Stare at Smokers to Stop Them

Old Salt said:
I smoked two packs a day for 34 years, so you could say I was an addict. But this addiction had many benefits for me. Something no one talks about! It calmed me, it helped me concentrate, it was a good weapon for coping with unexpected challenges. So, as a cigarette addict I would never have felt aggressive toward anyone who stared at me. I finally quit in 1990 because some of my Baptist parishioners didn't care for their pastor smoking. It was the guilt, and a lot of prayer, that helped me quit with relative ease. But one of the side effects (at first) was a marked crankiness, it was so bad that my daughters begged me to go back to smoking! That's where your aggressiveness comes in, HD! :D

As an aside, during a routine examination, five years after I quit, the doctor checked my breathing capacity and couldn't believe that I had ever smoked! I haven't craved cigarettes for the past thirty-three years except, strangly enough, only two weeks ago when I watched an old movie and felt like grabbing the cigarette right out of the actor's hand and smoke it! Strange, not a twinge for all those years and then that!!!
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Old salt... I was talking about smokers getting aggressive when they are not allowed to..or forced to stop smoking..
 

Avon said:
I would consider that some of the legal drugs pushed down people's throats by the medical profession are a lot worse and legal.
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My last doctor ( 12 years ) who retired without telling any of his patients was the biggest drug pusher.
I can remember him trying to get me to take cholesterol pills. This guy was an easy 300 pounds and said that he just eats whatever he wants and then takes the pills to counteract the negative effects. 😳
I couldn’t believe it!😱
 
hollydolly said:
Old salt... I was talking about smokers getting aggressive when they are not allowed to..or forced to stop smoking..
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Oh, yes, I agree with that HD! I still remember the resentment I felt when I watched from my car (while my wife was on dialysis) as patients, in their hospital gowns, holding on to those thingies that had bags dangling from them, were smoking in front of the entrance, in the worst kind of weather. At first they had set aside a room for smokers at the hospital but then figured it wasn't enough of an incentive, so out they went! At the same time I would see surgeons and nurses come out to the upper level parking lot after an operation to enjoy a cigarette!

But that's not your point, I know! Because I am a shy, introverted person, I never got overtly aggressive, but yes, inside I was fuming when they decided: no more smoking in restauriants! Or on the upper deck of ferries, where the wind would blow away the smoke before it could "infect" someone secondhand!
 
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horseless carriage said:
You are not wrong, I checked the World Health Organisation's website:
In 2017, Seven million people globally died a premature death because of smoking. The fact that smoking causes lung cancer is the major reason for the high death toll of smoking. Whilst eleven million deaths worldwide in 2017 were linked to people eating poor diets high in sugar, salt and processed meat that contributed to heart disease, cancer and diabetes, a global study found.
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This is actually shocking
11 million deaths worldwide in 2017 were linked to people eating poor diets. That’s a lot of needless deaths.

7 million due to lung cancer is a lot also but not as surprising to me

While I’m not a fan of cigarette smoke I’m tolerant to those who are. I just move away.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
My last doctor ( 12 years ) who retired without telling any of his patients was the biggest drug pusher.
I can remember him trying to get me to take cholesterol pills. This guy was an easy 300 pounds and said that he just eats whatever he wants and then takes the pills to counteract the negative effects. 😳
I couldn’t believe it!😱
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Well, I am nowhere near 300 pounds, PP. but I have that doctor's attitude as well! I am 87, so why not eat all of my favourite foods and take my Statin to fight the cholesterol and my other little pill for blood pressure! Might as well enjoy the life I have left! I am not objecting to what you wrote, PP, because you're right. No 300 lb. doctor near 65 should give harmful advice like that! That's quackery! I am just having a lot of time on my hands this evening!
 
Old Salt said:
Well, I am nowhere near 300 pounds, PP. but I have that doctor's attitude as well! I am 87, so why not eat all of my favourite foods and take my Statin to fight the cholesterol and my other little pill for blood pressure! Might as well enjoy the life I have left! I am not objecting to what you wrote, PP, because you're right. No 300 lb. doctor near 65 should give harmful advice like that! That's quackery! I am just having a lot of time on my hands this evening!
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Well there you go. You AREN’T 300 and are 87. That’s old. 😂This guy was less than 50 years old and I just thought it was a pathetic. He’s not a great advertisement and I’m not sure he will even make it to 65.
 
Della said:
I once sat smoking in the smoking section of a restaurant (back when they had those.) I saw a family across the way looking at me, and then their son, about 12 years old, walked across the room stood at my table and told me smoking was disgusting. I couldn't believe the cowards sent their son into the fray like that! I only weighed about a hundred pounds at the time, so not that scary, but I was with my 6'4" husband who might have taken offence.

Katlupe is right, obesity passed tobacco as the number one cause of death, on Jan 3, 1994, at 7pm, when I quit smoking and started gaining weight.
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People like that would make even a saint aggressive! And I agree with Katlupe as well. I was a svelte 165 lbs. when I quit and shot up to almost 200 lbs. in the space of a couple of years! All I can say is thank God, and thank my DNA that I made it to 87! :LOL:
 
Re. smoking and sugar: Here is the way I look at it: This world has 8000 million people at present. Ten percent of the population would be 800 million, one percent 80 million, and 8 million would be 0.1%.

I used the same logic when our news persons went crazy during the first, more dangerous part of the Covid pandemic: "We had five new cases in this Province today!" Everyone frowned and worried. I told my loved ones, this Province has roughly a million people (1,000,000), 10% of that is 100.000, 1% is 10.000, 0.1% is 1000.00, 0.01 is 100, 0.001 makes 10? Now halve that! Okay get your shots (we all did), be cautious but don't fret! And before I am misunderstood, this was before a milder form of the disease became more widespread!

Needless to say, I am not heartless when it comes to those who lost a loved one! Just saying that some statistics are meant to scare you straight, but I am willing to bet that if there were world wide statistics of those being killed while crossing the road, or worse yet (and more disturbing) how many children are dying of starvation worldwide without the richer nations and individuals doing enough to help, they would look a lot scarier than 7 - 8 million!
 
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Old Salt said:
Re. smoking and sugar: Here is the way I look at it: This world has 8000 million people at present. Ten percent of the population would be 800 million, one percent 80 million, and 8 million would be 0.1%.

I used the same logic when our news persons went crazy during the first, more dangerous part of the Covid pandemic: "We had five new cases in this Province today!" Everyone frowned and worried. I told my loved ones, this Province has roughly a million people (1,000,000), 10% of that is 100.000, 1% is 10.000, 0.1% is 1000.00, 0.01 is 100, 0.001 makes 10? Now halve that! Okay get your shots (we all did), be cautious but don't fret! And before I am misunderstood, this was before a milder form of the disease became more widespread!

Needless to say, I am not heartless when it comes to those who lost a loved one! Just saying that some statistics are meant to scare you straight, but I am willing to bet that if there were world wide statistics of those being killed while crossing the road, or worse yet (and more disturbing) how many children are dying of starvation worldwide without the richer nations and individuals doing enough to help, they would look a lot scarier than 7 - 8 million!
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That seems like a real long, round about way to reach some type of conclusion
Ugh my head. 🫤
 
I have to say, many times it's a good thing people can't read my mind. I'd be in a lot of trouble. Sometimes at work I have to remind myself of that because I'll think people know what I'm thinking.

But I'll leave it at that. Unless I was witnessing someone harming another person or creature. I'll keep my mouth shut.
 
hollydolly said:
Unfortunately unlike this forum..or someone addicted to knitting, a smoker.. whose drug habit is much stronger even than Heroin.. can get very angry indeed if not allowed access to their cigarettes...
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Yes, nicotine is an extremely strong addiction. I'm sure made much worse with all the chemicals that are added. I've observed someone at work literally go full on verbally abusive because they were out of cigarettes and no one was allowed to 'loan' them any. What a scene.
 
Remy said:
Yes, nicotine is an extremely strong addiction. I'm sure made much worse with all the chemicals that are added. I've observed someone at work literally go full on verbally abusive because they were out of cigarettes and no one was allowed to 'loan' them any. What a scene.
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I had my doubts about nicotine addiction for the longest time since, in my experience, people who wanted to quit found it "relatively" easy, while those who felt forced to do so by external pressure found it almost impossible to give up smoking. But everyone seems to be proving me wrong so I have given up on my theory!
 
Remy said:
But I'll leave it at that. Unless I was witnessing someone harming another person or creature. I'll keep my mouth shut.
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There are two things that make me forget my passive nature: someone harming another person or creature, and some white supremacist wearing Nazi regalia! I have gotten very aggressive and confrontational over both in the past, shocking my family half to death! I was lucky to get away without a beating from the neo-Nazis! Too many bystanders, I guess!
 
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Murrmurr said:
When someone stares at me while I'm smoking, it's because they want a cigarette.
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Considering Marlbro Gold now cost £12-25 per packet in the UK, I look to see if they are raving looney and have more money than sense. No offence/offense intended.

My wife smoked for 35 years until she ended up in the hospital for three weeks in agony, after which she never touched a fag again and never missed them. Being a chemical addition, I believe their addiction status is way overrated and all in the mind.

The best thing they ever did was to stop smoking in pubs, how I hated that in the winter. Put on a clean Arun wool jumper, and it stunk the house out when a person got home, and still did in the morning.

Then the girls, spend hours buying clothes and make-up to attract guys, then expect the guys will fancy them stinking of fags, no thanks unless for a very quick quickie, perhaps.
 
Avon said:
Considering Marlbro Gold now cost £12-25 per packet in the UK, I look to see if they are raving looney and have more money than sense. No offence/offense intended.

My wife smoked for 35 years until she ended up in the hospital for three weeks in agony, after which she never touched a fag again and never missed them. Being a chemical addition, I believe their addiction status is way overrated and all in the mind.

The best thing they ever did was to stop smoking in pubs, how I hated that in the winter. Put on a clean Arun wool jumper, and it stunk the house out when a person got home, and still did in the morning.

Then the girls, spend hours buying clothes and make-up to attract guys, then expect the guys will fancy them stinking of fags, no thanks unless for a very quick quickie, perhaps.
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I never buy that brand. The Marlboro Corporation is not only a 100% nefarious corporation, their sales reps are extremely authoritarian toward the shop-owners that buy & sell their product. And their product contains more chemicals than any other tobacco brand.

(and, just an aside; chemical addiction and mental addiction, or addictions in the mind, are two different things entirely. Mental addictions are more easily curable, just a matter of changing one's thinking, usually through counseling or sometimes hypnosis. Curing a chemical addiction often requires medical assistance because withdrawal is physiological, and can be injurious or even fatal.)
 
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