In the years since I quit smoking, I’ve heard more about my “nicotine use” than in all the years that I smoked. And I heard plenty from people before I quit, thank you.
It’s unavoidable if you smoke. The harassment, the shaming and shunning, is unending. It’s so normalized that even the public are in it- friends and family who might otherwise be counted on to be supportive or at least normal regularly harangue and berate, oblivious to the impact that endless shaming and judgment can have on a person and their relationships. The more I talk to people, the clearer it is that they’ve no idea why people smoke or why they quit and they don’t particularly care to learn. Hating smokers is socially acceptable, expected even. It’s an activity we can all get in on, guilt-free, and now we’re extending it to people who enjoy nicotine in any form. I have one message for all of you, but particularly those working in government and public health: fuck right off.
When I quit smoking, I thought I’d heard the last of the complaints. No more excuse to tell me that I smell, you patchouli-wearing clowns- finally! No telling me about your father-in-law or friend of a friend who quit smoking through sheer willpower. No more coughing from passers-by across the street. No more shooing me off to the smoker’s corner behind the building and beside the garbage bin, or asking me if I don’t care whether I die young. Peace at last! Little did I know…
The reason I was able to quit smoking was because I tried vaping. I only tried it out of curiosity, because it smelled good and my husband kept talking it up. His dad had quit smoking with vaping on the recommendation of his oncologist and he had taken up vaping as well, more recently. The two of them kicked sixty and thirty year smoking habits- overnight. “Good for you,” I offered- sincerely, “but leave me out of it.”
Brandee Eubank – SaddleHorseBlues – 2021-07-02.
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