More comments about smoking found on a blog posting:
"I was up to two packs a day when I quit smoking. Quitting was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and I had a lot of support. It was also one of the best things I have ever done. I had cravings off and on for a long time, and still do once in awhile. It has been 20 years since my last cig, but as a good friend of mine says... "I'm just a puff away from a pack a day!"
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Here is someone who watched his mother suffer in hospital as a result of smoking:
"Smoking is one of those habits that continually reminds you of your own weaknesses. We may smoke, but often would prefer we didn't.
I am an ex-smoker. Back in the day when I was a teenager, it was very cool to smoke and, as many a smoker knows, once you are 'sucked in' it can become the inner conflicting battle of your lifetime to give it up.
I have known all the times when a smoker will say it is 'enjoyable' and I have known all the times when you cursed the day you ever started...
For me though, it was the recent events surrounding my mother passing away, that finally caused me to quit... forever. She got sick in the UK and I live in Australia. I flew at 24 hours notice to be at her bedside in hospital. I had not seen her for a couple of years even though we had spoken on the phone.
In the mad panic to get there, I succumbed to a packet of cigarettes, to help me with the stress, I justified. Well you cannot smoke on a plane or at an airport, I cannot for the life of me drive and smoke as I have not done so for years, you cannot smoke in a hospital, so needless to say, I did not have that many before I got to see her!
When I did see her though, a part of me deflated. I remembered my mum being larger than life, full of positivity and zest for life. On the bed in front of me was what was left of that memory. About 35 pounds lighter, older and wheezing loudly.
I remembered the days when I was a kid and mum would smoke non-tipped cigarettes and cough all day and night like she had some kind of 'consumption'. I did not know any different then though... now I saw the result of those years of non-filtered cigarette smoking.
It was her heart, damage caused by years of smoking and the fact that she had caught pneumonia once, something that happened all too often in such a cold climate... nearly as common as bronchitis, particularly when somebody smoked.
When she was awake, she could only speak to me for a few short moments without having to suck hungrily on an oxygen mask. Then the coughing started. Her whole frail body needing all it's energy to complete the grisly task of clearing her airways.
It then occurred to me that I was witnessing a slow suicide. I cannot tell you how deeply distressing it can be to watch somebody who is an integral part of your life, be so vulnerable, be so weak, too soon for her natural time. She would have had 10 more good years if she had been a non-smoker. Precious time she could have spent with us. We do not think of the consequences of our actions often enough guys.
I will NEVER smoke again and somewhere, somehow, I know she knows I have made the right decision...
I've got too much dang work to do, too many people I want to stay around and too many places to visit on this planet to check out 10 years early!!! Sheesh!!!"
