What Kind Of Influence May We Have Been?

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I was fortunate enough to hide the fact I smoked from my daughter for 15 years.

If I had smoked openly, would she have become a smoker?

She could have said "dad does it" when her mother or friends suggested she quit.

We were all brainwashed into thinking quitting was next to impossible. By whom? Why those smokers who came before us and influenced us of course.

Have we passed that brainwashing along to our kids and made it more difficult for them to quit?

Quitting is all about the mind and changing it.

Anyone can quit.

Decide, prepare, and don't believe the bullshit!  Believe in yourself instead.

Give yourself 130 days from your last puff to relearn life without smoking!

[IrishRose]

Brainwashing???  You mean this...

Oh, yeah!

[IrishRose]

Those same cigarettes killed my sister, 13 years my senior.

[jycraw]

I, too, have said that quitting is more of a mental struggle than a physical one.  I must admit I get mellow - or lackadasical - or depressed or something.  I physically get slower, less interested, not enthusiastic about things, etc. , but not cracky, or shaky, or sweaty, like I have heard others say. 

My emotions are more defined - angry = strongly angered.  sad = crying sad.

lonely = so alone.  caring = mushy stuff. 

so I have to be aware that my emotions are going to be heightened.

But it is my mind that I struggle with the most.  My thoughts are a vicious circle trying to figure out where to bum one, how to get one without buying a pack, and then finally buying a pack.  And of course, if I buy that pack, i cannot bring myself to throwing them away...I have to smoke them.  For the longest time, I have bought a pack, smoked them over two or three days and then go three or four days without buying them.

A friend of mine said - it is not the cigarettes that I am addicted too but the BUYING them that I am addicted too.  I wonder if there is any truth to this?

[JonesCarpeDiem]

your friend is probably not correct about being addicted to buying them unless you have an existing spending problem in general.

[Nyima_1.6.13]

I wonder how many of us think our children/significant others/parents don't know? I wonder how many of our children/significant others/parents just don't say anything because they know we already carry a great deal of  shame about our behavior or we wouldn't be trying to keep it a secret!

[Ex_Nancy]

I can remember thinking that I wanted to be just like my mother when I grew up. There were ads on TV for cigarettes...ads everywhere telling us how "cool and sexy and fun and bla,bla,bla" And in the movies too! Literally everywhere....and all these models and celebs had clean,bright white teeth, were athletic and pretty and handsome.

I can also remember when my grandmother died yound,(at about age 45) from a heart attack..The call came from the hospital while we were having dinner (I was about 10 years old)  My father became very upset and instead of finishing dinner, he lit up a cigarette along with my mother. Sickening behaviour to be sure AND passing on the brainwashing. My father used to even say, "a family that smokes together, chokes together." WE all used to laugh at that one... Then others in my family started to die, and what did I do to deal with it? Lite up a smoke.....UGH    I'm SO happy I don't DO that anymore!.

[joyeuxencore]

My dad knew I smoked as a teenager and forbid me to smoke at home although he was a heavy smoker...until one day I caught him in bed with an innappropriate person. He was single, she was not) He came down to the kitchen & handed me a cigarette..."Well I guess you are grown up enough to smoke now"...he regretted that later as I struggled with giving up smoking on and off for a lifetime...

I am just happy that I can be a good example now to friends and family...xo

[lois2]

i started smoking because my big brother said it would help me lose weight, well over the years i could mantain the same weight for a long time, but i was wrong to start smoking, it is a very addictive drug,

[family-first]

My son now smokes...so upsetting! Maybe he will follow this new lead!