Why do people smoke ?

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byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
My parents smoked. Dad got through 40 a day for years, Mam 20 to 30.

Dad had a heart attack at 47 and stopped smoking. At 63 he had another, this time fatal. He always said, after the first attack, he'd love to smoke again but knew it was not a good choice.

Both my sister and Ihave never smoked. A childhood wreathed in smoke and the ash, stub ends and used matches made us smoking averse.

Mam had a stroke at 77 and spent her last 12 years housebound. Her breathing and heart both affected.

In 1958 our Doctors, 4 in the practice, all stopped smoking. My mother, who knew them socially asked one of them why? His reply, in 1958. Smoking kills. Yet the killing goes on.

I have asthma, tobacco smoke makes me wheeze, so I feel I'm paying for their smoking. Since the smoking ban in pubs my inhaler use has reduced by 80%, my prescription bills tell me this.

If I could I'd ban smoking. FULL STOP! I am affected by sitting next to a smoker in a public place, from the stink on their clothing. I hate the mess smokers make in the street. AND I'm saving their worthless lives.


Rant over!
 
I have been a smoker for around 25 years, it is my one and only vice, i dont drink caffiene, i dont eat chocolate or sweets or gamble and drink alcohol very rarely. I live on my own so it effects no one.

I will one day give up smoking but at the moment i dont want to.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I loved smoking, really loved-it.... no, really, really, really loved it. Old holborn rollies, 20/day.
Then at 42 had a mild heart-attack, a stent and had to give-it up. I don't miss it greatly these days, but I'm not the same person, I'm not as nice a person as I was when I smoked. But I'm alive I guess, to carry on smoking would have been a short life.

But I hope to smoke again. When I'm old and grey, before I become a dribbling wreck, I going to smoke again. I'm yearning for the day.
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
Lightish smoker here, but i know it's getting a grip on me. Ironically i'd packed up 20 odd years ago, then during an extremely stressful period during a work trip to Uruguay, i started having the occasional half ciggie try to calm down and clear my head. Slippery slope...

Yes, it does make the house stink. Yes it's bad for you...why am i doing it ?...i'm still enjoying it, but only just. Already ready to start thinking enoughs enough. But i know from the last time i packed up...it's not easy.
 

ComedyPilot

Secret Lemonade Drinker
Lightish smoker here, but i know it's getting a grip on me. Ironically i'd packed up 20 odd years ago, then during an extremely stressful period during a work trip to Uruguay, i started having the occasional half ciggie try to calm down and clear my head. Slippery slope...

Yes, it does make the house stink. Yes it's bad for you...why am i doing it ?...i'm still enjoying it, but only just. Already ready to start thinking enoughs enough. But i know from the last time i packed up...it's not easy.


SO good a post, you did it twice? :thumbsup:
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
SO good a post, you did it twice? :thumbsup:

I did :biggrin: ...corrected now.
 

Sheffield_Tiger

Legendary Member
Because it's bloody lovely. Because it de-stresses. Because it can aid concentration. Because if you stop smoking you put on weight*
Because when you smoke you THINK that the above is true. It actually isn't.

I'm 2 months off the 3 years mark after being a heavy smoker and I can't quite believe I used to smoke for so long and that I made so many excuses about not giving up.

But, after smoking for 17 years I struggled to walk - after a mile the deposits clogging up my arteries made circulation poor and walking agonising (yes, I was also severely overweight but the walking pain was the first thing to go after stopping). I promised my mother that Christmas, after she had a rotten day under an oxygen mask whilst I cooked dinner (she loved doing Xmas dinner) that I would stop. And I promised myself because that was a wake-up call to me - I saw MY future and the need for an oxygen cylinder. That did the trick for me...sadly reinfoced by my mum passing away 3 weeks later. Because of smoking.

* The weight thing IS true I found. But NOT long-term. I put on weight during the first year, and since then have lost all that i put on and started to eat away at the excess I had before I stopped, by being able to breathe whilst walking, cycling and running. If I hadn't stopped smoking I would be fatter now than I am, so in the long term, giving up smoking makes you LOSE weight.

I just wish it wasn't so horribly addictive as I would love to be one of those rare people who can really enjoy a single cigar at Christmas and then not touch any tobacco for another 365 days, because cigarette smoking is harsh, nasty and utilitarian, but cigars... cigarettes are like the Frosty Jacks to the well-aged single malt of a good cigar
 

Jezston

Über Member
Location
London
I smoke because I became addicted to nicotine through the smoking of cannabis cigarettes.

I've only ever smoked about 5 a day, and never inside my home,so I don't consider it a big deal. I have however promised my mum that I will give up this year as my uncle, her brother, is currently dying of lung cancer.

I think I'll find it easy if I want to, but I just don't want to give up right now.
 

bobg

Über Member
I loved smoking, really loved-it.... no, really, really, really loved it. Old holborn rollies, 20/day.
Then at 42 had a mild heart-attack, a stent and had to give-it up. I don't miss it greatly these days, but I'm not the same person, I'm not as nice a person as I was when I smoked. But I'm alive I guess, to carry on smoking would have been a short life.

But I hope to smoke again. When I'm old and grey, before I become a dribbling wreck, I going to smoke again. I'm yearning for the day.

And it came to pass... two rollies a day and I enjoy every puff... just dribble a bit but I'm getting better at it
 

rusky

CC Addict
Location
Hove
Knowing the harm it does, it really gets my goat to see a girl/woman pushing a pram, take a drag then lean over and belch the vile fumes at the kid?

What chance or choice does the child have?

None.

They are a victim of their parents selfish, ignorant mindset.

There was a slot on the Jeremy Vine show a few months ago about the NHS & smoking pregnant women, I think this may be the gist http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...all-pregnant-women-for-smoking-says-Nice.html

A guy at work said it should be up to the woman & the NHS shouldn't get involved as it was her right if she wanted to smoke. I pointed out that the unborn baby didn't get a say in the matter but he couldn't understand what was wrong :angry:

After watching too many relatives die slow & painful deaths because of smoking I loath it with a passion.
 
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