Why Quit Smoking Young

Photo © Kerri R. When I was a smoker, I had every excuse in the book to continue to be one, but my favorite one to pull out of my hat was my youth. I would say, "My uncle Arthur smoked from the time he was 16 to the day he died at age 80. My aunt Del has been smoking since she was a teenager. Nothing is going to happen to me now, only during the BAD part of my life, the end part!"

So I continued to smoke. I LOVED to smoke. It was a huge part of my social life, my alone time, my escape. But being an active young person with a family, my limitations were becoming more and more painfully apparent. I couldn't chaperone field trips. I couldn't go to more than one store and bring my kids. I couldn't go to the movies. I couldn't race my kids down the street or even toss a Frisbee for any length of time. Not only that, my circle of friends didn't really smoke anymore, so I found myself either sneaking or just turning down evenings out for fear of being the "odd man out".

Then one day, my son heard me coming home from Happy Hour with my co-workers. I was greeted with,

"I knew you were home mom. I recognized your cough."

At 31, I had recognizable cough. A nagging and obvious cough is not a natural occurrence for a 31-year-old woman.

I did finally make the leap into freedom on January 8th, 2004. I started reading more and more into other people's stories, finding myself fixating on others who were my age. I found a library of them at whyquit.com. There is Noni, who died at 33, when her son was only months old. Her husband celebrated their child's first birthday without her. She was a victim of small cell lung cancer.

In her 30's????

Impossible.
It must have been a fluke, bad genes, just one of those things.
Unfortunately not.

Then there was the story about a 34 year old father who died of lung cancer, leaving his little boy without a father. A tough guy; a construction worker, who had smoked since he was 14, reduced to a mere shell of a man.

Yet another story is about a woman by the name of Barb Tarbox. Barb tells a tragic tale of smoking to fit in as a teenager, never thinking anything bad would happen, especially while she was young. Barb got lung cancer at 41 and was suddenly faced with having to cause enormous pain to her daughter, leaving her without a mother - watching her suffer while she died.

What drove me to write this was a chance meeting I had the other day with a 31 year old woman who shares the same name as me. Talk about spooky fate. Kery was just diagnosed with the early stages of emphysema. She HAS to quit if she is to have a chance at life. She is MY AGE! She has 3 children. Emphysema could suffocate her to death right in front of them. It's not cancer, it's another lung disease this time.

I have been one of the lucky ones. I don't know if I would have been one of the tragic stories above or if I would be blessed with a long life like my Uncle Arthur. What if I wasn't? Would I want to be the one to sit my young children down and explain to them that they were going to have to find their own way in the world because I was dying due to a poison I couldn't resist?

I quit smoking 18 months ago. I find the sheer freedom of it exhilarating. And because I quit young, I have the rest of my life to do WHATEVER I want, breathing with ease the whole time, without slavery, living my long life the way I CHOOSE, not chained to an addiction. I can run, I can swim, I can be as active or as inactive as I want. I gave myself ME back and I have my whole life to enjoy that feeling.

I still have to worry if I quit in time, but not nearly as much as I would worry if I waited another 10, 20, or 30 years to quit. The thing about this addiction is that it doesn't just lose its grip eventually. Quitting is a choice you HAVE to make. It will cling on even while you are dying of cancer. Bryan, as mentioned above, smoked up to 1 week before he died. He gave himself only one week of freedom.

We have the choice to make for ourselves. This is not a dress rehearsal, this is the only YOU you will ever get. Do you want to purposefully risk cutting it short or live a long life full of excitement, freedom and loved ones?

It CAN happen to you. You always think it's on the other side of the fence, but not this time. Cigarettes do not kill a specific group of people. No one is immune to the hazards of tobacco...not celebrities, the young or the old. Even non-smokers exposed to second hand smoke are at risk.

Love this life you've been given. Love yourself. Appreciate the fact that others love you and don't play Russian roulette with yourself.

~Kerri~

More from Kerri:
Kerri's Quit Story
5 Months and a Sock
Kerri's 6 Month Milestone
Kerri Reaches One Year Smoke Free
Kerri's 2 Year Smoke Free Milestone

Last Updated: 2-5-2006

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Cheryl's Story

But wait...they will come back...my kind of cancer always does. The pulmonary doc said I had three to four months to live without treatment. The oncologist said he might be able to buy me one or two years, but it's up to the medicine and me as to how well I do. I know he must be sick of seeing people who are dying because they chose to smoke. He's young and looks very weary for his age. I actually worry about him. The radiologist said if I kill these tumors, more will come eventually. He said he could maybe buy me a year, or even three. Limited small cell cancer is incurable and inoperable. I have a 50 percent chance of beating this round, he says with sympathy and amazement in his eyes. He sees so many patients like myself. What a sad job. His amazement is at why anyone...in this day and age...would smoke in the first place.

The base line for me is to stay well enough to endure the treatments. I must stay healthy, germ-free, and eat right, etc., for the rest of my life. Right now I can't shop. I can't be in crowds. I can't even kiss my grandbabies because of their sniffles. I have no immune system anymore, so I should wear a mask around people. It's sure funny/ironic that everything I did in life (my so called fun/bad habits) was to avoid this exact healthy lifestyle. Heck, it was no fun to be healthy and vice-free. Too dull for me. I knew I was going to live to be one hundred. Now that I am ill, I have to do all of those things I resisted or was too lazy to do in the past...if I want to stay alive and fight the cancers. Now, wouldn't life have been simpler for me to have done those things all along? DUH!

Let's see now...why was it that I preferred to smoke...as opposed to...say...live and not smoke?

I am trying to let the shame and blame go. It's very hard to forgive myself for what I am doing to my loved ones. My life now depends on me having a healthy and positive attitude. I am going to give it my best, but it's difficult at times.

I want so much to make something positive out of this horrible state I have gotten myself into. I thought maybe a story from a person who has smoking-related cancer might help someone. But how could I get my story out? And would anyone care? I'm nobody in particular. Then Terry from About.com kindly invited me here, and we decided maybe a story on this site would be seen by others trying to quit. It might make a difference in their lives to see how much harder it is to have cancer than it is to stop smoking.

Even if it's only one person who might get scared enough and quit, that's a miracle in itself. I am sharing my story for all the folks who come here to get help in order to quit smoking. I want them to hear firsthand how devastating cancer is, not only for me, but for my innocent loved ones.

...unless you are murdered or have a fatal accident. It will give you a heart attack, stroke, or cancer. It can happen; it happened to me. It happens every day. The real crime is that a drug which is that addictive is legal in the first place.

I am writing all about this cancer and how my life has completely changed in my personal journal. Actually, it's the same journal I used for my "stop smoking" journal. Now that's a wee bit ironic and morbid, don't you think? But so is death at 56.

The shrink says to tell my eight-year-old granddaughter I am ill, but not to use the word cancer. I don't have to tell her. She knows on her own. She saw me working with scarves for the day my hair will be gone (which it is now), and said, "Oh no you don't! That is not a cool look on you, grand-mom."

Remember when only the cool people smoked? I was terminally "cool."

Thanks for reading my story. I have to go take some of the 900 dollars a month's worth of medication now. It's the only way I can sleep with minimal pain.

Cheryl
The Healing World - Part two of Cheryl's Story

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Smoking Cessation Moderators

Forum ID:MICHELL15437
Nickname: Mic
Quit Date: January 13, 2002
Michelle's Quit Story

Michelle found the About.com Smoking Cessation forum a full year into her quit program. Her first online support experience was at another site run by former Guide to About.com Smoking Cessation, Christine Rowley. That site was called The No Smoke Cafe, and when it folded, Michelle joined us here. She has been with us ever since (and will be forevermore if I have anything to say about it!).

Michelle is one of those rare people who quit smoking on the first try. She used the nicotine patch, online support, and plenty of faith. Her posts are insightful, compassionate and always worth reading. She is a glass half-full kind of person whose big heart and ability to empathize are a blessing for the people of this forum.

Michelle suffers from degenerative disc disease, a painful condition that she manages with grace. Smoking is a risk for this disease, and she has written about her journey with it, along with several other essays geared toward helping others quit smoking. They can all be accessed through the link to her quit smoking story above.

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Sidestream Smoke

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Smoking Statistics

After the entry of foreign multinational tobacco firms into Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, youth and female smoking rose significantly.

*The 37 countries and areas comprising the WHO Western Pacific Region are: American Samoa, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Macao (China), Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, and Wallis and Futuna.

Source: World Health Organization - Smoking Statistics

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Don't Start Smoking

When my kids were 8 and 10, they would ask me if I would quit, and I knew I should if I did not want them to start. But I kept on smoking. Even when my son who was only eight was walking around with pens or licorice pretending to smoke, and my 10-year-old daughter was saying that she could not wait until she got older so she could smoke just like me. That did not drive it in me to quit! It was too easy to keep smoking; eventually though, everything you start must come to an end.

The addiction to cigarettes is as strong as any illegal drug. In order to quit, the person has to really want to quit. I had always heard how hard it was to quit smoking, and that scared me. I think one of the greatest lies ever told is that quitting smoking is hard to do. Quitting smoking is not what is hard - it is making the decision to quit that is hard.

I knew that if I wanted to keep breathing, I had to do something with my life. So, after having the same cold leave and come back for two months, I decided it was time to stop smoking - better to do it when I was sick. And guess what? Not smoking was not as hard as I thought it would be. There is nicotine withdrawal; it is a drug, and that is not pleasant to go through, but it was not impossible. Not that it is easy to stop once you start; it is very much not easy, and takes a lot of work and willpower to quit. I would not wish that on someone I did not like!

I would say it took about 4 or 5 months before the cravings to smoke stopped totally, and another 2 or 3 months after that before I felt totally comfortable not smoking. I still get thoughts occasionally about having one, so I would not say I am totally free of the "habit" or addiction. I don't have to struggle with myself about buying them anymore, and I can shrug off the thought of smoking, but I can never let my guard down because all it would take would be "just one" and I would be back to smoking a pack a day before a week was over. People who are addicted to illegal drugs also have to exercise that kind of caution, though I think it is easier for them to change their life style and whom they know to stay away from concerning drugs. There will always be with me a risk of a relapse though, and I know this. All it takes is one drag off a cigarette and if it does not taste good, maybe the next drag will. I say that because cigarettes are everywhere, and legal to buy. You can get them at almost any store.

There is a great deal more information available now that was not around when I started smoking. It was suggested that, over time, cigarettes could be bad for your health. Now it is loudly proclaimed how bad smoking is for you. Still, knowing all the risks involved, a great many people start smoking every year.

To avoid becoming another tobacco addict, remember, it is not just tobacco you are inhaling. Even the so-called "natural" cigarettes have additives in them. Cigarettes do not make anyone look older or cooler. They will damage your health, change your appearance, and can make it hard to breathe though.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and the leading cause of death among smokers. Smoking is hard on the heart. It beats out deaths by drug overdose, suicide, AIDS, and accidents combined. You can say "we all have to die somehow," but you do not have to make that somehow be sooner than it needs to be.

Ellen's One Year Smoke Free Milestone

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Tar in Cigarettes

"Tar" is the term used to describe the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes. The concentration of tar in a cigarette determines its rating: High-tar cigarettes contain at least 22 milligrams (mg) of tar Medium-tar cigarettes from 15 mg to 21 mg Low-tar cigarettes 7 mg or less of tarCigarette filters were first added to cigarettes in the 1950s when it was reported that the tar in cigarettes was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. The idea was that the filter would trap harmful tars and nicotine, but the design never worked as well as hoped. Toxins still make it through and into the smoker's lungs, exposing them to the risks of smoking-related disease.

In solid form, tar is the brown, tacky substance that is left behind on the end of the cigarette filter. It stains a smoker's teeth and fingers brown and coats everything it touches with a brownish-yellow film. Imagine that settling into the delicate pink tissue of your lungs.

Tar is present in all cigarettes and tends to increase as the cigarette is burnt down, which can mean that the last puffs on a cigarette may contain as much as twice the amount of tar as the first puffs.

Tar in cigarette smoke paralyzes the cilia in the lungs, and contributes to lung diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer.

See also:
Are Light Cigarettes Less of a Risk for Smokers?

Sources:

"Up In Smoke: The Truth About Tar and Nicotine Ratings" May, 2000. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"A Vision for the Future." Surgeon General's Report 1981 Section 8. Centers for Disease Control.

"Low-Tar Cigarettes Do Not Cut Cancer Risk." 14 January, 2004. MIT News Office.

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