Question For Young Smokers

This is targeted towards anyone around 40 or younger that smokes.

When I talk to older folks that smoke or smoked like my parents did they always say stuff like "We didn't know any better. If we had known the bad stuff about it to begin with we never would have started." Looking bad at the advertising and how the tobacco companies lied I can certainly understand it. However, I don't think that statement would be true. Why? Because people my age and younger smoke.

So my question to my generation and younger is why did you start smoking to begin with? You certainly knew better. The evils of tobacco has been all over the TV and radio and in schools since the late 80's.

So why would you start doing something that you knew not only effected you but everyone around you in a negative way? All the negative tobacco propaganda worked on me. So why not you?

I don't ask this in a condescending way. I just don't understand the reasoning of it.

I'm 41 now, I've smoked since I was 16. Did I know better... yes, I'm not gonna say I didn't. It was all around me, my Mom smoked, my friends smoked... I'm not even blaming peer pressure as a great majority of my friends were into the drug scene but I never touched any of that, although I did drink.
Why did exactly did I start smoking... I honestly couldn't tell ya.
I don't know if anyone could really say... this is why I started, and honestly all these years later I have no desire to quit other than the $$$ spent

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I'll be curious to see the responses this thread gets, as it's something I've never been able to understand either. Of course, my perspective on the subject was strongly skewed by the fact that my maternal grandfather died of lung cancer when I was 8. I only have the vaguest childhood memories of him, and I have tobacco to thank for it. Smoking was not something I was going to try.

I'm very interested in this as well. I do think being exposed to smoking in your family has a bearing on it. My mom has smoked pretty much all my life, with a few stretches when she 'quit'. My sister and I never picked up the habit, but my brother is a pack-a-day kind of guy.

Now, my boyfriend is a pretty heavy smoker. Both of his parents and all of his friends are/were big smokers. He's been saying he wants to quit for about the last 5 years. Especially after his dad died from complications of COPD, at the ripe old age of 42. That was two years ago, and he's still at a pack and a half a day...

I am 27 now and haven't smoked since 2007, i had smoked on and off since I was 16, it was mostly accompanied by drinking, however I really didn't start smoking daily until I was on deployment. When you are deployed you are constantly stressed out beyond belief. You have zero access to alcohol, they only thing you can generally get steadily is tobacco. However when I found out I was going to be a dad I quit. For me it was as simple as that.

Good topic OP!

MootWorm, yikes. :(

My family smokes... my parents and brother, and several relatives as well. I personally vowed to myself (apart from never starting to smoke - because I just couldn't nor do I want to) that I wouldn't be with someone who smokes. I don't mean this in any "oh I'm better than you blah blah blah" way... I simply couldn't handle the possibility of losing someone close to me, by a means that was definitely avoidable.
Like other people, I also get headaches around cigarette smoke. But the biggest thing for me would be losing someone important in my life... it has already happened, sadly, by a combination of habbits - including cigarettes.

I have asked my family members before why they started smoking. I could tell you that my brother started because of the crowd he hung with. He started working as a bouncer at our only town's bar at the age of 18, although he had smoked before then. But that is where he upped the anti, and began smoking regularly; as he puts it, everyone else smoked on their breaks and he wanted to be a part of it.

My parents both started in their late teens as well. They are in their 50's now, but I think they don't really have reasons... apart from "it was just the thing to do".

Im a smoker in my mid 20's, I staterted when I was 13. So safe to say I knew the risks, yet I still started. I think there is more than one reason I started. First I grew up around it, so it was a normal thing for me, second all my friends were trying it or already doing it, and last to rebel. Clearly not the best reasons to start, not that there is a good reason too. Now 11 years after I started I want nothing more than to quite. Ironically most of the friends I had at 13 when I started smoking have since quite.

Good topic. Thanks!

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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This is not productive at all. Anyone that smokes knows the risk, there is no need to bash anyone here. It is a personal decision, if I remeber correctly you have started quite a few posts that were random questions, which could have been answered with a google search that a few of these "stupid" people have helped you with multiple times. So think before you open you start flaming people.

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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Thank you for your opinion, but I'm actually quite smart. I understand people don't like it, and I respect that and don't smoke around them.
As stated... my Mom smoked from the age of 16 til she just passed away in August from an automobile accident. She was the healthiest person I know. My brother is 33 and the drs have given him til 35 to live, with a condition unrelated to tobacco.
It's a choice and crap happens everyday, as I said I respect people and I think every smoker should

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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This is extremely rude. I am not a smoker, but several of my family members and friends are. I don't like smoking, but you shouldn't attack people based on their lifestyle. It isn't hurting you.

But I pretty much don't take much from anything you say.

I started smoking as temporary relief from anxiety. I know the risks, and I know I'm addicted, but I know without the smokes I'd probably be addicted to the narcotic prescribed to me for panic attacks. So for me its the lesser of two evils. I intend to quit in the future, but I don't have the desire to do so just yet.

I also respect the wishes of my non-smoking acquaintances by not smoking around them, and unless I am explicitly invited to light up in the presence of other smokers, I refuse to smoke in the house or any indoor environment.

I'm a cigar smoker. I have never had a cigarette.

I had my first stick a few years back on vacation and found it enjoyable. Now I know the risks but eating right, working out, and overall taking really good care of myself I take the chance. I can't live my life and cut out everything I enjoy. I just try to do it in moderation.

I Usually only smoke when I drink but I rarely drink. Every once in awhile I will take a stick out and walk the dog but that's not common. If I guessed I probably smoke 5-8 cigars a years. But I have two humidors with about 150 cigars, maybe I'm a collector and not a smoker.

I have a very dangerous job and long ago I decided I was going to stop being so closed fist with life. That's why I have my toys (motorcycle, boat, cigars, etc), I try to enjoy my life fully and not get to the end and say I wish I'd done this or that. That said I'm not "stupid." I don't do wheelies, ride without a helmet or even find its top speed. My boat is for fishing and I don't drink when fishing, no BWI for me. Cigar smoking while bad I enjoy it in the amount I do it and I see this as acceptable.

Maybe I'm not really a smoker to some. Just sharing my thoughts on my choice.

When I was high school both my parents smoked, as did a number of my close relatives and family friends. I was very anti-smoking at this point in my life. Like I was the turd that would do things to peoples smokes and get up on the soap box about why they should quit smoking.

For example, I worked at a hotel that my best friends mom got me a job at. My best friend and I were known to pull pranks and stuff. We got this hair brained idea and took our head housekeepers smokes and put them through the the laminator and then put them back.

A couple years later I was doing my training for Fire Fighter 1 and a couple the guys were passing around a tin of dip and asked if I wanted some. Pretty soon I had my own tin with me at all times. A couple of years later, and several failed attempts to get hired on to a few local fire departments and I was still working at the hotel, only I was now the over night guy at the front desk. It was around bar close and figured no one was around so I went into the back room to have myself a dip, heard the front door open came out with dip lip and here was my manager. She yelled at me about how I couldn't do that while on the clock, but if I wanted I could take 10 minute smoke breaks every couple of hours. So I smoked over the course of the next few years just so I didn't have to deal with the possibility of getting in trouble over dip.

However at this point I am tobacco free since May 15.

I think its primarily a social thing.

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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And so are people that make comments like that. I started smoking back in '02...quit in '12 because of peer pressure from the wife. I dont know why I ever started, had my first one..liked it and a bunch more followed.

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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One reason would be to tick off sanctimonious :soapbx:'s like this.
Seriously, it makes one want to light up a nice Cuban and toss your Mensa membership offer and 186 IQ score sheet in their face.

Edit: My smoking may well save some people from a well deserved throttling too.

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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Be right back with you sonny..................

I started smoking when I was about 13 or 14, a friend of mine and I use to seal smokes from his step dad. To us it was cool because all the car guys around here smoked. About 3 years ago I stopped (Im 37 now) but not because I wanted to. My wife and I went out on the back porch like we did every morning and lit my Marlboro.......... it tasted like old yard clippings. Traded her for hers and it was just as bad. I don't know why but I have not had a smoke, a craving for one, and the smell doesn't bother me ever since that morning.

Now back to big bad dgring ;)........... I will be the first to admit that 99% or the people here have me beat in book smarts, I know I am stupid there. However when you want to come play in the grease with this doggy I can make you look and feel stupid too. I am not a "tech" (no offense to those of you that are), I hold myself at a higher level because I can actually diagnose without needing a scanner all the time as well as build my own engines if I need to piece one together.
It goes further than just under the hood, I don't pay anyone to fix anything around my house and its all above code too. ;)
Back on topic.........................

I started in high school, I literally have no idea why I started other than peer pressure. I quite when I was 18 when I found out I was pregnant…but I started smoking again a year after my son was born. Again, no idea why. Maybe boredom at work? It was easy to get off my feet for 5 minutes to smoke, so I did. Then AGAIN I quit while I was at basic training for the Air Force. I'm 25…I should have known better but I started again right after. I'm seriously considering quitting. I know I have to for good. I want to be around with my family as long as possible. I hate the hold it has over me :(

I was 12 when I started. My mom always smoked, as did multiple family members.

My mom was the person to give me my first cigarette. I was basically hooked.

I'll probably never smoke tobacco since nearly all my grandparents had a near death experience involving tobacco, and I'm not really pro tobacco either, but I don't hold it against anyone who is.
The only smoking that socially surrounds me is weed and e-cig tricks. That's what today's youth generation is doing, anyway.
A little off-topic, but is it bad if I like the smell of 2nd hand smoke?

Is it bad that i've always had a strong urge to try smoking just to prove i could quit cold turkey? People always say its so hard, i just wanna do it to say i did. Lol

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Is it bad that i've always had a strong urge to try smoking just to prove i could quit cold turkey? People always say its so hard, i just wanna do it to say i did. Lol

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Careful, cuz if they can't, what guarantees you can? :confuzd:

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Is it bad that i've always had a strong urge to try smoking just to prove i could quit cold turkey? People always say its so hard, i just wanna do it to say i did. Lol

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With tobacco the physical addiction is broken in only a few weeks and depending on the individual that can be a hard or fairly easy time.
I quit cold turkey for 18 months because I just didn't feel like smoking anymore.
The real problem is the psychological addiction, if you can beat your brain you can quit if you can't or cannot motivate yourself sufficiently you are going to have trouble.
I can't recall the source but, I think I did read the average quitter will try 4-6 times before succeeding.

Living in Canada the one thing that seriously rattles my cage is "Health Canada" the joke that it is is stopping any e-Cigs/E-Cigars with nicotine from entering the country as best they can. Because, they are not big pharma products i.e. big money and they are not tobacco products so they aren't taxed stupid. And, of course the tobacco which is widely available is sooooo much safer.
The same clowns that did not stop nickel, lead and, cadmium laced kids drinking glasses from China from being sold here because, "they were meant for display not actual use".

If you quit for a period of time and then resumed, you didn't actually quit. You took a break. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.

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Originally Posted by Kodieh

If you quit for a period of time and then resumed, you didn't actually quit. You took a break. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.

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That is about as logical as saying that anyone that ever starts anything has always done it.
It might sound catchy or "feel" right but, it is completely illogical.
You can quit driving for 10 years and take it up again, just like anything else.

I'm 35 now. I started smoking at 18 because there were two things I could do that day that I couldn't do the day before - rent a porno and buy cigarettes. So I did both!

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Originally Posted by dgring

Smoking is disguisting and horrible, anyone who does is soooooo stupid

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Theres an awesome thing about being an adult and making independent choices- you can make your own. If you don't want to smoke, that's great, you are not obligated to smoke.
If you do want to? Awesome, your money and your life and as long as you aren't being a butt (smoking around lots of people and in very tight spaces) that's your choice. It is not your place to call other adults stupid for making a choice that you are not. Their bodies, their health, absolutely none of your business


I would say for me its a habit not an addiction (I watch myself pretty carefully to try an avoid it developing into an addiction). I grew up with a smoker so I've always been exposed it and the first time was when i was 19 or 20... I primarily smoke when I'm out with friends and being social, or having a VERY bad anxiety night (which are fortunately very rare) or hookah with my roommates. Idk. I maybe go through a pack every few months so its not a normal thing

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Originally Posted by BrandiR

I'm 35 now. I started smoking at 18 because there were two things I could do that day that I couldn't do the day before - rent a porno and buy cigarettes. So I did both!

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:8::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Lots of responses. I appreciate the feedback.

The only thing that I can't agree with is someone said that it's not harming anyone else. That's not true. People can and do get cancer and other illnesses from second hand smoke. Which is why I get mad when I see people smoking in public or around kids. To me that shows a person has no regard to the health of those around them.

Otherwise, keep them coming.

started because in high school it was "cool." it was also cool to pop your collar. -_-

now.. vape life! XD

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/19/hatevyma.jpg

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Originally Posted by Raven01

That is about as logical as saying that anyone that ever starts anything has always done it.
It might sound catchy or "feel" right but, it is completely illogical.
You can quit driving for 10 years and take it up again, just like anything else.

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You didn't quit though, quitting is never doing it again.

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Originally Posted by Kodieh

You didn't quit though, quitting is never doing it again.

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As to not start an argument, I'm just going to add that I think "quitting" is subjective to everyone. Your definition may be stopping forever, someone elses may be stopping for a period of time.

Kind of like, for me, I quit playing badminton and volleyball once I got out of highschool, but I'll still play a game or match with my friends if there's an opportunity. I don't know if that really applies to smoking... but just "quitting" in general :P for me, at least!

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Originally Posted by TheSnakeGeek

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/19/hatevyma.jpg

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*grabby hands* Gimme.

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It's extremely rare that I smoke and usually when I do I am around family that is smoking. Second hand smoke is worse than actually smoking so any issues I develop will more than likely be from that than the 4-5 I've actually smoke so far in my life.

I almost started smoking when I turned 18 though. I was having issues coming to terms with the fact that I was legally an adult. I didn't feel any different and had already been living on my own for a few months so it just didn't seem like a big step. Buying a pack of cigarettes was something I couldn't do before so I decided I was going to buy a pack to prove to myself that I was an adult. It sounds stupid looking back on it now, but at the time it made sense to me. I never got to smoke the whole pack because my boyfriend at the time threw a huge fit and it wasn't worth the fight. I am thankful for that now. Keeping reptiles is expensive enough for me without buying cigarettes, buying them for my sister before she got a job out here was horrible and she was smoking less then because I wouldn't buy her more than a pack a week.

Did not read all of the responses but I used to smoke:

It is cool

It is a way to alter brain chemistry in a way that feels nice and can be done legally and throughout the day / anywhere

Most young people do not give a crap about their health until 30ish, at which point they've either quit or resigned themselves to being smokers because they lack the will power and motivation to quit

I smoked from the time I was 16 up until 2 weeks ago when I switched to a vape, which is a great alternative in my opinion.
My mom smoked, as well as the group of friends I hung out with, it was cool back in highschool. At least we thought it was.
I quit because I wanted too, I was tired of hacking and coughing, not to mention the cost of cigs here in washington.
when I see/hear comments like smokers are stupid, or they shouldn't be able to smoke outside in public places it does make me want to start again just out of spite. Smokers have been relegated to having to smoke 20 feet away public entrances, can't smoke inside, get dirty looks and rude comments about their habits. Folks need to get off their soapboxes, smokers for the most part do their best not to offend others with their habit, so cut them some slack!

I'm 28 and while I've tried a cigarette or two I dislike them. I don't like the smell or anything to do with it. My mom and dad smoked and my sisters as well and so it was all around me, but I still chose not to do it. I think more kids do it to try to fit in and be "cool" to be honest, and some of them get addicted. I never got into drinking or anything like that to be honest either.

As another personal preference I don't allow smoking in my vehicle or I won't ride in a car where somebody is smoking or intends to smoke. I don't do it to be mean or anything, I just seriously dislike the smell and I don't want to smell like cigarettes at all. I think the only pleasant smell is the first few seconds of when a cigarette is lit then after that it's awful. I've dated a few girls who smoked and while I'm okay with that but a heavy smoker would be a major turn off, not to mention if the girl I'm with smokes and wants to kiss me then she's got to brush her teeth or something. I can taste that stuff when I kiss somebody and I dunno, I may just seem picky but would you want to somebody if they're breath smelled like something that got you feeling ill?