- How often do you go to the doctor's?
- When was the last time you felt unwell? What symptoms did you have?
- Do you have a healthy lifestle? Why (not)?
- When did you last have an accident? What happened? What were the consequences for your health?
- Have you ever had sports injuries? If so, what happened?
- Do you know anyone who gets migraines regularly?
- How often do you test your blood pressure?
- Have you ever come out in a rash after eating something?
- What makes you get a stiff neck?
- Have you ever had flu? What are the typical symptoms?
- Do you know anyone who suffers from insomnia?
- Antibiotics can cure a cold.
- Eating chocolate can cure acne.
- Cracking the joints in your fingers can cause arthritis.
- The less cholesterol you have, the better.
- Swallowing chewing bum is bad for you.
- Coffee is a drug.
To illustrate the point you can watch these are two videos from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the dangers smoking poses.
Brett's story
Amanda's story
Brett
I started smoking... I met a waitress at an all-night restaurant, and I was about 16 and she was about 18, and she was super cool, and she smoked.
So, I would go in the restaurant late at night and then sit there while she didn’t have any customers, and we would talk and we would smoke, and that’s how it started, which is funny, because I don’t remember her name, but now I have the legacy of that, you know, it sort of colored everything that I do.
But I don’t really think that I really considered it until it actually happened, until it actually happened. The first time that I had to lose two teeth, which, you know, doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but, it’s like, two teeth, okay, whatever.
And then, right after that, I lost another, I don’t know, 16, or something along those lines. And even at that point I was still smoking. And, you know, when you’re smoking, you love to smoke, and that’s the addiction. And, so you rationalize that, you justify it, to say, 'I love to smoke,' when it all kind of gets in the way of everything you do.
I guess, for me, you know, in youth, when I was smoking, people said, 'Well, you’re going to cut 10 years off of your life.' And I always said, 'Yeah, but those are the bad years at the end, what do I care?' But they’re not. It’s not 80 that all those things start happening. You’re not this feeble old man. But I don’t want to die from a smoking related illness. I... There’s a lot of ways to die out there, and I’ve seen smoking related illness, and that is not a good one. You know, you have a lot of years left ahead of you, and anything that you want to do in life, anything that you want to do, is better if you’re healthy.
Amanda
When I found out I was pregnant I was 24 years old, recently engaged, and a year away from student teaching in college, and still smoking cigarettes. I knew that smoking was bad, well, at any time, definitely, while you’re pregnant, but I didn’t think it would happen to me. I didn’t think I would have a premature baby. I thought everything was going to be fine.
It wasn’t. I went into an ambulance. I was very scared. I felt alone. I felt like I hurt my baby. When my daughter was born two months early, she had to be placed on a feeding tube.
I was not able to hold her. A couple... after she was about a week old, I was able to do skin-to-skin contact, but that was only for less than an hour a day. The only time I was allowed to touch her in her incubator was every four hours for a diaper change.
