Really struggling....

[kristen-9-7-15]

I think what helps me the most and keeps me away from smoking is reading about everyone's disgusting effects the body has as a result of smoking. I am young(well, not that young, hehe) and don't have any of the coughing up phlegm, wheezing, wrinkles, illness, shortness of breath, nasty teeth, ect. I don't mean to be rude or offend anyone in any way or to benefit from others misery and misfortune. I am not very good at wording things through writing but I want to hear disgusting stories from real life people. What is your day to day life like? I think it really opens the eyes of us young quitters.

For example, my coworker has the most disgusting, wet, nasty, phlegmy cough. I am afraid nasty crap is going to fly out of her mouth onto my forehead when I'm talking to her and she starts to cough, which is every 5 seconds! But, hearing that really reinforces my quit! I DO NOT want to be like that.

Let us youngens hear your stories! Or just me; PM if you prefer.

Thanks!!

[Eric_L.]

Thanks for sharing.  Fear doesnt keep me from smoking.  I feel what keeps me from smoking is connecting the dots between my perception of life being crappy and smoking.  THEN being willing to do things differently.  Willingness not willpower.

[Giulia]

Nasty, disgusting stories?  Isn't the fact that we have loved ones who have died of lung diseases enough?  You want to see a video of their last gasps?  Is that what it takes for you to understand the reality of what smoking does to the human body?  Find a movie called "A Woman's Tale."  Maybe it's on Netflix.  Rent it.  Watch it.  Think about it.  It's a beautiful and devastating movie.   And think also about the truth that the people who have COPD and Emphysema on here talk about.  THAT's reality for them.  You need a picture of them with their oxygen canula hanging out of their nose to make the point hit home any harder?   Grrrrrrr. 

Here - here's a nice visual for you:  https://vine.co/v/MQFhz5AOMZI

Or - here's another one.  I don't understand the language, but the imagery is enough.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh4LRZNompg

Or how 'bout Terrie's story:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQIbIpjWEmc

But watch more about her:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7neRG6dGRVY

and if you just let that last one keep going, it will continue through all 6 episodes of what she had to say.  Will this be enough to help you keep smoke free?

[Puff-TM-Draggin]

Does the trick for me.  Nothing funny to say to any of that.  = (

[kristen-9-7-15]

Welp, disregard this post. I guess I'm not allowed to ask real life questions and get real life answers from real people. I personally don't know anyone who suffers from smoking related diseases so I thought I could count on the EX community.

On that note, I will keep this post up, even though I feel stupid and like an ass, because I know it's frowned upon to delete blogs and this just might help someone else.

Take care and good luck guys.

[candylance]

Kristen, I suffer from COPD and sleep apnea. If you have any  questions, just ask away!!

Candy     12    DOF

[MarilynH]

I know that you didn't mean any harm to anyone here, you were trying to get some honest answers to your question. I can only speak for myself, I will be 56 in a couple of wks and I smoked for 40 yrs and by looking at your beautiful profile pic you're probably younger than the yrs I smoked. Like I said I can only speak about me, I have copd and thank goodness I have quit smoking because I have seen too many people I love and care about die of smoking related illnesses and it's so horrible and there's not a blessed thing we can do to ease the pain other than morphine. My mother was on oxygen the last year of her life and I used to push her around in her wheel chair and I had to make sure that I didn't disconnect the oxygen tank . It's hard to talk about smoking because smoking kills but sweet, sweet Kristen, you are doing fantastic with your quit and you can and will succeed because you are one tough lady and life without cigarettes is absolutely wonderful and sooooooo worth it. (((Big cyber Hug)))

Marilyn 488 DOF 

[Jennifer-Quit]

My Mother died from lung cancer. She was real and I stil miss her.  She died 5 weeks after being diagnosed.  If she were still alive, she would become a great-great grand-mother in March 2016.  It is hard to talk about all the details, but I can still see her in her death bed, unrecognizable from the classy woman that I knew only a few weeks earlier.

[cpsono]

Kristan, like Marilyn, I smoked for 40 years!  I haven't been diagnosed with any smoking related illnesses-YET.  Yet being the operative word.  Every day since I quit smoking, I have nightmares/daymares about what I did to my body for all of those years.  Me, I did it; nobody else to blame but myself. So my advice to you dear, young Kristen is try not to focus on the disgusting things that could happen to you in the future.  Better to thank God or the universe or whatever you believe is helping you to stay smoke free at this time in your life. Then you won't have to have so many regrets about what could have been or what could happen to you if you end up smoking for as long as I did!!!!

[Barbara145]

Good morning, Kristen. I think it is a great question.  I smoked for a long time.  I thought I was getting away with it.  When I was diagnosed with COPD I was crushed.  Go figure!  I could not walk and breath. The depression from that is devastating knowing I did it to myself!  It has taken 2 years but by God's Grace and my determination to do everything known to man I have rehabbed my lungs.  That said COPD is a progressive disease meaning it will continually get worse.  I never know when I will catch a cold.  It could be the end of me.  When you have COPD a cold or the flu can kill you. Your compromised lungs can't do what normal lungs do.  If I could go back I would have quit a long time ago.  You have that opportunity.  Grab it and run!  Sincerely,  Barbara

[YoungAtHeart]

Kristen,

I do understand what you are asking.  It's difficult, when you are young and healthy, to accept what you are doing to yourself. 

I, personally believed that if I ate a healthy diet, exercised every day and kept my weight down that I could negate the bad effects of smoking.  Blockages in arteries leading to both legs was MY wakeup call that my rationale was garbage! 

You may think you have plenty of time - but you don't know that.  I have read of YOUNG people having COPD.  We really don't know at what point the cancer caused by smoking STARTS! 

You are doing the absolute, positive BEST thing you can do for yourself - and you will never regret it.  I promise!

Nancy

[elvan]

There is nothing wrong with asking, you did not offend me and I am one of the people who has suffered just about everything you listed.  I lost most of my teeth because of prednisone for RA but who knows if that would have happened if I had not smoked?  Wrinkles, well I AM 66 but I sure don't look like Jane Fonda.  Lungs, oh dear God, where do I start?  I am so short of breath with the least bit of exertion that it is embarrassing to me when people ask me what is wrong.  What is wrong is that for 47 years (on and off) I smoked and I damaged my lungs so badly that I will be having surgery on Monday to remove my upper lobes on both sides, they are so damaged that they are making it impossible for my lower lobes to work.  I have no idea how the surgery will go, I am completely terrified but hopeful that as my doctor says, this will buy me five more years.  My youngest child is 26, she is coming to stay with me for two weeks.  I USED to have your coworker's smoker's cough, I pretended it came from allergies, I don't cough any more.

Smoking KILLS people a slow, deliberate, horrifying, gasping death.  I believe with all of my heart that the more young people who realize that and face their own mortality, the stronger all nonsmokers will become.  I would love to bring the tobacco companies to their knees.

Hang in there.

[joedice711]

ride on my fellow exs..i hear you. so would i ellen 

[bonniebee]

Hi Kristen do not feel badly about this blog I think it is an excellent question I was never afraid of diseases until I began getting very uncomfortable in my body . I am 66 years old and I smoked for 51 years I quit a few different times in my life, before this time, but never made it beyond 3 months .

I finally got sick of the coughing , wheezing and phelgm in my throat that kept me from going to sleep i would have to keep trying to clear my throat until I finally just fell asleep from exhaustion ! Actually I can't believe I am as healthy as I am after so many years of it !

I went for a doctors appt the other day and he said my lungs sound good before i quit my doctor said my lungs sounded terrible !

I had to give up reading in bed because it bothered me to lay back even a little ( caused phelgm and coughing !

I have to have prolapse surgery in Feb and I could almost bet it is from all the coughing i did through the years in fact it was one of the reasons i wanted to quit ....I read that coughing could prevent the surgery from being sucessful !

The main reason I wanted to quit was to be free of the addiction and now that is happening one day at a time !

I am very glad you posted your question rather then smoked a sickerette ! Quit while you are young and healthy I still may end up with problems from smoking my lungs are still sometimes wheezy and I still have phelgm in my throat which is uncomfortable .

Keep on rockin'..... you are a champion !

[bonniebee]

Oh i almost forgot I have symptoms of sleep apnea too may be smoking related ????

[grey1]

I wish I could go into the details of watching loved ones die, but as yet it is too painful for me.  My mother died from lung cancer in excruciating pain in May 2001; my father died last year from congestive heart failure after a long, slow decline during which it grew harder and harder for him to breathe and then eat; my father-in-law died slowly from emphysema; and my best friend, who had COPD, died of a cold.

From my own experience, I have very yellowed teeth.  I can't say that my wrinkles are from smoking because I've spent years outside in the sun, but I have a friend who smoked for close to forty years who had no wrinkles except laugh lines, so I'm not convinced wrinkles are much of a smoking indicator.  I don't yet suffer from shortness of breathe (I walk 2 1/2 miles a day and do yoga several times a week), but I don't try to run or dance or do any highly aerobic activity.  The last time I did, I thought I would have a heart attack and ended up coughing.  Same thing with singing.  I used to sing quite a bit. Now trying to sing brings on a coughing fit--as does laughing really hard.

I don't know whether you run routinely, but if you don't, try running and see how it makes your lungs feel.  That can be scary enough to keep you on track.