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Why do people smoke?

  • Thread starter Thread starter vkurup
  • Start date Start date
i'm not going to get on my high horse over this......defending smoking or saying that people shouldn't judge smokers if they haven't tried it.

I am a smoker. started at 11. Got to a senior school my mum forced me into. I wanted to go the local comp with my mates, but instead got lumbered in a grammar school. Knew almost no-one. The one kid I did know, he got into smoking with the other "bad ones" after falling to peer pressure.

Long story short, I wanted to be in with the one kid I knew from primary school as my ability to make new friends was poor! It seemed like a quick win to make new friends. Gave me something in common to. Stupid now looking back.

Anyways, fast forward 21 years & I am still a 20 a dayer. I have quit in the past. quit for 9 months before. Had a bad time of it at work, started having the "odd fag here & there" to distress. 1 every couple of days became 1 a day became 2 then 3 then before I knew it I was 20 day again.

I enjoy it. I know it's probably killing me & the last few months I have noticed an increased wheeze at night laying in bed.

E-cigs aren't going to work for me to quit. Tried that. No good.

The sweets analogy makes sense, though I can see it being misconstrued as not being a bad thing.

Just to be clear both parents were non smokers. Never smoked in their lives. Grandparents on mums side stopped smoking before I was born & didn't know about it till I was 16 or 17. Dad's side, granddad smoked. Always hated the smell walking in his house as a kid (pre smoking kid I should say). Still didn't put me off. Nothing has. Pictures of lungs etc nothing.

If you are gonna smoke u gonna smoke. If you gonna drink you will.

Hell, I could get hit by a bus on the way home. I could get caught in a terror attack or train derailment. Anything could happen.

While I enjoy it I will do it. I have told my daughter the facts that it makes u smell, causes heart & lung problems etc etc. She just turned 13. She hasn't (as far as I know) tried it yet. She moans about the smell when I come in from the garden. I don't smoke in the house full stop. I only smoke in the car if I am on my own.

It's never going to go away. People will smoke, people will drink & do drugs & do dangerous hobbies. Some people will sit in their little bubble with their most exhilarating daily decision being "what crisps shall I have today....?" It's life.

As for the OP, all I can suggest is give the facts, make them see it is a bad thing that wastes your money & can make you very ill either immediately or later in life. all you can then do is hope they make the right decision. If they start, don't kick off & get all attacking on them. Help them to see the error of their way.
 
Jacko_G said:
An interesting debate, should smokers pay more towards their NHS treatments if smoking related?
Click to expand...

Would you tax golfers in case they get hit on the head by a ball?
Would you tax surfers in case of drowning or similar accident?
Would you see a tax on cyclists in case they get hit by a car?

I take you point that smokers can cause additional drains on NHS, but so do obese people, alcoholics, drug abuse victims, sexually active people, sports players......

It would be a tough one to do.
 
Jacko_G said:
An interesting debate, should smokers pay more towards their NHS treatments if smoking related?
Click to expand...

While I understand the concept, I dont necessarily agree with it. The NHS has a way of doing things which is simple.. If you create 2 or 3 track systems irrespective of distinction i.e. rich/poor, smoker/non-smoker, alcoholic etc, you will create a deeper divide within the NHS and make it an admin overhead.
t
INSTEAD you can tax the underlying issue i.e. ciggs, alco-pops etc (which it already does) and then ring fence that money or a proportion of it to fund the NHS. That way, admin is easier and also hits where it hurts i.e. buying the cigs rather than impact an ex-smoker who needs NHS help.
 
As a junior hospital doctor some years ago, I worked on a chest unit. It was mostly full of people who had COPD, which used to be called chronic bronchitis and emphysema, with a few lung cancers dotted around. Almost all were smokers. Most of them robbed up hideous green phlegm, sometimes flecked with blood, and usually didn't have the breath to blow out a match, but most of them only wanted to get well enough to smoke. The sound of wheezy, strident breathing echoed around the place, interrupted by bouts of coughing sounding like an older on its last legs. As most of these people actually were. Many got repeated infections, ever more resistant to antibiotics and quite a few were bloated because of repeated steroid treatment.

It was the most depressing miserable place imaginable. Any smoker who took a tour would give up right away lest he or she joined these poor sods one day.
 
I used to be a heavy smoker for over 25 years, and even though I gave it up 3 years ago have no problem with anyone smoking even if in my company, i don't smoke now, and its their own personal choice so doesn't bother me. IMHO every smoker wishes they could stop, but its an addiction, difficult to break, and can have many reasons as to why, but I want to share a story of a properly addicted guy I once met

I was in hospital the night before an operation, and about midnight they brought a man in to my ward (about mid 20's) in a wheelchair who had been badly beaten up in a pub fight, so much so that his Jaw was broken in several places, he was a mess and couldn't open his mouth to eat or drink or talk, but as soon as the nurses got him in bed and turned the light off I heard a click and smelt the familiar odour of tobacco. luckily so did they and they made him stop as not only is it strictly no smoking on a hospital ward, but I don't think the oxygen he was breathing and a naked flame compliment each other

the next morning, I saw him get out of bed and hobble towards the door carrying his drip so he could get in the lift and go down a few floors to stand outside and have a tab - that's an addicted smoker for you, you couldn't make it up :)
 
SugarPenguin said:
Cos it's cool as ****
Click to expand...

When I was a little 'un - to the age of 8 - we lived beside Hampden Park. On big match days we'd have many 10s of thousands of men stream past our close where I stood and watched - and once they were all past and in the ground the dossers would come along picking up the dog ends. I thought it horrid and as my mum has never smoked and my dad smoked a pipe associated smoking with dossers - and thought it most yuck. So not cool at all. And maybe as a result I've never smoked.
 
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It's just a way of life for most people. My old man smokes and so did his family and lots of my friends do. I don't have a problem with it but I just never really took to it. Kids are impressionable and when they see their parents smoking and how agitated they get of they don't they are bound to do it and it gets ingrained into their system and routine.
I work with lot of unemployed young people and they sometimes cannot get in for their days with us as they can't afford the bus or food. However they can smoke a pack a day. Needs must and all that jazz :)
 
Girls that smoked at school were always a dead cert for a fumble... :o

I guess the boys thought they'd better get out to the 'smoking area' pronto!!.
 
I wouldn't know! I once had a date with quite a handsome gent, but when it came to kissing (he was indeed a smoker) I thought I was going to vomit. I honestly don't know how some people manage to live with heavy smokers (any smokers for that matter) especially if they are couples.
 
Peer pressure, addiction and a disregard for ones mortality in the young.
Addiction, apathy and usually head in the sand denial in the middle aged.
Q. How many seniors at your golf club aged over 70 smoke?
A. Proportionately a lot less than in the 50-70 bracket......the ones who made it against the odds you could say.
 
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