just been diagnosed with COPD

Hi i have SALBUTAMOL they give me this last week it's a rescure inhaler but was told they can be smartly used in other ways such as 15 minutes before doing a strenuous activity, exercising or going out into the cold or heat. 

I would not beat yourself up about smoking i did it for 40 plus years and enjoyed every single one. and i know people who still smoke and had COPD for 20 plus years.

Hi Julie

It does suck to know that there are all those others - my mom & her siblings come to mind - who smoked longer and didn't get COPD, doesn't it? On the other hand, here in the States at least 25% of folks with COPD NEVER smoked nor worked in dangerous settings.

Julie, there's no point in beating yourself up about the past. You cannot change that past no matter how much self-flagellation you indulge regardless of whether that punishment is physical or mental. You can make yourself sicker, though, by constant fretting. You will also miss enjoying the rest of your life.

You have a choice: Be stuck in remorse or live your life. That fretting can become automatic, at which point it's a dangerous habit just as was the smoking. You are a strong woman with a good support system who overcame smoking on her own. Please don't let this new habit overtake you.

Good Old Oprah Winfrey used to quote someone: Forgiveness comes when we accept that we cannot change the past. You've got to forgive yourself, so accept that past. You smoked & now you've got a smoking-related disease. If not through this route, find some other way to keep moving forward. If you're religious, God's forgiveness is always there if we but ask for it.

Keep on trucking FORWARD!

Hi Julie!  I was what I called myself a "closet smoker".  Most people did not know I smoked.....only outside, at home.  AND, I only smoked off and on to about a pack a month, if even that. I completely quit 15 years ago when our daughter was pregnant.  My husband said "I want to see our grandchildren grow up".  That was TOTAL incentive for us.  We quit "cold turkey" and my husband had smoked pretty heavily for 44 years!!  But I....the closet smoker was the one to get COPD. I think there are a lot of environmental issues that are also causing COPD because it is being said there are millions of people walking around that do not even know they have COPD.  The man that lives next door to us smokes like a chimney and is always coughing, so I wonder about him.  But I guess that unless people really want to stop smoking, you can't force the issue.  My sister-in-law, that I love dearly has been a heavy smoker for 49 years.  When I was diagnosed, I told her about it and HOPED it would give her an incentive to quit....however she hasn't.  There have been several other smokers in the family that have quit and she is the only one that continues. I do not make people feel that I am better than they are if they don't quit but I do hope more and more people are giving it up. God bless us all....we need to hang in there together.  Hugs!!