I'd like to quit smoking but wtf for?

[devilgrrl]

Yesterday I watched several shows on Link TV concerning the state of the earth's environment and what I heard just made my heart sink. Hearing stories about the impending extinction of Polar Bears and tigers. The polar ice cap and glaciers around the globe are melting, the supply of fossil fuels is disappearing, pollution, environmental devastation, bizarre weather patterns, etc... Truly depressing news.

This past week I've started to make a concerted effort to cut down my tobacco use because it's not good for me but with the way this world is heading I wonder why I should bother quitting when the air I'm breathing isn't much safer.

I'm sorry but I'm really down right now about this and just don't see things getting any better.... EVER! Especially with the current crop of assholes running the nation - what's the point?

Please convince me otherwise. :-(

[crispini]

1. 'cause you're giving your money to the RNC when you smoke.

there's a start.

[Hippo_Tron]

40. That's why they don't want you to smoke marijuana

Because your money doesn't go to Republicans.

[Midlodemocrat]

2. And we need healthy, alive dems for a long time to come.

[High Plains]

3. 'Cuz you won't enjoy your stay in Calabasas, California?

Where they just banned outdoor smoking.

[devilgrrl]

6. Actually, that's one of the things I'm doing to cut down!

Hanging around places you're not allowed to smoke at. It helps. :-)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. How about a compromise?

My husband rolls his own tobacco, and only uses imported tobacco with no chemicals added. When he had a chest x-ray, the doctor didn't believe he was a smoker, and he's been smoking for 40 years.

As for the environment, hey, I agree with you, so I can't cheer you up that way.

[90-percent]

31. American cigarettes

Don Garlits told me once that the thing that makes smoking so bad is all the sugars they add.

There may be some merit to cigarettes that don't have additives in them.

American cigs are more dangerous than most available in the world, in other words.

Anybody got any profound info about this?

-85% Jimmy

[LincolnMcGrath]

5. food tastes better

[Kazak]

7. So you* won't smell like a cigarette butt for the rest of your life?

:shrug:

*former smoker myself (about six years in).

[Cleita]

8. Because you will probably live through all the adversity and when

we right what's wrong with the world, you don't want a COPD or cancer to ruin your enjoyment of a New Age.

[WI_DEM]

9. your health and the health of others.

[henslee]

10. Because scorching your lungs @ 1292 degrees farenheit will catch up to you

and make you reminisce about nice it was to breathe.

Temperature of a ciggie without drawing:
Side of the lit portion: 400 deg C (or 752 deg F)
Middle of the lit portion: 580 deg C (or 1112 deg F)

Temperature during drawing:
Middle of the lit portion: 700 deg C (or 1292 deg F)

[WillyT]

11. Better Erections ???

Oh... that may not be appropriate in this case.

:silly:

[serryjw]

20. NOW that's funny!

I'm a smoker and was thinking the same thing yesterday. We are all in such trouble what's the difference at 56 if I stop. The best argument is not supporting the RNC donors, though

[Tace]

12. In The 1989 Movie, Millenium, Some Gal From The Future...

played by Cheryl Ladd, chain smokes three Camels at a time. In the movie, it's because the air's so bad in this distopian future, that people smoke more, not less. Go figure.

[Journeyman]

28. I used to humorously rationalize my smoking by telling people. . .

I did it to filter the LA air. And anyone who's ever driven into this basin and seen the sky turn from blue to brown knows exactly what I mean.

[Katherine Brengle]

39. HAHA! That's funny... n/t

[woofless]

13. I have emphysema.

Every breath I struggle for is a reason for you to quit. Love yourself.

Woof

[Warpy]

14. Because sucking poison into your lungs to fatten a bunch of

very bad rich people is a dumb thing to do?

Because your clothes stink out loud and it's getting expensive to replace the ones you've accidentally burnt holes in?

Because you've run out in the middle of the night and found yourself on your hands and knees in the kitchen, clawing through orange peels and coffee grounds looking for a butt that's dry and long enough to light? How degrading does it have to be?

Because you're worth more than dying a slow death from lung disease, gasping for every breath you take for the last 20 years of your life?

Because we still have some hope of kicking the pigs out of our way and surviving on this beautiful planet?

[kstewart33]

16. Because lung cancer is no way to die.

I know. I watched my Mom die slowly from it. What a horrific way to die.

[Road Scholar]

15. Oh, and one more little thing, you could put your kids through college or

have a pretty nice ride for what your lung candy is costing.Anybody can quit smoking,
but it takes a real man or woman to face cancer.

[Journeyman]

17. I quit smoking 20 years ago last January 5. . .

Did it entirely for myself. I feel great for it. My family appreciates it. I have all the health benefits, all the social graces, all the positives of being a non-smoker. I have a little (actually, a lot) of extra money in my pocket. I have all these benefits and nowhere in my estimation do the mechanizations of anyone outside my small circle of friends and family play into it at all. I did it for myself. You should do the same. Do something for yourself. Don't constrict your world to considerations of the negative and the assholes only. Be yourself and do something for you. Do something for those you love; they'll love you for it. Because, ultimately, if you don't mean something more to yourself than the BushCo Cabal means to you, 'tis a sad sad world you've created.

[Road Scholar]

21. Really? I quit December 31, 1985. I was smoking 4 packs a day

I must have quit a thousand times.I was 42 years old and almost decided that I couldn't quit. It was a really big thing for me to be able to quit. I did it on my own. It was before patches.I am still thankful and a little bit proud that I was able to let it go.

[Journeyman]

27. I too was smoking 4-5 packs a day. . .

My Mother died (of lung cancer) in late '85. Oh, I wanted to quit -- I'd quit many times, so I knew it would be easy -- but it was always mañana. But I came to work one day and the guy I worked with at the time -- who'd had lung cancer when he was 20 but was in remission (we we're both in our 30s then) -- he handed me a slip of paper and said, "I've made an appointment for you to go to the Schick Smoking Cessation Program on January 5. Here's their address and phone numbers -- call them and they'll tell you what you have to do." I was stunned. I'd only known the guy for half a year but here he was, trying to help me in an area where I truly needed help.

I entered Schick at 5 pm and was a non-smoker by 5:30. Oh, there were still days of therapy to undergo, and to this day the smell of a cigarette either repulses me or entices me, I never know which it will be so I do my best to avoid it entirely. And I haven't smoked since.

My friend passed away some 12 years after he got me to quit smoking. He died of complications from the radiation treatment he received for his lung cancer (which was not smoke related, just a simple quirk of fate). To his dying day, he was grateful for the time his treatment had afforded him, even though it eventually killed him.

I think of him often, and I'm grateful for what he did for me. To this day, what he did remains the nicest thing anyone ever did for me with their clothes on.

[Road Scholar]

35. Yep, it sounds like a real friend for sure. I think you've really

got to be hooked then to appreciate the struggle to quit. I knew I was killing myself, but I was out of control. The really weird thing, I am usually in control and very strong willed, but that nicotine had me.I tried everything.Hypnotism Nico Ban, Nico-Ban (got a prescription) but I just had to be willing to do whatever it took.It was hell for a while, but I finally did it. Twenty years later, and I'm still grate full that I was able to quit.

[murray hill farm]

18. because, it will be hundreds of years before..

the air u breath will be as bad as the air u suck through a cigarette..and we will all be dead by then...probably no life here at all...and because in a week without smoking, you will feel so much better and your lungs wont hurt anymore...and most of all, you know..u have found a truism about the world..and it has become a monkey on your back that says to you...why quit...air is bad anyway..and it is just that clever monkey giving you a workable rationale to keep smoking.

[southpaw]

19. Because

The republican ass-hats that make millions off your habit think you are stupid for smoking a product that they themselves won't touch!

[mdmc]

22. are you a crumb fan?

please stop smoking, or stick with the herb! :kick:

[mdmc]

47. kick and r

[Magical]

23. Try this instead....

Instead of 'quitting smoking' which is a concept that the mind can never really 'achieve'.

'Smoke your LAST cigarette' and don't smoke any more. I bet you'll find it alot easier when framed in those terms. For some silly reason, I have found the idea of 'doing something' (smoking the last one) alot easier than the idea of 'not doing something' (quitting).

It's magic. It's like you've already won the battle. See, you smoked you're LAST cigarette. Great Job!

As to 'why quit'...if for nothing else, far superior quality of life until 'Armagedddon' ?

Once we understand on a deep level, this dance is temporary, we can really live.

[heidler1]

24. My wife of 55 years had to move out of Colorado Springs which she loved

or carry oxygen and wear a mask while sleeping. She smoked three packs a day for years. I bribed her to quit and she did, but the damage was already done. Now if we go anywhere we have to avoid places over 3000 ft. elevation.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

25. I saw my mother die of emphasema

and you don't want it.

Also, you are going to need 100% of your lung strength to survive the times to come. Life has always been hard. Think of the black death in Europe. Three weeks and three out of every four people are dead.

There have always been assholes and there always will. Our challenge is to survive as long as we are able, and change what we can when we can. Hopefully for the better.

Read some historical novels for some perspective. It is easy to have tunnel vision. Hang in there.

[wrate]

26. Quitting is what has you feeling things are this bad. Not that they are

not, but the depression associated with the quitting makes them seem a who lot worse. I quit a while back and I remember I did not even want to get up from bed in the mornings. It's called withdrawal symptoms.

I could not handle it and used the patches, and that changed everything. In any case, what I always tell the people that are quitting, and that I wish someone would have told me when I was quitting: You will not feel this bad for a long time. Every day you will feel a bit better, just hang on.

[TheDebbieDee]

32. I am a big supporter of using hypnosis to quit........

smoking. There's no depression or withdrawal symptoms, you don't wind up substituting one substance of addiction (nicotine gum or patches) for another (cigarettes) and hypnosis has to be a heckovalot cheaper than using gum or patches.....or even smoking cigarettes!

Give it a try. Please!

[Cleita]

29. I forgot to add, that you will quit smoking eventually whether

willing or unwilling. It's better to do so before needing the inhalers and oxygen to get you through the day. I quit fifteen years ago and have asthma because of smoking, but I can lead a fairly normal life now, which I wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't quit when I did.

[Soloflecks]

30. All good reasons.

After my son hit me with "you're supporting THEM", I had to quit. And it's good for health reasons, etc. But, now that I've done it I'd also say that it feels damn good to be in control! Going against that voice in my head, that addict telling me how I loved to smoke, that felt better than anything I've done in a long time. Very empowering.

[reDEMption]

33. Smoking

First, be aware that your body is fighting the craving for nicotine, so it's starting to put thoughts in your head--excuses--that will allow you to give up on stopping smoking.

Second, in my family, the entire generation before me smoked. Of those who have since passed away, ALL of them died from an illness caused by their smoking: lung cancer, emphysema, bladder cancer, throat cancer, chronic bronchitis that led to pneumonia and death--you name it. Yes, we all have to die of SOMETHING. However, I took care of many of my relatives in their last illnesses and, believe me, the amount of suffering they went through was horrific. Even if we had only the next 2 years on earth and then no more, why on earth would you want to put yourself through that? A body can go through an awful lot of suffering in 2 weeks--let alone 2 years.

Third, I was the one who took care of the majority. Instead of sitting down to Thanksgiving dinners with them, I was rubbing cream on Grandma's radiation treatment burns for her lung cancer. I was ordering oxygen for my father who could not walk 10 steps without resting-let alone walk me down the aisle when I got married. I was burying my mother when she was only 56 years old, 3 months before my college graduation that she would never get to see. Any kids I may have would never know their grandparents...

All in all, why would you want a life like that? Which one of your loved ones do you want to leave those memories with after they bury YOU years before your time? Robbing yourself of every dance, wedding, child birth, Thanksgiving dinner, graduation is one thing--who else in your family do you wish to take from? Have you ever thought about the price your loved ones around you would pay?

[wrate]

41. Yours is a GREAT GREAT post. Welcome to DU! n/t

[reDEMption]

43. Thank you!

That was really such a nice thing to say!O8) O8) O8)

[leftchick]

34. I said the same thing 20 some years ago under reagan

I quit anyway and here I am all healthy and shit for the coming Armageddon! I may go out and buy a pack. :smoke:

[msgadget]

36. Oh, you silly! You need breath to protest, that's why! n/t

[AndreaCG]

37. You won't give OTHER people lung cancer.

[progressivebydesign]

38. Every single family member of mine that died before 60.. smoked.

And.. the family members that had massive heart attacks or strokes, all smoked. None of the family members that were non-smokers, died young.. had cancer.. or heart attacks. How's that? And, while it's easy to live in denial that this won't happen to you, the statistics are not on your side. Going through cancer, emphesyma, heart disease, or COPD, is not life at all. It's the number one preventable cause of death.. The air you're breathing is 1,000 times safer. Trust me.

[rucky]

42. If you had the cough that I had now, you'd wish you'd have quit.

it's so bad it's making my eyeballs turn completely red.

[ismnotwasm]

44. I guess I could add, If you have ANY family history of diabetes

Or diabetes yourself, stop. No shit. You don't want to loose body parts a piece at time. Or your kidneys. Jesus it's hard to watch.

[USA_1]

45. HERE'S WHY ...

BECAUSE REICH WING SOB RUPERT MURDOCH IS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST TOBACCO STOCK OWNER!

EVERY TIME THAT YOU LIGHT UP, YOU ARE PUTTING MONEY INTO THE POCKETS OF THAT WEALTHY WARMONGERING MOTHERFUCKER!!!

And when you and others like you are coughing away and dying in hospital beds, he's laughing and counting his blood money.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

46. Because lips that touch tobacco will never touch mine

And we both KNOW what a disappointment that would be to you. :loveya: