Do you smoke?

I've never even tried to smoke (tobacco that is )

I really hate the smell of tobacco and really prefer not to be around people when they smoke. I don't think I'd be able to date a smoker either.

Never have, never will, never even tried.....

Both Grandpas died of lung cancer and I remember watching my dad's dad and what he went through....

HATE smoke....blah

NEVER have, NEVER will. That was one of the 1st question DH and I asked each other. He's an ex-smoker. I can't stand smoking. My ex-husband was a smoker and I really hated it (part of the reason for divorce).

I've seen what it does; want NO part of it!

I was a smoker for 20 years on and off, mostly on! I always found second hand smoke extremely offensive, stomach turning! My current roommate is a heavy smoker, I have 3 sheets and a blanket over his door. I have been cig free for 5 months and want to keep it that way! I have quit before, for up to a year or 2, but fell back. 36 years old now, definitely feel a difference, and think it is a disgusting habit!

I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, but it's a recently developed allergy -- my parents smoked when I was little and I don't remember being allergic back then, but now ... Whew! I get stuffed up, teary-eyed, my nose itches ... So, I'm one of those annoying people who, when someone starts smoking around me, moves away or moves upwind. It's nothing personal -- I just like breathing.

Originally Posted by marie-p

I've never even tried to smoke (tobacco that is

)

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Nice

~I have never even had one to my lips. My husband on the other hand had smoked since he was 15. I heard my father in law telling my daughter about how when her dad was young...he wrote him a letter asking him to quit so he wouldnt die. My daughter of course got the same idea and wrote her father a letter. It was tear jerking to say the least. He quit COLD turkey and was good for about a year...then after his grandmother died the guys he works with (YEA I COULD KILL THEM) offered him cigs on a daily basis....told him it would help calm his nerves because he was having a bad time with the death....so low and behold he has NOW been back smoking for about 7 months. I HATE it...smelly...stinky cig breath! Yuck! I never smoked, never will...and dont permit it around my children~

Never. My parents smoked when I was little. Luckily, they quit when I was 8. I can't stand the smell.

Originally Posted by Bonnie1965

I think it is interesting that people who are so against smokers/smoking and call smokers names will gladly drink themselves silly. Booze is addictive, smells bad, KILLS people every day, kills brain cells permanently yet those who hate smokers drink with with a clear conscience.

I just don't get the inconsistency here. Both are legal, both stink, both kill but alchohol is somehow more acceptable. Is it the media? News reports?

I don't want to turn this into an IMO thing on this thread. After reading the responses so far, I think it is sad that smokers are hiding their heads in shame while non-smokers feel it is okay to bash them.

Until those who bash others are themselves some version of heavenly perfection, I believe they should rethink bashing. Thanks!

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Bonnie, I think comparing smoking & drinking is like comparing apples and oranges for reasons already mentioned, BUT you do have a legit point. Sometimes its not what you say, but how you say it. For instance the symbol and going on and on about how disgusting it is, saying theres no excuse, etc.

I'm a non-smoker (again ), but my husband smokes and would love to quit. I pray that he does. I don't like being around smoke, but more than that I care deeply about his health.

I think that quitting is easier for some than others. I think the earlier you start the harder it is to quit. I never had the desire to get up in the morning and smoke. For those who do, I believe quitting is more difficult.

I would love it if everyone quit. I appreciate smokers who are considerate about who they smoke around, where they blow their smoke, and of course, where they put their butts.

Originally Posted by Mom 2 3

My husband on the other hand had smoked since he was 15. I heard my father in law telling my daughter about how when her dad was young...he wrote him a letter asking him to quit so he wouldnt die. My daughter of course got the same idea and wrote her father a letter. It was tear jerking to say the least. He quit COLD turkey and was good for about a year..

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It was a similar thing that made my Dad quit. The family was gathered at my parents' place for Sunday dinner, and my brother and Dad were in the kitchen chewing the fat. Dad rolled his own and had just gotten over a horrible cold, during which he couldn't smoke, and he offered my brother one of the smokes in the box, apologizing for the fact that they weren't fresh. Just at that moment, 9-year-old Number One Granddaughter passed by the kitchen door, heard the exchange, and said "Oh, Grampa! Don't start smoking again -- Please! -- It will kill you." Trying to make light, he replied, "AW...good riddance to bad rubbish!" Horrified, "Oh, No, Grampa... I LOVE YOU!" That was it. Game over. Never smoked again.

No, I personally think it's a nasty habit.
And my Dad died from Stage 4 Throat Cancer.

I started when I was probably 14 or 15 and smoked until I was 28, about a pack a day. Then I quit. All my relatives smoked, including my mom, dad, aunts, uncles... You name it. Most of them smoked and several of them died of lung cancer. My parents were 65 and 69 when they died, both of cancer. It's an unpleasant thing to watch.

My oldest brother is 64 and smoked since he was a teenager. He quit three months ago, for the first time, and has not had a cigarette since then. His kids and I have tried for years to get him to quit, but although he was very considerate by not smoking around us, he continued to smoke. He finally went to a VA hospital (Viet Nam veteran) the first of the year and I don't know what they said to him there, but he finally stopped. I'm very proud of him.

I smoke cigars but only on special occasions. Other than that I don't smoke.

Originally Posted by mybabyphx

Ok I am going to be 110% honest here!

I smoked from 11yrs old-21 yrs old... smoked 2 pks marlboro reds a day then I quit July 2006....


but...

like in February 2007 I started smoking those clove cigerettes. I feel so aweful. i want to stop now AGAIN! But my boyfriend and our roommate smoke so it's hard to 'get away from it'

i feel ashamed of MYSELF!!

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Please don't be so hard on yourself. Cigarettes are very addicting and extremely difficult to quit. You've done it once and you can do it again

Originally Posted by katachtig

Please don't be so hard on yourself. Cigarettes are very addicting and extremely difficult to quit. You've done it once and you can do it again

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Awww.. Thank You! Yes they are VERY addicting, it's VERY hard....

I can go the whole day not smoking at work... and then as soon as I get home and see someone else smoking- it makes me want one as well. My house is smoke-free though.... so it makes it alittle easier on me

thanks for the encouragement

Nope! Never have, and dont ever plan to.....

My mom does and we all rag on her all the time that she needs to quit,hehe.

Never. I can't stand being around it; and I would not even have dated a man who smoked, when I was single. (Sorry to offend anyone here--it's nothing personal, but I just hate the smell, and the way that it permeates everything--clothes, walls, upholstery, etc.). I, until 3 years ago, lived with my Mom--who's a heavy smoker, and I grew up around smoking. I hated it! I also worry about her--she's now getting short of breath, has a chronic cough, etc., but this (former) nurse just doesn't get it--smoking is causing this! When I moved, I had to trash so much of my stuff, as I couldn't get the smoke smell out, even after washing--and a lot of this stuff was in the ATTIC, where she doesn't smoke! My neighbors are smokers, and I swear I can smell the house (outside from my driveway), even when the windows are closed--I really think their vinyl siding is permeated with the smell. H thinks I'm nuts, but I can smell it. I also can smell sealed-up cars in parking lots in warm weather when I walk past, and tell if someone's a smoker.

I won't let anyone, even Mom, smoke in my car and my house.

Plus, I don't think it's good for pets to breathe it in.

I've never taken a single puff in my life. Always found it revolting, even before I understood the health issues.

It was Bob Newhart who saved me from smoking, actually -- we had some of his comedy records when I was a kid, and one of his routines was a one-sided phone call from Sir Walter Raleigh back to England, telling them about this quaint custom of the natives he had encountered here in America. Bob played the marketing expert who received the call (you don't hear Sir Walter Raleigh's part), and it went something like this, best I can remember:

Walt, baby, how are things in the colonies?

Great, great... so I hear you have this new product you wanna try out back here, tell me about that.

Uh... leaves? Did you say leaves, Walt?

Leaves. Uh, Walt... y'know... come fall in England here, the trees... we really have plenty of...

Oh, that's not all. Okay. I'm listening, Walt.

They dry the leaves, yeah, okay.

And they roll them up in paper, yeah... yeah, I'm with you, Walt. They roll 'em up and...

And they stick 'em in their mouth...

And they -- ha! They set fire to 'em, Walt, is that what you said?

Oh gosh, Walt, I gotta tell ya... this doesn't sound... nobody in his right mind... I mean, no offense, Walt, but... don't call us, we'll call you, okay babe?


I loved that routine! And after hearing that, how could I even think of doing something so clearly ridiculous?

As for how smokers make me feel... well, I understand that they have an addiction, and addictions are hard to kick. But this is an addiction unlike any other: I can sit right next to a heroine addict while he shoots up and suffer no ill effects from it at all... but a smoker imposes his chosen poison on me from yards away.

I still prefer not to hang out with heroine addicts, though.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

So many people started at 11?!! That's crazy, you were all still children.

It's horrible to watch a person waste away like this. My grandmother died February 13th, 2006 from heart failure too, after several weeks of struggling with pneumonia.

I've never smoked or drank alcohol, I've seen what both do to people.

My mother did smoke when she was pregnant with me, and all through my childhood both parents smoked. I was sick a lot, most colds turned into repository infections, I still have this problem.
I can no longer even be around smokers because it makes me feel horrible.
And after years of heavy chain smoking, my mother is getting emphysema. I can hear it in her voice when I talk to her on the phone.

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This makes me think of my Dad, who died in 1999, from fibrosis of the lungs. The sad thing is, he quit cold turkey 30+ years before, yet it caught up to him, and killed him. I hope no one ever has to watch someone die of breathing problems--it was horrible...

I have nothing against smokers; and, actually, I believe people have a right to smoke (though, please, not around me when I'm eating). I just worry about their health, mostly. I just hate the mess and the smell.

MargeCat

Nope. Never have, never will, never want to. It just doesn't appeal to me at all.