Smokers why did you start smoking?

Galloping stupidity in my case. I gave it up while still in my twenties – haven’t smoked since.

I started smoking when I drank. Then I started smoking when I got stressed. Now I just smoke. No big deal.

I ask smokers that question whenever I watch them jump through a hoop and pay six bucks to get cigarettes. Not one of them has had an answer more compelling than @DarkScribe ‘s. Every one of those people knew it was death, and most of ‘em hated the first puff, so what the hell.

A friend once offered this: “Look, I know you wish your drug of choice were available in supermarkets, but it’s not, and you still look over your shoulder every time you buy it. They can get their fix wherever and whenever they want.”

When I started everyone smoked, there was no stigma and no dire warnings were attached. And smoking really is nice. I have not had one in 20 years but if they decided tomorrow it was all a big mistake and it really isn’t bad for you, I would start again immediately, damn the cost (and by the way in Australia, I think it is about 7 or 8 dollars for a pack of 10 and double that for 20, they have all size packs here).

When I started they were about 25 cents a pack in Virginia, that seemed to be one of the cheapest states except in the deep south where the tobacco was grown.

Now I must admit, I can’t stand the smell of the stale smoke on someone’s clothes or even more disgusting, their breath!

yeah I’ve been freaking out about the smell. Even though I’m19 I live in my parent’s house and my mom said if she ever found out I was smoking she’d cut out my tongue. I’m not too upset about paying for my camel menthol no. 9 (5.33 a pack) though I don’t understand people who pay like 6.80 for a pack that seems outlandish.

I no longer smoke but I started when I was only 10. I think it was because my parents had quit and I was already addicted to the second hand smoke. I quit when I was 29 or 30

I started to smoke cigarettes because I become obsessed with French writers like Grillet and Camus and they smoked and I wanted to be just like them. I switched to cloves because I felt that they would have smoked them if they had the chance. I then started smoking cigars to be more like a man. Finally, I just started smoking out of a pipe because people such as Mark Twain and Albert Einstein felt that smoking a pipe greatly enhanced they’re cognitive capabilities.

I had a hard childhood. I used to go to my grandmother’s house to get away from my parents. My grandparents both smoked. Typically, I’d go over to their house when I was stressed or had experienced some type of traumatic event. Smoking always seemed like it relaxed and calmed my grandparents, so I tried it. Turns out they worked.

I no longer smoke and I really miss it.

Because I was young and foolish and my reasoning was somewhat in the line of:

“Why are all these people smoking and at the same time telling me that I shouldn’t? There must be something that they don’t tell me! I tried my first cigarette and it doesn’t seem dangerous at all. In fact it doesn’t seem to be very jice either. this can never be addictive. There must be something thre… Whatever it is, I now belong to those people that are just doing what they want to do, regardless of being told not to.”

I found out a little later that there is truly nothing there and smoking just gets you hooked. A smoker feels the same as I do now, after having quit, but only after h smokes a cigarette. A smoker feels poor when he doesn’t smoke. A smoker needs a cigarette to just feel normal and thinks the cigarette makes him feel good.

Most smokers will warn those that are non-smokers and these will just not believe that smoking has no benefits, while still all these sentient, nice people smoke.

I started when I was 13. Why? To be cool, I guess. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I am 42, and have tried to quit several times. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy smoking. But if I had it to do all over again, I’d have never smoked that first one. Do yourself a favor and quit while you’re ahead. Please.

I have never, ever smoked. The reason I have never smoked was when I was in 5th grade, we took a tour of a cigarette manufacturing facility as part of our state studies unit (major state industry). When we got to the filter manufacturing area, they had these large vats that looked like huge cotton candy machines, spinning the filter material. The tour guide explained that the steel vats had to be replaced every six months because the filter material ate through the steel and weakened it. If the filter was supposed to be a good component of the cigarette, it was a little scary that it could eat through stainless steel.

The second reason that I never smoked was that I noticed that people seemed to be controlled by their smoking habits. The addiction is a control. I had very controlling parents, and the idea of being controlled by something that was not interested in my best interests was not appealing.

That being said, both my daughters smoked and have quit. My oldest said that she has a strong oral fixation, and even before she started smoking had dreams about smoking. My youngest started as a way to keep her hands busy and control her frustration at waiting.

All that being said, there is an excellent, excellent book on the topic, Cigarettes are Sublime by Richard Klein that explores smoking as a culturally embedded ritual. It’s a fascinating read, for both smokers and non-smokers alike. Smoking does provide a calming effect for people; they were handed out to soldiers in WWII and that is when engineering the chemical composition of cigarettes began as an industry standard.

I am 20 years old and I don’t smoke. I don’t know why this particular cultural ritual missed me as my only parent smokes and she was never one to scream at me not to smoke while taking a puff. I think parents who do that are being stupid about it. If my mother had told me that while she was a smoker, I probably would have had @whitenoise‘s response. My mom would occasionally tell me that she thought I shouldn’t smoke and that she admits she wishes she hadn’t started. That was it. There were no lectures, not yelling, no telling me I was going to die if I smoked, just gentle suggestions. Guess what? Those worked the best. I have never had a cigarette and nor do i ever wish to try them.

@frdelrosario: Give your friend some lurve from me. Sounds like a very smart person.

I no longer smoke, but did start when I was probably 12 or 13. Mainly stealing cigarettes, and then I continued to smoke off and on until I was 19. Only consistant when I was 17–19. I never got addicted, I did it I guess to be “cool,” and never got physically or mentally addicted. Sometimes I just want to take a drag, but I find the smell to be disgusting. I also can’t be near people who smoke, because I can’t breathe (it’s different when I’m doing it).

When he was 12, my boyfriend’s mom caught him smoking pot and thought it was cigarettes, he went with that and eventually got up to a couple of packs a day. He quit in his late 20’s after spending months on a ventilator. He does not recommend breaking one’s neck as a way to kick the habit.

When I was a teenager cigarettes were incredibly cheap and (I thought) all the cool kids smoked. I tried to do it but every time I inhaled I got a horrible stomach ache. I was lucky because I kept me from acquiring the habit.

Stupidity and the idea that being rebellious is fun.

Fourteen years later I’ve realized that being a better athlete, having thousands more spending money (thousands, maybe?), not having to leave a situation due to needing a cigarette, not having my parents worry about my health, and having fewer premature wrinkles would have been way more fun.

I had my first cigarette when I was 7. (I didn’t inhale then!) I continued with my “pretend” smoking, “borrowing” from my older brother (Lucky Strikes non filter) or my parents (they smoked a non-filter brand called “Cavalier”). I started in earnest when I was about 12, caving in to peer pressure. 22 years later, after several attempts lasting anywhere from a day to several months, I finally stopped smoking. That was 1981, and I’ve been smoke free ever since, except for the rare cigar on special occasions (not inhaled).

Started because it was cool and peer pressure.
Stopped because I didn’t want my kids to see me smoke and think it was ok.

Haven’t smoked for 16 years. Eldest son now 17.

I just re read your question and I just can’t help but ask, “are you nuts?” you just bought your first pack of cigarettes and your already calling yourself a smoker and asking why people start?
Do you have any idea how hard it is to get this minkey off your back once it’s firmly attached itself? Do you know how many if us wished we could go back to this day on our lives and slap ourselves silly?
Tear up what ever is left of that first pack and go brush your teeth! It’s a disgusting habit that will end in shame stink illness or maybe even death.
Quit now before you go through the pain and heart ache so many if the rest of us have!

I’m on the iPhone and can’t edit well please excuse my typos. I was in a rant and my fat fingers were trying to work to fast.

THROW THEM AWAY!!!
I started smoking just to be cool and now I can’t quit! Get out now!!!

My mother started to smoke in her mid-twenties. She was the only female research engineer at the plant and she hoped it would make her look older and thus enhance her authority.

My husband started smoking when he was nine mostly because he could and he thought it made him look “cool.”

In both cases, this was decades before the Surgeon General’s warning. Both have since stopped smoking, but both still feel the consequences. My mom has full-blown emphysema and my husband has COPD.

And I’m with @Judi: Are you nuts?! Stop now while you still can!

I’ve always been curious about everything! Sometimes it does turn out to be a bad thing.
That’s the reason why I first smoked cigarettes, to see what they would be like..

@seventeen123 I’ve always been curious about everything! Sometimes it does turn out to be a bad thing.

When did your curiosity regarding cancer first arise?

@DarkScribe
– Curiosity sometimes motivates you to try things even if you know the consequences. Ecspecially when you’re young & feel invincible.

Nicotine extends the duration of positive effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The brain reward centers love it.

Only trouble is eventually smokers need the nicotine just to feel normal again counteracting the negative effects of nicotine absence.

Starting to smoke is one of the stupidest things young people can do.

Find out what cigarettes are like two or three times, then file the experiment into your experience department with the label, nice try, but no thanks.

I started just because i wanted to see what it felt like to be addicted. i wanted to prove everybody wrong that quitting would be easy. here i am 2 years later and addicted. i cant tell you how many times i’ve bought a pack, smoked a few and threw the rest away, telling myself i’m quitting, and i find myself buying a new pack a couple days later doing the same thing. i smoke anywhere from 2–10 a day. i can go about 3–4 days without smoking before i feel that urge to smoke again and give in.

Experimenting with everything and everything is what we do. The problem comes in when we start something and don’t understand addiction. I stopped when I got it together that it was an external force invading me and I could and did push it back. It takes two cigarettes to wire the brain for addiction to nicotine, which is the most addictive drug on the planet.