SMOKERS....I simply don't understand your habit.

[amtjrtcet]

I will add however, smoking is a MAJOR turnoff for me. I've never dated someone who smoked, and never will.

[Clin Psych]

I also agree with this. I have an addictive personality too. I quit smoking after being on and off for around 4 years. I now am addicted to caffeine and like you, video games

 

Same thing applies really. Just a sense of self control, which doesnt always work....for me anyway.

[Clin Psych]

I will add however, smoking is a MAJOR turnoff for me. I've never dated someone who smoked, and never will.

 

What does that have to do with people smoking. Thats your own personal information, that quite frankly...we didnt need to know lol.

 

Didnt mean that to sound harsh at all.

[DragonGirl724]

Note: I have since stopped preaching to this person a while ago. but it is effecting our relationship in a VERY negative way. i'm losing respect for this person b/c I see they have very little for themself. Theyre killing themself and don't care to stop it.

 

 

rayKay & others thanks for your story, I know too many people who died due to alcohol & cigerettes and even cocaine. I despise lobbyists, it's only because of them that cigerettes are even legal and so encouraged & accessible in the first place. Not to mention cigerettes arent one of those things that only effect the smoker..the smoke gets into the lungs of nonsmokers and to be honest that is a violation of our human rights. We're being punished for smoker's sick habits.

 

but thats another topic all together. the truth of the matter is this person is seriosuly killing themself, Im not using that term loosely, and it is effecting my relationship with them.

 

-DG724

[Eastend_Chic]

yea I never understood how people could keep on such an expensive habit. Cigarettes are so expensive, I used to work retail and i would be amazed how much people would put down for a cancer stick. It's amazing. I can be quite the miser so the thought of spending that much on something like that boogles my mind. It's like getting a wad of money and just burning it up, literally

 

Whereas, thumbsucking is free! Lmao.

[love4life]

This could be said for a lot of things, not just smoking! People who constantly over eat, people who constantly charge money on credit cards, people who constantly lie, people who are addicted to drugs, people who are alcoholics.

 

Everyone has a vice of some sort. Smokers, for whatever reason, get the worst treatment for theirs. Not really fair, if you ask me.

[amtjrtcet]

What does that have to do with people smoking. Thats your own personal information, that quite frankly...we didnt need to know lol.

 

Didnt mean that to sound harsh at all.

 

I agree it's my own personal preference, and I share alot of information you may not need to know.

[15 Storeys High]

Nicotine is physically addictive aswell as mentally addictive. Basically, when you first smoke, within seconds, the nicotine significantly affects the synapses in the brain and directly activates the brain reward system, which causes the intense jolt of pleasure you feel. Because of the dramatic effects the brain has to adapt and does so by reducing the number of dopamine receptors at the synapses. This means that the next time you smoke you need more to create the same jolt of pleasure. Years and years of smoking means you will build up such an intense tolerance to the drug that quiting is a huge deal. As the brain continues to adapt to the presense of the drug, regions outside of the reward pathway are also affected. Brain regions responsible for judgment, learning and memory begin to physically change or become "hard-wired." Once this happens, drug-seeking behavior becomes driven by habit, almost reflex. This is how a drug user becomes transformed into a drug addict.

 

Sudden withdrawal causes intense symptoms because the number of receptors in the brain remains the same. By the time the user experiences disease due to their drug habit it's normally nigh on impossible for them to quit longterm.

 

Psychologically, it's also very difficult. Most know what they're doing is bad for them and is probably causing a quicker progression of their illness but by then they feel too vunerable to quit because they are already weak and their withdrawal symptoms will be even worse. Plus, they consider smoking their only "pleasure" so they continue.

 

It's an extremely difficult position to be in and having a family member continually voicing their disgust does not help, because it makes them angry and depressed. And what do smokers do to alleviate stress/anger/depression? They smoke.

[DragonGirl724]

To say that a product has more control over you (not saying "you", I mean smokers in general) than YOU have over YOU. is a poor excuse to keep up a bad habit. I too get heavily into the internet, videogames and nail biting at times, but I do not let it negetively effect my life let alone allow it to KILL me.

 

And smoking is NEVER beneficial and it is way costly..so I don't understand your outlook on the matter and in all honesty I hope you quit for your wn good and I dont even know you.

 

-DG724

[Clin Psych]

I agree it's my own personal preference, and I share alot of information you may not need to know.

 

Thats fine I guess.

 

Well... good luck with your fight against this. I may not agree with it, but your doing a good job.

 

Oh and

[May_It_Be]

Also, the whole "second hand smoke" propaganda doesn't necessarily have scientific proof to substantiate its claim of afflicted innocent by-standers with the potential of developing lung cancer:

 

Passive smoking doesn't cause cancer - official

By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent

 

 

THE world's leading health organisation has withheld from publication a study which shows that not only might there be no link between passive smoking and lung cancer but that it could even have a protective effect.

 

The astounding results are set to throw wide open the debate on passive smoking health risks. The World Health Organisation, which commissioned the 12-centre, seven-country European study has failed to make the findings public, and has instead produced only a summary of the results in an internal report.

 

Despite repeated approaches, nobody at the WHO headquarters in Geneva would comment on the findings last week. At its International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, which coordinated the study, a spokesman would say only that the full report had been submitted to a science journal and no publication date had been set.

 

The findings are certain to be an embarrassment to the WHO, which has spent years and vast sums on anti-smoking and anti-tobacco campaigns. The study is one of the largest ever to look at the link between passive smoking - or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - and lung cancer, and had been eagerly awaited by medical experts and campaigning groups.

 

Yet the scientists have found that there was no statistical evidence that passive smoking caused lung cancer. The research compared 650 lung cancer patients with 1,542 healthy people. It looked at people who were married to smokers, worked with smokers, both worked and were married to smokers, and those who grew up with smokers.

 

The results are consistent with their being no additional risk for a person living or working with a smoker and could be consistent with passive smoke having a protective effect against lung cancer. The summary, seen by The Telegraph, also states: "There was no association between lung cancer risk and ETS exposure during childhood."

 

A spokesman for Action on Smoking and Health said the findings "seem rather surprising given the evidence from other major reviews on the subject which have shown a clear association between passive smoking and a number of diseases." Roy Castle, the jazz musician and television presenter who died from lung cancer in 1994, claimed that he contracted the disease from years of inhaling smoke while performing in pubs and clubs.

 

A report published in the British Medical Journal last October was hailed by the anti-tobacco lobby as definitive proof when it claimed that non-smokers living with smokers had a 25 per cent risk of developing lung cancer. But yesterday, Dr Chris Proctor, head of science for BAT Industries, the tobacco group, said the findings had to be taken seriously. "If this study cannot find any statistically valid risk you have to ask if there can be any risk at all.

 

"It confirms what we and many other scientists have long believed, that while smoking in public may be annoying to some non-smokers, the science does not show that being around a smoker is a lung-cancer risk." The WHO study results come at a time when the British Government has made clear its intention to crack down on smoking in thousands of public places, including bars and restaurants.

 

The Government's own Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health is also expected to report shortly - possibly in time for this Wednesday's National No Smoking day - on the hazards of passive smoking.

[JadedStar]

Almost everyone has or does something stupid that most people cannot understand but they keep doing because they are addicted, it is a serious habit, or they feel it is their business.

 

May you never know what it is like to be addicted to something and have someone write this type of post about you.

 

I smoked for many years, started when i was younger and the full effects were not as obvious, and i know firsthand the hold it can have on you.

 

Just because you think someone is hurting themselves doesn't mean they will suddenly stop because you are appalled. People do dumb things everyday and if they don't want to stop for themselves why do they care about stopping for you or anyone else? They have to want to quit for their own health.

 

Your logic is the smoking is bothering this person's ability to care for his or her family. That is like getting angry at someone for committing or attempting suicide because their depression and sadness is getting in the way of the rest of the family.

[DragonGirl724]

Everyone has a vice of some sort. Smokers, for whatever reason, get the worst treatment for theirs. Not really fair, if you ask me.

 

I think heavy drinkers and smokers fit in the same category along with any drug use that can potentially hurt or kill others. Whenever you put someone else at risk for your own satisfaction is sick and wrong.

 

Alcoholics will sometimes drive home from a bar drunk, putting other people in harms way.

 

Smokers EXHALE, exposing non smokers who care about their lungs in harms way.

 

So I think it is QUITE FAIR they get as much heat as they do. Not to mention it says in black & white : Um, THIS CRAP CAN KILL YOU! on the package...

 

that definitely says a lot...Windex has a warning label too if ingested, but never in our right mind would we drink that.

 

-DG724

[DragonGirl724]

Almost everyone has or does something stupid that most people cannot understand but they keep doing because they are addicted, it is a serious habit, or they feel it is their business.

 

May you never know what it is like to be addicted to something and have someone write this type of post about you.

 

I smoked for many years, started when i was younger and the full effects were not as obvious, and i know firsthand the hold it can have on you.

 

Just because you think someone is hurting themselves doesn't mean they will suddenly stop because you are appalled. People do dumb things everyday and if they don't want to stop for themselves why do they care about stopping for you or anyone else?

 

 

Thats why it is effecting my relationsip with this person, I dont see how they can possibly respect themselves or anyone else by exposing themself and others to deadly toxins.

[May_It_Be]

Additionally, I want to extend my kudos and express my agreement with many of the posters here, in that you CAN NOT force someone to stop doing something that is harmful to them. That eliminates free will, a basic human right. There has to be a heart change, or a strong desire to make a lifestyle change.

 

Banning cigarettes would be akin to Prohibition in the USA ... it would all go underground, and make the problem much, much worse.

[JadedStar]

Thats why it is effecting my relationsip with this person, I dont see how they can possibly respect themselves or anyone else by exposing themself and others to deadly toxins.

 

I appended to my post after you already responded. I wrote:

 

Your logic is the smoking is bothering this person's ability to care for his or her family. That is like getting angry at someone for committing or attempting suicide because their depression and sadness is getting in the way of the rest of the family.

 

 

That is what I am feeling here....is there no concern at all for the person who is obviously very addicted? Who knows why this person is smoking - until we've walked a mile in one's shoes you know the saying goes...

[15 Storeys High]

Please can you respond to my earlier post dragon.

[May_It_Be]

Or forbidding or criticizing a parent for eating junk food once in awhile, or stopping at McDonald's sometimes for a quick dinner after a long, hard day SUPPORTING the family.

 

It's a slippery slope. Soon, we'll be back to the Dark Ages, and have some kind of Inquisition instituted to ensure that people follow all of the "health" laws.

 

God help us.

[DragonGirl724]

Also, the whole "second hand smoke" propaganda doesn't necessarily have scientific proof to substantiate its claim of afflicted innocent by-standers with the potential of developing lung cancer

 

Thats comeplete BS, for every ONE article you can find saying 2nd hand isnt harmful I will find TEN.

 

I will spare the forum the flooding of links I have to completely dismiss that article you posted, sorry.

 

-DG724

[Kiwi_Sweet]

Well said and I agree 100%.

 

Smokers have no "RESPECT" for themselves or the people around them.

 

They know what smoking does to their body, yet they continue to ignore all the signs.

 

It is written in stone people...IF YOU ARE A SMOKER--you ARE shortening your life by many years, and you are basing your whole entire life off of a measly cancer causing tar stick.

 

I know people who smoke. And I don't go anywhere with them anymore. I will not subject myself to second hand smoke if I don't smoke, it's not worth it. Why kill myself---When I don't even smoke!

 

The people that I know smoke all look older than their actual age. They all have breathing problems, not to mention nervous problems from needing a cigarette constantly.

Smokers plan everything around this habit too, which has to be such a hassle.

 

What I want to know is despite all the medical issues you will have and how nasty it must taste, why do you still smoke?

[JadedStar]

Everything today is harmful. Carcinogens are in so many thigns that we partake in on a daily basis. I won't say second hand smoke is 100% safe, but I also dont think breathing in general is all that safe with today's pollutants.

 

I don't think second hand smoke is all that much worse then the pollutants that is in the air in large cities ...

 

All of you screaming about smokers - be sure you don't eat any junkfood. Studies have shown McD's will kill ya! And make sure you go to the gym twice a week. No less....and please please please don't use harsh chemicals to clean your hosue! That stuff will kill your lungs...

 

See where I am going? Who gets to decide what is appropriate and what isn't?

 

My ex brother in law has lung cancer. Never smoked a day in his life. But I'll bet ya that many pollutants he was exposed to as a house painter had a great deal to do with it. Breathing in fumes from many of today's harsh chemicals is far more potent to non smokers than second hand smoke. After I clean with that stuff called "Purple Stuff" I have to go outside because my lungs are HURTING. You tell me that is not harmful as second hand smoke..

[15 Storeys High]

What I want to know is despite all the medical issues you will have and how nasty it must taste, why do you still smoke?

 

Because it's physically addictive.

[JadedStar]

Because it's physically addictive.

 

Yep.

 

HOw many times (OP) you been on a diet and failed? It;s hard to always do the healthy thing and for smokers they are already hooked so it is like trying to remain on a strict diet 24/7 everyday for them tryign to quit. With heavy duty physical withdrawals for many.

[DragonGirl724]

hey there, sorry I didnt get back to you sooner, this topic exploded lol.

I know very well the physical changes the body goes throgh during withdrawl, your post was very intelligent and factual, but i don't see any excuses or reason anywhere in that reply to keep smoking. I have since stopped preaching a whillle ago but I can't ignore the hacking, the weezing, the gagging, the lack of energy and the continuance (

 

I could never date a smoker for these reasons, and I'm lucky enough that where I am right now I won't have to deal with forever, but I have dealt with it my whole life and this person should have quit a long time ago...YEARS ago b/c as you said it gets harder with age. I just know what the next step is, and when that happens this family will be in absolute ruins. we depend too much on someone who is killing themself everyday....and I just cant accept that some ingestible consumer product is going to devestate my family by quite possibly sending some people to an early grave.

 

-DG724

[Eastend_Chic]

God gave you thumbs for a reaosn, guys