In praise of smoking...

[TreasonousBastard]

I haven't had a cigarette in more than a year and a half (hold the applause, please, I'm not finished) and I'm not sure that's been a good thing.

I am well aware of the health effects of smoking, and the increased possibllity of fires, but that's not why I quit. And the militant anti-smokers and campaigns tended to piss me off and make me a militant smoker. This atitude goes back to when I lived in NYC and people would visit my apartment and complain about the smoke. Apparently, I was to warm people who had no problems with bus fumes and blue smoking taxis that they might die from the cigarette smoke in my own home.

Nope, I was simply pissed at being forced, by the addiction, of spending close to a hundred bucks a week on smokes. Three packs a day at over 5 bucks a pack is enough money to notice, and I don't get a chance any more to get to Delaware to get the $25 cartons. There is one Indian reservation around that sells no-tax cigarettes to the general public, but that's getting iffy. And they just raised the state tax by over a buck a pack again, so I'm saving even more money.

If I had the strength to keep it down to a pack or less a day I might still be smoking, alas, but it was all or nothing.

Truth is, I actually liked smoking at times. It is relaxing and nicotine itself has certain benefits and few negatives. The mechanics of smoking became a familiar ritual over the years, and, like all rituals, a certain comfort.

Downsides, aside from being a pariah (which I was somewaht proud of) there were few. It was messy and at one point killed off half the fish in my tank when the smoke got sucked through the air filter. And it's constantly more difficult to grab a smoke, even in you car or home.

Health downsides are trickier. Coughing when I get a cold or other lung infection is reduced, but so far no other benefits. After 40 years of smoking, any cellular changes leading to cancers probably has already occurred, so I'm not off the hook there, but that's not entirely supported by the research. And the health risks to others from my smoke? Get over it. It's surely an annoyance, but if it takes at least 20 years of sucking the hot smoke directly down your lungs to get sick from smoking, the occasional exposure to a smokey room can't be all that bad.

More to the point is that if I have indeed added 10 years or so to my life, just what is that added life? Ten more years in the nursing home possibly blind in the other eye, too? Ten years of Alzheimer's? About half the people I know in their 80s are doing fairly well, although, I don't know one I would let drive me around. The other half are closer to a vegetative state than being active humans, and require constant care. About half of them are sentient enough to know what's happening to them.

I don't have much money, and I don't have any family to feel guilty enough to wipe may ass when I can't, so I'm in the quandary of which to fear more-- an early death or a long life of misery in some forgotten hole.

[PassingFair]

1. I quit smoking 5 years ago, July 4th.

Independence Day.

I promised myself that if I was successful,
I could START SMOKING AGAIN at age 65!

There is smoke at the end of the tunnel!

Maybe I won't feel like starting up again
at 65, but for now, I can look forward
to it.


:smoke:

P.S. I feel your pain, and your OP
makes sense to me...

[redqueen]

2. The second time I quit, it was also for financial reasons.

If you stay active then you can most likely avoid the long life of misery in a forgotten hole part... because you'll be able to take care of yourself much longer, and will maybe only spend a few years like that, if at all.

Congrats for quitting... if only to avoid contributing by proxy to republican campaign coffers. :)

[unpossibles]

3. I hear you

I had gotten myself down to just being a light smoker for the past couple years (measured in packs a week, not a day), and was pretty good, but decided to quit a couple of months ago.

I'm to the point now where I don't miss my 'skinny smokey friends' most the time. I've been stressed out, and at first those cravings were hard to ignore, but it hit me last night when my truck died (again) that I did not even think about having one. It did not even cross my mind until much later that I had not thought of having one.

I've cheated a few times- bummed one or two while drunk on a Saturday - but have been good otherwise. But... I do enjoy many aspects of smoking, and likely always will. I met my wife partially over a cigarette during the break from an art class, and have met a lot of good friends the same way. I enjoy it so I doubt I will ever 100% quit, nor do I care if I quit or not. I will say though that it's nice to have saved some money, and I don't like the idea of having something control me.

[LanternWaste]

4. The $5,400 per year you're saving should...

The $5,400 per year you're saving from not buying smokes should make your Alzheimer-ridden, vegetative state much more enjoyable.

Yup-- I'm a militant ant-smoking smoker. For all intents and purposes, I see people justifying an addiction. As for me, I can't defend the indefensible-- there's simply no way for me to justify my habit through rhetorical trickeries or by using over-dramatic terms (my favorite one to date: "Smoking Nazi"-- add 'nazi' to the back side of any word and all of a sudden, one advertises stupidity)


edited:grammar

[Phillycat]

5. You don't know if there have been health benefits or not.

You can't tell from the outside what's going on inside your body.

[Symarip]

6. I quit three weeks ago

It's a bitch.

I've found that when it gets bad, like twice a week, I'll hit the good ol' hookah bar. Granted, that's if you have a hookah bar somewhere near your house. It takes a thousand hookah tokes to equal one cigarette so you're basically fooling yourself into thinking you're really smoking.

Aside from that, I got nothing for you. I enjoyed going to bars much more when I was smoking. I enjoyed the moments after sex more when I was smoking. I enjoyed what little pleasures I got from smoking better than what little pleasures I get now. The only thing holding me back is my ability to play my trombone MUCH longer than ever before... In only three weeks. That keeps me going.

Maybe you should think about this: it wasn't easy learning to smoke. Your body has had a year and a half to be a non-smoker. It'll take quite a bit of work to get back into prime smoking shape. I would never want to go through that again.

Just a thought.

[applegrove]

7. I quit smoking 11 days ago. And I feel great. Don't you know that lungs

do heal themselves so every day that you do not smoke you are getting better?

The big thing with a new quit is to keep your resolve high. I would expect to see a post like yours on the stop smoking site quitnet.com. You may just want to go there to increase your resolve. You are weak today. It can happen to anyone. Get thee to quitnet and discuss these issues with people who are fighting for their lives.