You may have MEANT health but you stated lung cancer.
I can confirm the “damage to health as reason for quitting”. But it is reasoning that begins with fear:
I know a number of people who have quit smoking permanently after many years of smoking. I am one but i will do myself last.
I’ll letter the people starting with a)
person a) thought he had a heart attack when he had weird heart beats and a tight chest and felt like passing out. He was certain it had to be the cigarettes that led to the problem and he instantly quit. An emotional decision, blaming cigarettes out of fear. But it turned out he had his first panic attack at the age of 57. Yet he kept not smoking any longer “just in case”.
person b) Needed to get stents implanted due to collapsing in the shower. It was a heart attack . She stopped smoking cigarettes by eating sugar-free lollipops and switching to flavored vape pens. She ended up having 3 more stents put in over the next few years but she continued not smoking cigarettes out of fear that smoking would make things worse.
person c) started having horrible coughing fits with sticky phelgm that never ended. Lasted for weeks and weeks, going on two months. Cut back smoking after three weeks of it, stopped completely after two months of coughing. By the third month and a month off cigarettes, the coughing and phlegm went away. No idea of the cause but continues not smoking out of fear of a repeat.
person d) Started getting horrible nose bleeds that did not stop. Just flowed and flowed. Had to go to the emergency room to get the nose packed full of gauze. Was told to stop until the bleeding went down.
After a few days, the fear of going through that again caused him to stop smoking completely. No idea what the cause of the bleeding was but cigarettes took the blame and he stopped smoking out of fear.
person e) me. I had a bad dental visit where the dentist pushed too hard with a wedge and cracked a tooth – did not admit it either. He made a poor repair on his mistake.
A month later, I was eating corn chips and CRACK it cracked in half.
I was in terror of getting a “dry socket” in the space that opened up in my mouth if I smoked so I instantly paused smoking at that moment.
I got an emergency repair a week later; continued pausing smoking.
I never really “quit” but I pause smoking daily, not having smoked in over two years.
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In no case that I know of has anybody quit smoking from fear of lung cancer but they have all quit because of OTHER health scares.
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I have given you actual cases instead of hypothetical thought experiment.
“Fear of a REPEAT problem”? Yes.
but from “fear of lung cancer”, not from anybody I know.
“Avoiding a risk” is acting out of fear. It may be a mild or extreme fear but it is still fear.
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I speak out of experience and knowledge.Removing lung cancer from your question is smart: it is a better question to speaking generally about health and NOT about lung cancer, because for health reasons _is_ TRUE in my experience:
Everybody I know that quit smoking without exception did so because of a health scare significant enough that smoking simply was not worth the potential of a repeated ALREADY experienced disaster.
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It is a shame you returned to lung cancer.
It was a bad example at the start.
It remains a bad example again.
1) I am claiming it is UNLIKELY for someone who is a regular smoker to see statistics about lung cancer and decide to quit on that basis.
If it is a person uncommitted to smoking? Perhaps. But someone who is addicted to smoking? No.
No.
2) The experience of a negative consequence comes first. Then the decision to quit out of fear.
I do not know of any exceptions to that.
Maybe in some other universe you may be correct but it goes entirely against my knowledge and experience.
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