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i would much rather be a smoker, i can smoke and drive and not harm anyone right?
As long as you're not smoking with kids in the car..... (one of my biggest pet peeves, parents who smoke with their children in the car or anywhere around their kids).
What is "pure garbage"? It's impossible to know what post you're responding to if you don't provide the quote of the poster that you're addressing.
Just hit "quote" before you write your post if you want to include their post in your response.
That said, i'm assuming that you're referring to his post about the "less educated" having a higher rate of smokers.
Here are some statistics. Smoking Statistics - Study of Demographics Prone to Smoking
But i'm one of the many, many educated folks who has an addiction to cigarettes.
And i don't think that it's the lack of education that directly leads to smoking. I don't think that there are too many people (any?) in this country, rich or poor, educated or not, that are unaware of the dangers of cigarette smoking.
There are all sorts of variables at play in addiction. Stress, despair, depression, hopelessness, discouragement, etc., etc.
If anyone has experienced poverty ... has experienced homelessness, joblessness or any kind of marginalization, one can understand that the rate of cigarette addiction in the "under educated" population probably has more to do with these issues than with a "lack of education".
Addiction of any kind is a means by which we deal with pain.
Life is difficult for everyone to some degree. We all suffer. But the everyday struggles of being a human are vastly increased when, for example, you don't have a safe and warm home to return to or you work 50 hours a week at a meaningless job that barely pays enough for you to pay the bills.
If you're living in survival mode day after day and you're not experiencing any true joy in life, you don't usually have the necessary energy or motivation to tend to your health (generally speaking).
Unless you're a monk and have renounced the world, poverty = pain & stress (generally speaking).
Unless you've experienced poverty you can't understand what it does to the psyche ... how it wares you down on many levels.
And we humans have a whole host of ways of dealing with pain. Addiction is one of the most common.
And there are all kinds of addictions. Addiction to money and/or power for example. The over-educated and wealthy have that one down and i dare say they're doing as much if not more harm than those of us that are addicted to nicotine and/or drugs. Actually, they're fueling it and feeding off of it.
But that's another story.
That's the truth....its a documented fact that the less education a person has, there is a greater chance that they are a smoker. That's not to say that all educated people are non-smokers (since I am a college graduate and used to smoke), and that all high school dropouts smoke, but the fact remains that the % of smokers is higher among high school dropouts than it is among college graduates.
Yes, you are right, but let's face it - there are no Americans in any bracket that don't know smoking is bad. I happen to have an MBA and smoke. I am fully aware of the consequences and will be quitting within the next couple of weeks.
Location: Lots of sun and palm trees with occasional hurricane :)
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I smoked for 40 years and I quit 6.5 mths ago, finally, after who knows how many attempts over the last 25 years.
I still like the smell of cigarettes. I still miss them terribly. I still WISH I could have one. I still wish they were not bad for you.
I am no dummy and I am educated and I work in healthcare and it's not easy to quit. I'd go as far as to say it's almost harder than giving birth and I had natural childbirth so I know exactly what that feels like. But at least that's over in a few hours. I don't know when my longing for a cigarette is going to disappear, despite everything I know about it.
It is also true that not everybody that smokes is a die hard addict like I was, but the majority get totally hooked. It is also NOT true that everyone who smokes will get cancer, or heart disease, or have bad gums. There is nothing in this world that is guaranteed 100% but statiscally, smoking is pretty bad news for many different reasons and it will affect you one way or another, at some point, some place in your body.
So the smart thing is to not smoke but if you do, enjoy it until your time to quit comes.
I am one of those that says I could die from walking across the street, or get hit by lightning so I'm not giving anybody a sermon here but those who smoke will realize a lot of things when you decide to stop. Nobody could have ever made me believe I would ever say that when I was smoking. I just hope that I never, ever, pick up another cigarette.
I quit 2 month ago, and i hope not to start again. I made myself a promiss that the day i turn 40, it will be better half of my life.
So i quit on my 40th bday. A month ago, while at work, i was under a lot of stress, got a cig. from a co-worker and went outside. I made one puff and it really tasted like an a$$, i threw it away and went back inside.
I don't know what kept me smoking for over 20 years, i believe it was nothing but boredome. If you have planty of time on your hands and nothing to do, you go and smoke, that was me.
Since i quit, i joined gym and that keeps me busy, i don't think of cigarettes at all, i don't crave them either, i had no withdrawals when i quit, none of that stuff. Weird, may be i wasn't addicted after all? I quit cold turkey, no patches, no gums, none of that stuff. Go figure.
I think smokers smoke for a whole variety of reasons:
It's physically addictive and tough to quit, it's something to do with your hands and mouths (little kids with pacifiers know this feeling), it's a way to avoid boredom, it's a way to avoid doing something, it's relaxing after a meal, with alcohol and coffee or after sex, it's been portrayed (in the past) as glamorous or virile or as a weight loss aid, it's a communal thing to do with friends...the list goes on...
I smoked now I don't and it took me a couple of false starts to quit--it's been 12 years now without smoking. The freedom and health benefits are great.
My doctor helped me by recommending a program offered through the local hospital sponsored by the American Lung Association. This program met weekly for 10 weeks and had everyone from 16 year old boy expelled from school for smoking to a 78 year-old woman who wanted to end her days "non-addicted."
The program had a behavior modification component...which worked for me--found it fascinating, actually. I learned a lot...found I used to hold my breath when stressed, upset, angry or frightened and a puff off a cigarette was a way to breathe. Now yoga and deep breathing fills that role.
Anyhow, wishing everyone the best of luck in quitting. Believe me, you can do it, and it's the best feeling in the world to be free of this addiction.
Like many others, I started smoking at 16 to be cool. I quickly became addicted and smoked for about 20 years. I tried quitting many times. Did the nicotine gum and got addicted to that (and broke several teeth in the process.) Tried the patch for 6 weeks at a stretch. Didn't work for more than the 6 weeks. Tried cold turkey. That really didn't work. I'd quit for short periods and always start back up. I felt like a complete failure. My only friends who smoked were my drinking buddies. So whenever I'd go out with them, I'd always start back up.
My dad was a smoker and he and I made an agreement that if one of us quit, then the other would quit. At 65, my dad had a brain aneurysm which is not directly attributable to smoking, but certainly can cause weakening of the blood vessels. He survived for a month in the ICU, part of the time conscious. He couldn't talk due to the ventilator, but when I asked him if he was missing cigarettes, he started shaking. I felt so horrible for him. I told him that I was going to quit and one tear came out of one of his eyes. My dad died about 10 days after this happened and essentially, that meant he quit (no smoking in heaven, right!?!) It took me another 2 years quitting on and off, but I did finally quit in 1994 by staying on the patch for a full 18 weeks. I also gave up my drinking friends and still don't drink. To this day, I STILL have smoking dreams where I wake up and wonder if I actually smoked.
I am a very well educated person who got addicted when I was stupid and young. It was horrible quitting. I was irritable for months and eventually went on an anti-depressant (Wellbutrin -- and that helped keep me off cigarettes.) While I know it wasn't smart to smoke, the addiction really had a hold on me. I miss it, but have NO desire to go back to being a smoker. For the last year I smoked, I hid it (as well as I could) from everybody. I was embarrassed to be a smoker.
I try my best never to be preachy to smokers and if somebody is trying to quit, I offer my full support. It is unbelievably difficult to do. As others have said, somebody who hasn't had an addiction that they beat just has no clue what it's like. The only thing they should offer to somebody who smokes or is quitting is support.
I'm happy to read about all these people, like VPCats, who have recently quit. I'm sending TONS of positive thoughts your way.
I stopped smoking instantly, when my mum dropped dead at 60 - never found out what killed her, but she smoked.
I had also become aware of heart pains, spasms, sometimes when I smoked. It scared me to think that my heart was reacting to the vile cig smoke.
Also, I nearly choked a couple of times, on silly things, went the wrong way, I couldn't catch my breath. My lungs were also affected and I didn't even smoke heavily.
Since stopping I am FREE - I realise that all the things I liked doing with a cig. I like doing anyway. Going for a walk with a cig - I like walking without one. Reading the paper or a book with a cig - I like reading without one.
I used to scare myself reading about the vile things in cigs. Nicotine is a natural poison (one guy killed his wife by feeding her pure nicotine - that's another story), also there is arsenic in cigs, formelrhyde (used for preserving dead bodies), and acetone - used in nail varnish remover!!!!! There are also hundreds more!!!!
In the end I got tired of being the slave to this vile, evil thing. It demmanded that I obey it's cravings early in the morning, late at night, even if I wanted to do something different - still I had to obey!!
Well NO MORE!!! I used to see my kids faces when I smoked (in my mind, I never smoked in front of them). Imagine telling them mummy has cancer. Bad enough if it happens as a non-smoker - but as a smoker I would have blamed myself for my kids pain. Their utter pain. So I broke free - I started going to church, got my faith back. I turned my back on those evil cigs and I am sooooo glad I did. I never, ever want to smoke again. And with Gods strength and my own will to be with my family as long as possible - I WON'T!!!
So Go for it all you smokers longing to break free. You will do it. You can.
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