My mother in law smokes a pack a day, and her cough sounds like she's struggling for her last breath?

Question

She's not on any machines. She's in her late 50's.How can I confront her to show her I care, and think she should stop. She just went out the door for another cig as I type this.

Answer 1

When people smoke for a year they get 8 ounces of  tar in there body. One cigar can waste 7 minutes of a person's life. Smoking makes your teeth weak and yellow. Smoking can cause cancer because when you smoke your blood gets weaker and dirty that the heart has to work harder because when blood gets weaker blood is not energy anymore to the heart that you have less blood energy in your body.

Answer 2

explain to her that u cnt take it anymore u lov her and u dnt want her to die. she has to stop and that she is not helping the family out. shes giving u guys worrires. and also tell her exactly wut u tld us. =] hope it helps!

Answer 3

If she is this bad already she will soon be struggling for her last breath.  My father died from emphysema, which is progressive, meaning it just gets worse and worse.  Your mother-in-law probably has it, and she might be lucky to last 5 more years.  She probably knows she should stop, but will not unless forced.  We went through this with my father, and he went on smoking until he had to be connected to oxygen.

Answer 4

Tough one. She may not want to quit.

I smoked for years... and had that cough going on. There was nothing anyone could do or say to keep me from smoking.

That was until a good friend of mine came over and left me a letter letting me know why she wanted me to at least consider it. I'm not sure why it was, but I did a lot more than consider it... I did it.

Write her a heart felt letter... you can even leave it in a book about quitting smoking written by Allen Carr. Confronting her will only make her defensive.

Answer 5

Start preparing for her funeral.

Answer 6

take her by any cancer treatment center and ask any lung cancer patient if they regret smoking..all will say yes.

Answer 7

You can do nothing. Smokers hate their habit, and deep down wish they could kick it. But it is too addicting. If you, or anyone, says anything, the smoker will take that frustration out on that person. If she decides she wants to quit, she'll need support. But otherwise, you won't get anywhere.

Answer 8

I'm sorry, but she sounds like a hard core smoker.  Those nicotine addicts are hopeless.  The only one who will be able to get your Mother-in-Law to quit is your Mother-in-Law.  I've had aunts, uncles, in-laws, and adult children who have become addicted.  My dad would smoke up until his early 60's then he made himself quit because he got tired of the cough.  He did so just in time and lived for another 20 years.

Answer 9

there is not much you can do at this point.

my dad smoked right up to the day he was admitted to the hospice.

morphine patches did not ease the pain, his last breath was in agony, but he refused to quit smoking... he was 52.

Answer 10

she smokes outside that's cool, she needs to figure out for herself when to stop smoking and nobody needs to tell her when, i  know i was a smoker myself and everybody and their dog wa bugging me!!

Answer 11

Everyone here has offered good advice ... and you may want to try any or all of it .... personally, as a smoker, I would say that unless she actually wants to give up then she won't - and all the nagging and anti-smoking malarkey is just going to make her worse and more determined .... she probably smokes even more because she's being nagged and made to feel like a 'sinner'! .... try helping her - there are things like a cigarette holder than filters out more of the tar in a cigarette without taking the taste away .... or maybe she could try just smoking half a cigarette at a time .... perhaps she can time herself so that she only has a cigarette every 30mins, then lead on to every hour, then every hour and a half, then two hours..... the point I'm making here is that all that time she's not being nagged about having a smoke the more likely she is to try other methods of cutting down ... I know from experience that I can go all day without a cigarette - so long as I know I can have one if I really want it ....perhaps she could try drinking a glass of water for every other cigarette .... that knowledge makes it easier to put off having one until I really do want it - and then I only smoke half at a time .... that time gap makes a difference and although only small - will make a difference to her health .....

Answer 12

begin by telling her that you aren't comfortable around smoking. Do you have kids? if so, tell her she is a bad influence on them. Then after a while, considering that probably won't help, tell her that she will not be able to come over any longer if she continues. (make sure while you are telling her these things that you add that you care about her and your afraid she wont last longer) If that STILL doesn't help, begin taking her cigarrettes away one pack at a time. If she smokes as much as you say, i'm sure she stocks up. Take away one or two packs a day. Take more and more away every time she restocks. Then, start taking her lighters. Torture her!!!! lol.

This sounds horrible, but it worked for my friends dad who also smoked a pack a day. Now he's almost smoke free. We are still working on it, but he doesn't smoke nearly as much!! he went from a pack a day to a cigarette a day!!

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Abangjeff T may have been joking for the whole funeral thing, but he has a point. Start planning for it, and if she asks what your doing, tell her. Then explain to her that your afraid shes gonna die soon because she smoking so much!!