Unfortunately, I am a smoker. I've smoked for almost 20 years (since I was 13), including while I was deployed to Desert Storm. In classic irony, when I got home after fighting in the Gulf, I couldn't buy a pack of cigarettes in my own home town (Salt Lake City, at that time). The legal age to buy cigarettes in Utah is 19, and I entered combat 2 months after my 18th birthday. So, had I been taken prisoner, everything would have been perfectly okay just so long as I didn't request that last cigarette before they executed me.
Over the past 20 years, I've tried virtually every method available to assist with smoking cessation: cold turkey (painful, and it didn't work), the patch (I just wanted to roll it up and smoke it), the pill (Zyban made me a zombie who want to smoke... and eat your brain), the gum (works pretty well for the first 5 hours, which is great if you're on an international flight, but ineffective as a cessation device), the lozenge (why not just gargle with someone else's loogie, because that's what it feels like in your mouth).
That being said, since I seem to be stuck being a smoker, I at least try to be a polite smoker. I avoid smoking around non-smokers, even where it is allowed. I make it a point to always stand downwind from non-smokers when I'm outside, and in cases where smoking next a non-smoker cannot be avoided, I ask that individual if he or she minds if I smoke.
Why are there not very many polite non-smokers? When did it become okay to be rude? How is it morally acceptable to shun someone with an addiction?
You wouldn't tell an obese man in a restaurant that it is disgusting to watch him eat, and you certainly wouldn't lecture him on how bad his eating habits are for his health. Why is it socially acceptable to draw attention to a smoker's habits and provide unsolicited (and unqualified) advice, but not okay to criticize a fat guy ordering a Double Whopper and a large order of fries?
As you may have guessed, a snide comment was made to me by a lady in the elevator today. She mentioned something about being able to smell a cigarette. Now for some reason, that's socially acceptable. But what I had commented on her perfume instead? "I can smell your perfume... Then again, maybe it's just a urinal cake."
Some in the anti-smoker camp would have you believe that they simply object to the increased costs of healthcare smokers put on the system -- more even than obesity. The fallacy of that logic just now becoming more well known. As a Rand Corporation report on a study published in "Health Affairs" in 2002 on the subject points out "Obesity contributes to higher cost increases for health care services and medications than do either smoking or problem drinking..." So much for the "you're driving up my medical bills" argument.
Still, smoking is definitely a known health hazard. Like most smokers born after 1863, I'm well aware of the risks. Actually, there is a correlation between people who smoke and education level. It seems that there is an inverse relationship between number of smokers and annual income -- the more you make, the less people smoke. The same goes for education, although there are obviously exceptions (I'm one of them). However, there is nothing more annoying than making those student loan payments on a Masters Degree, and then being lectured on science and medicine by anyone who made it past 3rd grade. Yes, I get it. It's bad for me.
I think a lot of non-smokers -- particularly reformed smokers -- simply assume that smokers are just weak. Since I've lost more than 42 pounds in the 4 months I've been working on this Philadelphia contract, I can assure that I am not weak. I'm no stranger to accomplishing things with sheer will power.
The easiest way to not smoke is to not start in the first place, and that's what I tell my kids. Instead of showing them graphic pictures of black lungs and trying to scare them with tales of emphysema and lung cancer, I've taken a different approach. Instead, I try to make them understand what it means to be a smoker (the social stigma, the yellow fingers & teeth, stinking of cigarette smoke all the time, etc..) and how it feels to try to quit.
Smoking is an extremely powerful addiction, this is something non-smokers far too frequently discount. So what effect does smoking have on a person? Here are some interesting facts:
"When inhaled, nicotine stimulates the central nervous system. The chemicals in a cigarette move to the brain through the bloodstream, causing a rise in blood pressure and heart rate, constricting of the blood vessels, and reducing sensitivity to pain and stress." (emphasis added)
Source: Nicotine Addiction Pamphlet from Cigna Behavioral Health
Wow, so that cigarette really is keeping me from killing you; and you want to take it from me?
"...both the behavioural [sic] effects and the mechanisms of action of nicotine in the IVSA model resemble those for classical drugs of abuse such as heroin and cocaine."
Source: "Nicotine Addiction in Britain" published by the Royal College of Physicians
There's no question about it, the addiction is extremely powerful. But is it as bad as "drugs"?
Tobacco is as addictive as heroin (as a mood & behavior altering agent).
Nicotine is:
- 1000 X more potent than alcohol
- 10-100 X more potent than barbiturates
- 5-10 X more potent than cocaine or morphine
Source: University of Minnesota Division of Periodontology
Nope, it's not as bad as "drugs". It's worse. But what happens when you try to quit?
What are the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal?Source: American Heart Association
- irritability
- impatience
- hostility
- anxiety
- depressed mood
- difficulty concentrating
- restlessness
- decreased heart rate
- increased appetite or weight gain
Well anyone who has been around a smoker trying to kick the habit can attest to that list -- particularly the "hostility" part. Still, you don't hear about people doing crazy things to get cigarettes, do you?
"From World War II, there are records of starving people trading food for cigarettes in concentration camps"So perhaps the addiction is stronger than most people may believe.
Source: The Why? Files (Science Behind the News)
The analogy I give my kids is that quitting smoking is like holding your breath. At first, it doesn't seem so hard. But, as time wears on, you begin to feel anxiety that eventually builds into outright panic, and the whole time you know that everything will be better if you can just take that next breath! Then, when you finally give in and breathe, a wave of relief washes over you. For me, trying to quit, and then having a cigarette feels almost identical.
So whether you smoke or not, the next time you're confronted with a smoker, remember this post and give them a little slack. Lacking that, at least show common human decency.
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