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

[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!"