My friend recently started smoking and I've been trying to get her to open her eyes and stop before she gets any deeper into it. I've tried showing her all the facts about smoking but she still refuses to stop. Anybody have any advice on how to get her to stop before she starts smoking to the point where she might be in danger of becoming addicted?
Answer:
I'm a former smoker and I can tell you that the general public has some major misconceptions about why people smoke. It's never because there NOT aware that cigarettes cause cancer and kill people. Nothing you can show them about the perils of smoking is going to convince them because on some subconscious level the believe that they are "special". In other words, they believe they are the exception. Particularly with the idea of addiction. I speak from personal experience. People (especially young people) can convince themselves that their will power will be greater than those who got addicted. You can't talk them out of it. A person who wants to or is smoking can't be reasoned with because they are not acting on reason. This is no slight, people behave irrationally reguarding a great number of things.
There is only one thing that you can do and its probably not what you want to hear. You can refuse to be friends with her. I'm not saying you should do that, it would be extremely difficult for you and perhaps unfair to her. But if preventing her damaging herself is that important to you, it might be worth the cost. That is the only thing that ever gets an addict (or a budding addict) from stopping before there ready to on their own. Thats a consequence in the here and now rather than "hypothetical cancer".
Let me reiterate, that I probably would not personally do this and that regardless of how important this is it puts an amazing burden on you. If you choose not to act, remind yourself that her choices are her own and that it is not a reflection on how much she values her life or your friendship.
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two words: cold turkey
or tell you that she
WILL die.
let her smoke if she wants to.
show them a picture and life story of someone who has smoked a looooong time….
tell her that your aunt died last week from it