Another Smoking Story
I started smoking in 1961 at 12 years of age. Initially, it was just intermittently, scrounging from older kids, ashtrays, and even lit cigarette butts found on the side of the road from people tossing them out of their car windows. A year later I was smoking a pack a day. Getting them was simple and easy. Either someone of age would buy them for me, or I simply forged a note from my mother to take to any grocery store that sold them. No one at the stores questioned my "permission" notes, and I thought it somewhat odd because my mom didn't even smoke.
For decades, I didn't feel the negative impact of smoking
There are numerous biopsychosocial reasons I started smoking back then, and why I continued to smoke cigarettes, cigars, or pipes for the next 40 + years. Even though caution messages gradually began to appear on cigarette packs (and later warning messages) I did not feel the negative impacts of smoking; or perhaps did not acknowledge that there were negative health impacts developing.
I worked to quit after experiencing breathlessness
But in the early 2000's I was walking with some friends in a mall. I could not keep up their pace, even though their pace was casual and relaxed. At one point I was out of breath, waved them on, and had to lean onto a brick wall to keep standing up. Although I denied to myself at the time that there was a problem, I knew deep down something was wrong. And I knew it must be caused by smoking. So after a few failed attempts, I quit. And I have never started up again.
I felt good for a bit after, but then got a COPD diagnosis
For the first 6 months or so after quitting I felt pretty good. I forgot about the mall incident and therefore, I didn't feel the need to see a doctor. That is until another similar episode occurred. I did see a doctor and was diagnosed with COPD. Now, 20 years later I also have a diagnosis of emphysema.
Today, I grieve for the young, beautiful, energetic young people who I see smoking. I have thoughts of yelling out loud, "No, no! Stop smoking! Through those cigarettes away"! But they probably wouldn't listen. I didn't.
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