Worried About Smoking

[Remus]

I've never smoked, and I have asthma, so it's generally bad to be around the smoke as it is, and I hate cigarettes, but lately this last year or so I've been looking at them and seriously thinking "What if...?". I don't know if it's because of the whole self-harm aspect of dysphoria, or the effect of not having started back at uni yet, or what it is, but however disgusting I think smoking is, I still keep thinking about starting, and the thought of lighting up seems less horrifying than it used to.

Having said that, I hate needles/pain and was thinking about getting my tongue/ear cartilage pierced, and have generally been going through a pretty rough emotional patch, so it could just be that. I'm just slightly perturbed that these things that when I was 12 I swore I would never *ever* try are becoming increasingly tempting.

xox Remus

[Guest viv]

Remus,

There are about 200 chemicals in the average cigarette all designed to

addict you to smoking , all smokers are drug addicts. Stand beside someone

who smokes 40 a day a have a good smell , do you really want to smell like

that ???. Smokers age and die younger, smokers become ill more times and

for longer periods than your average non smoker. Smokers are more likely

to suffer lower limb amputations because of the lack of oxygenated blood to

same, your feet ROT!!!. I have personally heard a relative scream herself to

death with lung cancer ,I truly have hun. Smoking is an expensive addiction.

Smoking is becoming more and more unpopular, do you really want to be the

""one who reeks of that disgusting smell"". I could go on Remus, please dont

ruin your pristine lungs and your health, please please dont do that. luv,viv

[Guest Robin Winter]

Oh, don't do that hun, you WILL regret it. I wish to every god imaginable that I had never started smoking. If you feel the need to self harm, eat some McDonalds (assuming they have one where you live, I dunno), I don't think that's quite as addictive, and it doesn't take quite as long to recover from.

If you smoke, you will get sick more often, food won't taste as good, you risk increased chance of pneumonia and bronchial infections, especially with the asthma (I'm also asthmatic and smoke, and I've had as many as 3 chest infections in a single year), and you'll just plain smell bad. Oh yeah, and there's that whole cancer thing.

If you wanna go with one, get the piercings, at least that damage is reversible.

*Hugs*

Be well.

[Guest Pól]

I think it's the self-harm aspect of the dysphoria. I've felt the same thing about smoking on and off for the last year. I was thinking about getting a tattoo for awhile just because of the needles. The best solution I've found as of yet is to find something else that hurts but isn't actually bad for you. I usually go for a long run whenever I feel like that. By the end, I'm usually so tired that I can't think, and then the feeling is gone.

[Guest Donna Jean]

Remus.......

No sermon, Hon.....no nuthin'............

Don't do it.....

With Love

Donna Jean

[Guest nova]

I used to smoke. But as soon as I started HRT, I was labeled as a "poor prognosis". I had a leaky mitral heart valve. My dosages were kept on the low end for that reason, and you'd think i would have wised up, but when i finally had the money saved to start having some of my surgeries, I was told I NEEDED to stop smoking first. So I wised up. I managed to quit. I got cleared for surgery, and i feel so much more healthy. And the money! What is a pack these days? 6$? When I would buy a pack, all these street people would come up to me begging for me to give them a cigarette. "Please, puleeease?" Now, I just found out I have polyps or nodules or something on my lungs. I have to see some pulmonary doctor next month. Was it the smoking? I don't know. But it's going to delay my plans for a year. Oh well, fall down, stand up, repeat . . . . Don't start smoking.

[Guest sarah f]

I have to agree with everyone else. My dad has smoked most of his life and you can tell by the way he coughs up his lungs everyday. It is something that you don't ever want to start.

If you want to get the piercings go ahead. You can always take them out after you don't like them anymore.

Love,

Sarah F

[Guest Robin Winter]

I used to smoke. But as soon as I started HRT, I was labeled as a "poor prognosis". I had a leaky mitral heart valve. My dosages were kept on the low end for that reason, and you'd think i would have wised up, but when i finally had the money saved to start having some of my surgeries, I was told I NEEDED to stop smoking first. So I wised up. I managed to quit. I got cleared for surgery, and i feel so much more healthy. And the money! What is a pack these days? 6$? When I would buy a pack, all these street people would come up to me begging for me to give them a cigarette. "Please, puleeease?" Now, I just found out I have polyps or nodules or something on my lungs. I have to see some pulmonary doctor next month. Was it the smoking? I don't know. But it's going to delay my plans for a year. Oh well, fall down, stand up, repeat . . . . Don't start smoking.

Heh, I wish. Here they're around $11.00 a pack. $6 was oh so long ago.

[Guest April63]

Don't smoke it's gross and unhealthy. Period.

Bad things are just attractive, but in the long run, they don't do any good.

[Guest nova]

Hey Shilo . . . $11 a pack! OMG. Is everything so expensive in Canada? In San Francisco, my smoker friend tells me, a pack of premium cigarettes right now varies around $6.25 to $6.75. When I quit they were around $5.50. It still adds up though. At a pack a day, that's more than my land line, cell phone and DSL internet monthly charges combined!

[Guest Robin Winter]

Hey Shilo . . . $11 a pack! OMG. Is everything so expensive in Canada? In San Francisco, my smoker friend tells me, a pack of premium cigarettes right now varies around $6.25 to $6.75. When I quit they were around $5.50. It still adds up though. At a pack a day, that's more than my land line, cell phone and DSL internet monthly charges combined!

I don't know if everything is expensive, since I have nothing to compare everything to

Luckily, I only smoke half pack a day, sometimes a little more.

[Sally]

Remus,

I just wan tot tell you a couple of things that I found helped me through life.

1) If you are debating about starting something that becomes a lifetime addiction - don't, not starting is so much easier than quitting.

I looked at older smokers, coughing and wheezing as they lit another cigarette and decide that was not cool or for me, alcoholism ran through my family a generation or so back on both sides but my parents decided not to drink and I chose not to take the risk.

2) If you have to teach yourself to do it (smoking, drinking, drinking coffee) your body is trying to tell you something.

I have found that there is a reason that you don't like something when you try it - your body has absolutely no need for it or even cannot tolerate it (somethings that we do like are not good for us) I decided that I didn't like mayonnaise with the first taste but it is in so many things and everyone slathers it on a sandwich before you can stop them so I tried to learn to like it - guess what, I am allergic to it and made myself quite ill trying to eat those sandwiches, potato salad, tuna salad, chicken salad and then the most invidious invention of all time the extra moist chocolate cake whose horrifying secret mayonnaise makes it moist and I don't know until after I have gotten ill.

No one takes the first drag off of a cigarette and says, "Yummy, I feel great," no they cough and spit and then force themselves to take another - why?

I hated coffee when I first tried ot so I decided why bother.

We do need to listen to our bodies more, they have a lot to say and if we are ever to transition we need to have one that is in pretty good shape.

So - DON'T START!

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Elizabeth K]

DONT START

It killed both my parents early

Lizzy

[Remus]

Thanks everyone, you're all right, obviously. I don't want to start, and I don't intend to start, but then smoking never seems to be the most rational of things to do. I know smoking greatly reduces your immune system (or certainly it makes recovery after surgery hard), so I'm scared of getting a "no" from the doctor (if I get to that stage), and I don't have the money for it in the first place, and we have a horrible history of blood/heart/cancer problems in the family already, so I don't need any more help in that department... So yeah, I don't think I'll start, I promised myself when I was young that I would never even try one, and they really are very disgusting, so I think it's more the beginning-of-the-year-before-uni-goes-back boredom and general angstiness of still appearing, and having the delightful monthly issues of, a woman.

Thanks for your advice and help, everyone, I think I needed a good anti-smoking pep talk.

xox Remus

[Guest Janis]

I smoked for close to 20 years. I quit before starting HRT. If you plan on going the route of HRT as we definitely do not start. Estrogen supplements increase your changes for blood clots, smoking increases those chance by quite a bit. You don't want to have a Stroke or a Pulmonary embolism to end what you have worked so hard for.

You can do what you like of course and will do what you want to, however it is unwise to start smoking if you are going to start HRT.

Janis

[Guest Tempest]

remus, I felt the same, wanting to try tobacco while knowing how dangerous it was. so at some point, my friend got me a pack of pipe tobacco (because I'm a minor) and the first few times I did it, it was really fun, with each time being spaced out at least a week or so. but eventually I began smoking more often, like a few times a weed, and it soon lost its magic, but at the same time I want to keep doing it, because it just seems so simple and harmless to just pack a bowl and light up. I'm just thankful that when I finish the pack I won't be able to just go out and get another, because that would be so incredibly easy and I'd probably end up doing it again and again and get addicted. so, I'd recommend you don't even try it, because your mind will tell you "oh just get some more," and, while each individual time you smoke wont really be detrimental to your health, once you add it all up, your body (esp your lungs) will basically be destroyed. and, even if you have a lot of self control, you don't want to be having a constant battle with yourself over whether or not to smoke.

peace and good luck,

tempest

[Guest divatswun]

OMG! You have got to be joking right? ITs obvious to me that you do not think cigarettes are disgusting because you claim to be like drawn to them......

It sounds like you have like entirely way too much time on your hands, find a meaningful hobby. Or if you dont want a hobby, why dont you go to the library and research lung cancer, emphasima (i know it is spelled wrong). Then if you are still thinking of lighting up, calculate tyhe finincial toll it will take on you at 5$ per pack per day. Do you have an extra 150$ per month you8 wont mind wasting on killing yourself?

I am frustrated by your post because I can relate. You see I didnt start smoking until I was 19 years old (that was 16 years ago) and I too was disgusted by cigarettes. I started cuz my father killed himself and I thought it would help me deeal with losing him.....what disgusts me now, is the fact that I cant stop, I cant......the cigarette companies have engineered cigarette smoking to be as addictive as possible,,and it really really is....dont be a slave to the cig companies like I am. Be smarter than I was.

I've never smoked, and I have asthma, so it's generally bad to be around the smoke as it is, and I hate cigarettes, but lately this last year or so I've been looking at them and seriously thinking "What if...?". I don't know if it's because of the whole self-harm aspect of dysphoria, or the effect of not having started back at uni yet, or what it is, but however disgusting I think smoking is, I still keep thinking about starting, and the thought of lighting up seems less horrifying than it used to.

Having said that, I hate needles/pain and was thinking about getting my tongue/ear cartilage pierced, and have generally been going through a pretty rough emotional patch, so it could just be that. I'm just slightly perturbed that these things that when I was 12 I swore I would never *ever* try are becoming increasingly tempting.

xox Remus