Smoking, bad for your health, just cannot stop

[Eggroll]

I was a smoker from 15yo to 37, 16 years clean now.

My tips:
General: be more aware of the negative impact on your whole life.
1. calculate how much money smoking is going to cost you for the next year, the next decade, until retirement and what you could afford from that money instead (buying a house, paying college education for your kids)
2. It makes you look bad: makes your skin age sooner, makes you look pale, you teeth get yellow. just ugly.
3. Obviously causing cancer, so your likeness to die sooner rather than later increases. I don't know how fond you are of life, though.
4. Smoking makes you unfit, so you are out of breath sooner. If you are exercising, smoking is ruining all the positive effects of your efforts.
5. Not smoking saves you time, too. Don't have to run to the store for your next fix. It's definitely less stressful not to smoke.
6. Imagine the positive feeling of conquering your addiction!
7. You create less waste! All the plastic filters you throw on the streets are baaaad news.
8. Smoking is bad for fertility and can make you impotent - maybe you want to have kids some day?

Why I quit smoking: it was a mixed bag, it was at a time when I was unemployed and I had little money to spare for silly stuff, but I'm generally cheap, so there's that. But what really got me was the fitness aspect. And the skin, and the yellow teeth, and the stink, cold smoke just smells disgusting.

[Micronetic]

I smoked for 20 years and just hit my sixth year smoke free.

Try going with an electronic cigarette with different dosage nicotine cartridges to slowly ween yourself away from it.

Your lungs, heart, and your wallet will thank you in the long-run.

I smoked for like 25 years and am cigarette free for almost 8 months now with the help of vaping, I started with 10mg nicotine, am now on 3mg and will quit once I am on 0mg for a few days. Vaping was the only method that helped me.

[Samuraijake]

i have this same issue with porn

[Micronetic]

i have this same issue with porn

Go to /b/ they can cure you.

[Kharadin]

Its common with low iq and people without discipline that they always succumb to their cravings. Cold turkey is the only way to quit smoking. Patches and esigarettes will just keep you addicted to nicotine. Winter blossom has shares in marlboro.

Lol this kid

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snip

*whoosh* /10char

[Eggroll]

Its common with low iq and people without discipline that they always succumb to their cravings. Cold turkey is the only way to quit smoking. Patches and esigarettes will just keep you addicted to nicotine. Winter blossom has shares in marlboro.

Hey I quit cold turkey. Does that mean I'm smart?

[Ahovv]

Extremely dangerous you say? Let's make sure we use fancy words like pyrolysis as well, we need to make sure we scare people with fancy language and propaganda "science". Should we look at real data since you brought it up?

According to the results of the UK’s Million Women Study, women (and likely men for the most part) can smoke 100,000 or so cigarettes between their teen years and 30 years or so of age and yet incur only about 3% of the health damage that are regularly incurred by those who smoke throughout their entire lives.

millionwomenstudy.org/study_progress/

Lung cancer in never smokers

Smoking is much the most important cause of lung cancer in the UK, but a small proportion of lung cancers develop in people who have never smoked. The Million Women Study has the advantage of very large numbers of women who have never smoked (about half of the women in the study) and so is well placed to study these uncommon cancers. We looked at 34 possible risk factors in over 600,000 never smokers and found that 3 factors were associated with risk of lung cancer- height (taller women at higher risk), ethnicity (non-White women at higher risk), and asthma (higher risk in women with asthma requiring treatment) (Pirie et al, 2016). No link was seen with diet, hormone replacement therapy, or with secondhand smoking. The increased risks associated with the 3 identified factors are small (1 to 2 –fold) compared with the risk of lung cancer associated with smoking (20-fold).

The risks of smoking- and the benefits of giving up

We have known for many years that smoking affects health, increasing the risk of early death and disability from lung cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease, heart attack, and many other conditions. Much of what we know has come from research in men, such as the well-known British Doctors’ Study set up in the 1950s by Sir Richard Doll, and until recently it has not been possible to assess the full impact of long-term smoking on women’s health. In the UK, and in many countries, women did not begin smoking in large numbers until the 1940s and 50s, while many men started smoking earlier in the century.

The Million Women Study is the largest, and one of the first, research studies to be able to look at the effects on women’s health in late middle and old age of smoking throughout adult life. Smokers in our study – about half of the women in the study- had started smoking, on average, around the age of 19 years ; those who were still smoking when they joined the study had been smoking then for some 36 years, and those who are still smoking have now smoked for about 50 years. Our paper ‘The 21st century hazards of smoking and benefits of stopping: a prospective study of one million women in the UK’ was published in the Lancet in October 2012 (Pirie et al, 2012) We found that women who had smoked throughout their adult life were three times as likely as never smokers to die prematurely, losing on average 11 years of life. The effects of long-term smoking on risk of death, and risk of the main smoking-related diseases, such as lung cancer, heart attack and chronic lung disease, were similar to (at least as high as) those seen in men with equivalent smoking histories.

The good news is that much of the long-term extra risk can be avoided by stopping smoking- even if a woman does not stop smoking until middle age. A woman who starts smoking at 19 and carries on until she is 60 is three times as likely to die by the age of 80 as a woman who has never smoked; but one who gives up smoking at age 30 avoids almost all (97%) of the extra risk in older age, one who gives up at age 40 will avoid 90% of the extra risk, and even a woman who smokes for 30 years and gives up at age 50 will avoid two-thirds of the extra risk of death that she would have had in her 60s and 70s, had she continued smoking.

The important thing to note is that we are looking at being 3 times more likely to die at the age of 80 after 60 years of heavy smoking. As it so happens, 80 is the average life expectancy in the UK anyways. Another important thing to note is that minimal exposure of 10 years of heavy smoking has minimal long term damage. If you were to instead dilute the smoke into the air for secondhand smoke, and make it extreme, say you sit next to a smoker constantly in an enclosed environment where you inhale 20% of their smoke... you would have to sit next to that person for 50 years to see any real effect.

Meanwhile we can look at the science you are quoting, such as SmokeFree Campuses’ 2009 push to ban college smoking, where U. of Georgia researchers released findings that people walking by outdoor smokers might be exposed to nicotine levels 162% greater than control subjects. The control subjects were standing in an open field, with the comparison being at a bar smoking pit on a Friday night.

It seems to me that 162% of my smoke exposure in an open field is still going to be pretty close to 0. Without breathing my smoke directly into your lungs, just how much smoke do you think you are inhaling off my puffs? And just how dangerous do you think smoking is when it takes upwards of 60 years of use to kill someone?

Pyrolysis isn't some fancy word, it's a basic concept where decomposition occurs due to high temperatures, and often creates dangerous chemicals.

Secondhand smoke still has the same shit in it. You would know this is if you even thought about it for a second. All of the harmful chemicals aren't magically absorbed after one quick inhale.

This will definitely be my last post on the issue, because you're not trying to understand what's actually happening (chemically) with smoke. You're just talking about "links" in studies and turning this into a conspiracy theory.

[DevilTrigger1989]

i have this same issue with porn

haha, that's cool. I've seldom have such chance to got a sex issues.

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I was a smoker from 15yo to 37, 16 years clean now.

My tips:
General: be more aware of the negative impact on your whole life.
1. calculate how much money smoking is going to cost you for the next year, the next decade, until retirement and what you could afford from that money instead (buying a house, paying college education for your kids)
2. It makes you look bad: makes your skin age sooner, makes you look pale, you teeth get yellow. just ugly.
3. Obviously causing cancer, so your likeness to die sooner rather than later increases. I don't know how fond you are of life, though.
4. Smoking makes you unfit, so you are out of breath sooner. If you are exercising, smoking is ruining all the positive effects of your efforts.
5. Not smoking saves you time, too. Don't have to run to the store for your next fix. It's definitely less stressful not to smoke.
6. Imagine the positive feeling of conquering your addiction!
7. You create less waste! All the plastic filters you throw on the streets are baaaad news.
8. Smoking is bad for fertility and can make you impotent - maybe you want to have kids some day?

Why I quit smoking: it was a mixed bag, it was at a time when I was unemployed and I had little money to spare for silly stuff, but I'm generally cheap, so there's that. But what really got me was the fitness aspect. And the skin, and the yellow teeth, and the stink, cold smoke just smells disgusting.

Thank you for you detailed and polite advise, quite frankly, I know the shitty things which smoking brought me, but just cannot stop, I'll try to steel my mind to at least reduce the amount first, then try to quit.

[Puzzlesocks]

Pyrolysis isn't some fancy word, it's a basic concept where decomposition occurs due to high temperatures, and often creates dangerous chemicals.

Secondhand smoke still has the same shit in it. You would know this is if you even thought about it for a second. All of the harmful chemicals aren't magically absorbed after one quick inhale.

This will definitely be my last post on the issue, because you're not trying to understand what's actually happening (chemically) with smoke. You're just talking about "links" in studies and turning this into a conspiracy theory.

The million women UK study is not a conspiracy theory, it is one of the largest long-term population studies in the world, with all the information I posted being a direct copy/paste from the results portion of the official website.

Pyrolysis is a process of chemically decomposing organic materials at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen. Smoking cigarettes requires oxygen and is instead referred to as combustion. Pyrolysis is not only inaccurate, but misleading, because it is not a commonly used word. We do not burn things in the absence of oxygen in the majority of everyday life.

As far as secondhand smoke. I never said the same chemicals were no longer in the smoke. What I did say is that there is a dilution effect and there is this little thing called a toxic dose. If I absorb 100% of the toxic dose through direct inhalation, and then blow it into the wind where you are standing 4 feet away. How much of the initial 100% of the smoke are you going to inhale after dilution from the wind? If it takes me 50 years of consistently inhaling the toxic dose to triple my cancer rate from 1.5% to 4.5%, then it would take an absolutely inconceivable length of time for you to have even a reasonable fraction of the ill effect that I would have.

As bonus, when people talk about third-hand smoke. If you were to let a baby crawl and lick around a room where people smoke consistently, it would take roughly 2 TRILLION years of crawling and licking to reach a toxic dose from the tobacco residue from third-hand smoke. We are talking nano-grams of residue, if you want to get scientific with me, feel free. If you want to remain willfully ignorant, also feel free. If you want to spread your ignorance and possibly use it politically (such as voting on smoking bans), then we have problems.

I was a smoker from 15yo to 37, 16 years clean now.

My tips:
General: be more aware of the negative impact on your whole life.
1. calculate how much money smoking is going to cost you for the next year, the next decade, until retirement and what you could afford from that money instead (buying a house, paying college education for your kids)
2. It makes you look bad: makes your skin age sooner, makes you look pale, you teeth get yellow. just ugly.
3. Obviously causing cancer, so your likeness to die sooner rather than later increases. I don't know how fond you are of life, though.
4. Smoking makes you unfit, so you are out of breath sooner. If you are exercising, smoking is ruining all the positive effects of your efforts.
5. Not smoking saves you time, too. Don't have to run to the store for your next fix. It's definitely less stressful not to smoke.
6. Imagine the positive feeling of conquering your addiction!
7. You create less waste! All the plastic filters you throw on the streets are baaaad news.
8. Smoking is bad for fertility and can make you impotent - maybe you want to have kids some day?

Why I quit smoking: it was a mixed bag, it was at a time when I was unemployed and I had little money to spare for silly stuff, but I'm generally cheap, so there's that. But what really got me was the fitness aspect. And the skin, and the yellow teeth, and the stink, cold smoke just smells disgusting.

1. If you roll your own cigarettes in the US, and smoke a reasonable amount (5-10 cigs a day), you are looking at spending $90-$180 per year, or 1-3 days of pay for the year of smoking at minimum wage.

2. Looking bad is subjective, not scientific. Granted, being a Zen Buddhist, I see all people equally. Viewing something as ugly is outside my normal mental state. That said, being pale is from avoiding the sun, and yellow teeth is from improper tooth hygiene. You can prevent both of those while smoking. Want to see someone who takes care of themselves as a long term smoker? Look up Demi Moore, Al Pacino, Charlie Sheen... well, maybe not Charlie Sheen as much, but there is a lot more going on there than cigarettes.

3. *Obviously increasing risk of cancer. It is not a sure thing, and I wish people would stop saying that it is.

4. Smoking does not make you unfit. Being sedentary and having bad eating habits does. This coming from a smoker with a 6-pack who hikes up mountains on the regular.

5. Saves me time? I order supplies online in bulk and sit down to roll cigarettes as someone else might sit down to draw or write.

6. There are many ways to get control over your own life. Giving up cigarettes is one, but so is exercising regularly, reducing sugar intake, and taking time to learn about something you enjoy.

7. Cigarette filters can be bad for the environment, which is why any smart smoker will field strip cigarettes and dispose of them properly, or just buy American Spirits that are 100% recyclable/compostable, or just smoke non-filtered. On the good side, filters are easier to siphon out of the water supply than the huge amount of fine particulate matter caused by cars.

8. I actually agree with this one. I personally never wish to conceive children, so no problem for me.

My PSA to people is to remember that you have been bombarded with propaganda. You have been shown the worst of the worst and told it is the normal, many of which are staged or faked to scare you as much as possible. Think back to the picture of the black lung that was supposed to represent REAL smokers lungs, and was instead a pig lung shot full of carcinogens and stained black. There is no conspiracy that the anti-smoking agenda has lied to people for decades, it's easily provable fact that they have lied repeatedly and aggressively.

[Powerogue]

Bad moon? Are you a were-smoker? With your inner addict brought out by the shine of the full moon?

Snark aside, the underlying nicotine addiction is weaned off of with any manner of things, nicotine gum in particular seems like it'd be effective since it'd also handle the times where you'd normally occupy yourself with smoking, but with less of a negative impact on your lung health.

[ZazuuPriest]

Let me guess, you also feel that overweight people should be denied health coverage related to nutrition, people who have attempted suicide should be denied mental health coverage related to their suicide attempt, and anyone who blows their hands/fingers off with fireworks should have their medical coverage denied too right?
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Yes thats what i feel, stop healing the stupid people and the world will sort itself out

[The Stormbringer]

You tried e-cigs or nicotine patches?

[TEHPALLYTANK]

smoking is disgusting... should be enough reason to stop...

That is reason enough to not start, however it isn't always reason enough for someone to be able to stop.

[voxnor]

Smoking, eating, getting high, hell even coffee can be a vice and anything in time will have some effect because everyone is mortal. My only problem with smoking is second hand smoke.

If someone knows the risks and wants to risk themselves with the sound mind to do so. Well then that is on them.

Really appreciated this answer. Everyone has their vices. Someone who tells you they don't is lying, or doesn't understand their own.

I don't smoke cigarettes, but I over-eat and am over-weight as a result. It's my own fault - and I realize it - but it doesn't make it easier to stop.

People like to pretend will power is just this easy switch you flip - but its not. Your brain is complex, and you will trick yourself into making decisions that your subconscious wants or feels are best.

Ultimate responsibility is still with the individual, but i'ts not as easy as some people make it out to be.

/2cents

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Yes thats what i feel, stop healing the stupid people and the world will sort itself out

I am obese. Certainly much of the responsibility is with me, but that doesn't make fixing it easier. Also, whether you choose to accept it or not, science is sound that metabolisms run at different speeds - a factor (though certainly not the sole one).

I cannot understand your attitude on it, hard as I try. Everyone has their vices. If you think you don't, you are lying to me and yourself.

[Eggroll]

haha, that's cool. I've seldom have such chance to got a sex issues.

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Thank you for you detailed and polite advise, quite frankly, I know the shitty things which smoking brought me, but just cannot stop, I'll try to steel my mind to at least reduce the amount first, then try to quit.

Afaik, smoking less doesn't work for getting rid of it alltogether. Maybe just try to think of it from the reward side?
Rewards:
- MOAR money to spend for whatever you want.
- never have to run out of the house in bad/cold weather because your addiction commands it
- no smoke stinky clothes and cigarette breath
- you are doing something good for your loved ones, too, since passive smoking is as bad for them as is active smoking for you
- never again feel stressed out because you HAVE to get cigarettes from somewhere

In other words: chillax and enjoy the money and time you saved and your good health

[Battlebeard]

I still smoke occasionally, especially if I drink beer. I figure who wants to be old anyway, sit and rot away in some home, I rather die of lung cancer at 60, this might seems mobrid or awful, but to me, getting really old seems like a living hell.

But if you have kids etc I suppose you might want/need to quit.

[Bodonius]

I will keep smoking, im down to 3 pack a month i bet i inhale less bad things then if im driving in madium trafficed areas

[Mojo03]

What helps me is thinking how good it feels to feel healthy and how bad I feel when I smoke.

I smoke sometimes still and I always feel gross after and remember why I quit.

[Bodonius]

I love smoking, it feels so nice sitting with a cold beer and smoking wouldnt give it up for almost anything. For me, a good life is just that a cold beer and a smoke, some days i can change it to a coffe and a smoke. But i wouldnt say hmmm yes a carrot and a glas of water

[ZazuuPriest]

Really appreciated this answer. Everyone has their vices. Someone who tells you they don't is lying, or doesn't understand their own.

I don't smoke cigarettes, but I over-eat and am over-weight as a result. It's my own fault - and I realize it - but it doesn't make it easier to stop.

People like to pretend will power is just this easy switch you flip - but its not. Your brain is complex, and you will trick yourself into making decisions that your subconscious wants or feels are best.

Ultimate responsibility is still with the individual, but i'ts not as easy as some people make it out to be.

/2cents

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I am obese. Certainly much of the responsibility is with me, but that doesn't make fixing it easier. Also, whether you choose to accept it or not, science is sound that metabolisms run at different speeds - a factor (though certainly not the sole one).

I cannot understand your attitude on it, hard as I try. Everyone has their vices. If you think you don't, you are lying to me and yourself.

Human bodies might have different metabolisms but no human body leans naturally towards obesity, nice try though.