I'm sorry to say this, but I think smoking is the most horrible, disgusting habit in existence.
And I'm not saying that in a judgmental way, that I am a better person than you because you smoke. And that you're going to die earlier and drive up health care costs for everyone. Let's put all that aside.
I hate cigarettes because of the smell.
When you smoke a cigarette, even if you go outside, even if you spritz yourself after, you stink. And then if you are in an enclosed room with me, like because you're my patient or I have to deal with you in some other way, I can't breathe. The smoke clinging to your clothes interferes with the oxygen I'm trying to breathe in. And if I have a cold (which I almost always do), then nothing brings on a coughing fit like being in a small room with someone who was just smoking.
And obviously, actual smoke is a million times worse. Prior to current laws, I've had meals completely ruined because someone was blowing smoke on me the whole time. Also, there are the times when someone's been smoking right outside my car, and somehow when I get in the car, it smells like cigarettes.
If you're a smoker and you're offended by this, I'm sorry. But you should know that everyone around you thinks that you stink.
I agree completerly. One of my biggest pet peeves is smorking areas near building entrances. I have to walk rig through the smoke to go in. Yuck! And why do some smokers, who would never dream of throwing a candy wrapper on the ground think it is OK to flick cigarette butts all over the place?
ReplyDeleteWhy are you sorry to say this? It is so true! Yesterday I saw a 16 month wheezer, and I could smell the smoke as soon as I entered the exam room. The mom told me she smokes "outside", and I told her if I could smell it, it is affecting her child's breathing. She was surprised by that. I ended up admitting him, because he dropped his sats after I gave him a neb. Do you think that will make her quit? Doubtful.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to be diplomatic, but that's pretty sad.
DeleteI have to say, it's got to be a terribly hard addiction to break if people keep buying those damn things despite how expensive they have become. It's so sad to see people forking over nearly $10 bucks for a single pack of cigarettes. So I do have sympathy for some smokers. Heck, my granddad was born in 1914 and started smoking at 8 years old! That's just what people did back then, especially in Eastern Europe, where he lived at the time.
ReplyDeleteBut I completely agree about the smoke and smell aversion. What's amazing to me is that, now that there is a ban on smoking in just about every public area in the U.S., and a non-smoker like me has a lot less exposure to 2d hand smoke, I cannot stand the smell for even a few seconds. Back in the day before these laws, when we were inhaling 2d hand smoke all the time, it didn't seem so bad. Now my body goes into full revolt if I stand near anyone who reeks of smoke. It almost immediately makes me nauseous and if I am stuck in an elevator with that person, I start getting anxious and will bolt out of the elevator as soon as possible.
Just less than half an hour back, I was thinking about how much I hate smokers and smoking, not as much for 'health' reasons as for the fact that I really just hate the smell. And then I found your post on my blogroll!
ReplyDeleteWow. If you've ever been able to listen non-judgmentally, like really, truly non-judgmentally, you'll know that people who smoke hate it more than you hate the smell. They hate the money they spend, the way it smells, tromping out to BFE to smoke, and the way other people judge them to be stupid for still smoking. But most of all, most people hate it because they can't quit. (The caveat here is for people who have grown out of teenage rebellion, of course.)
ReplyDeleteAs a recommendation to other medical/mental health professionals on how to have conversations where people don't get their back up, Motivational Interviewing is a great, quick way to make a meaningful intervention for patients.
--nonsmoker
I don't speak with patients about their smoking. By the time they get to me, it's way too late.
DeleteI have less sympathy for smokers than for overeaters. Food is everywhere... unavoidable. With cigarettes, you only have to resist buying them. Then you just won't have them. You have to make a conscious decision to lay out that money.
Plus I find it obnoxious that they realize how unpleasant it is for others yet still do it. I got stuck in the smoking section as a kid on an international flight, and the people coming back to smoke all had non-smoking seats. They didn't want to sit in smoke either!
I am a different Anon than above (an also a non-smoker).
DeleteI think the addiction is just that strong. As with overeating, where you don't see too many people keeping the weight off long term, it's really hard to stick to a plan to stop smoking.
By way of example, my neighbor's 60 year old mother has a sarcoma with mets to the lung. Despite everything she has been through these past few months (two surgeries, lots of damage from heavy radiation treatment, etc.) she STILL can't kick the habit and beats herself up every day about it.
Wow,Fizzy, that's an incredibly naive and snobbish view of things. I don't smoke, but I am we'll aware that smoking is an addiction. For those that's more daily, it is not not simply a matter of choosing whether or not to buy a pack of cigarettes, it is about fighting the cravings and NEED (ie the physical demands, associated with true addiction) for a cigarette. It is just as bad as alcohol, in some senses. For you to simplify it to a simp,e choice is just as bad as right wing, rich people saying that people who are on welfare,or who can't afford health care, are just "too lazy" to work. There are soooo many factors in play. Granted, I am a hepatologist, and I see a lot of addictions, and people transferring their alcohol addiction to a cigarette addiction,but there is a reason why there are so many drugs and counseling programs for people to help stop smoking.
DeleteSee, this is one of the problems nowadays. Everyone is such a cry baby and so easily offended. "It's so hard to quit," blah, blah, blah. Guess what? I don't care. No one forced you to smoke. No one is forcing you to continue to smoke. Of course it's not easy to quit. People need to quit whining about it and just do it or, if they're not going to, quit talking about it. It's no wonder in a country full of fat, lazy whiners that when something is actually difficult to do they just give up and complain instead. Smoking is disgusting in a multitude of ways and most smokers know this. Not only do you smell; tend to have horrible skin, teeth and nails; but you're also likely going to die from smoking, whether it be cardiovascular disease or lung cancer. And if the huge increase in health care costs that you're going to burden the rest of us with isn't bad enough, plenty of them whine they can't smoke wherever they want. Get over it.
Delete/end rant that deflects scorn from Fizzy to myself.
Quitting smoking is incredibly hard and it takes a really long time (months) for a smoker's body & brain to return to a non-deprived state, to say nothing of the psychological, behavioral and habitual triggers that make it hard to quit and stay quit.
DeleteThis is not to say we should cut smokers slack or not ask them to quit, rather that we should re-frame the conversation. This is not as much about willpower and determination as it is about practice and support (medical & behavioral). Successful quitters have tried many times, learned from these efforts and displayed resilience in repeated attempts to quit. It is also easier for people to quit with real social support and medical management of nicotine addiction.
It isn't about lazy and it isn't about whining. It is about not having the right focus in our society - this is not a problem that most people can bootstrap their way out of. That is not a personal flaw, it is a biological fact. Yes, there are some who can quit with a sheer force of will, but they are the lucky ones, the exceptions, not the rule.
That being said, I agree w/Fizzy - as a child of smokers & a former smoker & someone who has lost loved ones to cancer from smoking, I find cigarette smoke to be one of the most deplorable odors to encounter.
"there are so many drugs and counseling programs for people to help stop smoking"
DeleteYes, there are. There are SO many resources out there to help you quit. And I have tons of patients who have smoked and quit... in the old days, everyone smoked. So it's possible if the motivation is there.
I feel like alcohol is a harder addiction to quit than cigarettes. Like food, alcohol is everywhere. That's not really true of cigarettes these days. Smokers are outcasts nowadays.
If you think smokers can quit, I really don't see how you can distinguish between that and alcoholism or overeating. I don't buy the argument that just because cigarettes are no longer in vending machines, that it means it's easier for smokers to quit their habit than people with other addictions.
DeleteFood is ubiquitous. There isn't an entire network devoted to cigarettes. You MUST eat, multiple times per day, food is at every party, the center of many social situations. It's unavoidable.
DeleteAdmittedly, if all your friends smoke or your partner smokes, I'm sure that makes it much much harder bc the cigarettes are more available. But if not, you have to go out of your way to buy them and smoke them.
A few non-smoker's fallacies here:
Delete1. An alcoholic doesn't have to drink, they can choose to have it served to them. If they'd just avoid the temptation to order a drink. Who cares that other people around them are drinking? Why didn't they just go to a restaurant that doesn't serve alcohol? They had a choice.
2. Why didn't the overeater go to a healthy salad bar instead of a fancy restaurant? They know they overeat, they had a choice, they chose the fancy restaurant with artery-clogging food. Not only that, they then chose to order "bad" food instead of asking for a salad with dressing on the side. They had a choice, they chose the unhealthy option.
3. Smokers have to avoid just as many triggers as overeaters and alcoholics. Walking by people who smoke, near ashtrays, near old locations they'd stand at to smoke, movies with smokers. And believe it or not, anti-smoking ads can actually be a smoking trigger for some. Brushing your teeth can trigger wanting a smoke, eating triggers the urge to smoke, stress triggers the urge, it becomes so ingrained with your other habits that simply sitting down at a computer can trigger the urge if you've regularly smoked at your computer.
4. Almost every grocery store, corner store, gas station carries cigarettes. When I go to the checkout at the grocery store I have a clear vantage of the customer service desk with the big case that holds the cigarettes. In front of that is an image of a lit cigarette informing you that they must ask for ID. To the side of that is somebody buying cigarettes. When I go to the gas station there they are, cigarettes, calling my name as I watch some guy walk out opening his fresh pack in preparation to light up in his car. When I go to the corner store I am literally no more than five feet away from the case where the cigarettes are, and there's that ID sign again, and three out of four people in front of me are buying cigarettes. Three minutes per person. Buying cigarettes. Opening cigarettes. As I stand there and wait my turn, trying to avoid temptation to buy a back. I went in there for milk because I ran out, and now I'm spending ten minutes trying to battle urges just so I can get that carton of milk. Ten very, very long minutes - it feels like everything is running in slow motion. Did I mention I'm wearing a patch, and still craving cigarettes through all of this?
4. Most current smokers began in childhood before they even had the knowledge or ability to withstand the peer pressures. Most of those same child smokers grew up with parents who smoked, which increases the likelihood that the child will themselves take up smoking during early adolescence, even more so if the mother smoked during pregnancy. We certainly like to think it's totally an option the person had, that they took it up and they're stupid for it and are undeserving of sympathy... but when that person is an undeveloped nine year old with a smoking mother at home and peers pressuring them, would you hold them to that same unsympathetic standard that you're holding the adult? By the time that child reaches an age where they're capable of making the decision to stop smoking, they then have to tackle all the triggers, physical withdrawal symptoms, and stigmatizing views of those around them that can serve as barriers to their ability to receive support.
I'm not saying that all the things that have been said about smokers aren't true. Yes, they smell. Yes, they should be more considerate of where they're smoking. But "you smell" isn't going to help that smoker quit, and the way you treat those smokers directly affects their ability to quit. So, this crass, highly unsympathetic tone that people are giving off is actually contributing to the continuation of smoking.
"Why didn't the overeater go to a healthy salad bar instead of a fancy restaurant? They know they overeat, they had a choice, they chose the fancy restaurant with artery-clogging food."
DeleteBecause when socializing, you don't always get to choose the restaurant. Food is at work, at parties... everywhere. And as I said, much of socialization revolves around eating in our society.
"Smokers have to avoid just as many triggers as overeaters and alcoholics. Walking by people who smoke, near ashtrays"
Yes but presumably you have the willpower not to rip the cigarette out of that smoker's hands. Therefore, if you have no cigarettes on your person, you shouldn't have a problem. I live in the suburbs so I get groceries once a week and gas once a week. That's two instances per week of avoiding temptation for people like me.
"Most of those same child smokers grew up with parents who smoked, which increases the likelihood that the child will themselves take up smoking during early adolescence"
Maybe the most compelling reason of all to quit... putting your child's life in danger!
Look, I'm not saying quitting smoking isn't hard. Obviously it is, although I still think keeping weight off is harder. But that doesn't make it any less unpleasant for the rest of us to endure. I didn't write this post to help smokers quit. I wrote it because I dislike being unable to breathe. Selfish me, wanting to breathe clean air.
"Admittedly, if all your friends smoke or your partner smokes, I'm sure that makes it much much harder bc the cigarettes are more available. But if not, you have to go out of your way to buy them and smoke them."
DeleteSo what? If a crack addict has to move out to the middle of nowhere, and it's harder to get the drug, and no one around him is a user, does that make his addiction any less difficult to break? Once his skin starts crawling, he will go to the ends of the earth to get the next fix.
I think you are oversimplifying addiction.
"If a crack addict has to move out to the middle of nowhere, and it's harder to get the drug, and no one around him is a user, does that make his addiction any less difficult to break?"
DeleteIf you literally can't get the drug? Yeah, should be. We have patients who quit smoking all the time (at least for a few months) because they're in the hospital and just can't get cigarettes. No exposure makes a big difference. That's why drug addicts have trouble quitting while they're still hanging around the same people. Not that it's equivalent, but I couldn't quit caffeine till my husband did too
My father in law died of cancer, even after he was diagnosed, knowing it was killing him...he didn't quit. I have a cousin who had lung cancer, lost a lung and had only one left. Didn't quit smoking. An aunt died of emphysema, while on oxygen she would just take of the nose doohickey and go out for a smoke. She only quit after she couldn't breathe at all without the oxygen.
ReplyDeleteWhen a smoker tells you it's hard to quit, it goes beyond the word "hard" or "difficult". For many it's near impossible.
After all the horror stories of what I have seen...I am a smoker. I haven't quit even knowing what I know. I've smoked since I was 14. I will be turning 50 next month.
If I were a smoker and diagnosed with terminal cancer, why on earth would I quit?
DeleteA friend of mine died of throat cancer. She had just quit smoking when diagnosed. She basically took Fizzy's approach and said, "who gives a crap now?" and kept smoking until she died. She said it was enjoyable and pretty much pointless not to do it at that point.
DeleteCan't argue with that.
especially patients who smoke in hospital premise!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that smoking stinks both literally & figuratively
ReplyDeleteI quit when I was 30 years old. I am 63 now and still want to smoke sometimes but I don't. I never knew how offensive smoking was until I quit but now I won't use a gym locker if a smoker hung his clothing in there because my clothes will stink.
ReplyDeleteit is just offensive to smoke where other people are, Period. I have had beach days and alfresco dinners ruined by smokers who totally disregard the kids and people around them. My mom used to smoke, she quit a year ago without any meds or outside help,and apart from the money that she would spend she knew that what bothered me the most was the stink. Hate it, nothing ruins my day like someone smoking around me.
ReplyDelete100% agree!!! I was recently dating a guy: awesome guy. Intelligent, interesting, hot, great conversations, awesome job, pretty much everything I would look for in a guy. But he smoked. I didn't make it past the 2nd date... He was very surprised because things had been going so well, but I just couldn't deal. The taste of cigarettes when he kissed me? ewwwww!!!!! Sorry. No way. Can't handle it.
ReplyDeleteI seriously cannot understand how people do that to themselves....
I'm asthmatic, so smoking (2nd hand smoke) poses a huge problem for me. Last time I was in the ER (I have peanut allergies too; had to use my epipen), when I was finally discharged, I walked out the door straight into a pair of smokers and had such a bad asthma attack I had to go back to the ER!
ReplyDeleteI understand it's hard to quit smoking, and frankly, I don't care what you do as long as you don't do it right outside my car/door/ER/that resturant I want to go into.
I completely agree with most. Smoking is really gross.
ReplyDeleteIt is a horrible addiction and can be near impossible to break, but that isn't a reason not to try and isn't an excuse to do it around other people.
But it isn't necessarily true that smokers are driving up healthcare costs.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199710093371506
My sister says I'm a "biggot" (her word) because I refuse to even think about dating a guy who smokes, but that is one thing I cannot stand to be around. Her boyfriend smokes, and she smells like it ALL THE TIME. Even when he hasn't been around. It makes me want to gag.
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine getting close enough to someone who smells like that to even give them a hug, let alone kiss them.
I've got no filter (ha ha) when it comes to patients and their families who smoke. I'm in EM and our group covers a pediatric ED so I am there to cover from time to time. I have been known to rip into parents (child with respiratory complaint) before anyone has said a word. Having a couple of smoker parents in a small enclosed room for the wait time means that it reeks in there by the time I see them.
ReplyDeleteIt gets various reactions. My favorite is the shocked face when I begin by asking them why they are causing their child to present to ED by smoking in the house. I got a complaint for telling parents that I knew this "because you reek of stale smoke and chemicals". Well, it's true.
We had a "peer interview" thing for a while when we expanded. I torpedoed two potential new docs who smoked and I heard of others that did the same. One tried to deny it. Dumbass.
One of our younger docs smokes. We had a new doc come in for his first shift and sat down next to me. Smoker doc comes in from the roof reeking and sits down next to us (it's very close quarters). The new guy looks at him and says "You've gotta be f***in' kidding me". I LOL'd for a week. Him, I like.
Smokers, I don't know if you need to feel offended or want us to pity you for your "terrible addiction". And I don't care. But your filthy, stinking, destructive habit is an act of either hillbilly ignorance, willful narcissism or sociopathic self-hatred (our Psych's words on that last one). Maybe you have other redeeming qualities, but, you're obviously kind of an idiot.
Or from (I think) the Fat Albert show... Nooooooo class.
By the way, the day after I wrote this post there was a dust up between Smoker Doc and one of the nurses in the ED. She told him straight up that he stunk and caused her to have a headache due to her allergies. He publicly bitched her out and she went to Staffing. Before end of shift he got a nasty phone call and was made to apologize. They both have pretty short fuses. We have too many docs right now and it looks as though he may see his hours go down over this...
DeleteUgh. I have asthma and I can have an attack just being around someone who smokes, like the other day on public transit. You can tell who smokes before he/she sets foot on the bus! It's disgusting.
ReplyDeleteSmokers, stop whining about how hard it is to quit. It's an addiction, yes, and you'll have to deal with it the rest of your life. Everyone understands that it is hard to quit. Suck it up. People quit, so can you. There is no excuse.
My grandmother quit smoking. How? She had a sore throat one day and decided she'd never smoke again. And she didn't. A mother of a childhood friend finally quit, it took about ten years of trying.
There are options. Find family and friends who will support you and do it.
That's how my grandfather quit! My father has amazing willpower. One day he decided to quit smoking (probably because he had a baby at the time) and he never smoked again.
DeleteMy mother quit to have my brother and started again when she got pregnant with me, and it's probably why I'm deaf. She smoked a lot, I had really severe jaundice and was hospitalized from birth to treat it for a few weeks, and it caused brain damage which thank fuck was limited to my auditory nerves. She finally quit about 7 years ago, in her very late 50s because everytime she was around me I'd have asthma attacks and migraines. It was totally destroying an already not good relationship. She actually apologized to me a couple years after she quit, as she regained a better (or normal, I should say) sense of smell and realised just how bad smoking stinks, and that meant I was inhaling particles that triggered me. She had never believed me before when I'd bitch about her trying to hug me after she had smoked.
My FIL quit when his first grandchild was on the way. He knew he couldn't have the relationship with his grandkids the way he wanted to if he continued smoking, so he made it his number one priority.
Notice the common denominator? They all quit when they were emotionally ready to. People can want to change and try to change, but they don't have a lot of success until they want to change physically, mentally, and emotionally. Their bodies say it's time, their logic says it's time, and their emotions say it's time. Until all three fall together, your average addict is not going to succeed.
Oh, and I got one person to quit smoking as soon as she found out she was pregnant because of my smoking can cause jaundice can cause brain damage story. So, yay me?
Delete*Shrug* I'm a non-smoker, but spent most of my growing up life in the Middle East and in lower socio-economic class wherein smoking was the norm. So, I actually really like the smell of smoke: it brings back good memories. Of course, as a soon-to-be doctor I wouldn't take up smoking due to health risk but I'll admit: the self-righteous,judgmental,and hypocritical attitude that my colleagues take sometimes makes me reaaally tempted to take up smoking, just to mess with them. I mean, these are guys that are seriously overweight (but not through a known metabolic condition, just too much non-nutritive cafeteria food) and that regularly binge-drink (and then drive). Being overweight may only bring individual harm, but regular binge drinking with public intox/driving creates just as much public health risk as any degree of smoking. Just don't get the selective public furor over smoking and not multiple other health habits that contribute to bad public health.
ReplyDelete~Jasmine
For the record, I think people who drink and drive are WAY worse than smokers.
Delete"NOT multiple other health habits"? Driving under the influence is criminal offense (misdemeanor or felony, depending) and you should be reporting coworkers to the police if you know they're drinking and driving!!! This actually IS a horrible thing to turn a blind eye to, because they could easily kill someone, and not in the protracted way second-hand smoke might.
DeleteI don't like when people smoke in public place and you cannot avoid the smoke. Two years ago, on the 4th of July, I was pregnant and had a 1 year old. We were waiting for fireworks and could not escape the smoke. This year, we watched fireworks at our local elementary school since school grounds are smoke free. It wasn't as bad, but there were still a lot of people smoking. I don't like smoke, but I guess it is not my place to stop others from smoking. It would just be appreciated if non-smokers (especially my children didn't have to breathe it too). I am grateful for the clean air act in the state we reside in, although it's not always followed:(
ReplyDeleteI also teach young children and five backpacks come to my classroom smelling strongly of smoke each day. It makes me sad to think of what these students go home to each day, and there is nothing they can do to change it.
I quit (7+ years ago, after smoking for way too long). Had I known how easy it is, I would have stopped sooner.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I agree that smokers smell bad. But why do we ostracize smokers while it is considered rude to tell someone that he is lacking in personal hygiene?
What do we do about people who stink independently of any smoking?
Personal body odor doesn't have carcinogens. When people complain about smokers stinker, they are also complaining about the bad chemicals that these people are carrying around. If personal body odor were a killer, we'd all have died out long ago.
DeleteI wouldn't hesitate to tell someone they have BO, but that's just me. Some people can't help it though, or maybe they dig ditches or something. I got zero problem with some dude working for a living. (so long as they do daily hygiene, at least try). It's said Angelina Jolie suffers from horrendous halitosis.
Delete