That's part of the appeal, asserting one's independence by defying the parental units. I suspect that sooner rather than later, your naysayings will assert themselves in his brain and he'll quit.
I wonder how many kids would ever start smoking if their parents tried to pressure them to? Just a thought.
Agreed! I had planned on participating on an ayahuasca spirit quest, a healing practice that goes back about a thousand years in the Amazon jungle. Ayahuasca is a *very* powerful hallucinogen, chemically different than any other, and shocks the brain very deeply much like a severe trauma would. I don't normally go in for new-agey stuff like spirit quests, but from what I've read about ayahuasca, it often works wonders. Unfortunately I was unable to make the trip to Peru due to health problems. :-(
However, at the age of 13, you substituted something else to satisfy with your oral cravings.
Be aware that there are several different kinds of gastric bypass surgery, with some major differences between them. We both had the duodenal switch For the people that I know that have had the duodenal switch gastric bypass, it is impossible to overeat and not throw it all up. In the early months after my surgery, I over ate and got sick maybe 4 times. My wife did this maybe 6 or 7 times. It is impossible for ds patients to eat as much as they used to.... ever again.
Be aware that there are several different kinds of gastric bypass surgery, with some MAJOR differences between them. My wife an I both had the duodenal switch ( ds ), we are very happy with our choice.
3/4 of our stomachs were removed, and our intestines were replumbed to limit absorption of calories (good) and nutrients ( bad) we must, for the rest of our lives take daily vitamins and minerals. After a few years our bodies will readjust to the new plumbing and malabsorption issues, by then we will have re-learned how to eat and not over eat.We will only re-gain 5 to 10 pounds.
For the people that I know that have had the duodenal switch gastric bypass, it is impossible to overeat and not throw up. In the early months after my surgery, I over ate and got sick maybe 4 times. My wife did this maybe 6 or
7 times. It is impossible for ds patients to eat as much as they used to.... ever again.We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to feel satisified with a smaller amount of food, but we do. We now eat portions equal to a "normal sized person".
All of this may sound drastic, it is!!! But it works and is a very livable. We don't have to limit what kind of food we eat as with other types of gastric bypass surgery. We can eat sugar and not "dump". If anyone is considering GB surgery, go into it with both eyes open, thoroughly check out all of your options. The internet is an amazing resource, research. Find a support group, visit, ask a lot of questions. Most people are very willing to share their experiences both good and bad.
Best of luck,
C. Jones
Have you ever tried hypnotism? I know it sounds quacky, but in lots of cases with overeating, smoking and such, it CAN work. I've never tried it, but years ago, when my wife was apprehensive about the pain of giving birth, she went to a man in Los Angeles and had two sessions with him, and he gave her a post-hypnotic suggestion about the birth process. When I took her to the hospital, she sat in an examining room reading magazines and was checked on every 30 minutes or so. The nurse came in and finally said "Hey, you're all ready to go!" She walked to the delivery room and seven minutes later our daughter was born. Seven minutes without pain of labor. Give it a shot. You also mention that you've gone on the wagon, "the food wagon", and lost weight, but that at some point your senses won't allow it any more, and then you eat all the forbidden stuff with high cals and gain it back. Could you see going on a diet wherein you could have "a day off" every week or so ? I found that when I was losing weight and would get a case of the munchies, I could go off it and have some forbidden food, but I was so anxious not to undo all the good work of the previous week or two that I only ate a token amount of the good stuff, not half a cake or a quart of ice cream, just a taste was enough, and I didn't backslide.
Sounds like you have your head on straight for this, in my humble opinion. Good luck, if you decided to go with it!
Natalie
Wow, I never heard of that distinction, but then I don't really know a lot about the procedure itself.
Natalie
Actually, he says it's more peer pressure than anything else, but I suspect genetics played a part as well. Whatever the reason, we make sure we never make him feel inferior for smoking, just that we're worried about his health. He seems to believe us, and is thinking of trying Chantix, that new anti-smoking pill.
Natalie
"sharx35"
...
Cheap shot, dude
:-P
Natalie
Here we go....a "mental health problem". No.
And let me tell you why.
My best friend is perhaps the healthiest, skinniest person on earth. I am not.
It's about how your own body works. If she and I ate the exact same food for 3 months, I'd gain at least 10 pounds. She wouldn't change a bit.
I have to work at not gaining weight, that's how my body works. She burns off everything, I store it. It's a matter of education.
I know I can't eat everything I'd like to and not gain weight, if I do, I will.
So I eat well, and exercise... I'm healthy and strong. The need for surgery, and the fact that real doctors are performing these surgeries astounds me.
There are means to prevent this.
I'm astounded when I see shows on Discovery Channel, or wherver, that show people who are bed-ridden by obesity. Who's feeding them? Gosh...they all saw nothing wrong?
Perhaps. However I did NOT see her denying it.
Partly, yes it is.
Okay...
But are you morbidly obese?
Metabolism; the same applies to my husband, but he's been working out most of his 47 year; I've only been doing so since adulthood.
Metabolism.
Great! Not everyone can for psychological *and* physical reasons.
I agree with you there - it takes tens of thousands of calories to maintain that weight. What really gets me is that many of these folks are 'disabled' and getting all that food free!
To me, that's as bad as providing Viagra to convicted sex offenders (Medicaid was doing that not too long ago!)
Natalie
Most wouldn't respond to that - that's the kind of stuff trolls-who-won't-be-mentioned-by-me say about yours truly.
I try not to keep them going.
Natalie
This ad is only ringing a very faint bell. OTOH maybe I'm thinking of the "This is your brain on drugs " ad - the one with the egg in the frying pan. (But yeah, I'm more than old enough to remember the ad, whenever it was; we finally got a TV when I was 7, in '57.)
Good! :-) It really is a habit I am very glad I never picked up. I've seen people try to quit & fail, and some eventually manage to quit after many failed tries. And knew a couple of people who died of lung cancer, & one who had throat cancer but was successfully treated. OTOH, within my particular age range, smoking cigarettes doesn't seem to have really been much of an "in" thing. In college ('68 - '72), the question "Do you smoke?" never referred to cigarettes, but only to weed. None of my friends IRL smoke - some have occasionally smoked at some points in their lives, but none do on a regular basis, & most not at all. OTOH, people of my parents' generation, & kids who were several years older than I... it did seem that most of them smoked. And in the last...oh, maybe 15 years or so, I've noticed a lot of teens smoking. :-(
Oh, good luck on that front. I hope he quits, when peer pressure - or whatever got him started to begin with - lessens or disappears.
Yeah, that may be a factor - I've heard of that, but don't know enough about it to make a comment of any real substance.
Cathy
"Cathy F." ...
..
Yes, it seems to still be popular among teens. :-(
I think it would help if he could make up his mind what he wants to do with his life.
It's all research, so that can change from one minute to the next, anyway.
:-P
Natalie
Natalie, two words: "Scared Straight"
Make the arrangements ahead of time - Take him on a field trip to the Oncology Department. Side trips to Radiological Medicine, Surgery, and the Hospice Wing.
Find some really choice cases to introduce him to, like someone hooked on Chewing Tobaccy or Cigars that had their entire jaw removed and they still didn't get it all. Someone tethered to six liters full flow O2 because they only have one lobe of lung left. Only enough lung capacity left to exist, not to really live.
I should have made recordings of my maternal Grandma near the end, in an Oxygen Tent begging for a cigarette, an almost unintelligible "Ayyyye wuuuhannaaa hhhhigarrrret!" just so she could have another mini-stroke when the nicotine hit her brain. She managed to sneak a few cigarettes while on O2, how she didn't go up like a Roman Candle I have no idea.
Not too long before that we were signing her into a Controlled Access Convalescent Hospital, the kind where the doors lock from the inside so the patients don't wander off. First few forms she gave a perfect penmanship signature, a true John Hancock. Then she *had* to have a cigarette and Mom let her have one - and the rest of the forms were a witness-signed and rather shaky "X".
She finally stroked out for good at 60-something. It started being a big problem 20 years out, and she made the entire family suffer through every single minute of it for the final 10 years.
Do you REALLY want to know my opinion on smoking? ;-|
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PS: If you haven't guessed yet, Earthlink's News is back up after being dead for a full week - only a few hours short of 8 days. And the back messages aren't coming in either, so if you insulted me after
12/8 I didn't see it.
I think he's already scared - just not scared enough
I've seen that
That drives me nuts! I see people doing that all the time. And you can bet if they do have an accident, they'll try to sue someone for it.
How sad.
LOL yeah - I'm forwarding this to my son.
LOL well you know *I* didn't.
Natalie
Quit now, while it's fairly easy - in the first year or so, you only have to beat the drug withdrawal, you haven't gotten too set in the physical motions of it.
Wait 10 years, and it's all over but the early burial. The habits get so ingrained in your psyche that you simply don't know what to do if you don't have a lit cigarette dangling from lips or fingers - it develops into a nervous habit as well as a nicotine addiction.
You will not be considered for the best jobs, because nobody wants to be in the same office as a heavy smoker - even if you go outside. Trust me, you come back inside and still reek up the whole building.
You will have trouble finding girls - unless they're also smokers. Go ahead and marry another smoker, and you are both addicted for life
- because one can't quit while the other keeps smoking, and it's even harder to get her to decide to quit along with you.
You will have trouble forming professional relationships in your field - I wouldn't choose to go out and 'network' with other people if I had to burn my clothes every time I got home. Even Dry Cleaners have a hard time getting the smoke out, and if your professional circles include people in $1000 suits...
And no boss really wants to hire you, because you will be wasting half the workday outside taking constant "smoke breaks" and that destroys productivity. Plus, their group health rates go up every time they hire a smoker.
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You lose 50 to 100 IQ points from smoking - I swear, sometimes the IQ drops into negative numbers. And I have proof of this: I can't count the number of times I've had to "remind" smokers to put their cigarette out while they're standing there pumping Gasoline.
Most put out their smoke once they realize what they're doing, they were totally unconscious about it. It's a habit, nothing more.
But one that can get you killed in more ways than just cancer.
Yeah, I forgot to word that to 'everybody else.' Mea Culpa, Sorry.
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