Pam, I have no idea how I missed this before, but I'm glad it got posted to today so I finally saw it. Your comments and observations were very insightful.
Eve, what you mentioned happens when a lot of people quit together. I think that is part of Penitent's concern about quit groups. Emotions run raw in the first few months of a quit, posts are misunderstood because physical cues are non-existent, meanings are misinterpreted, and tempers flare.
I�m going to admit I don�t respect [u]every[/u]one�s opinion. I agree with Pam�s mother on opinions. Whether I agree with them, or not, doesn�t matter. I�ve respected many that I disagreed with, but there are some that are just wrong and that�s [u]my[/u] opinion.
I agree 100% that quitting smoking often involves things not directly related to smoking. Certainly deaths, medical problems, and other traumatic experiences that threaten our quit should be discussed here. But what defines a traumatic experience? Which requests for help are justified and which are not? Who is qualified to determine where that line is for any other person? I know I�m not. A threatened quit is a quit in danger, I don�t care what the source of the upheaval is.
Healer and Sunshine, I think you are targeting a specific person with your comments. Whoever it is (I don�t care, names are moot), why is their quit so unimportant that they can�t come here and ask for support? Right off the bat, I can think of three who could qualify as attention seeking based on the definition [i]I think[/i] is being applied. So I could go off on a rant either in their defense, or against them. I'd be judged as either perfectly justified or evil personified, depending on whether the reader agrees with me or not. In fact, that rant could be classified as attention seeking in itself. So whether I defended or condemned the act, I would be guilty of it. Don't you just love hypocrisy, if that�s what it is? BTW, I honestly don�t get the part about stolen energy. Guess my energy level is high enough I don�t notice a bit missing here or there.
I've been very close to this board for over 13 months now. Like Pam, I've seen moods swing, tempers flare, people come, people go, and herd mentalities ebb and flow. One thing I've learned is that no
