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How long have you smoked, why do you smoke and do you have any desire to quit?

My sisters smoke and will make every excuse in the world rather than even think about quitting. Both in their 50's, one with emphysema, the other with cardiac and respiratory problems. Both say they wish they could quit but I have never seen either of them actually make an effort to do so. It annoys me. It annoys me when I go to hospitals and Dr offices and restaurants and see employees standing outside smoking. Is it really that hard or do people just don't care and would rather make excuses rather than even admit a problem. I simply cannot believe that any smoker actually feels good physically. I don't understand. Do people get to the point they just don't care anymore? Even the most ill smokers I have ever met seem to be in a perpetual state of denial and are professional excuse makers. No doubt people are going to get defensive about this post. Is stubbornness a natural byproduct of tobacco use?

It's not stubbornness, but addiction. It is very hard to quit, because it feels like a necessity in the brain. I knew a lady who was on oxygen, but continued to smoke. I can remember a distant relative blowing smoke through the hole in his neck like a parlor trick.

I still like smoking cigarettes suppose that is why I do(though on a couple of occasions I thought about quitting but decided not to), don't feel I need to make excuses about it or justify it....its my choice though i know it is not the healthiest thing.

Also, it is quite possible for people to be addicted and not be able to quit, even when it effects health(that is the definition of addiction) and nicotine can be addictive. Also are you around your sisters enough to actually know if they have put legitimate effort into quitting or not? It could be you simply have not observed it and they still couldn't quit, or it could be trying to quit is difficult so they'd rather not deal with it and thus make excuses.......or maybe they don't want to quit and have just said they tried to due to social pressure or something.

Yeah, I am around them enough to know. I see them cut down drastically for short periods of time and even try electronic cigarettes but it never lasts. I am just a very disciplined person, about everything, so even though I have been around smokers all my life, I still cannot understand it. I just cannot wrap my mind around being so dependent on something like that. I see people wake up in the morning and have a cigarette in their mouth within 10 minutes. People finishing eating a meal and having a cigarette in their mouth within minutes. It's just so sad to me. I feel the same way about coffee, with people not being able to function at all without it, first thing upon awakening, immediately, hit the coffeemaker. To me, not being able to comprehend these behaviorisms is just as much an obsession as the addiction is to smokers and coffee drinkers. I guess I am sad too.

I smoke because it helps me with social anxiety. If i am in a stressful situation, having to leave to go smoke is a perfect excuse for some alone time to gather my thoughts.

Please forgive me for preaching:

A guy recently passed away at age 56 because of lung cancer. He smoked like a chimney. He was a nice guy--his life was too short.

Please......stop smoking!! !! ! Everybody!! !! !

At first, it's an affectation. Some people start smoking for the rebellious or "cool" image. At this point, shaming doesn't work because the attention serves to reinforce the stated image. Then it becomes addiction, and very little can be done to ween the smoker from his or her addiction. (i.e., "Cancer Stick", "Coffin Nail", "Tobacco Teat", et cetera.)

Shaming and insults don't work during the addiction phase, either, so calling smokers "Butt-Sucking Junkies" has about as much effect on nicotine addiction as does saying "Have a Nice Day" has on clinical depression.

It's painful to remember how my father was once a buff, strong, and hard-working man, and to also remember how smoking turned him into a skin-and-bones scarecrow-like shadow of a man tethered to an oxygen tank, and dying from COPD at the age of 70.

Yeah, he was abusive, but he was my dad.

I go to the gym in middle of night for stress reduction.
I guess I have never really experienced a situation requiring tobacco

I started when i was 13 and quit cold turkey at age 10, in a tent in the middle of nowhere in Germany.

Obviously a typo.

Did you mean...20?...30?.....40?....50?....or what? Obviously sumpin' ending in a zero.

Let's do the Time Warp Again!

^ this is fascinating. I want to know "the rest of the story."

I like to smoke because it calms me down. One of my sisters just got diagnosed with breast cancer and she still smokes.