The Dangers of Smoking
This I believe – that the unhealthiness of tobacco is a dangerous drug, and smoking around other people are seriously dangerous to their lives as well as your own. Second-hand smoke is almost as harmful as smoking a cigarette yourself.
I started smoking when I was sixteen years old, and smoked until I could not breathe anymore. I was thirty years old at that time. I decided to quit, but it took time and effort, but how I quit succeeded. I set a certain date on which date that I will not have another cigarette. What I did was to slowly get off from smoking as much, and gradually, I was down to three cigarettes a day. I kept myself busy enough to where I did not even want think about a cigarette, and when I did, I would get myself a piece of sugarless chewing gum, and that seemed to help. After two weeks I was doing good, but still had that urge, after one month, I did not want to be around a cigarette or it would make me feel nauseated. Than (fortunately) I could say that, I was (smoke-free), after ten years, I felt a hundred percent better.
My Aunt was not so fortunate, she was sixty years old, and she looked to be in her eighties. She had gotten emphysema in her lungs and her bones were so brittle that I was afraid to touch her, because she might break. She had gotten so bad the she could not get around or do anything on her own. She was gradually deteriorating, so I had to move in with her, to take care of her. She has been in and out of hospitals so many time, that I cannot even count. She still would not give cigarettes up, because she did not believe that the cigarettes were what was causing her to feel so sick. After two years, she had to have an oxygen-machine to keep her breathing. One year later, she died in the hospital, because she would not quit smoking.
My father was seventy years old when he passed away, which has not been a year yet. He was the closest person to me, than anyone else could be, and he is gone because of cigarettes. I tried to get him to stop smoking, but he said that he would rather die than give up cigarettes. I believe that if I would have stayed in Texas, with him, he would be alive today. When I lived in Texas, I was the only person that would do anything with him. Every Monday was our day to do as we pleased, and I believe that he missed that more than anything did. I used to take him to the doctor, until I moved to Mississippi, then he had nobody to spend any time with. He may have been seventy years old, but he looked to be in his late eighties. His brain would not corroborate with him, and he was losing his equilibrium, but was to proud to use a wheelchair or walker so he took many falls. He had gotten cancer of the esophagus because he would not quit smoking. It had gotten so bad, that he was hospitalized, and could not talk. (Talk about a broken heart, my was). He would not listen to anybody about his smoking, he said that cigarettes were all he had left, and he was not going to give them up (excuse). It always seems like everybody’s has an excuse as to why they do not want to quit smoking—although that is because they are so addicted to them that they do not want to even give it a try. I admit, it does take strength and a lot of WILL POWER.
These are two of my family members that I have seen die, because of the use of cigarettes, and probably will not going be my last. Rests assure, cigarettes will not be the reason I why die. I know things get tough, but smoking does not make anything any better, it is just an illusion. All cigarettes do are to destroy your mind and body (inside and outside). I believe that the best thing to do is just do not start smoking; it is much easier not to start than it is to quit.