I just realized that I’ve lit up 75 cigarettes in the past 20 hours, and have consumed 20 beers in the last 12 hours.
I just turned 45 years years old, and i think I’ve been doing this every other day (on an average) for the past 24 to 25 years. I have most of my teeth left, minus 4 or 5, and i still seem to be able to do my job fairly well when I’m there. I do call in drunk frequently (once a week), but when I’m there, I’m good.
Is this even possible?
I know it’s not, so how much longer would you give a guy like me?
I wouldn’t be interested in participating in a death pool on you, so instead I’ll tell you about a good friend of mine:
Got drunk every night starting in his teens, and was around your age when he hit bottom, started going to AA meetings, and there met people willing to help him create a life for himself. It took him a few tries, but he finally got sober and spent the next ten years living pretty well.
And if he’d only ever gotten a thorough checkup by a physician, he’d likely still be alive today.
Tell me more about this job. I’m curious who puts up with that. Most jobs, even crappy jobs I had in high school, would send anyone packing who called in once a week.
As far as your smoking, and how long you’ll get away with it, I’ll predict that you are not going to enjoy your 77th year on the planet. Hey, you asked.
You can shorten your life to later this afternoon if you want. You can keep doing what you’re doing and the odds are heavily against you going another 15 years, and it might be a bunch shorter than that. Or you can change lifestyles and live to 75-ish like an average Joe.
Your choice. Rest assured nobody on Earth cares half as much as you do.
I had a best friend, also a coworker, who was the second most brilliant person I’d ever met. He immersed himself in a wide variety of subjects and just picked things up immediately. But he was a heavy drinker, a heavy smoker, ate lots of unhealthy food, never got exercise, never saw a doctor unless something was very wrong. He died at 50, of the effects of alcoholism.
Interestingly right about 45 or 50 is the tipping point where your immune system warranty runs out for hard drinkers and smokers. And unfortunately it’s not like you’re going to be able to recover if you stop right now.
The next few years should be interesting for you. Everyone is immortal until they’re not.
I worked with “Don”. He was 8-10 years older then I.
Every day, after work, a largish group of us went to the local dive for 3-4 hours.
Some of us smoked. Don’t remember if Don did.
He was 30-40 pounds too heavy, and the only exercise any of us knew he got was bending his elbow.
When I was 45, someone asked me if I remembered Don (I left the group 10+ years earlier).
It seems that, when the shop moved to nearer the new boss’s home, Don drove the 40 miles a day and stayed in his home.
There was a toll bridge. Don had a massive heart attack while waiting at the toll plaza*.
No surprise there.
Here is what the OP needs to consider:
He did not die.
He “hung on”, flat on his back in a hospital for a goddamned YEAR before succumbing.
Then again, Don was a mid-level manager. He didn’t get to call in drunk.
As for smoking: I smoked for 23 years. I timed myself at 6 minutes per smoke. For you to go through 70 in 8 hours, you are lighting one from the butt of the previous one, aren’t you?
yes, the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge Toll Plaza. Don lived in SF. He didn’t even get to die in SF - he was taken to a Walnut Creek hospital where he stayed until death.
You must do something irreplaceable at your job, because there aren’t many employers who would stand for a worker taking off once a week. I won’t try to predict how many years of life you have left, but suppose your boss does get fed up?
How will you pay for all those cigarettes and beer?
IANA smoker now or then, but back in the day I watched quite a few.
I knew some nervous sorts who’d light one, suck it heavy for a minute or two, then stub it out half-used and fire up another one a minute later. It was like they couldn’t make up their mind whether to smoke or not and the nicotine fluctuations from minute to minute changed their mind for them. The look on their face went from “Blech! This tastes like crap!” as they were stubbing one out to “Ahhh! Blessed drugs!” when they inhaled the first puff of the next. Quite a rollercoaster.
It was a weird thing to watch. And however expensive smokes were/are, this habit roughly doubled the cost. It seemed pretty consistent though: any given smoker either did this all the time, or had a totally different routine.
Four packs of cigs in a day is well over $20. Plus the beer expenses. So either you make a decent amount of money and are literally pissing it away and sending it up in smoke, or you’re deep in debt and getting worse.
OTOH, if you do have any life insurance you should PM me. I can arrange a nice viatical settlement so you can cash it out early and spend it on more cigs & beer.
Back in grad school I roomed with a med student for three years. When he first arrived, he weighed about 200 pounds. He told me that 9 months prior, he had weighed 380 pounds. No bullshit, he showed me a pic. He had turned things around all by himself, getting regular exercise and eating less (and less shitty) food. He seemed on his way up in life, but after maybe a year and a half, he developed depression and a sense of self-loathing, and began deliberately overeating, fattening himself up. The last time I saw him (maybe a year after he moved out), I’m pretty sure he was over 300 pounds again. A sad case; he was one of the smartest guys I knew, and if he’s still alive, I bet he’s a great anesthesiologist.
So what’s driving your behavior? is it deliberate self destructiveness? Instant gratification (pleasure now, early grave be damned)? Addiction? Do you have any interest in adopting a healthier lifestyle with a goal of living longer and enjoying better quality of life in your later years, or is this thread strictly about placing bets on how much time you’ve got left (my guess is 5-10 years at most, and they won’t be good ones)?
I have two friends, both just turned 60. One has been a chain smoker all of her life (probably started smoking en utero!) and a heavy drinker. The other fiddled around with smoking in her teen years and is a light social drinker.
Friend one looks like a very dry, very old paper sack – she could easily pass for 80-years-old. Friend two looks great. YMMV, genetics, and so on, but to me there is a strong correlation to smoking/drinking like a stack/fish and aging early and hard.