If you smoke or used to smoke, why did you start smoking?

[raccoon]

Current and former smokers, please share your stories.

I’ll start.

It was the late 1960s. I was an unpopular and depressed teenager. I thought it would make me look cool and grown-up.

More important, it made me feel better. As I’ve said, I was depressed. And smoking really made me feel better. It gave me a lift. It made me less depressed.

15 years later, I quit because I was on the pill and they said it was bad to smoke if you are on the pill. It was harder to quit smoking than it was to quit drinking, which I quit later on.

Now I take a very dim view of smoking. Unfortunately there are lots of smokers in my state (SC), because cigarettes are so damn cheap. I wish the state would raise the taxes.

Somebody in another thread mentioned how some smokers reek of the smell of tobacco smoke. Their clothes smell, and you can smell it several feet away from them.

When I was smoking, I was oblivious to that. I thought when other people didn’t like cigarette smoke that they were being silly and making a big fuss over nothing. It was amazing how much denial I was in about smoking.

This thread https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215327460#post23. motivated me to start my thread.

[Midnight Writer]

1. Started at 14. Being cool. Fitting in.

Was working on a de-tasseling crew and the other guys all smoked on their breaks, so I joined in.

Quit for good at the age of 60.

[DenaliDemocrat]

2. I hung around smokers

And picked up the habit. I am weird though and could quit cold turkey for six months, smoke for six, then quit again for a month. I never really had withdrawals.

I quit for good when I had a spinal fusion 15 years ago. Now I will smoke a cigar once in a blue moon and will smoke an occasional pipe. I don’t inhale either if I do.

[Moostache]

3. 1987 - 2009 smoked at least a pack a day every day...

I started because my friends and I had fathers that smoked and we stole cigarettes from them at first. We'd get together in the woods or on side streets and thought it was cool. Plus I got high off of the nicotine. It was not long before I was stealing tins of dip and chewing tobacco and eventually started buying both when they were dirt cheap in the 80's.

Cigarettes were $0.99 a pack and a tin of Kodiak chew was $1.50.
As I got older, cigarette and chewing tobacco prices steadily climbed, but while I quit chewing in 1990, I continued to smoke for another 19 years to satisfy that nicotine craving. Even the year I quit, I would occasionally catch a nicotine "buzz" off of a morning smoke.

It was the diagnosis of small cell renal carcinoma at age 37 that led to me finally quitting - cold turkey that day, well - I did use the nicotine gum to ween off but have not had a single cigarette since that day.

I am currently starting to have some additional health concerns (not sure if they are kidney-related yet or not) that I fear may be residual from those 22 years of smoking non-stop; but had I kept smoking, it would have likely already been game over for me. I was lucky once with an early, freakish diagnosis of my cancer - had I not been smacked in the face with that when my youngest was 6 months old, I would likely still be rationalizing the habit and smoking away to this day.

Cheap, easily accessible cigarettes are a major factor in people starting, nicotine addiction keeps them hooked and social reinforcement and habit make it insanely difficult to get out of the habit.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. It was a trend back then and I was kind of rebelling against my parents.

I was 18 and away from home at college.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

5. Started in in high schoole

A lot of friends smoked. Really now reason I started other then that. Continued while deployed because they were cheap and readily available and I had plenty of time to smoke. Continued for a couple years after I got out and slowly quit over the course of a year. Now I enjoy the occasional cigar, maybe 3-4 a year at most.

[KarenS]

6. I was 13,,,, I liked it,,,, or thought I did,,,,

I smoked for 55 years,,,,, Had a COPD exacerbation,,,,, quit cold turkey (never cheated) at little more than 3 years ago.
kinda one of those scared straight moments. I do like not smelling like smoke,,,,,

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

7. For me, I wanted to do something kind of bad

I was getting some dental work done, once a week, over a period of about 8 weeks. I was this somewhat perfect kid, 15 years old, good grades, piano recitals, perfect pitch singing, obedient kid.

Every week I’d ride the bus after school to my dentist appointment. My dentist was on the 4th floor, but on the third floor was a room of vending machines, including a cigarette vending machine. I’d buy a pack, hey, it even came with matches, 50 cents. After the dentist, I’d walk around, downtown, smoking. Being bad. Before I’d get back on the bus, I’d give the rest of the pack away, to one of the beggars in Hemming Park.

Sigh. I foolishly believed I controlled it and that once my dental trips were completed, that would be that. I’m 65, I quit when I was 54.

[Deuxcents]

8. I started at 25-26

Was just divorced n my friends all smoked. I bought a pack n practiced in front of the mirror to look cool. Now, most of my friends who smoked have quit n I have stopped many times but backslide at times.

[a kennedy]

9. I had smoked at 15, 16, but really didn't start paying for them until I was 18 so, I'd say I started

at 18.

[OriginalGeek]

10. I remember trying smokes in 6th grade

My friend and I would sneak unfiltered pall malls from his dad's packs and we thought we were so cool. Then we figured out if we went up to the nearby grocery store and said we had to pick up smokes for our dad they'd sell them to us (it was maybe a quarter for a pack??)

Then we moved and I lost touch with that friend and and I started being forced to go to church and then to a religious high school and nobody smoked because it was a sin. I didn't miss it and frankly don't even remember wanting to smoke during high school.

Then I finally got sick of religious bullshit and graduated high school at 17 and moved out a few months later. Got a job and new friends and everybody smoked so I started smoking too.

by my mid/late 30s I was up to 3 packs a day when I finally said "enough." It cost too much and made me feel like shit and everyone around me had already quit so I was the odd man out holding people up while I grabbed a quick smoke. My company made me an offer I couldn't refuse by subsidizing the cost of patches for all employees and it was cheaper than cartons of cigarettes so I got on the patch and in about 3 months had completely quit smoking and on 4/20/2002 I stubbed out my last butt.

I miss it every day.

But I'm not going back to cigarettes.

I will smoke 2 or 3 nice cigars a year.

And as soon as I am no longer beholden to a random pee test I will get my Medical Cannabis card and start smoking weed on occasion. My wife just last week bought me a cool a Rick and Morty bong to save until that glorious day.

[Towlie]

11. One reason you won't hear is that someone started out smoking pot.

 
←

Smoking pot is generally not a pleasant experience, especially when holding the smoke in to get the most effect. Nobody enjoys holding their breath, and it's especially uncomfortable when fighting an urge to cough. It's done solely to ingest the drug, and is a very different experience from smoking tobacco. I doubt that it's ever a factor.

[LakeArenal]

24. Not a pleasant experience? Say what.

I only smoke pot. In 50 years, I only have a cumulative 60 days or so without smoking pot. I love it.

I’ve been a wake a baker for 40 years.

[jmbar2]

12. Smoked pot before cigs

I carpooled to high school with a bunch of kids who smoked pot on the way to school (1971). They told me that if I smoked a menthol cigarette afterwards, I would get even higher.

Later, one of the cool kids said that I didn't know how to smoke cigarettes - I was smoking them like pot. He said I'd trash my throat that way.

I gave up Kools, but continued to smoke until 1999. Still feel bad about all the people I offended with my smoking for all those years.

[Hoyt]

13. In 1960s, roughly half of people smoked. Remember sitting in class at a major college chain smoking

along with a bunch of other students. No one said a word, because almost everyone came from a family with smokers, etc. Heck, in 80s I worked in hospitals where lots of people smoked.

Thank dog things changed. I quit 30 years ago and am disgusted with smoking now. Can't believe I was that stupid.

[Freddie]

22. I worked at a hospital in finance 1984-2004

When I started there were “smoking departments” and “non-smoking departments”. A cigarette machine next to the soda and candy machines. Patients smoked in their rooms. Then around 1990 they stopped allowing smoking in patient rooms and work areas, only designated lounges. The patients would walk outside in their hospital gowns dragging their IV poles with them, to have a cigarette.
They gradually phased out the smoking lounges and only allowed it outside...then in only a designated “smokers gazebo”...then finally no smoking on the grounds, not even in your car.
My daughter was a pretty heavy smoker until she got a job at the same hospital and had to get to her car and drive off the grounds to have a cig on her 10 minute break. That made her quit smoking, 12 years ago.

[Hoyt]

31. Looking back, it's really amazing. Heck, in the 80s, I'd take a 50 mile bicycle ride and sprint

the last couple of miles so I could smoke a cigarette. I'm actually ashamed to admit, but I did quit 30 years ago.

The hospital smoking has to be the worst though.

[ret5hd]

35. What about the hospital bar?

[bluestarone]

14. Hell, everyone smoked around us

Was young 15,16 don't remember for sure. It was the cool thing to do. At that time no one thought of, or gave a dam about smoking is not good for you. I smoked until Oct of 1980. tried everything, but cold turkey, to quit MANY times but started back up again and again and again! Finally i remember that day in Oct 1980. I told my wife that's it i quit for good COLD TURKEY. Haven't had one since! Started around 63 or 64. When i quit i ballooned in weight, so i started jogging, got that runners high, and ran for many years!

[Jeebo]

15. It was 1966. I was 16.

I followed a neighborhood kid into the garage in our back yard where he pulled out a pack of Marlboro reds and handed me one. I don't really remember why I tried a puff, I think it was just because it was something else to do, a new experience. Isn't that one of the things life is all about, just having a variety of new experiences?

Well, I liked it. I actually enjoyed that very first cigarette I ever smoked, I really did. Years later, as an adult smoker of a pack and and a half to two packs a day of menthol cigarettes, I began to realize there was something unusual about that. So I started asking other smokers the question, Did you like the first cigarette you ever smoked? For years, a decade or more, I must have asked hundreds of smokers that question. Almost all of them answered that question, No! They said they coughed, they wheezed, they got a little sick, they hated it. There were only a couple of them besides me who actually claimed to have liked the first cigarette they ever smoked.

I realized then that I was just a born nicotinic. I'm one of a rare breed.

I finally quit smoking after 24 years. I still remember the date, and I never will forget it, because it was one of the important dates of my life: March 23, 1990. I would be dead by now otherwise, I firmly believe. It was one of those traveling smoking-cessation hypnosis seminars that came through here from somewhere in Indiana. Answering their ad in the local newspaper, I drove through a blizzard to one of those big hotels near the local mall where they had rented a conference room. The moderator/hypnotist said that in three and a half hours, we would walk out of there and never smoke again. I raised my hand and said, "That's not what I want. What I want is to walk out of here in three and a half hours and never WANT to smoke again." A woman behind me said, "Yah!" The moderator/hypnotist said that he couldn't promise we would never want to smoke again, but that he was going to give us ways to deal with those tobacco cravings. And I never again had one of those absolutely overwhelming cravings that had always foiled me in earlier cessation attempts. Whatever he did, it worked! Just like magic! And that's why I'm still above the ground. Those damn things would have killed me by now, I am sure.

-- Ron

[Binkie The Clown]

16. My folks smoked. All my relatives smoked.

My school friends smoked. Everyone in my barracks in the Air Force smoked.
It was just "The thing to do."

Hell, even Lucy and Ricky smoked.



I smoked for 40+ years and finally quit 12 years ago.

[LakeArenal]

25. Andy of Mayberry smoked and even Ward Cleaver.

I was always the buzzkill that hated second hand smoke. But I didn’t drink all that much.

Smoking on airplanes used to make me sick to my stomach.

[magicarpet]

17. Was 15,... ,worked at a restaurant,... the manager wouldn't,...

... let you take a break unless you had coffee and a cigarette,... so I started smoking.

Both parents smoked, so I looked upon it as a right of passage into adulthood,... and it was kinda cool.

Figured what harm can it be,... many adverts you see have doctors with a stethoscope around the back of his neck and onto his front shoulders smoking a filter-less Camel cigarette. Sucking down a big inhale then telling you how relaxing and refreshing smoking cigarettes was.

Then I used cigarettes (nicotine) and coffee (caffeine) as a personal jet fuel. I would fast during breakfast,.. fast during lunch,... and only gulp down coffee and smoke cigarettes all day long. I got off on the nicotine/caffeine combo and worked 3X faster.

Then as I got older I realized this caffeine
nicotine jet fuel routine was really not healthy.

It took six attempts to quit smoking but finally got it. Have not smoked a cigarette in about 12 years.

Feel much better. Breath better. Stuff smells good again. Taste and smell food better.

[liberal_mama]

18. I was 20 years old when I started to smoke. I thought it would help my anxiety

My father smoked and my mother was always after him to quit and she'd scream at me and my sister, "Don't make your father nervous or he will smoke!" So I was under the impression that cigarettes would relax me. I was going through a stressful period and decided to give cigarettes a try. Bad mistake! I was hooked from the first cigarette.

One thing that puzzles me about cigarettes all these years later is if today's cigarettes are worse than the cigs of yesteryear. When I was growing up, most of the people I knew smoked. They'd smoke in stores, houses, restaurants and I don't remember ever smelling cigarettes on people's clothes like I can smell now. Do cigarettes smell worse now from extra additives or has our sense of smell gotten better? I know the marijuana today smells way stronger than the marijuana when I was a teenager. Every time I yell, "I smell a skunk," my husband says, "No, there's a guy over there smoking a joint!"

[LakeArenal]

26. They stunk then. A non-smoker in a bar came home reeking of tobacco.

Especially hair. Ugh.

[LibinMo]

43. That was the reason I quit bowling

Hair, clothing all smelled of smoke when I got home. Even my underwear reeked of tobacco. And don't get me started on bingo games. 15 minutes in there and my eyes were streaming tears.

[Voltaire2]

19. I started because kids are freaking idiots

and I was no exception.

[BootinUp]

20. Undeveloped brain most likely, 12 years old. Nt

[joetheman]

21. I'm 79. Everyone smoked when I was a teenager...even my grandfather. nt

[beaglelover]

23. I grew up around smokers, but was very anti smoking until college age.

Then either Junior or Senior year of college, my roommate smoked and offered one to me. I liked the buzz it gave me. Of course that buzz only lasts until you're hooked. Have smoked off and on, mainly on, ever since. Did quit for almost 2 years in my late 30s only to start again when I moved into my own home. I'm a light to moderate smoker, usually average 1/2 a pack a day. My doctor knows I smoke and is always encouraging me to quit. I feel some affects from the smoking, especially when exercising, but I had a CT scan of my lungs last July and got the all clear, but I know smoking is extremely bad for me. I will quit again someday soon.

[SoonerPride]

27. I started smoking as a freshman in college in the 80s

To pass time while studying and then to look cool at clubs.

I did that for 20 years and finally quite thanks to the patch.

[roamer65]

28. Because I REALLY fucking enjoyed it.

I still would if I could, but I can’t so I don’t.

There still is nothing like a cup of coffee and a ciggy in the AM.

[captain queeg]

37. There was a Twilight Zone episode where aliens had infiltrated earth

I don’t remember now if they were planning on invading but I remember they really liked coffee and cigarettes. Maybe that swayed them not to invade, don’t remember the ending.

[roamer65]

40. Caffeine opens up nicotine receptors.

The two work in tandem, thus the increased addiction to both.

That’s why the two are so effin good together.

[LibinMo]

44. I quit tobacco over 40 years ago (81 years old) but

will NEVER give up my morning coffee. Told my Doc it's not open for discussion.

[roamer65]

45. Gotta have some vice!

My Pepsi is NOT open for negotiation either.

[Silent3]

51. As someone who never liked cigarettes or coffee...

...the idea of the combination of the two really grosses me out.

[MiniMe]

29. I started in the late 60's

as an early teen. My mother smoked, I used to steal cigs from her. Smoked until late 2018 when I had bypass surgery. Still want one at times, but the bypass seems to have "cured" me.

[alphafemale]

30. You mean baccy!

It was easy to steal when I was a kid.

I to this day think tobacco companies wanted individual packs to be easy to steal.

Lose money at one end to get an addict is a pretty good marketing ploy.

Nearly impossible to steal packs of cigarettes is probably why not as many kids are smoking.

[WCIL]

32. Not me,

but my husband started smoking in 1971 when he worked the line at the Motorola plant. Smokers got 15 minute breaks every hour, non-smokers only got lunch breaks. Very few non-smokers there! It took him 35 years and multiple tries to quit.

[Lochloosa]

33. I was lighting my parents Tareyton 100's around 8 or 9. It was a natural progression.

[DFW]

34. Tobacco and alcohol. I was always some kind of genetic freak. Still am.

I so wanted to be part of the in crowd, but the stink of tobacco smoke always made me nauseous, and the taste of alcoholic drinks made me spit them out the second I tasted them, whether beer, wine, or harder stuff. A smoker's sense of smell and taste is dulled by constant doses of nicotine, apparently, so smokers never sense to what extent a non-smoker can detect them from many yards away. Former smokers, I have seen, gain weight because they suddenly discover how good food tastes. So do they, by the way. The popular bumper sticker in the 1970s proclaimed "Kissing a Smoker Is Like Licking An Ashtray." But Abraham Lincoln actually put it best, although he probably had no clue about nicotine's addictive properties: "What is a cigarette? A stinking weed with fire on one end and a fool on the other."

Still, the monkey on the back of a nicotine addict is not to be underestimated. It is a cruel taskmaster that requires months of suffering before it lets you free. It's a test I'm glad never to have been subjected to. My revulsion from the stench was stronger than the social pressure on me to get started. That one chemical imbalance I'm glad to have been born with.

[NurseJackie]

38. Because it was glamorous and adult. Peer pressure. Movies, TV, ads.

"I've come a long way, Baby!"

[captain queeg]

39. Those were different times. When I was young I worked in meat plants and we weren't allowed to smoke

On the job. But I think for most work areas it was totally accepted. I’ve seen pictures of the engineering department from the 60s when everyone had a drafting table. They all had an ashtray too. Check out old pics of NASA.

[berniesandersmittens]

41. At 12 yr old

Mom's smokes paired well with stepdads beer.

Yes, I had a "challenging" childhood.

Haven't had a cigarette in two years though. I still have cravings.

[eShirl]

42. to hide the smell of the pot

as in reefer

[Hamlette]

46. as a teenager, and for 30 years. I've been part of a government heart lung study since 1987

I live in Utah and didn't want to be mistaken for a Mormon which were the majority.

The study has been great and a pain in the ass. They do CT scans of my lungs, try out new medicine etc.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

47. Years ago

When I was 15, I smoked one cigarette
It tasted awful, and it made me deathly sick.
Nausea,headache,weak,hot cold sweat,dizzy..
Never smoked one again.

What motivated me to try that one cigarette?
Curiosity. Wondered why smoking was such a big deal,grew up in a house full of smokers. Smoke would linger in the air inside my house in layers. It was disgusting but back than I knew no different.

Smoking was really important to smokers ,so I was curious as to why, I am still curious even moreso since that first awful cigarette,it was a marlboro it made me really sick, and that ended my smoking career pronto,so what was it that made you want to smoke again after that bad taste and if it made you sick?

[Withywindle]

48. It never made me sick, and I genuinely did like the taste

I always really enjoyed it, especially the first one in the morning with coffee, or at night at a bar with live music and beer. I still miss it a little, sometimes. I get very vivid smoking dreams in which I enjoy it, I get mad at myself for relapsing, and it's a relief to to wake up and realize I didn't!

[Withywindle]

49. I was 15, in the South, in the 80s

My parents didn't smoke but so many other people did. At the grocery store there were signs asking you to please not smoke in the checkout line (everywhere else in the store was fine).

Students in my high school had a designated smoking area outside, where they were allowed to smoke if they had permission from their parents. Which a lot of them did. And it also of course was never very strictly monitored. Teachers had a lounge in the building where they could smoke.

A lot of my friends smoked, and so did a lot of my favorite musicians and writers, and it just seemed like a certain "cool" rite of passage - a little bit rebellious but not too much. I thought I was cool because other girls smoked wussy cigarettes like Marlboro Lights, and I liked unfiltered Camels.

Smoking was never much of an issue until the 90s or so. My college had smoking and non-smoking dorms. Restaurants had smoking and non-smoking sections. And you could still smoke in bars where I live until the late 08s!

The reason I quit was the expense. I just couldn't justify wasting that much money anymore. So I invested the price of two or three packs in some vape stuff, and used that to taper my nicotine down to nearly nothing. Had my last cigarette in 2015.

[MrsCheaplaugh]

50. I was 14.

It was what all the cool kids did. Plus, in my family both parents smoked.

[Silent3]

53. As a non-smoker reading this thread...

...it's amazing to me how many people say they did it to act cool, because all their friends did, etc.

I guess one advantage of being a nerd in high school is that when I was told it was stupid to be manipulated by peer pressure, I actually believed it. I always thought of smoking as stupid and sleazy, only something gullible idiots would give into.

In retrospect, while I'm still quite happy I never took up smoking, I find it sad to realize that much of the social experience of being a teen that I missed out on probably required being stupid and easily manipulated by peer pressure to experience. If you weren't ready to act as dumb as everyone else, you were excluded.

[tavernier]

54. Late 50's and 60's everyone smoked.

Parents at home, teachers in the classrooms, doctors and nurses in offices and hospitals, cartoon characters on tv. Hard to avoid it. Neighborhood stores sold them to kids two cigs for a dime.

Started in junior high, quit in my 70’s. I figured I had pushed my luck long enough.

[mahina]

55. Dad smoked, teacher smoked, friends smoked,

Smoking must be good right?
Started at 13
Quit at 30
Asthma now, grrrr

Of course, I wish I’d never started.

[electric_blue68]

56. I'm lucky I was allergic enough that I never took it up.

Last edited Tue Apr 13, 2021, 04:47 AM - Edit history (2)

It was nasty having to use the "girls" barhroom in the HS Cafeteria all smoked up. Ugh. It was considered cool back then.

My uncle & I went to a ?"Progressives for Humphrey" indoor rally in the fall of '68. It was a "smoked filled room". I had a sore throat, irritated eyes, and probably a headache by the time we left!

My mom smoked (medium+?) until she got severe asthma when I was 5 1/2 yrs old. Who knows maybe being totally at home those first 3 yrs before Nursery School made me already a bit sensitive.

What I'm most grateful for is that my 💖 dear sister, and only sibling quit in her early 30's. She turns 64 in May.

I did smoke a little pot back in the '70's. At the Rocky Horror Midnight Movie theater show I'd end up with a contact high.
Back then though it was sweet smelling smoke of middle class kids. Not the almost skunky smell of poorer quality weed in my more working poor to barely middle class nabe now.

[Niagara]

57. I started in my early 20's.

I had a difficult pregnancy and developed preeclampsia. I had only gained 5lbs in the first 5 months due to being sick and not being able to keep food down. I then gained 30 lbs in the remaining 4 months, the weight was mainly preeclampsia water retention. I would come home from work and kick my shoes off at the door, there was so much water retention in my body, it felt like there was jello in my ankles. I started smoking not long after giving birth because I wanted to lose all the weight that I gained.



I'm now 437 days being nicotine free.