I'm 31 and my father just died at 48 years old from a heart attack that was at least partially due to his couple pack a day habit..
Even now, at 31, I wake up every morning (and go to bed every night)
wishing I could gather up the willpower to finally quit.. Morning and night are when the breathing is worst.. I also watched my grandpa die from cigs as well, and it drove me insane that idiot cigarettes changed him from a healthy 12-hour-a-day welder into a shambling mess that could barely draw enough breath to walk himself to the bathroom..
So, at the very least, you must at least
pretend to quit gaming. As you said, gaming got you through some tough times, which is true. On the other hand, smokers feel like cigs get
them through hard times, which is very, very false :> Spending four or five dollars on some chemical-laced plant that violently tries to kill you by destroying your only way to intake oxygen
has never, and will never, solve a problem or provide comfort 
Anyway,
pretend to give up gaming. Because if your parents are average humans they won't be able to just flawlessly drop cigs out of their lives without a few slip-ups.. Unless your gaming is leading to your grades being low or your dog starving from being ignored, then your game playing isn't harmful in any way (and is a time-passing hobby, the exact same as reading a book, or painting, or watching TV, or hiking.)
I can see where they're coming from, though.. Gaming to you is a second nature.. You've got your daily schedule, something like this: pop out of bed, take a crap, grab some food, play some DF. Now Imagine if you hopped out of bed, took your crap, got some food, and then you
couldn't play DF. Yes, DF is sitting right there, fully accessible. Yes, you playing DF won't ruin anyone else's life. Yes, DF (or gaming in general) is a long-time ingrained part of
who you are, and for it to suddenly come up missing is a disorienting, if not terrifying, experience..
Its the same with cigs.. The same gut-fear you feel about giving up games (good, fun, entertaining GAMES!) is the exact same feeling they have towards their cigs (good, fun, old friend CIGS!)
And cigs are sitting right there, or at least they're at the nearest gas station. They're
there, they
won't kill anyone if one of your parents has a cig, its an ingrained part of
who they are, and that is terrible in itself.
Quitting smoking is something like losing a limb.. You get that ghost itch. You'll have quit for two whole months and still find yourself unconsciously patting around looking for your cigs and then remember,
"Ah, I quit.." 
You'll see other people smoking, or worse,
smell it, and it'll be like your whole battle against them resets.. Its
hard.. 131 extra additives and chemicals see to that..
And another thing I can say from experience: those cigs
will kill your parents, I swear it. Unless something hammers them even earlier, those cigs will drive the air from their lungs and make them into fish out of water, and its a slow, miserable, gasping process. Embarrassing. Disgusting. My grandfather got
exhausted from eating a fried egg sandwich, to where he'd have to sleep for a while just from the raw energy and hard breathing it took to close his mouth and
chew..
If you love them, you'll do whatever it takes to help them (even if you sneak over to Jimmy's house and play DF like your hair is on fire!). And they may fail. Until you've had your own addiction like that its pretty hard to understand just how
evil it is, how
itchy it is.. Its a lot like your nose itching, but not scratching it.. It feels
unnatural not to scratch, but quitting smoking requires you to leave that uncomfortable itch alone :| They're showing a high level of bravery to even
try quitting, so you can be proud in that alone
Lastly, to anyone that does read this and doesn't smoke: DON'T.
EVER.. Smoke some weed before you smoke a cig.. I've smoked weed daily for a year longer than I've smoked cigs (16 years of daily weed, 15 years of daily cigs..), and I've
quit smoking weed twice for over a year in that time period.. Quitting weed was
easy,
EAAAASY, compared to cigarettes. Also, you don't "feel anything" from cigs after the first week of smoking (and what you feel in that first week is nothing, anyway..).. After a couple months of smoking the only thing you "feel" is simply the urge to smoke that next cig, nothing more. Itchy, murderous urge.
I'm 31 years old and have no grandparents left already. All but one dead to cigs, and the only one that lived past 65 years old was the only one who didn't smoke. Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars and cigs
gone throughout my life and I've got
nothing to show for it except for the financial and health damage. If I live as long as my dad did I've only got 17 years left.
That's not very long, measured in DF-playing-time :|
Author
Topic: Giving Up Gaming (Read 3645 times)