Answering A Question

What are the Disadvantages of Smoking Cigarettes?

 

Coming from a person who smokes, it is very clear that people should not smoke cigarettes. Smoking is pretty common in today’s society and has been for quite some time now. However, smokers are becoming the outcast in today’s society. Thus, proving the fact one should not smoke cigarettes. Surprisingly, the rate of smokers has drastically dropped in the past fifty years. Currently, the rate is standing just under twenty percent. Fifty years ago it was sitting around forty percent. (Daynard) Have you ever walked past somebody who has just smoked a cigarette? The stale smell is completely repulsive. Frankly, the offensive odor that smoker’s put off is probably one of the least problematic outcomes of smoking. Smokers typically have a yellow smile, and bad breath, to go along with the smoke smell that lingers off of their clothes. Overall, it is embarrassing and downright gross. Smoking is bad for several reasons. In particular, cancer and illnesses can lead to a deadly result. In addition, employers have become strict on enforcing a non-nicotine work place. Lastly, it is an extreme waste of money.

First of all, annually taking six million lives each year, people should really think twice before ever lighting up. (Matthew)There are countless aspects of this, however, all are different forms of cancers and illnesses. Smoking basically suffocates a person’s lungs which results in lung cancer. Smoker’s typically have what is called a smoker’s cough due to the buildup in a person’s lungs. It also causes heavy snoring from sinus congestion. Both of these are minor problems and don’t cause concern, but still another disadvantage of smoking. Another most common form of cancer found from smoking is esophagus cancer[KH1] . (Wu, Chen and Sarwar) Smoking still affects all parts of the body. For instance, the kidney, bladder, pancreas, and stomach, just to name a few. Some common forms of diseases and illnesses include heart disease, stroke, COPD, and asthma. (Wu, Chen and Sarwar) Lighting up causes a person to be more susceptible to become sick in any of the forms above, but even down to a simple cold. A smoker is more likely to get a cold then a non-smoker. In fact, statistics prove a smoker has seven colds a years to a non-smokers one cold. Smoking also causes nausea and gastrointestinal issues such as constipation. (Matthew) In general people don’t realize the seriousness in each of these cases, usually until it is too late and the addiction has such a hold over them. People end up in the hospital due to smoking related health problems and are told they need to quit as a matter of life or death and still consumers cannot kick the habit. When middle aged people end up sick in the hospital, in this position they feel why quit now? Unfortunately, the longer a person goes smoking, the harder it is to quit. This proves the importance of trying to quit now.

Secondly, throughout the past several years, as a country, we have worked towards becoming smoke free. Some states brought smoking bans into effect in public places such as restaurants or smoking within so many feet of entering a public building. More states continue to jump on this bandwagon. Certain employers are also working towards aiding this control on ending tobacco use. (Voigt) Mainly hospitals and health care fields are supporting this non-nicotine policy. Hospitals and health care fields are leaning towards this policy so their workers enforce a good health role model towards their patients. (Voigt)They are doing so through testing job applicants for any kind of tobacco use. Tobacco testing results in any kind of nicotine proving the test positive. This includes, even people who are only exposed to secondhand smoke. Now that’s not fair to somebody who doesn’t smoke, but does prove the point that people shouldn’t smoke cigarettes.  Imagine going to college for four years, maybe longer, graduating with a well-earned degree, and then not being able to get the dream job you deserve all due to the fact of enjoying smoking cigarettes. It may be an enjoyable habit at first, however, eventually it reaches a point where it is no longer enjoyable, rather something that a person has to do because of the addiction. Yet, still people cannot quit. Is it really worth it? The control on tobacco is only minimal years in effect and it is only going to continue to get stricter, creating more bans and more laws on situations where it is okay to be a smoker. Society has gone from favoring smokers to the complete opposite. Initially, people could smoke anywhere they wanted, and now society is leaning towards favoring non-smokers. This is good because it is a positive health effect to those who are not smokers. However, it does create an inconvenience to engage in smoking because, it still doesn’t get consumers to quit.  

Lastly, smoking is probably one of the largest wastes of money coming to mind. Smokers probably realize this to a certain extent, however not the bigger picture. For example, say somebody smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, a pack averages $5.00, give or take, which is $1680.00 a year. Now let’s multiply that by five years, $8400.00. Ten years, $16,800. Twenty years, $33,600. Lastly, multiply that by fifty years, if the smoker lives that long, and reach $84,000. That is a small fortune. We could do so much with all of this extra money. Many people work their whole lives and try and save money for retirement. Imagine the shape those people would be in had they quit smoking. If they would have put that money in an account, they could have done something they enjoyed with the money or had something to show for the money. If more people thought about this and figured the numbers would they still want to smoke? Cigarette prices are continuously rising and taxes for the product continue to rise. (Matthew) Time is money and especially in the case of cigarettes. It takes on average five minutes to smoke a cigarette. Based on a pack a day smoker, an hour and forty minutes are wasted each day. Which results in over ten hours per week.  That is a ton of wasted time considering that time could be spent doing something productive instead. Not to mention, all of the time wasted on emptying ashtrays or cleaning cars and houses to mask that odor.

In conclusion, all of this is only the beginning of the disadvantages of being a smoker. With countless amounts of negative side effects, the hold that cigarettes have over its consumers is out of control. Join the aid in ending tobacco use by spreading the message of the advantages in quitting. All of the effects of long term tobacco use are very discouraging, but after just a couple months of being tobacco free, the rates of cancers drastically drop. The risk for heart disease and stroke generously goes down, and the body starts repairing itself almost immediately after quitting. Quitting smoking is a challenge, however a doable challenge. In the long run it creates a healthier life style and saves money. Who can say no to that? Quitting smoking results in not just a healthier lifestyle for the smoker, but more importantly the consumers’ family members. Secondhand smoke is actually worse than being a smoker which makes an unhealthy environment for children and loved ones. “Cigarettes result in almost four-hundred thousand preventable deaths each year.” (Daynard) It is imperative that people quit smoking: Tobacco use results in many disadvantages through leading an unhealthy lifestyle, being the outcast in the workplace, and practically handing money away.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Daynard, Richard. "Regulatory Approaches to Ending Cigarette-Caused Death and Disease in the United States." American Journal of Law and Medicine (2013): 290-297. Academic Search Complete.

Matthew, Allen. "Confronting the Vector of Tobacco- Related Disease." American Journal of Law & Medicine (2013): 308-331. Academic Search Complete.

Voigt, Kristin. "Nonsmoker and "Nonnicotine" Hiring Policies: The Implications of Employment Restrictions for Tobacco Control." American Journal of Public Health (November 2012): 2013-2018. Academic Search Complete.

Wu, Fen, Yu Chen and Golam Sarwar. "A Prospective Study of Tobacco Smoking and Mortality in Bangladesh." PLoS One (March 2013): 1-11. Academic Search Complete.

 

 

 

 

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 [KH1]Add voice talker

Analysis

“Don Jon”

“Don Jon” is a movie about a man who has a pornography addiction. There are several interesting aspects of this movie. The main character is a man, Jon, who is in his late twenties, early thirties. Jon is obsessed with women. He receives the nickname, “Don Jon” due to his skill at getting women in bed. His pornography addiction blocks him from having serious lasting relationships. Jon is a Jersey Boy and portrays the typical image of a Jersey Boy. He has a serious commitment to his time at the gym and has a lean, buff body. Every Sunday after church he eats Sunday dinner with his mom, pop, and sister. The two men casually lounge around the table in their wife beaters as they eat and drink beer. They are a loud family, with the Jersey accent of course. Jon comes off as the type of man who doesn’t want to be in a committed relationship, yet believes there is that special person out there. He has a deeper love for the whole concept of porn because he doesn’t have to cuddle or do anything when all over. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideas of Jon trying to figure out who he is by overcoming his addiction, and the importance that two particular women, Barbara and Esther, play in his life.

            Jon knows what is important in his life, “my body, my pad, my ride, family, church, my boys, my girls, and my porn.” Jon works as a bartender and believes he has everything in life figured out when really the entire movie is about him trying to figure out who he is. Jon is a typical “meat head” Jersey boy who frequented clubs and women. However, on the flip side, he attends a Catholic church weekly. The film accents the reputation of the Catholic Church by confession. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you go to church, repent and give your tithes. Saturday night rolls around and Jon is out with his friends at a bar hooking up with “randoms.” A random is a girl that would rank highly on a 1 to 10 scale. Jon would seduce her and take her home. The following morning he would go to church, every week right as the church bells were chiming, but never late, sit through church, and attend confessional. Every week the priest would tell him ten Hail Mary’s. On occasion, it would be upped to twenty Hail Mary’s if he had sinned more.

            Everything about Jon’s life in this movie was routine; his orderly apartment, his nights out at the club, the way he did his hair, going to church, watching porn. Throughout the movie, I seen the repetitive pattern that Gordon-Levitt left for his audience. While Jon thought he had it together, he really lived what is similar to a typical college life with the girls, the job, and the clubs. He feels satisfied with life, yet, reveals through actions that something is missing. Jon doesn’t really do anything to try and change this, until Barbara comes into his life, he settles.

            When Barbara is introduced, she comes off as the most important influence in Jon’s life. Later, we will find that to be Esther. Barbara is a jersey Barbie girl. She is a “10.” She’s skinny, long blond hair, perfect body, pretty face, tight clothes, and knows how to play the seduction game. Jon instantly falls in love. His buddies are in shock. Barbara plays a tough game of hard to get. Barbara coerces Jon into exceeding his comfort zone, which he is willing to do, because of his attraction for her.

            Barbara gets Jon to do all kinds of couple’s things like going to the movies. She withholds sex from him for the first month and demands to meet his family. She also won’t allow him to settle and be a bartender when he could advance to a higher position if he went back to school. In turn she convinces him to go back to school. Barbara brings out a lot of good qualities in Jon including bringing his family closer to one another. She still wasn’t enough to keep him from porn. Early in the relationship she finds him looking at porn. Barbara overlooks this at first, but later pulls up his internet history only to find how bad his problem actually was. This ends the relationship.

            Ironically, Jon’s best friend convinces him to still attend his weekly class, which is where he met Esther. Esther is a middle aged woman with brown hair, attractive, but with a very frumpy style. Esther plays the most important role in Jon’s life. Although, he wouldn’t even speak to her at first. Frankly, she annoyed him by being nosey and always trying to talk to him. She catches him watching porn on his phone and decides to bring him a DVD of a porn she enjoys to the next class. Eventually, they find themselves hooking up in the back of her SUV. Her personality really causes Jon to think and see things in a different way. They form a connection and confide in each other.

            Jon enjoys porn mainly because he feels all of his problems just drift away and he loses himself while he is watching it. Up to this point, he doesn’t find this connection in another person, not even Barbara. Esther tells him, “If you want to lose yourself in another person it’s a two way thing, both people have to lose themselves into each other.” She teaches him this. The connection they have and the in depth conversations, really teach him to have a different outlook on sex and relationships. Even though they are casually having sex and its nothing more they are really close and have love for one another, but respect the fact that neither wants anything serious. In the end what causes her to have the greatest impact is he finally finds that fulfillment of the void he has been seeking to fill, and quits watching porn.

            Interestingly, he goes into confessional and finally is able to say I made it an entire week without watching porn. Don Jon’s reaction seemed to be stunned and disappointed, after the priest tells him 10 Hail Mary’s. After all of the effort put in he still seemed as if his efforts were at a loss. “Don Jon” purely advertises the typical process to overcoming an addiction, and the feelings that lie under the surface to create the problem in the first place. Gordon-Levitt did a great job at showing the main characters struggles, overcoming them, and the people required to help him get there.

 

“Don Jon.” Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Perf. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore, and Scarlett Johansson. Voltage Pictures. 2013. Film.

Response

Love At First Sight?

 

                Is there such a thing as, “love at first sight?” Some people believe there is. Just because I am incapable of falling in love at first sight, does not mean others can’t. Maybe love at first sight does exist, maybe it doesn’t. Eye’s meet, numbers exchanged, dinner dates, kisses, love, and marriage. Two people meet, the guy knows that she is exactly what he wants. He fell in love right off of the bat. Did he actually fall in love at first sight? What goes through somebody’s brain to cause them to think they fell in love at first sight? Is it some sort of adrenaline rush causing endorphins to be released throughout the brain? Is the guy that intrigued or infatuated with the girl that he has this preconceived notion that he is going to love her because of how strong his attraction is? Does this set the relationship up for failure or create a foundation for a successful one? Most things in life revolve around the way a person views the subject. If you wake up and think this is going to be a shitty day, you are going to get a shitty day. Doctors like to say it’s all in your head. So is this the same case with love at first sight?  

Guy sees girl. Guy is attracted to girl. Guy decides he has to have that girl, so he strikes up conversation. Guy “falls in love,” asks her out. He thinks its love at first sight, and at the odd chance of it working out, or at least for a while, things are going well. Life is great. The relationship couldn’t be better. They’ve been dating for a couple of months now and haven’t even had an argument. This proves his belief that there is such a thing as love at first sight. Will that love actually last? Does a person really even believe its love at first sight or is this an attempt to deceive the opposing person to get just what he or she wants, by telling that person what they want to hear? Is this my fear of rejection rearing its ugly head out of my writing?

 Can somebody even fall in love not even having known the person, or anything about them? What is required to make that love last? Are people more likely to put effort into the relationship having knowing each other less or more? In the olden days there was arranged marriages. I’m sure some of that probably involved some love at first sight cases, but overall they had to learn how to love each other. Is love at first sight similar to this? Do you fall into such a deep consensual attraction that you learn to love? In this case is it even considered love at first sight?  What is love at first sight? Don’t you have to get to know somebody before you can “love” them?

Is there even such a thing as love anymore? Now a days marriages don’t even seem to last. People jump into relationships and everything is fine and dandy until hard times come up, then they don’t want to work through their problems. People go decades married then find somebody else catches their attention and leave their families in the dust. Affairs happen, society gets so caught up in their glutton-like behaviors that they have no morals or values anymore. People are selfish. Selfish people cheat on their spouse. This ruins love. Somebody falls madly, deeply in love, and gets their heart broken because the woman wanted to run off on her family to have fun for a few nights. Is this even worth the consequences? Does she think about what’s going to happen and not care or does she just reach the conclusion that the life she thought she wanted, just no longer appeals to her? What are the odds anymore of a relationship lasting? Can somebody fall in love more than once in a life time? Is there just one true love of your life, and once that person screws you over there’s nothing left to give to anybody else? Fact of the matter is, once you give you heart to somebody, whether it works or not, that part of your heart can never be given to anybody else.

There are different types of love. Who even knows what love is anyways? Society leads us to believe that love is this cracked up hallmark holiday, like Valentine’s Day or something. Everything is just red roses and great. They fail to show us the hard times and making it through them. Figuring out how to agree to disagree or how to even stick together. How do you keep love going once you fall in love? Love is easy when the times are easy. The hard times are what proves it. Is the love good enough strong enough to make it work? Is that person worth climbing over the mountain to reach that happy plateau, where everything is just okay again? After all, we do need people. We are a needy society. We need people to laugh, advance in our jobs, to encourage, to offer helping hand when you can’t lift that heavy dresser, or to feel good. Our need for people surrounds us. So, why not try and make relationships work? Friendships require love also. What separates different types of love? What makes somebody love one person more than another? Some would say a love for a child is unconditional. What is it about that love that forces you to love no matter what? Why can’t we love our significant others just as much or friends?

            I’m not saying that love at first sight does or does not exist. I’m not saying that I do or don’t agree with it. I feel sort of bias on this topic really. It intrigues me to know whether it does not or does exist. Being in a relationship causes my mind to drift away and wander to the idea, is there such a thing as love at first sight? Is this a concept or reality? Is it temporary or permanent?

Narrative

                                        Moving Adventures

             Beep, Beep, Beep. Alarm clock starts sounding, 5:30 am. Quickly, my hand reaches to smack the snooze button. Thoughts immediately begin racing through my brain. Is this really what I want to do? Have I completely lost my mind? Feelings of anxiety, fear, doubt, and excitement all race through my head at once. Nervous energy suddenly overtakes me, and it feels almost the same as an adrenaline rush, in a strange way. This is a decision that is about to completely change my life. Should I fall back asleep and pretend I never woke up, only in a cowardly attempt to punk out of the plan I arranged the previous night with Kass and Sid? Grabbing my yoga pants and t-shirt, I struggled to put my clothes on in the dark, without waking up my three roommates. I snatched my sneakers and headband to appear as if I were actually going for a jog, and met Kass and Sid at the front door. After the three of us managed to escape the house without waking anybody from the loud creaking of the front door, we began our walk. We all knew, at that point, we could turn back, go in the house and pretend like this adventure never happened, but we weren’t. We knew we were doing something, not only we couldn’t go back on, but something that was going to change everything. We were going home to face sobriety head on in the environment that caused us to leave in the first place.

The mile long walk to the grocery store pay phone felt more like 10 miles. The weather went through multiple emotions that morning, similar to ours. The clear blue sky, mixed with the warmth from the sun beating down on our faces, to the gloomy overcast quickly over taking. Finally, fading into a torrential down pour, only with the sun peeking through sections of the clouds. All within what couldn’t have been more than a thirty minute time span.

First phone call. “Hello.” After two months of not hearing from me, and the fact that it was only 4:45 am her time, I could hear the confusion in my mother’s voice as she was suddenly awoken from the phone ringing. She had that voice all moms have when they get that alarming phone call in the middle of the night that something is wrong with one of their children.

“Mom this place is a cult! I need you to come and get me, and call Kass and Sid’s moms too, they are leaving too.”

“Okay, when can I come and get you? Can I come today?”

“Yes,” I said with fear and relief in my voice.

“Don’t tell anybody I am coming. I will get up, take a shower, and come get you. I love you Krystal. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Now when I say cult I’m not talking about one of those crazy groups that ventures off and mass murders people or anything like that. Restorations Ministries had cultish behaviors such as cutting contact off with our families after being there several months. My lack of words with my mom were my way of telling her she was taking all three of us home that day, by beating around the bush. The irony of the situation was, she had helped all three of us get into Restoration Ministries throughout the past year, and now she was coming to bring all three of us home. After finishing what we thought was going to be the hard part, we started walking back to the house discussing how we were going to go about our day. We reached the conclusion to keep our mouths shut. Well, that would have all worked out if only Sid left the proper message on her mom’s voicemail.

Instead, “Mom, I am okay. This place is a cult, I am leaving, DON’T call Krystal’s mom.”  Naturally, panic set in when Kelly received this message. Immediately, she called the founder of the program wondering what was going on and why her daughter wants to leave rehab. So much for smooth sailing till my mom got there. Next, we found ourselves being separately interrogated by multiple authorities of the program. By far, this was the hardest part of the day. Imagine trying to explain to “authorities,” that you think you are being brainwashed by a cult in which they started, while remaining calm and respectful. To say the least, it didn’t go over so well. Of course they accused us of conspiring to leave and go get high. Surprisingly, those weren’t our intentions. Finally, after facing multiple disputes, explaining ourselves, and saying goodbyes to twelve roommates as they left for work, we began to pack. Now, you may think that being in rehab and living with several other people, there can’t be much to pack untrue. After living somewhere for a year one would be surprised at possessions that have been attained. Moving was pure chaos with only a nights notice. By the time my mom got there we had a 4’ by 15’ hallway lined up with bags and loose articles of clothing, piled knee high, to fit into her Lincoln MKZ. The MKZ is a spacious vehicle, considering it’s a car, but not big enough to move three girls from Chicago to Ohio. After detouring to UPS, we enjoyed our move home discussing all of our favorite memories about people we encountered, life experiences over the past year, and how we ended up leaving rehab.

  

Welcome

The purpose of this Blog is part of a class at Columbus State Community College. My name is Krystal and I am 24 years old. I took a break from school for a few years, but now I am furthering my education to become a Substance Abuse Counselor. I am not a good writer, in fact, I really don't like. Mostly, due to the fact it forces me to express my feelings and get my thoughts out, which I struggle with. I got off track myself which intrigued me to attain a degree in Substance Abuse Counseling. I think it requires somebody with the same life experience to help drug addicts. Now, I have been back on track for two years and look forward to a new learning experience in college.