by Emma Willey

Created on: August 30, 2008   Last Updated: May 10, 2010

Smokers should definitely bear the responsibility of the health risks of cigarette smoking. I stopped the habit 27 years ago, but until I actually quit cigarettes, I wouldn't have agreed with that. When you are addicted to nicotine you want to defend your habit. I do think smoking gets blamed for a lot of deaths when it isn't always true, because many people die when they have never smoked a cigarette in their lives.

I wish I had known what I know now when I smoked. I am so sorry I smoked when my children were small because I believe now that second-hand smoke is bad for anyone too. We didn't know it then, or else we didn't want to know it. We were so hooked on our smoking, we couldn't see through the smoke, I guess. People tend to defend their addictions because they don't know how to get rid of them. With all the education out there now about smoking being bad for your health, it's still hard for an addicted person to believe it.

I know for a fact that my addiction to smoking did affect my health. At 88 years of age, I still find myself coughing for no reason at all. I have developed heart disease, which I am genetically bound to have and I know smoking hasn't helped the situation at all. I am short of breath much of the time and doctors tell me I have congestive heart failure, also atrial fibrillation. If I had never smoked (I hate to admit I did it for 35 years), I'm sure my heart condition could have been controlled much easier and possibly not been so severe.

It wasn't easy for me to give up my addiction to nicotine. Breaking a habit is difficult enough without adding addiction to the habit. At age 61, I decided I wanted to live long enough to write my memoirs for my children. That helped me break my addiction because whenever I wanted to light up a cigarette, I grabbed a pen instead and started writing down the experiences I had growing up on the prairie in South Dakota with 11 brothers and sisters. I lost myself in my past, and after about two weeks, I decided I would never smoke again as long as I lived.

I think I hypnotized myself, and now 27 years later, I can truthfully say I have never had another cigarette or any other form of tobacco. I feel I may have prevented my grandchildren and great grandchildren from having diseases caused by the unhealthy habit of smoking. If I had the opportunity, I would take back those 35 years of smoking cigarettes, and take back the many hours I wasted doing it, not to mention what it cost me in dollars and cents.

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