The Smoker and The Excuse

That was me, the smoker, full of every reason I could think to justify my disgusting practice. I started very young, 12 years old in fact and can still remember to this day ( I am now 41) that first cigarette and how foul it tasted, but egged on by a friend I continued to smoke. What did it matter, I was invincible and could give up whenever I wanted, or so I thought, yet nearly thirty years later I was still smoking.

Any smoker can give you many reasons why they smoke, none of them stand up to examination but I believed them just like any of my kind fighting for our smoking survival in an increasingley hostile world. "I enjoy smoking", "Smoking relaxes me when I'm stressed", "Smoking after a meal is enjoyable", recognise any of these statements? I do, I have used them all.....and guess what, none of them are really true, though we think so when we say them.