I might be alone in this, DT, but I truly appreciate your passion and tenacity about this subject.

dontread,

Re: "My issue is that IMO neither the recovery community nor professional treatment treat tobacco like they treat other addictions. This in turn enables tobacco to kill more of us than all other drugs combined
The rest of the country is getting off the crap, but not much us. "

Two things jump out at me here. First is the term "the recovery community," which implies that we in recovery are automatically comrades in a temperance movement with a broad agenda for social reform. We're not, and many of us who are in recovery resist being co-opted into somebody else's wellness crusade.

Second, and the corollary of that, is that someone who doesn't support this broader agenda isn't really in recovery at all. It's like a church that presents an easy-going moral slate to lure converts into the fold, and then hands them the fine print after they've taken a seat in the pews.

Justifiably or not, word gets around, and then our reputation as bait & switch con artists with a puritanical hatchet up our sleeve precedes and us becomes yet another barrier between us sobersides and newcomers.

So, what I'm getting is that you want people with long term recovery who haven't abused mind altering or illegal drugs to say they're addicts because they smoke?

Boy DT, that's comin' in through the back door for sure. Good luck with that. You're gonna need it.

I meant to add that we with long term sobriety are going to die just as surely as those who never get into recovery. It's not as if we've discovered the fountain of youth or a magic formula for living that removes the need to face our own impending death. I also don't see how it benefits anyone to avoid something that's inevitable.

I say this because I've known so many who thought they could postpone all this until they were 75 or 80, and then it would automatically take care of itself. Then they got hit with a terminal illness that devastated them emotionally. It doesn't have to be this way.

wow! this thread is till packing steam, i see. i'm not going to add much but to say that the writer carolyn knapp (drinking-a love story) wrote of how her mother begged her to quit smoking first. she thought her smoking was the worse addiction at the time but in the book ms. knapp finds that incredibly naive given the nature of alcoholism. anyway, she gets sober and in the intervening 8 years writes 2 more books. however, she is dead now at age 42 from stage 4 lung cancer. her best friend and also recovering alcoholic gail caldwell writes of this in her book "take the long way home." imo, both killers, both will devastate to the point of no return.

Sorry I am such a late comer to this thread and most are probably sick of it by now anyway -still wanted to say a couple things -

Those who have found a solution to alcoholism via the steps (not deminision other methods here either) are lucky / blessed, what have you, in that there is a simple solution that does work. But I think so much of why it works is that are lives have been made so unmanagiable the there was so much pain in just living that it made us willing to try the spiritual approach.

Versus a tobaco addiction - one may be powerless over the addiciton but there is not so much unmanagability and pain from living to motivate change - of course until it is to late.

I am about 7 months smoke free right now though!! which I find rather incredible because I loved smoking - but my big motivator for quiting came from the need for different medical treatment for something else that smoking was going to prohibit me from getting.

Gim it's a fact. Smoking prevalance in the US is steadily dropping and now stands at just over 20% of adults. But it's more like 80-90% of alcoholics. I don't have a number for the smoking prevalance in AA, but if stand outside a meeting you'll see it ain't just 20%. AA has been smoke friendly from the start to the point where it killed Dr. bob, Bill W and Marty Mann. Hell I think all of us old timers can remember meetings that flat out ignored non-smoking members rights.
Nemo: Dude, what???

I still have my Bio-feedback appointment for the 7th to quit.

I want my limited money for me in my sobriety.

I believe everything negative said about cigs in this post. I be barned that I spend money on cigs before food. Feels like I am addicted.

I gunng try

good golly typing LOL

Good for you mindlight. Best of luck

BTW, for those of you who think I'm just pulling this stuff out of my hat.

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/nicotine/a/quitting.htm

or

pub.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh293/208-212.pdf

I think the second link is broken , but the first is an excellent source of information

Isn't this an alcoholism support group?

(__)(__)ooOO00000

Yeah, I agree that addressing the tobacco issue is important to my personal sobriety. Doesn't really change much though. Addiction is addiction. You could plop down a necrotic black lung in front of me right now and it wouldn't sway me either way. I'd probably just dissociate until ready to see it. It doesn't hurt to plant a seed though. Thanks for the reminder. xxoooooo

i agree. im new to sobriety. i swore off booze and smokes. day to i went back to smokes because alot of stuff happened. i made excuses. i am just glad i didnt hit the bottle.

Azjohnnyv, I'm a person who would love to see people get off ciggies (My Mum died from smoking related Lung Cancer 3 years ago), but the first and most important priority is to get off the booze and stay off the booze and the ciggies can come later. I have seen many many people do it that way - I can't think of one who did it the other way around.