Excellent piece, describing what it feels like, as a smoker, to be treated as a second-class citizen. I, too, am an ex-smoker, but fortunately I quit before smokers were getting as marginalized as they are today. Offices had things called “smoke-eaters” that (ridiculously) were supposed to help filter the smoke out of the office air.

We had only recently been required to designate “smoking areas” in an office. In ours, one of the smoking areas was our lunch room! Can you imagine?

When I got a promotion, with my own office, I was able to designate my office as a “smoking area”. I had to allow others come in to smoke, but it allowed me to smoke there, as well. When I stopped, I changed my office from a smoking area to the candy shop. I always had tons of hard candies I would suck on all day, and share with anyone who wanted candy. I got so sick of eating candy after a year, I went sugar free for awhile. I found lots of sugar-free alternatives.

I had tried stopping for about 11 years, and each time, I would just go crazy — really crazy. Finally, I was able to quit, but knowing how hard it was, I’ve always empathized with smokers. It did for me what your smoking does for you. You’re right — we all have our bad habits, addictions, etc, and as long as you’re careful not to invade a non-smoker’s space with unwanted smoke, there’s no reason to treat you any different than anyone else.

Thanks for sharing this perspective. Don’t let anyone make you feel less than the great person you are. (In my experience, sometimes the ex-smokers were the worse, with their self-righteous “if I can do it, so can you!” You never know what someone else is dealing with, so it’s best not to ever judge others for their habits. It’s what gets you through the day — leave it alone.