Smoking

 So the time has come to talk about this subject. It is one of those subjects that hits home with me and affects alot of peoples lives. Also this week I am having one of my good friends write on this subject as well to give a different perspective. So without further ado.

My Take:

 So lets start out with some facts about me. I never smoked a cigarette in my life until I joined the Navy. Am I saying that the Navy drove me to smoking? Maybe. Regardless, I smoked for four years before I quit. Not as long as alot of people have smoked but I still have had to deal with attempting to quit and failing along with having a wife who was strongly opposed to me smoking. When I say strongly opposed that is probably an understatement.

So why did I start smoking? Mainly as an excuse to take a break at work. If I told my chief (boss for you civilian people) that I am going to go outside and just hang out for out for fifteen minutes I would get told, "Ya right, get back to work." However if I tell my chief that I am going to go take a smoke break it isn't even questioned. So that was a big motivator for me to start smoking. Past that and after I considered myself a "smoker", I then continued smoking for two reasons. The social aspect of it which I will elaborate on and because I actually enjoyed it.

The social aspect of smoking. Some of my greatest memories came from being underway and sitting in the smoke pit with my friends. If I hadn't started smoking I wouldn't have these memories. Why do I bring this up? Because it applies to the social aspect that I am talking about. For those who smoke or have smoked you understand what I am talking about but for those who didn't I will try to explain.

Lets take drinking for example. Smoking and drinking is one of those things that goes hand in hand. I have seen so many people that I never thought would smoke light up after they have a few drinks in them. Why? I think it once again leads back to the social aspect of it. Everyone else is smoking, its available from everyone else there, plus you have some drinks in you so judgement isn't what its supposed to be. So you try it out and find that while drinking if you smoke you feel more relaxed and interact better with people. Now you are hooked.

But Kris, that's while drinking. You cant compare that to every day life.

Ok. So now that you are hooked you attempt the same thing during the day completely sober. You head outside with your friends for a smoke break and while the social interaction is there, the same draw and allure that you had when you were drinking is gone. So why keep smoking? Well depending on how long you have been smoking you might be able to say the nicotine keeps you addicted. (I will also elaborate on this because I think that being addicted to nicotine is bullshit)

Let me tell you why it was hard for me to quit and also how I finally did quit. I got into a routine. Everyday I would show up to work and go right to the smoke pit. When we had morning quarters we would do it in the smoke pit. Every day after I ate lunch I would smoke and hang out socialize. Etc. So for years I had a routine that I followed. This was one of the hardest things to break. Trying to find something else to do during the time I would usually be smoking. Plus when I was drinking with friends it was much harder to not smoke with my friends for obvious reasons.

Now let me elaborate on the nicotine thing. I thought that maybe I was special but I have verified this with a few other people. I AGREE that the nicotine brings you back to smoking daily, but I DO NOT agree that you can be ADDICTED to nicotine. I might be wrong but I think someone who says they are addicted to nicotine are using it as an excuse to keep smoking. I never felt that I NEEDED to smoke because I NEEDED nicotine. I had some other people say they feel the same way so this apparently isn't just me.

So how did I finally quit? I broke it down to myself and looked at it this way:

• Its fucking expensive. Between a pack a day to myself, bumming out to friends, and the extra smoking I do when drinking, I realized that I was on average spending around $225 a month on cigarettes. That's ALOT.
• My daughter was getting older and had a better grasp on things going on. While I never smoked around my daughter I got the feeling that she was getting curious.
• My wife HATED me smoking. It was taking a toll on our relationship.
• Its REALLY BAD FOR YOU. We all know this and I knew this but it really hit me when I was 25 and couldn't run for more than 30 minutes without my lungs hurting.

So if you take a look at everything I listed there it should be blatantly obvious that I shouldn't have been smoking. Problem is that I ENJOYED smoking and I didn't "want" to quit. That's right. I never actually felt like I was addicted to smoking, I just enjoyed doing it.

'"So Kris, WHY did you quit then if you enjoyed doing it?"

The best way for me to explain this is that I grew up. Seriously. I realized the reasons that I was smoking and looked at the list that I made up there and realized that I was just being ridiculous. I was being immature. Plus I am a big fan of money so the extra cash was helpful.

Take a look at it though. If you are smoking ask yourself why. If you say that you smoke because you need to then you are probably compensating for a different underlying problem "Man my kids are driving me crazy, I need a cigarette." "I don't know if we can cover our bills this month, I need a cigarette." "My boss is such an asshole, I need a cigarette."

Look at those statements. Pretty common things that are said. The way I see those statements is:

"Man my kids are driving me crazy, I need a cigarette to compensate for my lack of disciplining my kids."
"I don't know if we can cover our bills this month, I need a cigarette to take my mind off the fact that I cant manage my money." (QUIT SMOKING AND YOU WILL HAVE MORE MONEY)
"My boss is such an asshole, I need a cigarette to ignore the fact that I should get a different job or possibly figure out why this guy is being an asshole."

So in conclusion this is how I sum up smoking:

"A reason to ignore or cover up for the real problems in our lives, to compensate for a lack of motivation to succeed in life, or a way to socialize with people because you otherwise cant."

A little blunt? Sure. Am I right? You tell me.