in my mother's cigs, and later in the day, fearfully waited for her to come home.... Yeah, we got a pretty good lecture.

Flash forward to my 16th birthday, and my brother's 15th birthday (one day apart). He comes up with the great idea to ask her to quit smoking for our birthday gift!!! My mother quits just like that!
What a relief! Best birthday gift I ever got.

Craziest thing about it all, within a year, my brother takes up smoking, and it was his idea....
He finally gave it up, mnay years later, and wishes he'd never taken it up.”

“uphill klimber. that's almost my situations. I was a non-smoker for the longest, got sick one day and went to the doc, back then I was about 18 years old. the doctor asked me why I already had dark spots on my lung. I had no idea, wasn't smoking back then.

My mom was a chain smoker....

I do smoke, but don't smoke around the kids in the house because of that reason. I don't like the smell on my kids cloth and of course I want to make sure they don't "smoke" unwanted.

One day one of my sons came home crying thinking I am going to die. They showed him a picture of a smokers lung and explained what it can do. I quit back then for those 6 month, but...well....I started again.

My kids still ask me everyday to quit, and one day I will give them a b-day present like this. It's just really hard to quit.”

“YOUR MOM SMOKED CHAINS???”

“I quit 5 times & each time it was harder. It's been about 14 years since I quit. For the first few years, I'd walk into a cloud of smokers. Now it gives me an instant headache. The easiest way for me to quit was with a pipe. Cigarettes taste crummy after smoking a pipe & sometimes one puff would satisfy the urge.”

“Gonzo, it is not willpower you lacked. There is something wrong with your chemistry. My sister had a problem drinking. Once she started, she wouldn't stop. I used to drag her out of parties when we were in college. She finally quit drinking because she realized that it wasn't something that she could do in moderation. I'm her sister, one year younger, and drinking was never a problem. I would have one drink and lose interest. But coffee! I have quit for pregnancies and other times occasionally, but always went back to regular. I think it is genes and chemistry. You have to deal with it, just like a dyslexic has to deal with it; I'm not making excuses. I'm just saying that it is not willpower. It is just harder for some than others, and cigarettes are the same way.”

“Gonzo, that was Lyndy posting as a ghostly presence.”

“My friend got "lasered" in Canada for 150 dollars, American. They laser all of the pressure points, and it's similiar to accupuncture. It's from head to toe. He has not smoked in three days, is eating everything in sight and loony. He is not sure if it's from not smoking or if the laser made him loony. Hopefully, he will have his senses back and still be a nonsmoker in two weeks. So, that is the laser info.”

“the WORST is seeing women who are pregant smoke. I get the urge to just punch them in the face. there are two women that I know who do/did that. the image I have of one of them in my mind is when a couple of my friends and I where outside at a Halloween party last weekend. she came to the party, dress as a clown. she came out to have a smoke and was standing there, in the clown costume, pregnet, smoking. I though, how fitting.

I have to admit, I do smoke myself when drinking some beers. I don't smoke in the morning, mainly when hanging out, having some brew. I smoke about a pack/two packs a week. I will be stopping, just couldn't tell you when.”

“Quitting smoking substantially changes the body's metabolism. The need to eat can be both that change an a need to sublimate the "oral" thing from smoking. At any rate, when a person fianlly decides to quit smoking, it isn't all that simple. In order to keep the weight off and cope with the substantial changes the body must make, major life style changes also have to be made. All cigarettes, ashtray, lighters, or anything else to to with smoking must be gotten rid of. Lots of water drinking the first week or two helps the cleanse the system and help with the necessity of putting something in your mouth.

A major discipline that MUST be adhered to is that you can never smoke again. Not while having a beer, not after a meal, not one a day, and not one a year. Nicotine is much more addictive that heroine. Ask any heroine addict who has been tried to kick both.

The patch worked for me for a week, but what really wroked was watching my father die a painful and slow death from arterio schelerosis (hardening of the arteries caused by nicotine) and seeing people where I live wheeling those little oxygen bottles around the local malls while wearing masks then going outside to smoke. I din't want to end up like either.

Quitting is not the end of the world. You will wake up, the sun will shine, you will still have your job, and your mate will still be there. What will change is your health, your sense of smell, your pride, and your bank account. My first pack of cigarettes was a pack of Marvels..cost $.18. My last pack five years ago, Marlboro Lite 100's cost in California about $3.50. Something like that. I smoked two packs a day X $3.50. That's over $200 a month to kill myself painfully. Not worth it.

Think about it.”

“Is it possible to add an "edit" or "preview message" function to this site?”

“Damn post...

Everytime I see it I'm reminded to step outside, enjoy the day with a Camel Turkish Royal...

It's gorgeous out there!!!!!”