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But there are 390,000 are injured in distracted-driving (RE: Cell Phone) related vehicle accidents every year.
Maybe your state should make a law against it... and enforce it...
All drivers within the state of Tennessee are prohibited from texting while driving, with the exception of police officers, state officials, and emergency medical technicians. According to Tennessee Highway Patrol Memphis District, more than 1,500 in Memphis alone have been ticketed for holding their phone down while driving. And Tennessee is not exactly a touchy-feely left wing three-hugging nanny-state place.
Now. Maybe it's time to ban smoking too. End it completely.
I smoke. I am very aware of the risks, and yes, I smoke anyway. I don't cry myself to sleep because of it. I've seen the pictures of a smoker's lungs. I know about COPD, and blah blah blah.
HEART DISEASE is what MANY, if not MOST, smokers get - not just COPD.
Smoking causes HEART DISEASE.
And 12 to 16 different types of cancer are strongly linked to smoking including:
Somehow I think youre not being serious, so Ill just leave it at that.
The topic title of this thread is about you cigarette addicted smokers. If you want to start a thread about "is WakeMed hooked on web forum posting?" go ahead. Won't bother me. I also post on several sports forums.
Then again, trying to deflect or change the subject from smoking to something else is a very old and failed tactic of the smoke addicted. If you want to start a thread about people hooked on web forum posting, I promise not to try to change to subject with a "but-but-but... what about people hooked on video games?" or something else completely unrelated as a deflection.
I am a smoker and I don't think I'm in any kind of denial about it. I know how horrific it is for me. I know all of the diseases that it can cause. I have family predispositions to several of them. It makes me feel sick-ish, it stinks, it's expensive. I hate it. I strongly and frequently wish I had never begun.
So why don't I just quit?
Do you think I have not tried?
Thing is, it makes me a mess. And I can not be a mess. I have never had anyone in my life who is accepting of me being a mess, or supportive of me even if I'm a mess, or understanding of me if I am a mess. Other people can break down and be loved and supported, but I have literally NEVER had that. Not once, not ever.
My sons require that I have it together. My job requires that I be cool, calm, and intelligent and friendly. I can't be panicky, nervous, and snappish.
I can cope with the physical symptoms. My muscles tensing, a nearly desperate urge to gnaw on something, the cravings. I can deal with that. I have done. It's the mental stuff that wrecks me. I feel stupid, slow, I can't think, and I freak out and blow up with tears or anger at people. And then I have hurt them, and it's my fault, because there is no excuse for that. And if I'm too slow mentally to do my job, my employer won't care that I'm trying to quit smoking. And I think that most of the people who have "loved" me in the past, it's really more about the me that they need, it's not an actual care for me. I've always dreaded the fact that one day I will be sick or hurt, because I can't imagine anyone taking care of me. Hopefully when the smoking finally catches up to me, I'll be wealthy enough to pay someone.
So as disgusting, unhealthy, and wretched as smoking is...the world around me still lets me get away with it. I do not believe that the world around me would let me get away with losing control or underperforming, which is what happens when I try to quit. I freak out. The sky falls. Sometimes even months later. And I cannot cope with being that person.
Trust me, it is not that the smoker manages to logically talk themselves out of belief in the hazards, and actually thinks that it's fine. The nature of ADDICTION is generally that you cannot easily just stop doing something, even if you want to, even if it's distressing, destructive or disruptive to your life.
To keep this thread from going off the rails, "smoking" would refer to cigarette smoking and not include vaping, weed, hookah bars, whatever.
Is there a pattern with many nicotine addicted cigarette smokers (not all, but a number of them), to desperately try to defend their habit in a militant way that borders on belligerent? It's not like they can't read the side of the pack.
"Just like" drug addicts? They are drug addicts, by definition. The only difference is that their drug is legal, and generally much more socially acceptable than most illegal drugs, so they don't have to go to such great lengths to hide it or minimize it. But fundamentally, I don't see much difference between a smoker or any other kind of drug addict.
Now, I believe you asked whether they "should" be getting help for their denial and/or their rationalization... I don't think it's anyone's business to make that judgment. They almost certainly know the risks, and if they don't, it's because they've gone out of their way to avoid having to face up to the reality of their situation. Either way, it's their decision, and since they only impact my life and my wife's life to an extremely degree, I don't have any right to judge. Getting therapy may be a good idea for them, but I hesitate to tell anyone that they "need" to do anything that they don't really want to do.
As far as their behavior as a group is concerned, I find that most of them seem to be pretty considerate of people who don't share their addiction. There is a small subset of them who seem to go out of their way to be militant and defensive, probably as a reaction to being looked down on by so many people. But that's not surprising, and I don't hold it against them unless they really get in my face - which is rare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodestar
Like Ruth says, there are many forms of denial besides just flat out "No, I'm not addicted." It's psychologically painful for humans to know one thing in their head and then do something contrary to it. So they use all kinds of more subtle denial just like other addicts do.
Examples:
I know I'm going to quit someday just not now.
I only use X amount each day. Or, I only use after five o'clock or during my lunch break.
I switched to a milder form of tobacco.
I feel fine.
It happens to other people but it isn't going to happen to me. or, "Look at Joe. He smokes way more than I do and he is okay."
No one in my family ever got sick from smoking.
These are all more subtle forms of denial that help to soothe the sense of contradiction an addict has. Subtle denial is used to justify continued use of what he is addicted to.
You left out "I'm a show everyone what a self-assured, independent person I am by doing something really self-destructive and not giving a damn about it!" Living in the rural South, I run into that one a lot - sort of the equivalent of strutting around wearing muscle shirts and tight jeans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sassybluesy
What you smell on me isn't 3rd hand smoke. It's odor, yes, but it's not going to make you sick. AND the concept of 3rd hand smoke is still out to the jury.
That's true; it won't make me sick. But it will definitely make my wife sick, because she has several genetic metabolic disorders. The jury is most definitely not "out" on 3rd hand smoke, whether you want to accept that reality or not. It is most definitely a thing.
"Just like" drug addicts? They are drug addicts, by definition. The only difference is that their drug is legal, and generally much more socially acceptable than most illegal drugs,
.
This is exactly how I was able to quit smoking.
I never treated it like I was quitting smoking but kicking a drug habit.
I used valium and the patch. My doctor gave me a script for 45 valium with five refills and told me to eat them like skittles. He told me he could wean me off the benzoes but he couldn't get me off the nicotine.
Having a doctor that was so supportive helped tremendously. He told me to eat the valium like skittles.
And smokers apparently do not heal well after serious injuries.
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