That's Fit

I wish there was a law that stated if someone smokes in their car, they have to keep the windows rolled up. Hell, if they want to kill themselves, that's fine. Just don't mess up my precious environment while you're at it.

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i smoke. i hate smoking and i hate that i ever started. they say its as bad as an illicit drug..it is. all of the reverse psychology and "smokers stink" comments dont/wont help the majority. it didnt work with alcoholism or heroin. it wont work with nicotine. more shame NEVER works. it may be incentive for more guilt, but it isnt an applicable tool. for the majority, we know we stink and we hate it. maybe we started because we already stunk....the difference is that this drug, like alcohol is/was a socialy acceptable form of self medication which makes it harder.there wasnt necc. a stigma attached for years!! this is an addiction that effects averyone around you..directly. so we go outside now, huddle in corners and breathe in the hell like little criminals. it happened to alcoholics and drug addicts until it was better understood. nicotine patches and gums are a joke. you dont give an alcoholic, little patches of alcohol until he is weaned...we need more research and help. we already know what our friends 'wont' tell us....
what we dont tell you is that we hate it too and we know we stink and we are indeed sorry......
do people that shame and judge ignorantly put of an oder of thier own?
replacing the habit with another..education !!
sincerely, trying to quit
utah

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I grew up with smoking parents, smoked my first cig at 9 years old. By 11 I was inhaling and smoking as often as I could, by 16 I had a pack a day habit and truly loved smoking, as soon as I woke in the morning I was lighting up. When I started developing my smokers cough by 17
I remember joking with friends that I probably wouldn't live past 30. By the time I was 23 I was a 2 pack a day smoker and started to try quiting. It didn't work. At 30
I had tried to quit numerous times with no success, I now smoked 2-3 packs a day. The people I worked with
all joked that I probably had lungs that resembled a tar pit. I also became a father that year and I was determined that my kids would not be raised around smoke. The next few years I was able to cut back on my smoking some by not smoking in the house or the car with the kids around. At 35 with three kids I tried to quit again. This time lasted 3 months, my longest yet.
During that time while out in the yard with the kids my 3 year old son picked up an old butt and was pretending to smoke it like I used to. The thought of him growing up to be a chain smoking, morning coughing, yellow toothed smoker made me sick, but I still started back smoking and was soon back to 2 packs a day. On it went for another two years until one day after work I felt very tired and layed down to take a nap. An hour later I awoke and felt like I had a huge weight on my chest, I couldn't catch my breath and thought I was truly going to die. I was fortunate, my problem soon cleared up before my wife dialed 911 but it left a lasting
impression. The thought of dying before my kids were even teenagers and leaving my wife alone with them was the final straw. I put my cigerettes in the trash and never looked back. The next year was a struggle but well worth it. I am now smoke free for 14 years. My kids do not remember me ever smoking and they decpise smoke. I still receive comments at work from some of the ones that remember me as a smoker that they never thought I would quit. The ads on TV do give good advice when they say "don't quit quiting". Keep trying until you get it right. You will be better for it!

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exaggerated and pathetic entry. never mind. i smoke when i relax. i smoke when i am stressed. i smoke after sex. i share my cigarettes with new and old friends. i drop girlfriends who say i stink. i drive a cabrio. i avoid pregnant women. please let me enjoy.

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thank you clayke!! I am a smoker as well. I have only been smoking for a little over a year now, but I enjoy it and will quit when im ready. It gets a little annoying after a while when people keep repeating the same thing over and over again. I bet some of you who say smokers smell also smell as well. I dont drink alcohol, my friends do, and i will tell you one thing, the smell of alcohol on a persons breath and when it comes out of their pores smells as bad if not worse than cigarettes. And, yea some of you who say we stink also have body odor which smells horrific! So stop telling us what we already know...we already know the bad affects of smoking, the smell of smoking, blah blah blah, but we are still smoking so obviously we dont really care to hear about it anymore. If you dont like cigarette smoke then dont hang out with people who you know smoke and dont go places where people are allowed to smoke. Its jus that simple. We smokers are not forcing you to hang out with us or smell our smoke...its your choice to do so. But before you start criticizing the smell of us smokers, make sure that you dont do anything that makes you stink as well.

In addition, to the person who said that we smokers should smoke with the windows up so we dont harm the earth, i think you drive a car, you are polluting the "beautiful earth" ten times more than us smokers are when we blow smoke into the air. So please think before you speak...thanks!

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clayke and allornothing: it's no exaggeration. i just broke up with a smoker. he stunk. period. his house stunk. period. when i came home, i stunk. it made me resent and dread being around him and now that is all i remember. this addiction stunts your life in more ways than one. it will kill you, and before that it will slowly wrench your life away from you.

you can justify it all you want but at the end of the day the story is 100% accurate and i am sorry you can't see it.

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You're mostly right Fitz K. You're right about the smoking habit and its effects and you're right about being an asshole. Your piece was reading nicely until the asshole side asserted itself. It spoiled the whole piece for me.

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Anyone ever been ambushed by smoke when walking out of a store? You never saw it coming and got a nice deep breath of it because someone thinks his/her right to smoke is more important than you (and everyone's!) right to breathe. Smoke if you want, but PLEASE STAY AWAY. It's not fair that some smokers stand right outside the door instead of somewhere further down in front of the building. I hold my breath as much as possible, but my young child doesn't know how yet. So we've been unable to walk into stores, and have had to wait or shop elsewhere (after a nasty cell phone call to the manager). One time (at Petsmart) the manager WAS the smoker! That was a fun conversation! I wish public smoking within 20 feet of non-smokers was outlawed everywhere.

I don't know if I have the balls to do this, but here's an idea for those of you who do! If there's a smoker outside a public building (close enough to pollute the air everyone breathes as they walk in and out), get out your perfume/cologne and go crazy spraying that stuff around. Be sure to get some on the smoker. If he gets upset, you can smile and announce that you're sorry YOUR habit (of spraying cologne) has bothered him. It's humorous to think about, but I bet a store manager or security would ask YOU (not the smoker!) to leave!

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I'm writing this in memory of my deceased mother who smoked for probably 50 years. Yes, that is a long time. But in that time she had two girls who had to endure the smoke and the smell. We watched her drop ashes on our babies. She burnt holes in my carpet..seats of all my cars. Her lungs finally gave out on her. She spent weeks in the hospital. The doctor told her if she didn't quit, she would die very soon. She swore she would stop . 2 years later about the same time.. November (over Thanksgiving) She was rushed to the hospital again because she could not breathe. She started smoking again about 2 months after she got out of the hospital the first time. This time it was worse. She had to be ventilated for about 4 weeks. My sister and I, and all the grandchildren spent our holidays in ICU with her... even though she was in a coma. I did all my Christmas shopping at the hospital gift shop. Barely got to see my kids at all. When she finally got out of ICU, she was in a regular room.. couldn't talk, walk or feed herself. Later she had to go to a nursing home to learn to do all those things again because of having to be ventilated. She got to come home that February, but she was never the same. She ultmately died of a stroke.
My sister and I had to make the decision of taking her off life support. We literally held her hand while she took her last breath.
I'm sorry this is so long. Thank you for letting me vent.
But I just want all you smokers to think of your family before you die, just because it was hard to quit.

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If I can do it, anyone can.

I started smoking in my early teens, but really started in heavy at 18. Smoked a pack and a half a day for ten years.

It always makes me laugh when people say "they'll quit when they're ready", because you never EVER feel ready. You still just want to smoke. And even the thought of quitting makes you want to rip all your hair out.

I wasn't ready. I still "liked" smoking. I still wanted to smoke. But I quit because it wasn't fair to the people around me, the people I love, or myself.

It took five tries and a combination of things.-- a couple bucks worth of quarters to keep my hands busy, the patch, baby carrots to munch on, mint gum, ALTIODS (stuff a bunch of these babies in your mouth and when you breathe in the feeling is almost, but not quite how it feels when you breathe in a smoke), walks, buying myself little good-smelling treats, phone calls, patient friends, and allowing myself to make a mistake (smoking a cigarette) without feeling like I failed and couldn't do it.

I am happy to say that I quit almost a year ago-- it will be a full year on May 24th. I feel great, smell good, get sick less, have more energy, can SMELL and TASTE again (you don't realize how much you lose these senses when you smoke)... the list goes on and on.

But the most important thing that happened when I quit is that I realized that I don't need to smoke and I never really liked it. Those were tricks that the niccotine addiction played on me. I thought I loved to smoke. And I thought I would never be able to quit. It is all such a great big fallacy.

I'm not saying it isn't hard. It is SO HARD. It is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life. But it is also one of the best things I have ever done. Everyone who cares about me (especially my mother) is so happy. All the kids I am around can look at me as a positive influence. My friends aren't put off by me... Most of all I am happier and healthier. I know is SUCKS but anyone can do it, and everyone should.

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My mother smokes. It makes me stink, it makes our home stink, our car stinks, everything stinks of smoke. Even my locker at school stinks! Washing my own clothes before I go out is useless because they still stink after putting them away.

She has the smokers cough and the low energy. My family gets sick quite often, yet she blames it on us not wearing socks inside.

Recently my heart/left side of my chest began hurting sporadicly. I went to the doctor and she told me that smoking is NOT helping this and that my mom can't smoke around me. Yet she still smokes in the same room as me and in the car.

I pray for the day that I am an adult and can leave. I do not want to sacrifice my life and health for her selfish habit.

I understand smokers are sensitive when it comes to telling them to stop, but they need to freaking wake up and realize what the heck they're doing!!

I wish I could show my mom this, I wish she would stop spending so much money on cigarettes, I wish I could throw away her cancer sticks without her getting angry at me.

Smokers, regardless of how well you conceal your stench or where you smoke, you're still killing yourself. Won't you freaking wake up and realize people are concerned about you? And stop taking offense. Heck, "it's so hard." No it's not hard if you love yourself. It may be an addiction, but there are tons more things to worry about other than a nicotine addiction.

Smoking is about the same as anorexia, bulimia, and cutting yourself. Why do you hurt yourself and the ones that love you? Wake up!

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Smokers stink!!!! Sure, everyone has a bit of B O once in a while, but, after we get washed up, how many of us actually make it a habit to get sweaty and smelly again as soon as we get dressed? Smokers will light up as soon as they get out of the shower!! What was the point of the shower??

Jen, you CAN take your mom's stink sticks away from her. That's how we got my dad to quit! We'd just had enough! We were still pre-teens then, and we decided to take his cigarette rolling gear and hide it from him. A few months later, he switched to a pipe. For a little while, that was slightly more acceptible to us, because, at least it smelled kinda nice, but, within a year or so, we hid his pipe gear, too. Both times, he got the message and quit. He didn't go hunting for the gear, and he didn't punnish us for hiding it from him. After a few years of being smoke free, he joined the smoker haters club and couldn't STAND to be around smokers anymore.

When we were little, we'd get LOTS of earaches!! It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I found out that they were caused by my dad's smoking.

Fitz K., I disagree with you on at least one point: smoking DOES benefit a few people; the cigarette companies, hospitals, undertakers, tumbstone makers, tobacco growers. Care to add to the list?

Allornothin13, I'd MUCH rather put up with a boozer's breath than a smokers's breath any day of the week!! I ride the buses a lot and quite often have to put up with the vomit inducing stench of a stupid ass smoker who puts out a partially smoked cigarette and then get's on the bus WITH that cigarette!! It smells like PUKE!!!! Of course, the smoker doesn't smell it, they've been smoking that shit so long they either don't notice how appalling it smells, or just can't smell anymore because the smoking has killed their sense of smell. Except, of course, for the smell of a drinkers breath, right?
Oh! and, guess who's polluting the earth more. It's smokers, because, not only does their stink cause air pollution, but their ashes and butts cause litter when they toss them into the street, or wherever, instead putting them in an ashtray. The world is your ashtray, us non-smokers just happen to live in it.

I once saw a documentary on smoking on HBO back in the `80's. I'm prertty sure I have it on tape. The one thing about it that REALLY stood out for me was the part where they interviewed an ex-employee of a cigarette company who said that their main targets for cigarette sales are children, women and blacks. He said the reason was that they were the stupidest and the easiest to get addicted to their product. In today's extremely politically correct world, I can't undrestand why people don't take action against that and ban smoking out of simple and sheer rage over ideologies like that!!

Smoking is an oral fixation. The need to have something in one's mouth. Replace the cigarette with something else. A finger, a pen, a toothpick, candy, gum, just about anything but a cigarette.

There are three good ways to quit smoking: 1. Cold Turkey: just stop right now and never go back to them! 2. Over Saturation: if you smoke 2 packs a day, try going for 4 packs the next day, 6 the next, 8 the next, if it works, you'll be so sick of smoking, you'll just quit. 3. Gradual Cessation: let's say you smoke 2 packs a day. That's 40 nails a day. On Sunday, you smoke the whole 40. Monday, you smoke 39, Tuesday, you only smoke 38, etc., etc., etc., just keep smoking one less every day until you just don't need them anymore. That and cold turkey are the two best ways to stop.

Family members of smokers; try this if you want them to stop smoking. I know it's harsh and drastic, but try it. Tell them that if they don't stop smoking, you'll have nothing to do with them until they do stop. Don't talk to them, don't call them, don't e-mail them, don't hang out with them, don't even look at them or acknowledge them! Avoid them like the plague. But make sure that you tell them that you're doing it because you love them, not because you hate them. The goal is, to get them to make a choice, family, or cigarettes. If they get lonely enough without you, they will hopefully quit.

Women, watch a bunch of episodes of "I Love Lucy" follwed by episodes of "The Lucy Show" or whatever her last show was. Take special notice of how deep, scratchy and manly her voice became in her later years as opposed to how high it was in the `50's. Know why? Because she was a heavy smoker!! Do you want your grandchildren to mistake you for your husband when you talk to them on the phone?

Figure out how many packs you smoke in a year. Multiply that by whatever they cost. For a pack a day smoker, that's nearly $1500.00 a year you burn up in smoke. 2 packs a day: just under $2900.00. Quite bit of money you're paying the tobacco companies to allow you to commit suicide very slowly, isn't it? Now, think of what you COULD'VE been doing with that money! Wouldn't it have been nicer to take the kids to Dinsey Land with that money instead? Or go on a second-honeymoon cruise? Or to pay off your credit card bills? Or fix up the house, or buy a new car?

Personally, I never needed cigarettes OR booze. I simply think for myself and don't let others tell me what to like and dislike; otherwise known as peer pressure, which I'm pretty sure is what got most of you smoking in the first place.

Dale

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My father smoked 2 or more packs a day for longer than I've been alive (probably more than 50 years at this point). He's on oxygen now, but still can't breather because he has to keep taking it off so he can chain smoke!

I didn't know smoking had a smell until I came home after my first year of college. I walked into my house after being gone for nine months and said "Oh my God...what's that stench!" He wasn't even home at that moment. The entire house stank. I stank like that while I was growing up; which I'm sure was one reason I didn't date much in high school.

When we come home from visiting now, we have to remember to open the suitcases outsite. Otherwise it's like getting hit in the face with it. My daughter got busted for smoking because she wore something that we washed up there before coming home, but it still stank.

I have a friend I love dearly that I can't sit next to...she just reeks of it all the time.

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I tend to agree with you overall Fitz K.

I've recently broken up with a girlfriend over her social smoking habit. It's a horrible feeling, but I just couldn't stand the myriad of reasons why smoking is bad for her (and everyone else). For some reason, I get a very strange/uneasy/unsettled feeling inside when I see a loved one sucking down on a ciggie. I don't know what it is, but it's not pleasant!

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