Do you have Fibro and smoke?

Quote: "One positive aspect of the study done at the Mayo Clinic showed that only 14 percent of the FM patients were smokers. This figure is lower than the 20 percent national average for the United States."

I would bet money that if all the Fibromites in this Forum honestly answered this Poll we would come out very close to 50/50 on smokers versus those who managed to quit and I would personaly find that quite significant because it would probably mean a lack of recognition by Mayo, and the screening was skewed with many people being shoved into the depression and hypochondria catagory, and that the assessment of 14 percent is because they only used people under good mental health status.

Messed over again I bet.

It looks like your 60/40 estimate is playing out about right Tyno. I was being conservative at 50/50. But in the two years I have had to work in that smoke shop I have met a whole lot of people with some form of serious chronic pain problem. My observations in that shop are skewed of course, since its there to sell smokes and those are the customers, but it just seemed like almost everyone would state they really want to quit, just like I do, but I saw allot more people that seemed to be functioning well quit. I don't find that as a surprise when you consider the load the sufferers are already carrying, but I think there are other reasons that make it hard on top of that. But I will leave that for another comment and let this poll run a bit longer before I say what I think it is.

I have smoked on and off since I was twelve. I quit smoking when I was pregnant with my son because it made me sick to even be around the smell, but I started smoking again after he was born. My husband and I are trying to quit, but it isn't working out for me too well. It is a slow process. We tried to get the inhalers, but, for some really strange reason, our insurance would not cover it. You would think they would cover anything to help people quit smoking, but I guess not. It is really hard for me to quit because there are so many reasons that I smoke. For one, I tend to smoke more when I am in a lot of pain, which is most of the time. Plus, I smoke more when I am stressed.

People who have never smoked, or never seriously smoked, just don't understand how hard it is to quit.

Yes, its a demon for sure. I know its not helping anything. Can anyone that already feels lousy say I smoked that cigarette and I felt better? Even otherwise healthy people mostly want to quit. I hear it 50 times a day in this smoke shop I work in.

But, I have to add something. I think on some people there is more going on then just a addiction and habit. I was raised in conditions that I know caused PTSD. Up until I was about eighteen my mind was all over the place. I had a very hard time doing any kind of intense focusing. Right about 16 my best friend took up smoking and for about a month straight, every time we went outside so he could smoke, he worked me over to have one. Finally, I broke down and started smoking. Within a matter of months after starting to smoke, my ability to close concentrate for extended periods got a whole lot better. The grades of C's and D's I got all through school turned to A's and B's in college. The mind that couldn't begin to keep up with Algebra in High School got the easily got the highest grade in the class in College Algebra. Something had definitively changed.

At around 35 years old, when I was still strong and healthy I decided to switch from cigarettes to smoking a pipe, where I was not inhaling. I noticed over time that where I had been with a pack and a half of cigarettes, I was only smoking my pipe at most 4 or 5 times a day. My lungs were quite happy. I smoked a pipe for six years.

Then I completely overstressed myself, had a total nervous breakdown and spent years trying to recover without useing medications. During some of that time, I gave up smoking my pipe. So I was smoke free for about 2 years. I never had a single day in that two years where I felt normal and comfortable. Finally, one day I am standing outside my apartment, feeling stressed and miserable and I thought to myself, the heck with this, if I am going to feel lousy anyhow, I am going to smoke my pipe and I lit up. It was like the whole world changed around me. I completely calmed down for the first time in years. I went back to smoking my pipe regularly, continueing my herbs and excercise, started getting massage therapy and over a period of a few months felt good enough to take on the stress of moving my parents from the East Coast to Arizona.

How I managed to get myself back onto cigarettes is another story, but it is high on the list of worst mistakes of my life. I have tried a bunch of times to switch back to that pipe where at least I am not inhaling, and I can't pull it off. I end up smoking the pipe and cigarettes too.

The moral of this story is this. For twenty years I have had a theory about the difference between people that just cold turkey smoking or can get off it with a little help and working hard to stick with it, versus people that have a much harder time.

I believe that in a certain number of people, for whatever reason there is a problem with there nervous system or brain that Nicotene is a effective medication to help with it, be it the anti-depressant effect, the rise in dopamine levels which would calm them and make concentration better, or whatever. At some point in their lives they picked up smoking and it offset this problem. So when they try to quit, they aren't just fighting with the addiction and physical habit, they are also losing the medication effect and not feeling like themselves anymore.

Now take that theory of mine and put on top of it a condition of chronic pain, depression, and that your already feeling like your fighting with everything you can handle right now and more, and the concept of just willing yourself to give up smoking becomes a horrific task.

I will give it up. This is my last day in this smoke shop. I don't care what I have to do to stop that smoke going into my lungs, but its going to get done one way or another. What I am going to do about the aspect that I know from the years that I didn't smoke, that I never reached a point I could relax at all, I don't know. But I will come up with something.

And I want to add for those that have quit, I give you all the credit in the world.

I really don't know the reason behind why I started smoking. But, when I was with my ex, I smoked a lot. He was very abusive, and I always felt better when I was smoking, even though it really ticked him off. I felt a lot better when I was away from him and smoking, which should have been a clue to me. I smoke when I am in pain, when I am stressed, when I am bored, and just out of habit. There are so many reasons why I smoke. It is hard to quit. I really do want to, but I am just having a really hard time with it.

I am with the I smoke for so many reasons now its rediculous. Sick, tired, bored, depressed, pain, anxious, unfocused, and the obvious hooked and its a pattern habit. Before getting sick where I could do more active things, I smoked far less. The triggers were simply get up and have a smoke. Have a cup of coffee, have a smoke. Drive the car, have a smoke. Take a break at work, have a smoke. Now the whole day is one big trigger.

I think the Poll points it out pretty clearly. People with serious chronic issues like Fibro smoke far above the national average of 20 percent, although I think that is a skewed figure taken from Insurance Company actuary statistics and as it was said, that raises your insurance rates, plus the Doctors want to blame everything on smoking, so people lie.

The figure here though, I think is pretty reflective of the truth. Fibro issues aren't going to make someone that never smoked take it up. Some people managed to quit before developing Fibro and didn't go back to smoking. A few managed to quit after developing Fibro, and I really have to give the allot of credit when you look at the ratio of just the people that quit after fibro versus how many smoking.

For those that are smoking and really would like to stop, I think the Poll says something else. Don't feel bad that it is such a struggle for you, versus that person you run into on occasion who offhandedly says, oh, I just cold turkeyed it with no problem and I smoked for 20 years, or the people that are in otherwise decent shape and managed to quit. I think your up against allot more. I know I am. Its not a excuse to not try my best if I really want to quit, but its obvious that it is that much harder.

Well, I am going to let this poll sink into oblivion, unless someone else pulls it back up. It has answered what I was wondering.

Thank you all who participated.

When I feel bad, sad, mad or am in pain, that covers 90% of my life, I don't want anyone lecturing me about my cigarettes. If, you (meaning they), felt as I do most of the time they would be in the back alley injecting whatever to make it stop. So, I am being good, taking care of business, mine and carrying the weight for others, as best I can, let me have my vice. I have forsaken all extracirricular activities, don't go out socially, except to facillitate visits for shut-ins, take care of my kids, when they need it, take care of my Dad and stepmom, and if I want to step away from the hospital, onto the street, to have a quick smoke while they load one or the other parent in an ambulance, while I try and figure out how it's going to get paid for (the ambulance), well, live and let live.