Reply #9: Everyone is different

[Tansy_Gold]

I quit smoking one afternoon in 1978 cold turkey. I had smoked anywhere from one to one and a half packs a day at work, not so much at home and rarely on week-ends.

I ran out just before lunch. The machine in the office was out of my brand(s). When I met my husband for lunch a few minutes later, he was out, too, and the restaurant vending machine was out of order. I quit out of frustration and didn't touch another one for a year. A year later I had ONE at a party where everyone else around me was smoking. I choked and didn't have another for eight years.

In 1987, under horrendous job stress and working in an office with a chain smoker, I picked up the habit again, though never going above five or six a day, none at home, none on week-ends. About that time Phoenix passed the first of its no smoking laws, requiring that workplaces become smoke free if a single affected employee requested it. I filed a complaint, and our office was smoke free the next day.

Since then -- since 1987 -- I've had two cigarettes, both borrowed from smoker friends at business conferences and both stubbed out after one or two drags. The last one was in 1994.

Though my husband quit smoking in the house in about 1988, he never gave it up completely. He lied to me about it, spent money we didn't have on it, and ultimately died a very ugly death in 2005 of pneumonia caused by lung cancer that had spread to his liver and lymph nodes and spine.

I never went through withdrawal. I didn't gain weight. I didn't have mood swings. Quitting was easy for me, but it wasn't for my husband.

It disturbs me greatly to have someone, especially someone who admits how hard it is to kick the habit, defend smoking. HFCS may very well contribute to diabetes, along with other facets of an unhealthy lifestyle and diet. It's to be fought, too. But just because there are other health problems out there doesn't mean we should ignore the horrendous damage smoking can and does.

Fear of terrorists may be a political weapon, but fear of smoking should never be denigrated. I watched what it did to my husband.


Tansy Gold